History of Computer Games
John E. Laird
EECS Department
Updated 9/7/05
Derived from The Ultimate Game Developers Sourcebook
The First Quarter: A 25 year history of video games, [Link]
and sources on the WWW
First games
1952
TicTacToe:
[Link] on a
EDSAC vacuum-tube
computer
1958
Tennis for Two:
Willy Higginbotham on
an oscilloscope
connected to analog
Donner computer
[OXO]
T56K
[M3]
PFGKIFAFRDLFUFOFE@A6FG@E8FEZPF
@	!8!7!!!!!!!*NOUGHTS!AND!CROSSES
@!5!4!!!!!!!*!!!!!!!!BY
@!2!1!!!!!!!*A!S!DOUGLAS#N!*C#M1952
@&@&*LOADING!PLEASE!WAIT#MMM
..PK
T45KP192F [H-parm]
T50KP512F [X-parm]
T46KP352F [N-parm]
T64K
GKT48KP@TZ
[&-sequence]
P4FPFP1FP2FP3FP4FP8FP10FP12FP16F
P300FP32FAHOFU1FU2FK4098FM1FA2DPF
1960s and Early 1970s
1961-1962 SpaceWar! developed at MIT
using vector graphics on PDP-1
Sega releases Periscope:
electronic shooting game - first arcade game
1971-1974
Birth of Commercial Games
1971:
Nolan Bushnell [Nutting] develops Computer Space
First commercial arcade game
Based on SpaceWar
Vector graphics, but really cool real-time space game
Too sophisticated for market. Fails
1972:
Bushnell starts Atari
Named after a move in GO
Odyssey by Magnavox Hockey
First home TV game analog not digital
100,000 sold - $100/console
1973:
Pong in Arcades by Atari
Sued by Magnavox
A huge hit in bars, pinball arcades,
1974:
Kee releases Tank
Fake spinoff from Atari
First game to use ROM
Atari:
First racing game (Trak 10) & maze chase game (Gotcha).
1972-1976
Adventure: The Colossal Cave
William Crowther and Don Woods
First text-based adventure game
Ran on DEC mainframes (PDP-10)
Late-70s: Atari Expands
1976: Bushnell sells Atari to Warner for $26 Million
Warner markets Pong to home as a single game
Breakout designed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
1977: Atari introduces the 2600 VCS
First home game console with multiple games
2K ROM , 128 Bytes of RAM
Very successful 6M sold by 1980
1977: Apple starts selling the Apple II
1978:
Adventure for Atari comes out
Sold 1M copies, first Easter Egg
first action/adventure game
Space Invader developed by Taito in Japan
1979:
Activision is formed by Atari developers
Third party development houses start up
Atari 800 introduced - 8-bit
First MUD by Trubshaw & Bartle
First online multiplayer game
1980-1981: Rise
1980:
Phillips Odyssey2 (1978) and Mattel Intellivision
Mattel had better graphics, but terrible controller
Namco has Pac-Man
>$1 billion ($2.3 in 1997 dollars)
300,000 arcade units sold since introduction
Atari doing $1 billion:
Asteroids & Battlezone released
Williams releases Defender
Zork released by Infocom, Ultima released
1981:
Game industry > $6 billion in sales
Nintendo: Donkey Kong [converted Radarscope]
Galaxian, Centipede, Tempest, Ms. Pac-Man
IBM introduces the IBM PC
1982: Clouds ahead
Atari sales down 50% -- starts to loses $$s
Releases 5200
But it still controlled 80% of the market
Atari buys rights to ET for $22 Million
Produced more PacMan cartridges than systems
Activision releases Pitfall
ColecoVision gets Donkey Kong
Game companies start just for home computers
Sierra On-Line, Broderbund, BudgeCo
Electronic Arts is formed
1983: Crash
Mattel losses $225 million from Intellivision
Doesnt ship the Aquarius
Loses as much as it had made the four prior years.
Atari loses money
Market flooded with poor quality games:
Fox, CBS, Quaker Oats, Chuck Wagon dog food
Coleco crashes
Saved by Cabbage Patch Kids
Commodore 64 - home computer
17-22 million total sold
Dragons Lair released
Laserdisk
6 years to make - Bluth Studios
Crash & Resurgence
1984:
Industry drops to below $800 M
Apple introduces the Macintosh
Birth of modern computer: good resolution, sound
Games not a priority
100,000 sold in first six months
Kings Quest is released by Sierra On-Line
1985:
Nintendo introduces Nintendo Entertainment System
Strict control on software
Lockout chip, and restricts companies to 5 games/year
Nintendo sells cartridges to software distributors
Atari tries to come back with 16-bit 520ST
Computer and Game system
Carmen Sandiego released by Broderbund
Failed Competition
1986:
Commodore ships Amiga: cool but marketing kills it.
