Video Game Timeline Task

Video Game Timeline Task



In 1976 Atari released their official game of 'Pong' and took huge steps for their company by also releasing 'Atari Pong Doubles' and 'Atari Super Pong'. The aim of pong is to defeat your opponent in a simulated table tennis game by getting the highest score. The game was named 'Pong' because the name 'Ping Pong' was already taken.

In 1977 Atari released the 'Atari 2600' home console, this was such a big hit in 1977 and it went on to become the most successful video game console of it's time. With the console release Atari released a game called breakout, the prototype was built in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and was later released on the release of this console.






In 1978 'Space Invaders' was released by Taito, a video gaming company in Japan. The game was originally made on an arcade machine but was later released on the Atari 2600 which quadrupled the sales and made 'Space Invaders' a lot more popular than it already was. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to defeat waves of aliens with the laser cannon and score as many points as possible.










In 1980 Namco release PAC-man. This is still being made in present day with improved graphics and added features to the game. This has been one of the highest grossing games of all time making over $2.5 billion in just quarters (25 cents) the 1990's. PAC-man is one of the longest running video games of all game franchises and is a part of history in New York's museum of modern art.  








In 1981 Notable released 'Donkey Kong' and 'Frogger'. Donkey Kong is an early example of a platform game where you would jump over obstacles and dodge objects that would fly at you. Frogger was released by Konami a couple of months later, in Frogger you would have to dodge varieties of objects ranging from cars to crocodiles. The aim of the game is to get past all of these obstructions to get to the frog homes at the top of the screen.







In 1985 Super Mario was released and sold 1 million copies before the years end. This has been the highest selling game up to 2008 and sold over 40 million copies. The aim of Super Mario is to play as Mario himself and travel around getting through levels to rescue the 'Princess Toadstool'. This game is still one of the highest selling games present day and games are still being made to link with Mario. The Mario series are also still being carried on.








In 1986 'The Legend Of Zelda' was released. When playing the game you would see Link from a top down perspective and you must navigate him through the overworld and several dungeons, defeating enemies and solving puzzles along the way.










In 1989 Gameboy was released. Bundled with Tetris this was an instant hit selling 118 million worldwide. The Gameboy is an 8 - bit handheld video game device and was the first released by Nintendo. The 118 million sales happened within a matter of weeks making it one of the fastest selling handheld devices ever. Super Mario was released with the Gameboy and was loved by the people who bought it because they could now play their favourite game wherever they went.









In 1991 Sega released 'Sonic The Hedgehog'. The aim of the game is to carry on Sonic's efforts to stop Dr. Robotnik and release the animals he has trapped. You also have to collect six magic emeralds called the 'Chaos Emeralds'.








In 1992 Mortal Kombat was released for most consoles out at the time. This was a huge step for gaming as everybody at the time was amazed at how 'real' the game looked. The game also went through a lot of rough times as many people wanted the game banned because of how violent the game was. The decision was overturned because of how many sales the game actually got which totaled at 2.5 million withing the first few weeks. 




 In 1994 The 'PlayStation' was released by Sony. This was a 32-bit video game console and was the first one of its kind. This heavy influenced the market as the games went from cartridges to discs. The PlayStation was the first computer entertainment platform to ship 100 million units which it reached that just over 9 years after the launch. The last PlayStation units were sold on Christmas of 2004 before it was finally discontinued. 






In 1997 Grand Theft Auto was released by DMA Design (Now known as Rockstar). The game allows you to play as a criminal and free roam around the city, there are various missions that your character can do also. As of the units sold, the game just hit 125 million units sold just after December 2012.









In 2000 Sony releases the 'PlayStation 2'. Sony sold 138 million units of this console making it the best selling console to date. Various versions of this console was released to make the console look more sleek and frankly to get more sales even though it already how an incredible amount. 









In 2003 'Call of Duty' was released by Activision but was published by Infinity Ward. Call of Duty is a first person shooter based on Quake 3 Arena (ID tech 3) and is still available to buy now on PC via Steam. The game started on PC but then went to all of the new consoles which at the time were 'Xbox' and 'PlayStation 2'. ]



In 2005 Microsoft released their second console the 'Xbox 360'. This console came with the release of Guitar Hero. Guitar hero is a game where you have a guitar as a controller and you use the different colored buttons on the guitar to hit the notes on different songs. The Xbox 360 was also very new to the game development as all of these new high graphic games came out and how differently they were played to any other game that was out already. The Xbox also came with a feature called (Xbox Live) where if you had a membership, you could play online with your friends or with people around the world which took a huge impact as everyone wanted to be able to do this. As of June 30. 2013, 78.2 million units had been sold. 

In 2007 Halo 3 was released by Bungie. Halo 3 is a first person shooter made exclusively for the Xbox 360 and consists of huge battles between the 26th century humanity and an alien species named 'The Covenant'. On the day before it's official release 4.2 million units were in stores. Halo 3 grossed $300 million in the first week of release and more than one million people played on Xbox Live within the first 24 hours of the game being released. To date Halo 3 has sold in excess of 11.5 million copies making it the 5th best selling Xbox 360 game of all time. It also is the best selling first person shooter game of all time behind Call Of Duty.

