The History of Games - Part 1

1950s – did computer games really appear then? I thought it was around when my Dad was young! When was that? 60-70s? It goes back further!

EDSAC (Wiki)

So in 1952 A.S Douglas wrote his PhD degree at Cambridge on Human-Computer interaction. Not only that he also created the first graphical computer game! WOW! It was made/programmed on a EDSAC Vaccum-tube computer, which had a cathode ray tube display! Sorry, what does that mean?!

• EDSAC = Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator
• Used mercury delay lines for memory and 3,000 vacuum tubes for logic

What are mercury delay lines for memory? Well after a bit of research, I found that they are long, sealed tubes, filled with mercury, which represents data as ripples in the mercury.

Apart from all of this, why have computers become so famous and significant in so many lives within the 21^st Century? Well what is the all time classic computer game? Who knows?! Most people remember “Pong” as their first computer game, since it was the first commercially available game by Atari in 1973 which is 11 years after “Spacewars” was developed in 1962 at MIT (which ran on a PDP-1, which is a computer the size of a large car... apparently). Compared to the size of PS3 or X-box, that is pretty large! But in 50 years we have advanced to much that today we expect to see every nook and cranny, pimple and spot on a characters facial features! (That reminds me, a lot of games characters don't have pimples or spots?!). But what we see today all came from simple rectangular blocks bouncing a ball backwards and forwards! That's pretty impressive!

But to get a closer account of all this I asked one man that I know who has lived with computer games since he was young. My Dad.

Q. What is the first computer game that you played? How old were you? What software/hardware? What were the feelings you had when you played it, was it fun? What graphics/sound was involved?! Etc. etc. etc.

A. (these are his exact words!)

Game: Pong

Written by: Atari

Age: 8 years old

Graphics/sound: Very basic compared to today. Only one colour. Consisted of three moving rectangles (one ball, two bats). Basic sound. 2D only!

Game play: Simple, get the ball into the other persons goal.

Feelings: It was amazing to be able to control what you see on the screen. It was a game where beating your opponent was more important than any of the game content. When it got faster, it got more exciting!

So not only did games boom in the recent years, it was an amazing and incredible find to all the oldies who back then lived on checkers and happy families (I’m not judging, I still play checkers and happy families with my Nan). But to me that's pretty significant, not only to him, but it has also played a large part in my life, which has shaped me, into who I am today. That I’d say is significant.

 

 

References:

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcomputer_videogames.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Delay_Storage_Automatic_Calculator