Introduction
The purpose of the report is that I would like to know more about the computer games, the history of computers and how to build a computer game.
The first thing I want to write about is the computer development, and then some about the computer history, followed by the evolution of the home computer, then I will start to explain what a computer game is, and how games have evolved from the first game in the beginning of the 1970´s to the beginning of the 2000´s with some highlight from every decade.
The computer development
Computers were in the 1960 reserved for the few. The machines were huge and were basically only looking found at research institutions or the military. In 1961 the Harvard employee, Stephen Russell developed a computer to perform statistical calculations for employees at the university.
He and his friends, however, had a flightier interest; the cultivated Edward E. Smith’s science fiction saga Skylark. With this fresh in memory they constructed a computer program that was very far from the known. They created Spacewar.
Action as Spacewar was suited for fast punches and was the basis for a rapidly growing industry. This industry relied primarily on the so-called arcade machines.
An arcade machine is a so called coin machine where you, like in the slot machines, use money to play old video games
Computer history
I will mostly deal with the home computer PC = personal computers.
Here is an overview of the development of Home Computers from 1969 -1998
Years
1969: The first IC is capable of receiving data instructions and muddle simple functions.
1969: Intel announces the first 1 KB RAM chip.
1977: Bill Gates & Paul Allen create Microsoft Company
Years Machine RAM ROM Processer Speed
1975 Altair 8800 hjemmecompute 1K
1977 Commodere PET 2001 4Kb 14kb 6502
1977 Apple ll 4Kb 16kb 6502
1980 Radio Shack TRS-80 4Kb 6809E
1980 Sinclair ZX80 1Kb 4kb NEC780 3.25 MHz
1981 Sinclair ZX81
1981 Commodere VIC-20 5-32 kb 6502A
1981 IBM 5150 PC 64kb 40kb 4.77 MHz
1982 Sinclair Spectrum 14-48K Z80A 3,5 MHz
1982 Commodore 64 64kb 30kb 6510
1982 Compaq Portable PC 128kb 8088 4,77 MHz
1983 Apple lll 6502A 2 MHz
1985 Commodre Amiga 1000 256kb Motorola 68000
1987 Apple Macintosh ll 1Mb 68020 16 MHz
1993 Macintosh Color Classic 4Mb
1998 iMac 32Mb G3 233 MHz
The Home Computer´s Evolution
The term PC (personal computer) typically covers computers designed to operate with Microsoft Windows as the operating system (ie the program under which and through which all other programs run). MAC machines, from ‘birth’ Macintosh, owns the operating system MAC OS hospitalized. Both types of machines can be upgraded and adapted all over. The key variable is the processor speed (clock frequency) and the size of the working memory.
Clock frequency measured in megahertz (MHz) and denotes the number of operations the computer can perform per second. The higher the number, the faster the counting machine is.
Working memory size is measured in megabytes (MB) and is flexible, which can both read from and write to the working memory, therefore, it is known as RAM (Random Access Memory) opposite ROM (Read Only Memory). This objective affects how many calculations the computer can remember without having to make them or store them temporarily.
Both variables can act as bottlenecks. For small memory it can decrease the speed (when the same calculations is to be made again and again), and low clock frequency can make certain calculations impossible within the required time.
In addition, when it comes to the importance of sound and graphics cards, there are specific elements dedicated to taking care of one particular function. Modern games are often so graphically demanding that the picture without a 3D graphics card becomes grainy and choppy.
In this regard it is worth noting that it is computer games that push the technology to its limits. You don´t need graphics or large memory to run relatively intensive applications like Microsoft Word, FrontPage and Netscape Navigator at once.
PC and MAC machines (hereafter collectively referred to home computers) achieve the broad-use functions at the expense of transparency and accessibility. A game designed for a console running on this without any lengthy installation procedures, you just put the CD into the drive. At home computers run the risk of application conflicts and problems with both audio and video.
The hardware is, however, for most players a side issue. It is the games it depends on, and so it does not matter if a machine is technically superior when you can´t play Doom on it.
What is a computer game?
A computer game is a computer program written in a particular programming language. Formally, it is a series of codes in a specific order that instructs the computer to present audio and video as well as responding in a special way on the player’s input.
The games available today are typically stored on one or more CD-ROM discs, (ie on plastic discs with a storage capacity of 650 megabytes each, equivalent to about 450 regular floppy disks) and on objects which digital information can be stored on, called (digital storage media). Since both sound and image can be stored in digital form, as is the case in ordinary music CDs and DVD discs, it is possible to include ordinary music of any kind and video sequences in games. Different types of computers or platforms, as they are often called, speak different languages, and the same storage media cannot usually be used on different platforms. For example, a PC CD-ROM is not used in a Sony PlayStation; a MAC diskette is not in a normal PC and so on. Instead published the same game typically in different versions tailored to the individual platforms. Computer games history has been a trend towards increasing complexity and flexibility. Today’s game is totally unpredictable and ‘open’ than it was just 10-15 years ago. But there are also significant similarities between the latest 3D shooters and their digital forefather’s sleeve.
Computer games are not a topic that has enjoyed overwhelming attention in the research context. So although one should expect a certain consensus about as ‘young’ a topic, many details are less than clear.
