The history of computer games 1980s -1990s
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| Space Invaders |
The 1980s saw huge changes in the gaming industry especially
with so many new publishing companies appearing. People were beginning to
realise the potential business of video games, especially after huge successful
hits like Pong and Space Invaders in the 70s. In the 80s the first games were
registered by the copyright office! These were Atari’s games: “Asteroids” and
“Lunar lander”. This sold over 400000 arcade machines across the world!
The costs to produce new games were relatively low and it
let forth a whole wave of new idea’s and unique, bizarre and awesome games
which meant that a whole new array of games which defined the genres we all
know today were created!
These ranged from Action, adventure, role playing, Beat em
ups!, Platformer’s, Hack and slash, scrolling, Shooters, Real time strategy,
Stealth games, vehicle simulators, and the list goes on…
As well as new games and genres being created, technology
was also developing in full swing, a series of new cheaper rivals suddenly
emerged in the early 80s, due to companies and businesses investing in the
video games industry. These included the iconic Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit
and many more different consoles.
The new consoles were helping the Home Computer system and
games market set up their foundations by raising awareness through many
advertising campaigns. Nearly everyone was aware of what a video game was by
now. Or they were being told about it.
I remember my brother and dad using a Commodore 64, and it looked
exactly like the computer’s we use nowadays with the keyboard and everything, I
remember playing Terminator 1 on there with a Joystick controller and typing
silly things on the basic word program they had, though I was never any good at
it, as I was only 4 or 5 years old I had no idea what I was doing.
The Commodore 64 was released in August 1982 and it was very
successful due to its marketing and competitive price, it had the same
controller ports as the Atari 2600 which allowed people to use their old
joysticks again and it soon became the most popular home computer in the USA
and was the single best selling computer model of all time internationally and
still is!
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| The Commodore 64! |
In 1985 there was the start of new 16-bit graphic machines,
but they were way too expensive back then so they weren’t that popular during
the 80’s however in the 90’s we saw a huge boom in sales for the 16 consoles. More than 8million American homes now had a video game
console which totalled to more than $4billion a year!
Online gaming was starting to form and people were using
their Dial up board systems in the 80’s for online gameplay they were very
crude and people would often play text adventure games. So it wasn’t as popular
as video games back then until MIDI Maze and Doom were released in the late
80s/early 90s.
Nintendo, a small company founded in 1889 started to invest
in the video game industry and soon became one of the biggest game’s companies
to date and one of the most influential ones at that.
During 1985 the market was dulling down but was swiftly
revived by Nintendo’s release of the 8bit Console the Famicom, more commonly
known as the NES! Oh yeah! It came with Super Mario Bros. and It became a huge
Success instantaneously, it was dominating the American and Japanese markets up
until the early 90’s It used game pads and debut the most famous game series
out there.
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| Metroid on the NES |
Some of the more famous games that we may remember from that
era are: Pac-Man, The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Slayer, Kings Quest, Ultima,
Wizardry, Dragon Warrior, Golden Axe, Metriod, Castlevania, Turbo and many many
more.
Soon came the handheld era of the Game Boy, in 1989, This
was my first proper console, and it has sold over 118.69 million copies
worldwide, My first game was Tetris! Which was a huge hit selling millions
across the world as it was bundled with the Gameboy,
The 90’s was the big decade for the rise of the best games
franchises out there today in my opinion. It saw the release of MMORPG’s Such
as Ultima Online, Everquest and Runescape!
It brought lots of change due to the development of technology
and 3D graphics coming around being the big changer. The genres that were
established were becoming more solid and given more importance as big games
came around. As well as the introduction of proper competitive online gaming.
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| Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario! |
It founded Sega’s mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog one of the most
recognisable video game characters, next to Mario of course. Consoles such as
the Sega Mega Drive, SNES, in the early 90s and during the late 90s Playstation
and N64 were starting to come around. Amazing new 3D games were being released
on the market, There was very little talk of arcade games after all of that had
been released, it was inadequate and annoying compared to the home consoles we
could play in the warmth of our own homes.
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| Goldeneye for the N64 |
It was the decade of truly amazing thought out games for the
genres, Real time strategy games had a whole new meaning to them as games like
Warcraft, Starcraft and Command & Conquer came out. These are the games
which gave birth to E-Sports. Something I wish that will become a sport as big
as football or baseball around the world. We got to see the Alone in the Dark
and Resident Evil and Silent Hill be born, the main pioneers of survival horror
games that we see today! As well as Doom, Quake and Golden Eye, the games that
would create the basis of FPS games we see today!
I would say the 90’s was the foundation platform for most of
the modern day games we see today, the games might look different with better
graphics and amazing visuals, but the ideas that were forged in this era are
still here in today’s games.
Next time we will have a look at the modern day era of
computer games and what happened with the industry!
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