Thread: video games

"Computer and video games" redirects here. For the journal, see Computer and Video Games. For PC games mainly, see private computer game. For other uses, see Computer game. A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device. However, with the popular use of the term "video game", it now implies any type of display device. The electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms; examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large computers to small handheld devices. Specialized video games such as arcade games, while previously common, have gradually declined in use. The input device used to manipulate video games is called a game controller, and varies across platforms. For example, a dedicated console controller might consist of only a button and a joystick. Another may feature a dozen buttons and one or more joysticks. Early personal computer games often needed a keyboard for gameplay, or more commonly, required the user to buy a separate joystick with at least one button. Many modern computer games allow, or even require, the player to use a keyboard and mouse simultaneously. Video games typically also use other ways of providing interaction and information to the player. Audio is almost universal, using sound reproduction devices, such as speakers and headphones. But other feedback may come via haptic peripherals, such as vibration or force feedback, with vibration sometimes used to simulate force feedback.




History

Tennis for Two, an early analog computer game that used an oscilloscope for a display Inspired by radar displays, it consisted of an analog device that allowed a user to control a vector-drawn dot on the screen to simulate a missile being fired at targets, which were drawings fixed to the screen.

The NIMROD computer at the 1951 Festival of Britain OXO a tic-tac-toe Computer game by Alexander S. Douglas for the EDSAC in 1952 Tennis for Two, an interactive game engineered by William Higinbotham in 1958 Spacewar!, written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen's on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961.

Each game used different means of display: NIMROD used a panel of light to play the game of Nim, OXO used a graphical display to play. Tennis for Two used an oscilloscope to display a side view of a tennis court, and Spacewar! Used the DEC PDP-1's vector display to have two spaceship battle every other. In 1971, PC Space, produced by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially-sold, coin-operated video game. It used a black-and-white TV for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was characteristic in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green. Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the "Brown Box", it also used a standard television. These were followed by two versions of Atari's Pong; an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975. The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, spawning the video game industry.

Overview

The term "platform" refers to the specific grouping of electronic or computer hardware which, in arrangement with low-level software, allows a video game to control. The term "system" is also normally used. In general use a "PC game" refers to a form of media that involve a player interacting with a personal computer associated to a high-resolution video monitor. A "console game" is played on a specialized electronic device that connects to a standard television set or composite video monitor. A "handheld" gaming device is a self contain electronic tool that is portable and can be held in a user's hands. "Arcade game" normally refers to a game played on an even more dedicated type of electronic device that is typically designed to play only one game and is encased in a special cabinet. These distinctions are not always clear and there may be games that bridge one or more platforms. ahead of this there are platforms that have non-video game variations such as in the case of electro-mechanically based arcade machines. There are also devices with screens which have the ability to play games but are not dedicated video game machines.