The Evolution of Computer Games roughly from 1970 – 2002
1970
In the programmer world it was a matter of greatly challenging the computer’s borders rather than to make big money – at least if you believe their own interpretation (eg. Graetz, 1981; Brand, 1972). But there were other, better eye for profit, which saw great opportunities in Spacewar. Almost ten years after the first Spacewar game, in 1971, engineer Nolan Bushnell decided to bring Spacewar to the people. To this noble end, he withdrew to his daughter’s bedroom, turned it into a workshop and produced the world’s first commercial arcade machine Computer Space. Although Computer Space was a limited success, it convinced Bushnell to demand it only existed if the concept could be refined. A smoke full bar is not the place for complicated instructions, had Bushnell recognized. The result of the deliberations was the legendary Pong. Pong was simple, very simple, and therefore exceptionally suitable as arcade game. No complicated instructions, just a bat and a ball which it came to keeping within the screen. Pong earned big money for BUSHNELL Company. The company was now named Atari, and with the flying start it is most likely that the BUSHNELL daughter could get her bedroom back.
1984
In 1984 the big selling game Impossible Mission came. At this point home computers such as the popular Commodore 64, processed graphics and sound to acceptable levels. When the action game Gauntlet was released in 1985, it was possible to have a constructive interaction between two plays and was played in both teenage rooms and in the arcades. In Gauntlet, it was necessary to cooperate to fight its way through the hordes of monsters that populated one of the gaming industry’s many underground labyrinths.
However, it has always been on the home computer to the adventure game haunts. And this genre renewed with a blow in 1987 with Lucas Arts’ Maniac Mansion. The game marks the final goodbye to the text parser and all of the written interaction. Instead of trying to guess which word game known, the player now should, using the so-called point-and-click interface (as the game, however, was not the first to use), combine a number of relevant verbs with the game objects or persons (eg. ‘Open’ and the click of a door). A classic mysterious house-plot combined with cartoony graphics, black humor and an advanced ability to switch between different protagonists which could be found at different places in the big house at the same time, secured the game’s appeal. After this success there was no doubt that this was the adventure game’s new form. Sierra, which otherwise had been almost exclusively on the adventure market, immediately saw the writing on the wall and changed the operating system.
1990
The year was marked by the phenomenon of SimCity. The programmer Wil Wright took on a, on paper, quite hopeless concept – a game that was not a game. Even the thoughtful adventure genre had over the years left a trail of brutal murders, haunted houses and monsters of all colors. To develop a strategy not only without violence, but also without clear success criteria and even without identifiable protagonists seemed like commercial suicide.
In SimCity a landscape is seen from above. In this landscape, the player must build a city by parcel zones for commercial, industrial or residential use and provide infrastructure and various building types as citizens demand that the city grows.
If we should put a headline above the nineties main trend, it must be network. The player who finds it more interesting to compete against an artificial intelligence than against human opponents certainly seems not to exist (although many of course use the computer opponent as a sparring partner before the “real” impact). Approximately every middle sized provincial town has at least one Internet café with machines optimized for network games. Here you will meet many children and young people after school and they compete in the hottest new game – the youngest typically in action, the slightly older in a strategy games. If you look inside, you would typically see a number of sparsely furnished rooms populated by boys and adults between 12 and 30 years – the later the evening the older crowd is like. Most cafés claim payment from the player per hour and many offer special prices for different types of night events. Sweets, coffee, soft drinks and sandwiches can usually be purchased, while alcohol is a rarity.
2000
Deserves recent years a subheading could use the word nostalgia. Among computer players’ old guard, a feeling of the good old days really is over, has begun to spread. Man talking reverently about Kung-Fu Master, Bomb Jack and Spy Hunter, while lighter indulgent agrees to 80s computer games golden age – see back then there were “gameplay” to. The sentimental flashback spreads over the Internet and its opportunities to revisit the old classics. The conversation between people from the golden age reminiscent presumably conversations from mid-century between people who thought that black / white format now even brought out the best in film director. Some may see a special quality of an easy to play game, but the classics, especially games from the golden age, have the ability to evoke fond memories of a bygone childhood. These players’ parents will probably connect similar sadness of Father of Four or old TV series. Nevertheless, the nostalgic flashbacks meant that it has finally been studying in gaming history. And then the same thing happens as when you began to study the very early film history. Memories and ‘truths’ must be reviewed.
In these years, the computer games are in the middle of a development that undoubtedly will change the way we play and perceive it to play. It is therefore not a bad time to take stock. The first step in a major new direction has been the breakthrough for local network a la net café. A likely next step will be more consistent use of the Internet to play with and against other players from around the world.
An example from 2002, Warcraft 3.
The computer games are really beginning to seek new ways.
Conclusion
Computers has been evolving greatly these 30 years and the game world is constantly in development, as you can already see a big difference from the first game in 70s to today´s high advance game where you not only need some math but also some skill and a smart brain to out thing your opponent.
Now and then the relationship between IT and learning is a topic that has a positive aspect in it because many children prefer to explore with other children and this social relation gives special dynamic learning. Children can supplement and correct each other’s weaknesses and strengths.