History of Gaming

In the last 30 years video games have progressed into a multi-billion dollar industry, from games with two button controls to no control at all, games wouldn't be possible for the someone simple games today.

In 1952, A.S douglas wrote his PhD degree on Human-Computer interaction. Douglas created the first graphical computer game which was a version of tic-tac-toe and was programmed on a EDSAC vacuum-tube computer, which has a cathode ray tube display. 

The Cathode ray tube amusement device was the first ever recorded type of “console”. It was a big box with a little screen. When playing the player would turn a knob to control a beam of light on screen. When playing “tennis for two” they player would control a paddle that they would move by rotating a knob to stop the beam of light, acting as a ball, from falling off the edge of the screen.

In 1972 a more renown game called pong was introduced. It was originally played in an upright cabinet made by Atari. It was seems like it was based of the game “tennis for two” as it has the same concept where two players control paddles and bonce the ball back and to and not letting it fall of the screen

. In 1977 Atari release a console called the “Atari 2600”. It was first sold at $199 which was a very memorable introduction to the joystick. Its bestselling game was “Pac-Man” which children of all ages today have heard and may have played pack man. This game introduced a wide variety of colours that we hadn’t seen in games and had people playing for hours to reach a new high score.

The Nintendo Entertainment System was release in 1985, Originally a Japanese playing card company released this to the US. At first retailers didn’t know whether to sell the console after the video game crash but with is popular titles such as Mario bros, Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Final Fantasy it soon broken sales records and became the best selling console. It also added more buttons to the regular controller such as a D-Pad, and A and B button and a pause button.

In 1989 Nintendo hit the markets again with the first ever major hand held game console called the “Game Boy”. The Game Boy features am 8 bit CPU like its predecessor the NES. Popular titles such as Tetris the sales skyrocketed. Thus the Gameboy has several makeovers and has influenced other companies to further make hand held consoles including Nintendo.

The era of Nintendo continued as they release the “Super NES” in 1991 which was made to sound like it was twice as good as the original NES and on specs it was. The old NES was 8-bit were as this was 16-bit with two controllers and two more buttons. Console controllers have been adding more and more buttons ever since as controllers today have a massive 15 buttons or more.  The Super NES was first sold at $210 at sold 49 million units worldwide and was marketed in competition with Sega Genesis but it was at the same                                                                     graphics and was cheaper making it a huge hit in the US.

In 1995 the first Playstation was released, there was so much money being made in Japan alone on video games sony decided to join in the competition and they sure did take the industry by storm. The first playstation had sold 102 million units worldwide making it the most sold console of its time, however, many of these consoles were sold but many of them were "chipped", meaning that people were able to write there own discs for much less than the retail price. The original controller had the usual 8 buttons plus 2 for select and start, but 4 more "bumper buttons" were added and all consoles since have added these. If this wasn't enough they release a brand new Dual Shock controller and it has added two analog sticks, these added more than the up, down, left, right commands and added different angles and degrees adding more options for developers.

In the years 2000 - 2001 three more consoles were added to the market. The Playstation 2; The Xbox and the GameCube. This wasn't the first console we had seen from Nintendo or Playstation but this was the first we had seen from Xbox. Nintendo did its usual thing with its regular titles such as Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda. Xbox had brought some of their own exclusive titles such as Halo 1 and 2 but Playstation had the largest range of exclusives and thus, the Playstation 2 was more successful in selling units as it sold a massive 155 million units worldwide whereas Xbox sold 24 million and Nintendos Gamecube sold a close 21 million. These consoles have shown that it isn't about the specifications but exclusive games and consoles today show off the games they play rather than specs.

Ever since the Nintendo Gameboy, Nintendo have dominated in hand held gaming as the Gameboy had several make overs such as the gameboy lite, gameboy advance and gameboy colour. Playstation decided to join the market with their brand new PSP standing for "Playstation portable" but Nintendo wasn't going to watch them take the lead as they brought out the Nintendo DS standing for "Dual Screen". When release the DS was only $150 but the Playstation was $181 which tilts in Nintendo favor. The DS allowed users to play games from their gameboy so it didn't leave them gameless so it was one of the first recognizable backwards compatible console which doesn't use discs, not only that but the DS introduced one of the first touchscreens to be used on any console, it was that popular most handheld gadgets use them today. The DS had 3 redesigns and 1 successor and in total they sold 153 million and the PSP only sold 76 million. I believe this is because the DS was the cheaper of the two and presented new technology.

