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1970s In Video Games
The 1970s was the first decade in the history of the video game industry. The 1970s saw the development of some of the earliest video games, chiefly in the arcade game industry, but also several for the earliest video game consoles and personal computers. Arcade history Notable early arcade video games of the early-to-mid-1970s include ''Computer Space'' (1971), ''Pong'' (1972), ''Space Race'' (1973), '' Speed Race'' (1974), ''Gun Fight'' (1975), '' Heavyweight Champ'' (1976), ''Fonz'' (1976), '' Night Driver'' (1976), '' Breakout'' (1976), '' Death Race'' (1976) and '' Space Wars'' (1977). Golden age of arcade video games (1978–1979) Classic arcade games of the late 1970s include ''Space Invaders'' (1978), ''Galaxian'' (1979), ''Asteroids'' (1979), ''Barrier'' (1979), ''Speed Freak'' (1979), ''Warrior'' (1979), ''Tail Gunner'' (1979) and ''Lunar Lander'' (1979). Consoles of the 1970s First-generation consoles (1972–1979) The so-called first generation of conso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1980s In Video Games
The 1980s was the second decade in the industry's history. It was a decade of highs and lows for video games. The decade began amidst a boom in the arcade business with giants like Atari still dominating the market since the late-1970s. Another, the rising influence of the home computer, and a lack of quality in the games themselves led to an implosion of the video game market that nearly destroyed the industry. It took home consoles years to recover from the crash, but Nintendo filled in the void with its Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), reviving interest in consoles. Up until this point, most investors believed video games to be a fad that has since passed. In the remaining years of the decade, Sega ignites a console war with Nintendo, developers that had been affected by the crash experimented with the more advanced graphics of the PC, and Nintendo released the Game Boy, which would become the best-selling handheld gaming device for the next two-decades. Consoles of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Race (video Game)
''Space Race'' is an arcade game developed by Atari, Inc. and released on July 16, 1973. It was the second game by the company, after ''Pong'' (1972), which marked the beginning of the commercial video game industry. In the game, two players each control a rocket ship, with the goal of being the first to move their ship from the bottom of the screen to the top. Along the way are asteroids, which the players must avoid. ''Space Race'' was the first racing arcade video game and the first game with a goal of crossing the screen while avoiding obstacles. Development of ''Space Race'' began in Summer 1972 under the name ''Asteroid'' by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, based on ideas by him and co-founder Ted Dabney. The final design was done by Dabney, possibly with assistance by Bushnell and ''Pong'' designer Allan Alcorn. The game was planned to be quick to create to fulfill an earlier contract with Midway Manufacturing. The engineering and prototyping was done by Alcorn; after i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Speed Freak
Speed Freak is a monochrome vector arcade game created by Vectorbeam in 1979. Along with Atari, Inc.'s '' Night Driver'' and Bally Midway's ''Datsun 280 ZZZAP ''Datsun 280 ZZZAP'', also known as ''Midnight Racer'' or ''280 ZZZAP'', is a 1976 arcade racing video game released by Midway Manufacturing, designed by Jamie Fenton. Based on Nissan's Datsun 280Z, it is one of the earliest games with authori ...''–both from 1976–it is one of the earliest first-person driving games and the first such game known to use vector graphics. Gameplay The game is a behind-the-wheel driving simulation where the driver speeds down a winding computer generated road past other cars, hitchhikers, trees, cows and cacti. Occasionally a plane will fly overhead towards the screen. One must avoid crashing into these objects and complete the race in the allotted time. The player can crash as many times as he wants before the time runs out and players were treated to two different crash animations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barrier (video Game)
''Barrier'' is a maze arcade game using vector graphics released by Vectorbeam in 1979. The game was sold to Vectorbeam by Cinematronics. Gameplay Players move a small triangle around on the grid, while attempting to avoid the diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...s that are also moving around on the grid. Reaching the end of the grid teleports the player back to the front of the grid to gain points. The game is played on a 3x10 grid that is displayed at angle to make it appear to be in 3-D. References External links *''Barrier''aArcade History 1979 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Maze games Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer hotseat games Vector arcade video games Vectorbeam games Video games developed in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asteroids (video Game)
''Asteroids'' is a space-themed multidirectional shooter arcade game designed by Lyle Rains and Ed Logg released in November 1979 by Atari, Inc. The player controls a single spaceship in an asteroid field which is periodically traversed by flying saucers. The object of the game is to shoot and destroy the asteroids and saucers, while not colliding with either, or being hit by the saucers' counter-fire. The game becomes harder as the number of asteroids increases. ''Asteroids'' was conceived during a meeting between Logg and Rains, who decided to use hardware developed by Howard Delman previously used for ''Lunar Lander''. Asteroids was based on an unfinished game titled ''Cosmos''; its physics model, control scheme, and gameplay elements were derived from ''Spacewar!'', ''Computer Space'', and ''Space Invaders'' and refined through trial and error. The game is rendered on a vector display in a two-dimensional view that wraps around both screen axes. ''Asteroids'' was one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galaxian