Computer system designed to support games 3D color
Developed by Atari hardware engineer Jay Miner.
Sega ships Sega Master System console.
Technically superior to Nintendo, but it ignores third-party
developers and fails because of lack of games (and maybe
Nintendo pressure on developers).
Atari ships 7800
Nintendo outsells competitors 10 to 1
1987-1989
1987:
Electronic Arts releases their first in-house game:
Skate or Die.
Serious games start to show up for IBM PCs.
VGA and SVGA help
1988
Tetris imported from Soviet Union
Coleco files for bankruptcy
1989:
Sega Genesis is released: 16-bit
Attacks console market with EA sports titles
Aggressive marketing at older market (> 13 year old)
Nintendo sticks with 8-bit
Releases Gameboy
Maxis releases SimCity
Console Wars
1990:
Nintendo releases Super Mario 3 - all-time best-seller 11M
Amiga and Atari ST die out
PCs and Consoles are major game platforms
Electronic Arts starts to acquire other game publishers
1991:
Nintendo launches Super-NES (16-bit)
S3 introduces first single chip graphics accelerator for PC
Capcom releases Street Fighter II for arcades big hit
id releases Wolfenstein 3D
1992:
PC gaming explodes
Nintendo has $7 billion in sales ($4.7B in U.S.)
Has higher profits than all U.S. movie and TV studios combined
Midway releases Mortal Kombat for arcades extreme violence
More Wars
1993:
Pentium chip is launched
Consoles (Sega and Nintendo) are 80% of game market
Panasonic ships Real-3DO: 32-bit (now out of business)
Civilization published
1994:
Atari ships Jaguar: 64 bit
Very expensive for console ~$700, >$100/game
Neither 3DO or Jaguar does particularly well
DOOM released by id
MYST released
all time biggest selling PC game until 2002
32-bit Wars
1995:
Sega ships Saturn (32-bit)
Sony ships Playstation (32-bit)
Microsoft releases Window 95
Includes the Game SDK - Direct-X
Bring major game performance to Windows
Internet and WWW expand
Full-motion video becomes a part of games
7th Guest
Playstation
Launched in U.S., Sept. 1995
300,000 polygons/sec., 30MIPS processor, 4MB
RAM, 2MB VRAM
400 U.S. Titles
20% penetration in U.S. homes
Analysis:
Multi-platform games look worse on Playstation
Playstation-only games look good, but grainy
Cheap and lots of them for software developers
1996-1998
1996:
Nintendo ships Ultra 64
Originally promised for 1995
Multi-player gaming goes commercial
Via modem and internet and network companies
TEN, Mplayer,
1997:
3D acceleration starts to standardize on 3D-FX
Games start to assume 3D acceleration
Pentium IIs at 200Mhz make serious game machines
Ultima Online launches first MMORPG in 3D
1998:
Lots of good PC games
Playstation rules consoles
Nintendo 64
Launched in U.S., Sept 1996
93.75 MH 64 Bit CPU, 64-bit MIPS co-processor
over 500,000,000 16-bit operations/sec
Built-in Pixel Drawing Processor (RDP)
4.5MB RAM, 150,000 polygons/sec
Originally aimed at younger market
Cartridge makes is very expensive
Very dependent on software
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time generates more
revenue in last 6 weeks of 1998 than any film
1999-2001
1999
Dreamcast
Maximum Score for Pac-Man Achieved
Billy Mitchell achieves the highest possible score for Pac-Man
when he completes every board and winds up with a score of
3,333,360.
EverQuest is launched
2000
Development moves from PC to consoles
Playstation II
Diablo II sells 1 million units in 1 week
SIMS sells 2.3 million units ($95M)
+ 1.4 mill. in expansions
2001
Gamecube (Nintendo)
Xbox (Microsoft)
Sega Dreamcast
Sept. 1999, $299 ($99 -> $49 -> $0), 128 bit
Hitachi 200 MHz CPU, PowerVR 3D, 16MB
RAM
But faster than a 400MHz Pentium II for 3D
3M polygons/sec
Fast CD-ROM loads
Moderately successful in U.S.