Nintendo didn't stop there when it come to introducing new technology to gaming as they brought out the Wii in 2006. The Wii presented the very first major gaming console that uses motion gaming. This new technology was a huge craze and its starting retail price was $250 which was yet again a cheap console from Nintendo especially giving that it was the first major console of its kind. The console could be used just like any other but the player could point, shake, rotate and swing the control adding a mass range of possibilities to the gaming industry. The console was that popular it sold a massive 100 million units worldwide and it was that influential, other companies such as Sony's Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox 360 added their own motion control gaming and delayed the new generation of consoles for 2 years!

Unit-1 Inventories

Inventories

An inventory 'in game' is a place where users or players store important tools or access data and more games than ever now based around an inventory.

Limited

Most inventories are limited which means the player can only carry a set number of items causing the player to choose which items are more important or effective. These are more popular as it adds a certain amount of realism to the game unlike unlimited inventories, this is where a player can carry as much as he desires making him a "jack of all trades".

Minecraft

Minecraft uses a limited inventory but also has more than one function but first how to access it.

A simple press of the "E" key opens the inventory in the default controls.

Once opened you are shown a grid where the player can organize his inventory by dragging and dropping items in the squares. 

The game uses a hot bar system which can be seen as a utility belt inventory where the user choose which items he can access quickly without interrupting game play.

Uniquely the inventory has a crafting option where the player can put more than one item together to create something new.

I like this inventory as it takes the utility belt for quick access and usage and can be edited during game and you have to scroll to a specific item to use it.

Utility Belt

A weight based inventory is also a limited inventory and can be accessed seamlessly without slowing down game play and with just a button press items can be switched or used. A utility belt can be customized to the users preferences and how they like to play.

Call of Duty

Call of Duty used a Utility based system  where the player is limited to 2 guns and 2 types of grenades. This inventory works well as Call of Duty is a fast paced game and players don't have time to stop and sort out their inventory during game.

Each item is controlled and used by a press of one button on the controller.

The images show an example of what the players inventory looks like before a game and what it looks like during a game, The top shows the inventory being customized and the bottom shows how many items the player has left without interrupting game play.

I like how fast you can use the inventory without interupting any game play but it can only be edited outside of game.

Weighted inventory

A weighted inventory is where a players inventory is limited due to weight and not the number of items. These inventories are more commonly found in RPG's but aren't very popular in games all together and personally I think it slows down game play when sorting out how much weight you need to lose and whats worth the weight.

Skyrim

Skyrim is the leading example of a weight based inventory due to how popular the game is. Skyrim's inventory is organized for you as its put into categories such as "food" and "potions", so the inventory is easy to navigate and reduces time searching for items and for items you need even faster you can add them to the favorites list

When hovering over an item it shows you how much an item weighs, its value and its effective it is.

The picture above shows the categories and the menu. An item can be Equipped with the "E" key; To drop you press the "R" key and to favorite you press the "F" key.

I do not like this style of inventory as it can take a while to think about which items you need most and how many you can store.

How will these influence my inventory?

When designing my inventory I would like to avoid Skyrim's weighted inventory system,but will keep to a limited inventory and would like to merge Minecraft and Call of Duty's inventories, as I like how you can organize and create new items on the go but would like the items to be used with one click of an allocated button.

Hi, my name is Callum Donaghy and this is my blog!
I am studying computer games design in Priestley college to learn more artistic skills and coding to make a career in the computer games industry.

The most recent game I have played is Forza Horizon. I really enjoy the Forza series because of the ultra-realistic racing simulation, the game is completely customizable around the player and it doesn't have to be taken seriously so it's relaxing to play and waste time.