is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco. The player assumes control of the Galaxip starfighter in its mission to protect Earth from waves of aliens. Gameplay involves destroying each formation of aliens, who dive down towards the player in an attempt to hit them. Designed by company engineer Kazunori Sawano, ''Galaxian'' was Namco's answer to '' Space Invaders'', a similar space shooter released the previous year by rival developer Taito. ''Space Invaders'' was a sensation in Japan, and Namco wanted a game that could compete against it. Sawano strove to make the game simplistic and easy to understand. He was inspired by the cinematic space combat scenes in ''Star Wars'', with enemies originally being in the shape of the film's TIE Fighters. ''Galaxian'' is one of the first video games to feature RGB color graphics and the first ever to use a tile-based hardware system, which was capable of animated multi-color sprites as well as scrolling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Invaders
is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and set the template for the shoot 'em up genre. The goal is to defeat wave after wave of descending aliens with a horizontally moving laser to earn as many points as possible. Designer Nishikado drew inspiration from North American target shooting games like '' Breakout'' (1976) and '' Gun Fight'' (1975), as well as science fiction narratives such as the novel '' The War of the Worlds'' (1897), the anime ''Space Battleship Yamato'' (1974), and the movie '' Star Wars'' (1977). To complete development of the game, he had to design custom hardware and development tools. Upon release, ''Space Invaders'' was an immediate commercial success; by 1982, it had grossed $3.8 billion (equivalent to over adjusted for inflation ), with a net p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Wars
''Space Wars'' is a shooter video game released in arcades by Cinematronics in 1977. Like the PDP-1 program ''Spacewar!'' (1962) it is based on, it uses black and white vector graphics for the visuals. The hardware developed for ''Space Wars'' became the platform for most of the vector-based arcade games from Cinematronics. It was distributed in Japan by Taito in 1978, and a Vectrex port was published in 1982. Gameplay Two players controlled different ships. One button rotated ship left, another rotated the ship right, one engaged thrust, one fired a shell, and one entered hyperspace (which causes the ship to disappear and reappear elsewhere on the playfield at random). The game offered a number of gameplay options, including the presence or absence of a star in the middle of the playfield (which exerted a positive or negative gravitational pull), whether the edges of the playfield wrapped around to their opposite sides, and whether shells bounced. The game had three parti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Death Race (1976 Video Game)
''Death Race'' is an arcade driving video game developed and released by Exidy in the United States, first shipping to arcade distributors in April 1976. The game was a modification of Exidy's 1975 game '' Destruction Derby'' in which players crashed into cars to accrue points. In ''Death Race'', the objective became to run into "gremlins" to gain score. The game could be played with one or two players controlling different cars. The original working title for the game which appeared on some early advertisements was ''Death Race 98''. The game attracted a great deal of controversy over the content of the game which was centered around killing humanoid figures. In July 1976, newspapers and civic organizations began to attack the game for facilitating violence in virtual form. Gameplay In the game, one or two players control an on-screen car with a steering wheel and an acceleration pedal. The object is to run down "gremlins" who are fleeing the vehicle. As the player hits them, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breakout (video Game)
''Breakout'' is an arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and released on May 13, 1976. It was designed by Steve Wozniak, based on conceptualization from Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow who were influenced by the seminal 1972 Atari arcade game '' Pong''. In ''Breakout'', a layer of bricks lines the top third of the screen and the goal is to destroy them all by repeatedly bouncing a ball off a paddle into them. The arcade game was released in Japan by Namco. ''Breakout'' was a worldwide commercial success, among the top five highest-grossing arcade video games of 1976 in both the United States and Japan and then among the top three highest-grossing arcade video games of 1977 in the US and Japan. The 1978 Atari VCS port uses color graphics instead of a monochrome screen with colored overlay. While the concept was predated by Ramtek's ''Clean Sweep'' (1974), ''Breakout'' spawned an entire genre of clones. It was the inspiration for aspects of the Apple II com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Night Driver (arcade Game)
''Night Driver'' is an arcade game developed by Atari Inc for release in the United States in October 1976. ''Night Driver'' is one of the earliest first-person racing video games and is commonly believed to be one of the first published video games to display real-time first-person graphics. There were two arcade cabinet versions manufactured, an upright type and a sit-down type. The upright version had a blacklight installed inside the cabinet which illuminated the bezel. Gameplay The player controls a car which must be driven along a road at nighttime without crashing into the sides of the road as indicated by road side reflectors. The game is controlled with a single pedal for the accelerator, a wheel for steering and a four-selection lever for gear shifting. The coin-operated game had a choice of three difficulties (novice, pro and expert), which the player could select at game start. The turns were sharper and more frequent on the more difficult tracks. As play progress ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fonz (video Game)
is a 1976 car driving arcade racing video game developed and released by Sega in February 1976. Later the same year, Sega released two motorbike racing variants, (released in August) and ''Moto-Cross'', which were in turn re-branded as ''Fonz'', in November 1976. The game was based on the character Fonzie (portrayed by Henry Winkler) from the 1970s TV show ''Happy Days'', with the slogan being "TV's hottest name, Your hottest game." Sega licensed ''Fonz'' because at the time it was owned by Charles Bluhdorn's Gulf+Western Company and it was a Paramount Television intellectual property. A two-player version of ''Man T.T.'' called was released in January 1977. Overview ''Moto-Cross'' / ''Fonz'' is an early black-and-white motorbike racing game, most notable for introducing an early three-dimensional third-person perspective. Both versions of the game display a constantly changing forward-scrolling road and the player's bike in a third-person perspective where objects nearer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
