I’m just finishing off a report on gaming and advertising and was wondering if I’d missed any major happenings in my intro. Everyone has different, distinctive moments in their own personal gaming histories whether it’s the first use of a Dreamcast Fishing Rod or losing money in the dodgy fish ‘n’ chips shop Space Invaders machine. But I’m attempting to highlight the critical references over a few decades, and do it concisely. Let me know if I’ve missed anything major:
“When Nolan Bushnell first put his coin-operated game Computer Space into Stanford University in 1971, he was initially surprised at its popularity. Of course history tells us he got over that surprise quickly, founded a company, and led a generation of kids in chasing ghosts around mazes on their Atari 2600s.
Of course the monumental success of home computers like the Apple II and IBM Personal Computer meant that kids had been using homework as a Trojan horse to get to gaming for years. In 1980 the Commodore Vic 20 became the first computer to pass the one million sold mark and, released in 1982 it’s follow up the Commodore 64 went on to become the best selling single personal computer ever. And if anthropologists had watched as gamers stared at their cassette player for thirty minutes as it loaded a game, they could have probably foretold what was to come.
During the 80s, Generation X pumped exorbitant amounts of silver into coin-op machines like Galaga, Donkey Kong, Pole Position and Spy Hunter. But by the early 90s, home computers and video game consoles had begun the shift for gaming from the arcade to the lounge room. The Nintendo Entertainment System (1985), Sega Megadrive (1990) and Sony Playstation (1995) all built on the foundations laid by Atari and video gaming had well and truly arrived.
It was the arrival of networked gaming and the internet that took games like Doom, Warcraft and Half-Life to a whole new level. This was gaming fuelled by conversation, competition and co-operation. Game developers began to harness the power of human versus human into high-adrenalin or strategic experiences that enthralled players across the globe. There was no comparing Pong with a 32 player round of Unreal Tournament deathmatch.”
