Video Games: Platforms, Programmes and Players

Vi
deo games have been around longer than most people realize. According to Gerard Kraus, the author of Chapter 5 in Digital Cultures: Understanding New Media, the earliest example of a 'video game' was in 1947, but games like tic-tac-toe and pong, or Tennis for Two, did not hit the

markets until the mid and late 50's (p76). With the popularity of these games, the video game market and technologies continued to grow.

Twenty years or so after the earliest example of a video game was developed, Magnavox Odyssey launched video games to the forefront of the consumer mind. Atari soon came on the scene and

redeveloped the original Tennis for Two game into Pong.

Games like Space Invaders (1978) and Asteroids (1979) (modern version of Asteroids) became games for the arcade and the household consoles. Hundreds of thousands of quarters were dumped into arcade games like these over the years, and, because of the demand, the video game industry has propelled itself to the top of the selling charts.

After the arcade games became such a hit, household gaming consoles and computer games needed to be developed with the newest technology. Nintendo made its way onto the scene developing games like Donkey Kong (1981) and Super Mario Brothers (1986).

These characters are still used in Nintendo games in the modern day. Nintendo pushed Atari out of the picture, but did not do it with out competition.

SEGA Genesis and other consoles competed with Nintendo for a while, but then Playstation came onto the scene and vamped up the competition. Those two competed as the top two video gaming system creators for several years until Microsoft developed the XBox. This competition between Nintendo, Playstation, and Microsoft has become a heated rivalry in developing gaming systems that continues to this day.

The technologies in the gaming systems today make the gaming systems of the 50's and 60's look like dinosaurs. The old consoles were bulky and cumbersome, and now, the systems are small, sleek, and wireless. The new consoles have HD and 3D technology wile the older games started out 2D. The development of video games has, and will continue to be, an important part of the advances in technology.

Case Study: Bioshock (2007)

Bioshock (2007) is a first person shooter which is set in a developed world. Gerard Kraus points out in his case study that, "The opening sequence and the cleverly disguised tutorial that is included therein. The game presents its world and mechanics in the first 10 minutes, a period in which the player gets introduced to the graphics, interface, interaction needs and algorithm of the game" (p88). This new world is not so foreign though, or at least to a reader.

Bioshock loosely uses ideas from famous science-fiction novels like Nineteen-Eighty Four (1948) by George Orwell and The Fountainhead (1943) by Ayn Rand. These themes are seen throughout the game. Kraus pulls a speech from the game Bioshock that opens, "I am Andrew Ryan..." and compares it to the author Ayn Rand and some of the themes she brings up in her novels.

Kraus's case study goes to show that the video game industry is not just for losers or slackers. He wants to show how far the gaming systems have come since basic pong and the original Super Mario Brothers.