Friday, 23 November 2012

Game Platforms

1.Important People who helped develop the arcade platform -

Nolan Bushnell
Nolan Bushnell was one of the main people who helped develop the arcade platforms. He formed Atari who made the first mainstream arcade game , Pong. This was made in 1972 and was a big hit with people who spent so much money to play they broke the machines overloading it with cash. Aswell as Nolan, Ted Dabney helped him form Atari. Also in 1972 the Magnavox Odyssey, the very first game console was made. One of the first video games was Spacewar! , which came out in 1961. This started the arcade platform as is inspired others to make games. Because Spacewar required a lot of space and needed a big computer. Spacewar was made by Steve Russell , Matin Graetz. To make the game Nolan and Ted hired Al Alcorn as their first design engineer.
Pong Arcade Machine

2.Critically comment why Atari was so influencial in the development of arcade machines.

Magnavox Odyssey
Atari was influential in the development of arcade machines because they set the standard for all games and made the first mainstream machine. As a result of making so much money from Pong , Atari made other games at the same high standard. When other people saw the success they were inspired to make arcade machines as-well . It shows how influential Atari was as they took four years to make their next two games.In this four years Taito made five games , Midway MFG made one and Sega made two games. All three of these companies were inspired by Atari and worked hard to make good games for the arcade machines which were getting more popular over the years. In 1978 Taito releases Space Invade the first blockbuster arcade video game. This was closely followed by Asteroids which is Atari's best selling game of all time. This exploded and inspired more companies to make more games. Other companies started making very popular games like Namco who released Pan-Man , their biggest selling game and also Pole Position one of the most popular racing games of all time.

3.Analyse why arcade machines declined in the 90's
In the early 90's arcade machines started to get less and less popular as better, more affordable home consoles are coming out and gaining popularity. Throughout the 70's and 80's many different consoles such as the Magnavox Odyssey and the NES were being sold to customers but were shadowed by arcade machines. As time went on the home consoles became more and more advanced and finally because better than the arcade machines. At the end of the 80's the Sega Mega Drive came out and was very popular as it had better graphics then arcade machines and worked out cheaper as it was a one time payment. The SNES , N64 and PS1 soon made it clear that home consoles was the way to go .

4.Games Nintendo and Sega
One of the main influential games was Sheriff by Nintendo which used dual stick controls. This soon influenced games like Robotron 2084 and Geometry Wars. Another game was Radar Scope also by Nintendo which introduced three-dimentonal third-person. This influenced Juno First and Beamrider. Sega released one of the most elaborate vector games ever. It featured five different controls, six different enemies and 40 different simulation levels. Another influential Sega title was Eliminator which was noted for being the only four player vector game.It also featured a colour vector display and a cooperative mode. It was one of the first games to have a competitive multiplayer which has influenced most of the multiplayer games today. A game that influential to arcade machines was Outrun by Sega in 1986. The main features was the choice to choose soundtrack as-well as a non-linear route. This influenced adding a variety of sounds in a game and giving the player a choice. The main thing which people were influenced by was the moving cabinet which made more immersive gameplay.

Friday, 9 November 2012

Mobile Game Platforms


Mattel Auto Race

Mattel Auto Race

The Mattel Auto Race was one of the first handheld game consoles that was entirely digital. Being released in 1977 it was ahead of its time. The game was the first of many Mattel Electrionics games. It is thought mattel football was the first as it out shadowed auto race but auto race was the first. This influenced a lot of handhelds since it set the standard. Since it was released so early compared to others there were a lot of clones of it which sold fairly well.






Microvision


Microvision
The Microvision was the very first handheld game console that used interchangeable cartridges. Released in 1979 it was in the second generation of handhelds. It was very popular having 13 different games relased for it. The lack of support meant it had its demise in 1981. It had some problems which ended up in the handheld being unable to work. The most common ones were screen rot , ESD damage and keypad destruction.







Atari Lynx


Atari Lynx





The Atari Lynx was very important for the handheld consoles. It holds the distinction of being the worlds first handheld with a colour LCD. With a backlit display and networking up to 17 players it couldn't fail but didn't attract enough quality third party developers. With the game boy being released in the same year it had tough competition. People are still releasing games for it today.







Game Boy

Gameboy

The gameboy was released in 1989 and was extremly popular. It sold 118 million units worldwide making it one of the most successful handhelds ever. It was the first handheld in the Game boy line. The Game and Watch series was really popular for the Gameboy.



Game Boy Colour 
Game Boy colour was the second in the Game Boy series. It was released in 1998 and followed the trend of the gameboy. It used colour graphics for games with an 8 bit-processor. With the gameboy colour the franchise Pokemon was released which still is one of the most selling series yet.


WonderSwan


The WonderSwan Colour was released in 2000 in Japan. It was a huge success taking approximately 8% of the market share in Japan since it was so cheap at $65. The Colour version was a sequel to the original like the Game Boy did. It had a bigger screen using colour and had 512kb of ram. It's also compatible with the previous games. The company that made it were called Bandai and they managed to get a deal with Square to port over the Final Fantasy games with improved graphics and controls. This helped greatly with the sales but then was out shadowed by the Gameboy Advanced.



