The History of Computer Games 50's-70's

It took 130 years to get from the theoretical design of a device to automatically calculate mathematical problems to the first example of modern consoles.

Charles Babbage’s Difference engine was one of the first examples of a computer as well as one of the very first and most certainly not the last, examples of a machine being better than most humans at maths. Unfortunately due to engineering limits at the time the Difference engine wasn't successfully built until 1991 when Babbage’s designs were proven to be valid.

With the problems the Difference engine had that leaves the title of ‘example of one of the first programmable computers’ to go to a device like Colossus, used by British code breakers in World War II. Colossus was developed to decode the German ciphers to their submarine Captains. It was developed by Tommy Flowers and mathematicians Dorothy Du Boisson and Elsie Booker though both women received little or no mention in computing history, much like a lot of the women involved in computer development through the years.

Hitting the late 40's the groundwork, technology and ideas behind games start to appear which a lot of it surprisingly was developed from military technology. Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Settle Ray Mann made the first interactive electronic game in 1947 called the "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device" (Cohen,  nd) and was the first missile simulation game.

With the computing prequel over with let's fast forward to the 50's.

In rolled the 1950's and with it 'Tennis for two' in 1958. Tennis for two was played on a screen and with a hand held controller much like Mouse in the maze in 1959 expect this one used a light pen to guide the mouse.

Swinging to the 60's we really start getting somewhere with the
appearance of Spacewar! created by Steve Russell, Martin Craetz and Wayne Wiitanen (Bellis, nd). The most interesting thing about Spacewar is that unlike Tennis for two, it brought forward the concept of a game being an original idea not a recreation of something that already exists outside the computer.



Finally hitting the 70's we meet Maze Wars, with a disk the size of a pizza and a design meant to be connected and played with others via the ethernet it is effectively to blame for Call of Duty. Maze wars was the first concept of a first person shooter and was the beginning of the idea of player avatars. Despite it's 1972 release Maze Wars was a clear starting point for more modern games considering through the years the idea has remained the same while the pictures get prettier.

Left to right: Maze Wars, Wolfenstein, Metro 2033

Cohen. nd http://classicgames.about.com/od/classicvideogames101/p/CathodeDevice.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode_ray_tube_amusement_device
Bellis, nd http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcomputer_videogames.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maze_War

Summing up so far

So a fair few weeks into the course now and all still seems to be going well, in fact this has been the only form of art education where I've really been enjoying myself and my work. Having come from an foundation course which focused on you using as many new techniques and media as you could fit into a year I eventually had next to no time for just drawing but with the visual design projects I’m happy to be rediscovering my love for it. 

A few of the various thumbnail drawings from the work

Perspective is proving a pain as it always has but it just seems to be a case of getting back into it. 

As for less familiar ground, despite the horror stories I've heard 3D Studio Max has behaved itself on my end apart from a few cases of a selective undo button and some evasive toolbars. It's surprising how fast you can pick it up with just a couple dozen remodels of the same accursed wheelie bin. Overall I'm really enjoying working with the program and apart from a new perception for noticing wheelie bins within my surroundings and a vendetta against Frank Rotherham Mouldings for the introduction of the modern wheelie bin, 3Ds Max hasn't succeeded in crushing my soul just yet, though I have been repeatedly informed that this is very likely to change. 

-Insert title of your choice here-

I'd just like to point out I hate writing about myself, always have. Applications and CV's were a nightmare but it seems to be time to get over that, or at the very least make it less evident. 

So to sum me up: I’m Sharnleigh, 19 from the outskirts of Birmingham and having finished a year of Art Foundation am now studying the first year of Game Art Design at De Montfort University.

In a way choosing an art based course was a gamble for me thanks to A-level art shattering any artistic confidence that I had but I’d always loved art and making things so took one last shot at turning it around with foundation studies and sure enough once free of what I found to be very linear limitations of a-levels my enjoyment resurfaced, so all that was left was finding an area to go into which I already had in mind.