But not in Japan
Sony Playstation 2
Launched May 4, 2000 in Japan
In U.S. on October 26, 2000: $299
90 Million sold world wide by 2005 [2 years < PS1]
Hardware
128 Bit 300MHz processor
3 Special purpose 150 MHz co-processors
32MB DRAM: 3.2 GB/sec
DVD & CD
MPEG2 hardware
Dual Shock 2 analog controller
Chip set will be available for other platforms
66M polygons/sec geometry 16M polygons/sec curved
Software development is tough
Nintendo GameCube
Launch in Japan, Fall 2001
U.S. Nov. 2001
Hardware
IBM Gekko processor 405 MHz
Geometry Engine
Mini-DVD
6-12M polygons/sec (fully textured)
24MB Main memory
16MB A-memory
Emphasis on easier development
High memory bandwidth 3.2 GB/sec
Fast frame buffers (5ns.)
Microsoft Xbox
November 2001
Software
Direct X API
Hardware
Pentium IV 733 Mhz
Custom 3-D 300Mhz GPU
64MB Ram 6.4 GB/sec
8GB hard drive
DVD
100 MBps Ethernet
Performance
150 million transformed and lit polygons per second
100+ million polygons per second sustained performance (shaded, textured)
300 million micropolygons/particles per second
4 simultaneous textures
Full-scene anti-aliasing
1920x1080 maximum resolution
HDTV support
PC 2002
Americas Army released as free game
SIMS becomes the best-selling PC game
of all time (March 2002)
PC 2003
PC
SIMS continues to grow
Unleashed, Superstar
But SIMS Online fails
Star Wars Galaxies
> 275,000 Registered Users
Second biggest MMOG, fastest growing
WarCraft III, UT 2003, GTA, ports from console
Second Life and [Link] launch
Different approach to MMOG
EA grosses $2.5B in 2003
Games 2004
$7.3 B sales
Madden sells 1.3M copies in one week
Sequels rule: SIMS 2, Halo 2, Half-life 2, Doom
Consoles: 2004
Stable of slow growth - lower prices
1,000,000 GBAs sold
Nokia Ships >1,000,000 N-Gages
Nintendo Launches DS
>5 million units worldwide by March 2005
Ninetendogs 250K in one week best handheld?
Sony Launches PSP
5 million units shipped by July 2005
Where are the games
Shifting away from PC (15% sales) to Consoles
Games 2005
World of Warcraft
4 Million Subscribers ($700M/year subscriptions)
EA rolls along:
Madden NFL 2006, sold 1.7M in first week
Gamestop and EB games merge
Top selling games May
Top Selling PC Games: July 2005
GBA Pokemon Emerald: 882,579
PS2 Starwars Episode II: Revenge of the Sith 490,670
XBX Starwars Episode II: Revenge of the Sith 378,195
XBX Forza Motorsport 184,595
PS2 Midnight Club 3 150,470
Battlefield 2
World of Warcraft
Guild Wars
The Sims 2: University
The Sims 2
Next Gen Consoles coming
Difficult software development
Very expensive for development (teams twice size)
XBOX 360
Available: November 2005
Custom IBM PowerPC CPU
Custom ATI Graphics Processor
10MB DRAM
48-way parallel floating point
Unified shader architecture
500 million triangles per sec
16 gigasamples/sec
48 billion shader operations/sec
Supports 16:9, 720p or 1080i HD output
512 MB of 700MHz GDDR3 RAM unified memory architecture
3 symmetrical cores: 3.2 GHz each
2 threads/core
VMX-128 vector unit/core
1MB L2 cache
CPU Game Math: 9.6B dot product/sec
22.4 GB/s interface bus bandwidth
256 GB/s memory bandwith to EDRAM
21.6 GB/s front-side bus
Overall system floating-point: 1 teraflop
Detachable and upgradeable 20GB harddrive
12x dual-layer DVD ROM
Playstation 3
8-9 (?) Cell processors 3.2 GHz each
Graphics: Nvidia 550 Mhz GPU 1.8 TFlops
100 billion shader ops/sec
51 billion dot products/sec
More powerful than Geforce 6800 Ultra?
Total 2.18 TFlops
512MB RAM
split between CPU and graphics
512KB L2 cache
7 AltiVec vector processing units
Blu-ray DVD may make it very expensive
Dont be surprised by delay
Removable hard drive
Future?