Game Boy Advance , Sp and Micro

In 2001 Nintendo released their 3rd instalment in the Gameboy franchise with the Gameboy Advance (GBA or AGB) This introduced 2 shoulder buttons and more power which lead to more advanced games. 2 years later Nintendo looked at their design and made a redesign with the Game Boy Advance SP which featured a clamshell design , backlit screen and a rechargeable battery. Mainly the rechargeable battery has become normal for handhelds now. After 2 handhelds Nintendo revised their design again and 2 years later came out with the Game Boy Micro in 2005. This dramatically changed the screen size making it a lot smaller with backwards compatibility and brighter backlit.


Nintendo DS


Nintendo were very busy in the 2000's as in 2004 they released the Nintendo DS while they were also working on the Game Boy Micro. This made a massive leap forward in handhelds and featured 2 screens where one was a touchscreen where you use a stylus or your finger to use , wireless connectivity and a microphone port. It copy's the GBA SP design using a clamshell where the screens are on a hinge and close together. This was extremely popular and sold very well. As with the advance Nintendo couldn't make their mind up about the design and later on brought out a DS Lite which was smaller ,DSI which introduced an online store and a camera for multimedia and finally the 3DS which used a 3d feature in some games. One critisism Nintendo got was that the DS was too small for people with larger hands so they released XL versions of the DSI and the 3DS which was larger overall and had a bigger top screen.



PlayStation Portable

In 2004 Sony thought they would enter the handheld market releasing their Playstation Portable or better known as the PSP. This featured a very big screen with a analogue stick which was a first for handhelds. This used a unique UMD disc design which worked well but Sony decided to scrap them with their recent models.  Later on Sony brought out a PSP-2000 which didn't have much changes but a bit smaller and used a microphone, soon after the PSP-3000 which was just more optimised and smaller. The first main change for the PSP was the GO which when the UMD disc was scrapped and went all digital. This used a slide screen to reveal the buttons which made it a lot more portable which gained some interest. Sony still wasn't happy so they released the Playstation Vita in 2011. This was extremely powerful featuring 2 analogue sticks to immatate the PS3 controller but with only 2 shoulder buttons. The main feature of the PSP was to be a multimedia device which it was and could all be used in-junction with the PS3 and could back compatable with Playstation 1 title's which were put on the Playstation Store.
Sources
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattel_Auto_Race
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microvision
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Lynx
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Color
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Advance
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DS
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Portable

Thursday, 11 October 2012

Connecting Console Display & Controllers Device

The Nintendo 64 used various outputs. It had a composite output, four controller outputs (which was used for some accessories such as the VRU) and a 6 pin connector used for accessories.
 The controller for the N64 had a slot for accessories such as the rumble pack and had the 3 pin input which goes in the front of the N64.










The Xbox 360 has 2 different outputs for the tv. Standard and Hdmi. The standard output is composite and has the red, white and yellow and an optional hd output

NOT FINISHED

Monday, 8 October 2012

Personal Computer

Personal computers were developed in 1971 by IBM. International Business Machines made the micro-processor. They developed the smaller computer in 1971.Before IBM developed the small computer the standard computer at the time were huge. They would take up a whole room due the the mirco-processor not being used. They were only used in universities or by scientists. The personal computer made it possible for everyday people to own them. The first pc IBM made was in 1981.
IBM Model 5150 PC

In 1977 Apple made the Apple II. A personal computer designed for games. Over 300 games were produced for the Apple II and it was very popular.It used floppy discs which could store data in metal discs.It had a colour display and could be upgraded. The main feature was you could connect to a television so families could use it.
Apple II PC

The first IBM pc was model 5150 in 1981. It had a floppy and cassette system. This was when other companies were making clones of the pc's and selling them which made them expensive. In the 1980's though there was a price drop in pc's which made them a competition for consoles. The advantage of the pc was online capability , hardware could be upgraded , more sophisticated user interface , more accuate controls ( mouse and keyboard) which made games like FPS and RTS. This was the rise of home game computer.
Sinclair Spectrum

In 1982 the Sinclair Spectrum was released which developed the home computer and could be used to program the computer. Also in 1986 the Commodore 64 was released. This was sold as a pc and a game console. It had a modem for online play and expansion slots to upgrade. It used a tape machine to load games up.17 million units were sold. The game Sentinel which was released for the Commodore 64 used a 3d environment which was advanced for the time.
Commodore 64

The features of a pc are processing power is more than consoles. Uses a hard drive for storage. Can play complex games but requires developers to specifically make games so they can run on a range of computers. Need to configure machine to use it efficiently.
Micro Processor

Sources:

Game Consoles

Timeline
First Generation 1972 - 1976
In 1972 the pong machine was released. It used analogue controls with a black and white display. Since it was one of the first console out it had simple sound and graphics and used a fixed number of games which were basically variations of pong.

