Videogame History

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Otyugra

Guest
I consider myself someone who really likes learning about the full history of videogames. I find it fascinating and I think it helps me to be well rounded as a developer.

Are there any good resources out there for learning about old forgotten games? Any good YouTube channels you would recommend; etc.? Do you like videogame history?
 

Changgi

Member
I love the history of video games. Bought a book on it recently called A Brief History of Video Games, and also another called The Golden Age of Arcades.

Personally an Atari gamer, I've seen the AVGN, MetalJesus, Aqualung and Classic Game Room do a lot of reviews, and Retrocade plays a lot of retro games with his children.
 
The best way to learn about games is to actually play them.

somewhere in my house i have this cd, it has a couple dozen emulators and the libraries for all the consoles they emulate, it only works in the nintendo wii but all said the functionality of it is excellent and it covers a huge swatch of all the games made prior to nintendo 64 as well as a bunch of games from the full sized arcades and local releases.

absolutely no clue how or where i got it from but i could not begin to guess how many hours i have logged on it but i think its save to say i have played almost every file in it.

but yeah reading books about games is like watching movies about books, sometimes they do justice but the constraints of one format dont easily lend themselves to another, my best advise is to hop onto a website like 128bit.me and start playing them for yourself.
 
G

Galladhan

Guest
The best way to learn about games is to actually play them.
I agree.

but yeah reading books about games is like watching movies about books, sometimes they do justice but the constraints of one format dont easily lend themselves to another,
I can see your point (even if i don't agree with it) if you talk about "collections of reviews" (like "1001 videogames you must play before you die" that i posted: i know it's a bit "off-topic" in this context, but it's a very interesting book, in my opinion).

I can't see your point at all, instead, if you talk about books which revolve around the history of a company (or which narrate a particular era).
If you play Breakout, you automatically know who was Nolan Bushnell? And you automatically know that Atari employees were invited to "work smart, not hard!"?
And that among them, for a short period, there was Steve Jobs, who managed to give out the assignment for the design/development of the aforementioned Breakout to... Steve Wozniak? Etc etc. :p
 

chance

predictably random
Forum Staff
Moderator
If you play Breakout, you automatically know who was Nolan Bushnell? And you automatically know that Atari employees were invited to "work smart, not hard!"?
And that among them, for a short period, there was Steve Jobs, who managed to give out the assignment for the design/development of the aforementioned Breakout to... Steve Wozniak? Etc etc. :p
I agree. You need to read history to learn about the early developers. And to understand how technology and market forces drove early game development. @JML is right about playing these early games. But that alone isn't enough to understand the history behind them.

One of the curious characters in the early days of home computers and consoles was Jack Tramiel. He was a Polish Jew who survived several years in Auschwitz concentration camp before being liberated. He eventually immigrated to the US and founded Commodore (to make typewriters at the time). More of a businessman than a tech developer. But it's interesting to read about him.

One aspect of video game history I find interesting is how electronics engineers also doubled as game designers. (People like Tomohiro Nishikado, for example.) Compare with today, where non-technical artists and writers play important roles in game design. It's understandable how this happened, of course. But interesting to read about.
 
ahh i see what you mean, when he said the "full" history i was thinking of the shear catalogue of published games as opposed to the industry which creates them, ok that changes things.

either way i would still be more interested in the contributions people have made to the industry than the personalities involved, personally i think the work tells you more about who the person is then where they came from.

you want proof of this look at dennis ritchie, we all owe him more than we could ever comprehend but for all intents his life was his work, you want to know who he was you look at the work because its very likely hundreds of years from now people will still know his name (if we still have computers).

that said i understand what you guys mean, knowing the person can help you understand why he choose to do the work he did but to me, motivations are secondary to the act of creation itself.
 

Changgi

Member
I agree.



I can see your point (even if i don't agree with it) if you talk about "collections of reviews" (like "1001 videogames you must play before you die" that i posted: i know it's a bit "off-topic" in this context, but it's a very interesting book, in my opinion).

I can't see your point at all, instead, if you talk about books which revolve around the history of a company (or which narrate a particular era).
If you play Breakout, you automatically know who was Nolan Bushnell? And you automatically know that Atari employees were invited to "work smart, not hard!"?
And that among them, for a short period, there was Steve Jobs, who managed to give out the assignment for the design/development of the aforementioned Breakout to... Steve Wozniak? Etc etc. :p
I felt I knew just about everything I could know about Atari and Atari's trivia games on the GBA and DS still make me feel like I only know less than half, so it's a good sign that I still find it challenging (and also a sign that you really need to read up, cause I've already done quite a lot of reading and watching of documentaries on Atari stuff)
 
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