My Earliest memory of gaming is probably Duke Nukem 3D which
came out in 1996. For what is considered quite a stupid crude game it’s easy to
forget how advanced it was. It had Destructive and interactive environments,
for example you could tip strippers, you could play multiplayer online death match,
co-op and Duke-Tag (capture the flag), it had a map builder, many weapons including
freeze and shrink rays and the mighty boot!!! You could even fly around the map
using a jet pack, swim under water with an aqua lung, walk on lava with special
boots, sea in the dark with night vision goggles. Here’s a surprising one you could even
project a hologram of yourself (HoloDuke) to disorientate your enemies, this didn't enter the Halo Franchise until there fifth instalment with Halo Reach in
2010.
But how did we get to this point of highly advanced gaming?
Where did it all start?
The first computer game is arguably the Cathode Ray Tube
Amusement Device 1947. This could also be considered to be the first games
console, as it was a dedicated gaming device. Quite simply it was a Cathode Ray
Tube which is a type of early monitor with a game built into it. Interestingly
the game was technically a war game. (Predatory animals play by mimicking the hunting
and killing of prey. Naturally it seems we can’t help ourselves either. Is it
coincidence that the basis of games is killing other humans/humanoids and that
this is fun?) The game is played by maneuvering a cross hair which is a small
dot, onto an image of a plane, if you do this within the time limit the screen defocused signifying an explosion. The Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device although still
purely an electromechanical device with no computer or programming it’s still
quite a scientifically advanced piece of equipment for its time. This was made in a time of vast room sized military funded computers,
designed for research, code breaking and defense purposes.
Like the (above) 1941 Zuse Z3 the first electromechanical,
programmable, fully automatic computer. This was used to research “wing flutter” of
air craft by the Germans, and the (below) British 1943 Colossus was used to decipher encrypted
telegraphic messages from German high command.
Some of the earliest computer games ran on these computers.
Like tennis for two 1948 and 0XO 1952. Tennis for Two (below) was
designed to spice up a tour of a laboratory; the engineers devised a game so
that the visitors could get some hands on experience with the equipment.
OXO was designed by Alexander S.Douglas who was studying
human computer interaction. The Game was basically Tick Tack Toe.
The appeal of playing against a machine and the draw of an “intelligent
device” is no new thing.
The Antekythera Machanism (Above) from around 100bc is a small shoe
box sized device capable of telling you the current, past and future positions
of the moon, its colour and next eclipse and it also gave the position of
various planets and stars. Some people believe that this mechanisms primary function
was actually entertainment. The Island of Rhodes where the mechanism is
believed to be from was known at these times for its displays of automata.
Another example of a piece of technology which drew crowds is
a mechanism built in the 1770’s called the Turk (below).
This was an automated chess
machine which travelled the world for 84 years astonishing audiences with its
ability to play a strong game of chess.
The Turk could be considered the first games console, the
first arcade machine you played with/against. The Turk was in fact so ahead of its
time that the technology didn't actually exist for it to function, it was a
fake, inside the mechanism was hidden a chess master. The Turk is important
because its success demonstrates our inherent interest in pitting our own intelligence
against the perceived intelligence of a machine.
The concept of “gaming” at this point doesn’t exists, but all
that really changes from the Turk to the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device to
OXO and Tennis for Two is that the technology becomes available to actually
build these devices in the form of computers.
Bibliodyssey.blogspot.co.uk
everseradio.com
tnmoc.org
antikythera-mechanism.gr
wikipedia.org
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