Also the Magnavox Odyssey was released in 1972. It was a bit more advanced that the pong console. It used some colour and came with plastic sheets to put over the television to add colour. It was used as a marketing scheme to sell televisions saying you could play the console on it. It didn't work very well though as it didn't sell and made a loss. The limitations of these consoles were the processing power. Since you couldn't output colour with the av. output then it was limited to the graphics. This was a problem because with colour you could easily distinguish different objects , characters ect.
Magnavox Odyssey 
Pong Console 




Second Generation 1976 - 1983
The second generation of consoles started off with the Fairchild Channel F which was the first game to use roms on a cartridge. Soon after in 1977 the Atari 2600 was released and is one of the most popular consoles ever. It used a cartridge for the fames and had a lot of 3rd party games which started other game developers making games. It had a digital/analogue controller and used the ariel input in the television which wasn't the best quality to use. The most popular games for this console were Pacman , Missle Command and Pitfall. These were the best selling games. These were the only consoles in the second generation. 
Fairchild Channel F
Atari 2600










The Video Game Crash 1983 - 1985 
The video game crash was big hit on the video game industry. It was caused by very repetitive games and them all being the same. Also it was because they were boring. As a result of the many consoles , poor quality games , competition from computers and loss of publishing control ,companies stopped making games. Companies were making too big of a loss to carry on making games. One of these games was E.T. by Atari which sold very badly and Atari lost loads of money and had one hundred million dollar loss.
E.T game by Atari

Third Generation 1983 - 1988
There was only one console in the third generation and that was the Nintendo Entertainment System by Nintendo. It was the first console to use composite video which made the quality of the graphics a lot better. The resolution was 256 by 240. The launch title was Mario Bros and was extremely popular and made a series that has sold millions over the years.
Nintendo Entertainment System

Fourth Generation 1988 - 1994
The fourth generation of consoles brought the Sega Mega Drive (Aka Genesis). It had a composite/RCA output which increased the quality even more. It had a resolution of 320 by 448 .The thing that made this console popular was it was backward compatible with the previous Sega console. This made other companies start doing that with their consoles but recently companies have stopped doing that. The most popular game was Sonic which became another big franchise next to Nintendo competing with Mario. In the console it had a special 3d chip which made the 3d capabilities a lot better . Also in the fourth generation was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System which was the sequal to the Nintendo Entertainment System. This was just as popular and is still played today. 
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
Super Nintendo 










Fifth Generation 1994 - 1999
The fifth generation of consoles started with the Playstation 1 and the Sega Saturn. The Ps1 was very powerful. It had a 3d processor and this made Final Fantasy 7 which was the best selling game. It had a high capacity storage and used memory cards to store save games. The controller was digital/analogue as they soon brought out a second control with analogue after seeing the N64 use it. The Nintendo 64 which was released in 1996 wasn't as powerful as the Ps1 but still had 3d games Mario 64 was the launch title and is still one of the most popular games.It also had a remake on the Nintendo DS. This influenced all consoles after to make a powerful 3d game
Playstation 1
Nintendo 64











Sixth Generation 1999 - 2006
In 1999 Sega released the Dreamcast which didn't sell very well due to lack of games and the time it was released. Shortly after the Playstation 2 , Xbox and the Gamecube all came out in 2001.. The  most influential was the Playstation 2. It was marketed as more than a game console which could play Dvd's and play music. It built on the success of the Ps1 which meant it sold millions of units across the world.The performance of 3d games dramatically increased with the Ps2 and Xbox. The Ps2 was backward compatible which meant you could play Ps1 games on it. This was a good idea which Sony and Microsoft sort of used with they seventh gen consoles.
Playstation 2
Xbox










Seventh Generation 2006 - Present
The seventh gen is the current generation of consoles. This includes the Playstation 3 , Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. The most inovitive was the Nintendo Wii which introduced motion control. Sony and Microsoft soon copied this idea bringing out the Playstation Move and the Kinect. The marketing strategy of the Wii was that it could be played by the whole family and not just young males. The Ps3 and Xbox 360 both stepped up the graphics for games featuring HD games in either 720p or 1080p. This was a huge step for the graphics since televisions were going HD aswell. Another big step was wireless controllers which used bluetooth to connect. The advantage of this was mainly with motion controls as you could move around with out focusing on wires.
Xbox 360 and Ps3 
Nintendo Wii 














Eighth Generation Unknown
There has been some talk of a next genertion. There has been announced a Nintendo Wii U which uses a tablet control wit a touch screen. It also has HD graphics but thats all thats been announced. There is also rumours about a Xbox 720 and a Playstation 4.
Wii U
Online Capabilities
All three of the seventh generation consoles have online capabilities. The Playstation 3 has Playstation Network (PSN). Xbox 360 has Xbox Live and Wii has a friend code system. The playstation and Wii are free but the xbox you have to have a subscription to play online with other players. The online has changed since the xbox and ps2 and has become common for most console users. Also now instead of just playing online you can talk to friends, download games from the store , stream movies and listen to music. All these you couldn't do on previous consoles.     








Next Generations
The next generation of consoles could have anything in them. From the way there going not much is going to change though. The main change is the hardware. They will have pc level graphics to compete and run even better looking and bigger games.Most games might be digital and not use discs.
Sources: