Navigation
Who's online
Sponsored Links
|
PlayFirst! Try out neo|classics such as Diner Dash and Chessmaster Challenge at PlayFirst now! |
Featured on
|
Slashdot, Slate, The Discovery Channel, The Escapist, GameSetWatch, Good Deal Games, AtariAge, ClassicGaming.com, Las Vegas Review Journal, GAMERadio, The Mercury News, Maxim and many more popular media outlets!
|
Syndication
Spacewar! (1962) - Your comments and thoughts
Well, the next chapter is on the wonderfully early Spacewar! from 1961 for the DEC PDP-1 mainframe. While there were other games before it that I'll be sure to mention, I would love your thoughts on the games, its home versions, its implementation in the first arcade game, Computer Space, etc. I would also love to hear your thoughts on its ties to Asteroids, as I believe there is a significant connection that must be discussed heavily in the chapter. So not only Spacewar!-like games, but also Asteroids-like games (and any other connections you'd like to suggest). I also read just yesterday that a version of Spacewar! is included in Microsoft's XNA framework as a sample game, so if anyone has any particular info on that I'd love to hear it! Thanks guys!
Play Spacewar! emulated in your browser: http://spacewar.oversigma.com/
- Bill Loguidice's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
Well, I think that's it,
Well, I think that's it, Rob. If you were playing a game like Lunar Lander, and the lander didn't behave at all realistically (i.e., no gravity, or no momentum), then it wouldn't be nearly as fun. Same thing with artillery. I think, though, there's a limit to how much reality you want in a game. Imagine a flight simulator where you had to wait 30 mins to an hour sitting in the cockpit waiting to get clearance to take off, for instance. Boring.
Excellent points, Calibrator!
You're quite right, Calibrator! Particularly the "vector graphics" games were very physics-based.
I recall an earlier "Armchair Arcade" article (on the old site) written by Buck Feris, and it made the case that we gamers are seeking "catharsis." It was a very interesting proposition, but one I think is at least partially (if not majorly) valid, and these early "vector" games might have provided "catharsis" via their primitive physics systems, since they couldn't do it with detailed graphics.
I recall an Amiga sci-fi-based platform game called "Exile," which incorporated physics into the game, and I spent more time playing with the game's physics engine as I did exploring the game world. It was absolutely mesmerizing to throw boulders into the wind and watch the boulder roll back at you via the strong winds of the world. ("Exile" is considered a classic game, by the way).
What is it about realistic physics that makes a game seem more attractive? Lunar Lander, Asteroids, Defender, Star Castle, Artillery, Pong, etc. They were all cool physics-based games, but I doubt the average gamer really noticed or cared about the lesson.... they were having too much fun!
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
That's a good about physics,
That's a good about physics, though the appeal seems to come back to what the Greeks (I think) called mimesis; a sort of pleasure you get when art resembles reality. Take a game that really does an excellent job simulating a car or even showing realistic bodily movement. I remember people raving about this aspect of Prince of Persia. It might explain why people are so fascinated by highly detailed models as well. I don't think it's so much that people are fooled into thinking it's the real thing, but just a pleasure in seeing that someone was able to get it so...right, if you follow.
Physics
I'm not too much into arcade games but I find one thing interesting: It began with physics and it will end with them.
The first video games (even if non-commercial) were indeed based on physics. Examples are also "Pong" (incidence and emergent angle of the ball), "Asteroids" (kinetics) "Lunar Lander" (gravity) and pinball simulations (gravity and those funny angles again). Some games are weaker than others in their physics use, of course, but others really emphasize it like Lunar Lander and Spacewar.
Some of these games were made by very intelligent people - often with a mathematical or physics background. So it probably was natural to use this knowledge.
Then games really got commercialized and mass marketed. For several years, physics in games weren't really explored, IMHO. Shooters often had the same mechanics, racing games weren't really simulations at first and pure simulation games were just emerging.
Often games don't really had much room for physics (adventures with video sequences, 2D rpgs), while there were some exceptions (throwing things in Dungeon Master or Ultima Underworld). "Trespasser" also had - some people say - too much physics: It not only had immensely high system demands at that time but also was uncomfortable to play.
Physics make or break simulations but I'm not sure if those pure, hard-core games (flight simulators for example) had more than a limited audience after the mid-eighties. Today the genre seems to be rather small.
Nowadays every game seems to need a "physics engine" like Havoc or PhysX - expecially games where you can drive, destroy or kill something (or all of it). People are sick to always see the same kill animations and want to play with the corpses ;-)
With already very high graphics standards (often outsourced to the graphics cards) one has to use the free processor time or put several cores to work and physics are a great thing to use them ol' cycles. Physics are here to stay.
take care,
Calibrator
Omega Race was one of my
Omega Race was one of my dad's favorite games for the VIC-20 and C-64. I must admit, it was a bit too difficult for me at that age. ;)
Vector Graphics
I agree Rob, though I think that vector graphics hold up very well. That was one of the points I tried to make in the Vectrex article. They don't really seem old, just different. There's a certain timeless quality to the clean, unfilled lines. It's a shame that the color Vectrex never made it out.
Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Omega Race
Omega Race was always a favorite of mine too. I had the ColecoVision version, which used the trackball, as well as a version for the C-64, which was pretty good. I may have had the Vic-20 version (I have it now), but don't remember. A hard, but fun game.
Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
One of the first videogames
One of the first videogames I remember is Omega Race on the VIC-20. I guess it's a descendent of Spacewar or Asteroids. Seemed pretty exciting at the time and I did not mind the white-on-black graphics. Actually it's quite pleasing to look at. Today it would be a daring artistic decision to make a game look like that.
Vector Graphics
Although "Vector Graphics" might seem primitive today, I was one of the many(?) back in the day that was MESMERIZED by Vector Graphics games. My memory is fuzzy; I don't recall if my first videogaming experience was with a "vector graphic" game such as "Space War" or with a "raster-graphic" game like "Pong," but I do recall being WOW'ed by vector graphics. I do not recall actually playing the "Space War" coin-op (unlikely, since I was 10-12 years old and had no money), but remember watching people play the game as was, as I said, MESMERIZED!
Vector Graphics came across as "hi-res" when other "raster" games of the time were blocky and inflexible (and colorless, just the same as vector graphics). I remember becoming a true "game-aholic" after "Space Invaders" came out, but in retrospect, I think these vector graphic games are what initially peaked my interest in the coin-op/videogame genre. They were the first "video" games that I saw.
My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I seem to remember that "Space War" (or whatever it was called) was like no other coin-op that came after; it allowed you to choose the type of game you wanted to play after you "inserted coin." You could choose a straight game, something akin to two "Asteroids" ships firing at each other, or have (amongst other options I don't recall) a black hole that skewed your "missiles" according to the black hole's gravity.
There were a few other "vector graphic" coin-ops that "mesmerized" me at the time. One that I recall was a game, obviously "Star Wars" inspired, where a planetary "trench" scrolled beneath you as enemy ships swooped towards you (and you blasted them, of course). Remarkably, the enemy ships came at you in "3D," scaling the ships as they came toward you. The sound effects were appropriately "spacey" as they came toward you, and when you blasted them, they split up into several smoothly-animated pieces. It was very, very cool.
These coin-ops had to have come out circa 1979 or before, as I remember playing them before my family moved to Japan (in 1979).
Like I said, vector graphics seem primitive today, but back then, they were notable for their VERY smooth animation an high resolution. Apparently it was easy, in vector graphics, to scale and rotate objects smoothly in hi-res, and nothing in "raster" graphics would match it until a decade (decades?) later.
I don't mean to harp on the "old guy" perspective, but video games, particularly the "vector graphics" games, were absolutely, jaw-droppingly amazing in the 70's!!! Microwave ovens came out then, home "Pong" came out then, "Star Wars" came out then, etc. It was an amazing, "futuristic" time, and video games, if nothing else, seemed "futuristic!" I cannot explain the sense of "wow, I'm in the FUTURE!" feeling that I felt at seeing these (now primitive) videogames!!! There WERE no videogames before then; I was a FIRST GENERATION videogamer at just the right age!
I guess the closest analogy I can come up with is "Star Wars." When "Star Wars" first came out (before it was called "A New Hope"), I sat in the theater STUNNED at what I saw. Wow, how did they do that? Were those spaceships really flying through space? Especially, was R2-D2 real? I was especially mesmerized by R2-D2! How many more times can I sit through this movie before I figure this all out? (I think it was 18 viewings !!!) A 36--year-old woman my parents knew sat through over 60(!!!) viewings of "Star Wars!!!" Yet, a modern (year 2000+) kid I knew basically said "yeah, 'A New Hope' was cool, but too bad the FX sucked......"
In the same fashion, I sat STUNNED at the videogames like "Space War" (or whatever it was called) and other "vector graphic" games. "Wow, that's a COMPUTER behind this game!" I thought to myself. It was amazing! The 70's were an amazing time, knocking my socks off in many respects. I don't think you younger gamers can imagine the "wow" factor at seeing a "video game" for the first time! That's a COMPUTER in there! What is a computer, anyway? Wow, listen to those spacey sound FX! WOW, I blasted that ship into a bazillion pieces!
I suppose it's the equivalent of showing a caveman the secret of fire! WOW! HOW DID THEY DO THAT? AMAZING! There's a COMPUTER in there??!?!? WOW!
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
Spacewar
Good stuff, thanks. "Physics" is definitely a term thrown around in the book, so it's definitely something worth discussing there.
Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.