Saturday 8 January 2011

The History of Game. 1980's to 1990's

A continuation of  'The History of Game'

Before i get on to my very first game experience, let me tell you a little about the very first 3D game.

The first 3D game was 'Monster Maze' created in 1980 by a J.K.Greye and programmed by Malcolm Evans. The aim of the game was to escape the maze without being eaten. But it was in 3D! So no complaints there. It was the first of it's kind and it was the start of something much bigger.

However, the more popular of this decade were the home consoles. Such as Sega, Nintendo, Atari and the Megadrive. I'll name a few games from this era and you'll understand why this was THE pinnacle in video gaming.



Remember some of these? Or maybe you recall playing some of the modern day 'Mario Brothers' or 'Donkey Kong'. These are their originals. It was this time, the 1980's era of gaming, that I had my very first play. My first games were 'Missile Command' and 'Space Invaders' on the Atari joystick. I then remember my elder brother getting a Sega for Christmas. I played Sonic until my thumbs were sore. I also remember playing Bomber man and oh lest we forget... Alex the Kid (or 'Alex Kidd in Miracle World') which was built into the sega.

We were a decade behind, but it was a decade i would have rather been in for my first experience anyway. Enough of the nostalgia, let's move on.

This decade gave birth to many popular games today, however in 1983 there was what's called today as a 'Video Game Crash'. Where consoles were churned out in an attempt to make profit and poorly designed games made many people recline at the idea of spending money on more games. People lost faith and interest in games and consoles. Companies lost a lot of money or were eaten up entirely. Next Gen consoles saved the day. In 98 sega released Fourth generation Megadrive, after that the progress continued and the market recovered better than ever. (...some could say)

In the 1990's, gaming was rapidly advancing. And it was about the time that Japan began to take over the majority of the industry. 
 Some fun facts of the 90's:
Nintendo released  Super Mario Bros. 3 in North America which sold 17.28 million copies, making it the best-selling stand-alone video game of all time. (This record has now been beaten by CoD Black-ops... it pains me to say. Within the first 24 Hours 7 Million copies were sold.)
In 1992 the first 'Mortal Kombat' was released. (Right)
In 1993 Sega releases Sonic CD, Sonic Spinball, the Alien 3: The Gun arcade game, and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (which i also remember playing).
In 1996 Tomb Raider was released for the PC, PlayStation, and the Sega Saturn.
(By this point it's not just lonely men in their mum's basements playing games anymore)
And in 1999 Sega releases their final console, the Dreamcast, before retiring from console making.

  Pretty interesting stuff, huh?

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