In 2008 Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto 4. This game was huge when it was first released because of how different it was and how long people actually waited for it to come out. The game is set in a completely different fictional universe than other GTA titles. This game was set in Liberty City based heavily on modern day New York. The game had a huge graphical improvement to it than the other titles and had completely different gameplay. The game broke industry records selling a total of around 3.6 million units on it's first day of release and grossing more than $500 million on the first week in revenue, selling an estimated 6 million units worldwide. As of 2012 the game sold over 25 million copies. Grand Theft Auto 4 won numerous awards and was widely regarded by critics for the best game of this generation and even one of the best games of all time. The aim of the story was to play a character named Niko Bellic who was in the war in eastern Europe who comes to the United States in search of someone important. This isn't just what happens as he gets entangled in a world of gangs, crime and corruption along the way.


In 2012 Fifa 13 was released by EA. The Fifa franchise has been going on a long time but Fifa 13 sure impressed it's users with what the game had to offer. First of all the in game feature called Ultimate Team hasn't been popular since it was made it 2009, but when this game arrived EA doubled their profits just from this in game feature. Ultimate Team is a mode where you can create your own team with whichever players you want from around the world by collecting Fifa coins to buy them from the online market. EA added an addition to this called 'Fifa Packs'. This gave you the option to get players from these random packs of around 8 players. Obviously the better the player the more Fifa coins they are worth. To buy these 'Packs' you could either buy them with Fifa coins which you could acquire by winning matches with your team or selling other players, or you could buy them with Fifa Points. To get these points you had to pay real money to get these points to open the packs. This mode became so popular so quickly and still is the same now. This game also had a new engine for it making the player movements almost realistic and making the game all around just feel more realistic. 


Finally in 2013 huge changes have been made to gaming which people would never imagine would happen. The Nintendo 3DS now allows you to see 3D images without wearing glasses. Games have became almost realistic with the current releases of Grand Theft Auto 5 and Battlefield 4. The graphics on these games are absolutely incredible and they make the games look like you are standing right there in real life. I am amazed at how Battlefield 4 looks and how it plays. This game has to be one of the best games ever, the graphics are almost too realistic, online interaction is interpreted into the game where you can make buildings crash to the ground by blowing them up from the bottom just like in real life. EA and DICE have gone to great lengths with this game, you can even turn light switches on and off! Another game that is one of the best has to be Grand Theft Auto 5, this game took Rockstar 5 years to make and all of the waiting has paid off and the game has shown why it took 5 years to make. This game has been said that it is the best game ever made, the graphics are sharp and realistic, the AI do things as normal humans would do, for example if you drove past a construction site in any of the other GTA's you would see people dressed as construction workers just walking back and too, where as in GTA 5 they would actually be doing a job and building something like walls or cutting wood down. This year has been a great year for games and it is unimaginable what games will be like in the next couple of years with the releases of the new Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Unit 1 inventory task

This task is to show 3 different inventory's from 3 different games and explain how they are different from each other.

My first choice of inventory is from a game called Half life, this has a type of inventory called a 'Utility Belt' inventory. Utility belt inventories can be accessed any time by a simple button press, by simply pressing a button you can switch between all of your items. Size and weight doesn't really matter in these systems although some games may put positive bonuses or negative bonuses on a player depending on whats in their utility belt, for example, Counter - Strike will slow the player down if you are holding a heavy weapon. I think this inventory does suit the gameplay as it makes the game feel more realistic and i think it is a really good idea as it can balance out online gameplay as well as make the game more realistic. This may influence my own design as it is simple to use and it works really around the items in your inventory.

  

My second choice of inventory is from a game called DayZ, this has a type of inventory called a 'Limited Inventory'. Limited inventories are where you can only carry a certain amount of items at a time, this means a player must choose from what is useful for him/her to carry and what would become useful to them further on in the game. This stops the player from sticking to one style of play and making the game interesting each time they play it. In DayZ the player is limited to a certain amount of weight they can carry on them and in their backpack making the game very realistic which you would expect from a survival simulator. To open the inventory in DayZ you simply press 'I' on your keyboard, this then opens the inventory and shows what you have in writing on the side and it has a visual picture of them on the right. I think this inventory suits the gameplay extremely well because the same applies in real life, there is only a certain amount of items you would be able to carry. I think this inventory is made very well for experienced gamers but not so well for beginners because it has a bit of complication to it which makes the game a bit unfair for people who know how to use it and people that don't know how to use it. This may influence my own design because i like to design things with a bit of complication but to make it simple as people work out how to use it.

My third choice of inventory is from a game called Dark Souls, this has a type of inventory called a 'Menu Based Inventory'. Menu based inventories are where the player has to pull up a seperate menu that contains all of their items to access them, this does prevent the use of fast switching your items but it does give you an overview of every item you have in your inventory. I do think the inventory suits the gameplay because the game is quite old now and i think the game needs it because it is a very challenging game and it think a fast switch inventory wouldn't be good because you always have to keep moving on Dark Souls. I think the inventory is made very well and it goes really well with the game and the play style, the theme of the inventory also suits the game very well. This may influence my own design because the inventory is well organised and in seperate columns which i like. 

Hi my name is Daniel Derbyshire, I am currently studying computer games design at Priestley College. The whole point of the course is to get a better understanding of how games work and the processes that have to be done throughout making a game, and i would really like to learn how to do these things which is why i am taking on the course.

I have been playing games for a long time now and i am currently playing on the PC, i have been playing a lot of the game Payday 2 a lot at the moment. I really like how the game works and i like the aspects of it too. I like how you have an option to do a mission stealthy or fast or take your time and fully get everything you can out of the mission. The game is where you play as a group of bank robbers and you have to do missions such as robbing a bank to raiding a bus and stealing huge amounts of money off it, in the process you have to tie up civilians as hostages just incase one of the members of your group gets put into custody and you can release one of the hostages for a group member to get them back into the fight against the vast amounts of police force.