Videogame definition - Elitists and Lawyers need not bother
Matt Barton wrote:
I agree, Steve. I've seen some ridiculous efforts to go against the common sense definition of the word, and even some complicated charts to that effect. I've seen people try to claim paper-based games and strange sorts of card games were "videogames," even though they had nothing to do with computers or displays of any sort. I've also seen people try to lump in things like Simon and Electronic Battleship, Operation, etc., as videogames.
Here is what the guy over at Pong Story defines videogames as, which is in line with his idol, Ralph Baer, who defined it in such a way for legal purposes (by defining it that way, he was able to discount earlier demonstrated videogames than his own, like Higinbotham's Tennis for Two and Spacewar! because of their displays):
"A video game is defined as an apparatus that displays games using RASTER VIDEO equipment: a television set, a monitor, etc. In the 1950s and 1960s, computers were not only exceedingly expensive, but used a technology that could not allow integrating them into a video game system. Only mainframes could allow playing a few games. These games qualified as COMPUTER games, not VIDEO games."
You know what I say? I say it's all BS. I say a videogame is any game played on a device that generates its own display, plain and simple. Of course there are different classifications, but they all fall under the main heading of videogame. And no, Simon is not a videogame, just an electronic game, which is not to be confused with an electric game.
Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
*************************** Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
I agree, Steve. I've seen some ridiculous efforts to go against the common sense definition of the word, and even some complicated charts to that effect. I've seen people try to claim paper-based games and strange sorts of card games were "videogames," even though they had nothing to do with computers or displays of any sort. I've also seen people try to lump in things like Simon and Electronic Battleship, Operation, etc., as videogames.
Here is what the guy over at Pong Story defines videogames as, which is in line with his idol, Ralph Baer, who defined it in such a way for legal purposes (by defining it that way, he was able to discount earlier demonstrated videogames than his own, like Higinbotham's Tennis for Two and Spacewar! because of their displays):
"A video game is defined as an apparatus that displays games using RASTER VIDEO equipment: a television set, a monitor, etc. In the 1950s and 1960s, computers were not only exceedingly expensive, but used a technology that could not allow integrating them into a video game system. Only mainframes could allow playing a few games. These games qualified as COMPUTER games, not VIDEO games."
You know what I say? I say it's all BS. I say a videogame is any game played on a device that generates its own display, plain and simple. Of course there are different classifications, but they all fall under the main heading of videogame. And no, Simon is not a videogame, just an electronic game, which is not to be confused with an electric game.
Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
***************************
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.