History of Video Games

At first I would like to focus on the very origin of video games.  I started programming, as an amateur, in early 80’s. At that time there was no GUI and mouse, so the only thing I found the computer useful for was to create a GUI in the form of a video game.  Using the primitive Basic Language was primitive at best, and there where no real established protocols for programming that I could discern.  Although I found it interesting and extremely time consuming.   I gave up, and went about my life, until the PC Clones started appearing, Microsoft was disrupting life as we know it, and the World Wide Web was some what of a shady underlying community which was showing some real promise.   Enough of that.  Well, I would like to start by focusing on what happened even before that, when Computer Hardware was hard to come by, and software was even more rare….

In the 1950’s computer scientists began designing simple games and simulations as part of their research. One of the earliest known games was a tic-tac-toe program developed in 1952 by A.S. Douglas at the University of Cambridge. The game was played on an EDSAC computer, and the player made moves by using a rotary telephone dial to input their choice. Other early games included chess programs, which were developed in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.

In 1961, the first known video game was created by Steve Russell at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The game, called Spacewar!, was a two-player game in which players controlled spaceships and tried to destroy each other while avoiding obstacles like stars and black holes.  It is Spacewar, that is the entire focus, and evolution, that this game and website is focused on.

In the 1960s, computer games began to gain popularity among computer enthusiasts and hobbyists. Some of the most notable games from this period include Hunt the Wumpus, a text-based adventure game developed by Gregory Yob in 1972, and the first multiplayer game, called Spasim, which was created by Jim Bowery in 1974.  Again, Spasim showed that a multiplayer space game was possible.

At this time the computer hardware was so primitive and hard to come by that it was incredibly hard to provide even simple real time multiplayer game play.

In 1971, the first commercial video game, called Computer Space, was released by Nutting Associates. The game was based on Spacewar! and was played on a coin-operated arcade machine. The arcade was off and running from there.  Atari released Pong in 1972.

In 1975, Atari released a home version of Pong, showing that computer hardware had become so cheap, and software so advanced,  that a person could own a video game at home that could be played on a TV Screen.  Coleco, and Mattel, among others joined the home console console scene.

In 1977, Atari released the Atari 2600, which allowed programmable modules to be placed in the machine, making it possible to have a single computer that could play several different games, by changing game modules. The 2600 showed the way for more complex games than earlier consoles, and its success helped to establish video games as a major form of entertainment.

During this period, arcade games also continued to be popular. Games like Space Invaders, released in 1978, and Pac-Man, released in 1980, became cultural phenomena and helped to further establish video games as a mainstream form of entertainment. Of course Asteroids, was available both at the arcade and on the game console.

However, the video game industry also faced challenges during this period. In 1977, a glut of low-quality games and over saturation of the market led to a crash in the industry, known as the Video Game Crash of 1977. Although, I would argue that the Arcade game Mods being sold to Arcade owners led to a lot of mistrust in the industry.  So a couple of silicon valley idiots made it so that any arcade game that was not receiving enough money, could be tuned to make it much harder to play, thus providing more revenue for the Arcade owner, supposedly.  What really happened was that people stopped going to the arcades,  and where forced into the home console industry.  No more get a bunch of quarters and play some games.  It was now cough up a few hundred bucks, so you could play games at home.  And the home consoles where not has high quality as the arcade games, so it was a lose, lose situation.

Despite the problems and headwinds, the Arcades emerged with ever more glamorous games such as Donkey Kong, and Space Invaders. My personal favorite of that time was Stargate.  A modified version of Defender.  Home consoles included Coleco’s ColecoVision, Magnavox/Philips Odyssey 2,  Nintendo Entertainment System or NES, Sega Genesis. Title games such as Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Sonic the Hedgehog became long standing classics.

Of course the IBM PC was released in 1981. The PC clones soon followed, with ever more powerful, and inexpensive, upgrades.  It would be more than a decade until the release of Doom, that the full potential of the PC clones, and the Internet, would be realized.

The 1990s was a pivotal decade for the video game industry, with major advancements in technology, new genres, and increasing popularity leading to unprecedented growth and revenue. The industry’s revenue surpassed that of Hollywood’s box office for the first time in 1995, and continued to grow throughout the decade.

The introduction of CD-ROMs also enabled game developers to create ever more complex games. The game consoles became ever more powerful, going from and 8 bit bus, to 16 bits, and up to 32 bits.

Arcade-style fighting games emerged on the scene, like Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, and Tekkens. The introduction of 3D graphics also began to change the gaming landscape, in addition to Doom, Quake,  Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D  showed up as well, among several others.  Thus introducing the first-person shooter genre, which is so popular today.

Rounding out the decade, the Microsoft PC operating systems had made it all the way from Windows 3.1 to Windows 2000.  And finally in 1999 Quake III Arena changed the First Person Shooter Genre forever. For the first time id Software demonstrated that incredible graphics, fast action, and multiplayer across the Internet where all possible on a PC.  Id’s Tech 3 game engine became the industry standard, being released under several different titles/skins, before finally being released as open source, therefore releasing even more titles/skins that are still available today.

Over the next 20 years the First Person Shooter Genera has exploded, with ever more capability, and ever more demanding graphics hardware.

It is the intent of this game, in 2023, Aurora Realms, to merge together the modern graphics, with a classic arcade game style, while providing a fast action multiplayer game, with educational value.  Aurora Realms is not meant to be a huge time consuming, or thought provoking game. It is meant to be fast action, quick game play that can be done within a few minutes, while offering the intrigue of space exploration.  And finally going full circle, bringing back the vision of the original creators of SpaceWar, with the capability of modern computer hardware and software.