Chapter 3 – Middle or Golden age
The games that I’ve talked about in my previous post, games like ‘OXO’ and ‘Tennis for Two’ were known as the early years of gaming when games were first invented or thought of as a source of entertainment. Games that are out and about now or coming out in the near future are referred to as ‘Next generation gaming’…so what about the games that were out between then and now that were referred to as the golden ages?
The golden ages sparked a whole new era of gaming. That was the time to make, develop and expand on games that would be remembered for years to come. Most games that are released today still use the basic principle of games developed in the late 70’s and early 80’s but obviously they’re much more advanced now due to technological resources.
The golden age started in the late 70’s with its popular release of ‘Space Invaders’ in 1978 made by Taito and the introduction of Pac-Man. This game made it so big that it inspired loads of manufacturers to enter this new market. One manufacturer was Atari which released a game called ‘Asteroids’ in the same year that also made it big. Atari was founded in 1972 by a man called Nolan Bushnell, Noaln worked with Ted Dabney for Nutting Associates and created an arcade version of Spacewar which manufactured 1,500 copies but Bushnell wasn’t receiving his fair share of the profits so decided to form his own company, good thing he did to because Atari is a console every one has played on at least 50 times.
In the same era just a little further on in time around 1982 consoles that were gods in their times were released. Consoles with titles such as Commodore 64, Apple II and the ZX Spectrum and of course the already mentioned Atari 800. All these consoles were known worldwide except maybe the ZX Spectrum which was only well known in the UK, to tell you the truth I didn’t even hear about it until I did some research on it. Over the time of 15 years Apple II had over a whopping 20,000 programs making it the 8-bit computer with the most software overall.
The golden era was half way through its time when it hadn’t even started yet. New games bought new ideas and creativity to the industry, they introduced new types of game play such as scrolling shooter (Defender 1980), vector graphics (Battlezone 1980), Pseudo-3D (Pole Position 1982), laserdisc and full motion video (Dragons Lair 1983).
After Commodore 64 came Commodore Amiga and with that came their rivals Atari ST. These consoles came out in 1985 and were the new era of 16-bit machines and for most users were far too expensive to purchase until later in the years but by the time it was cheap a new competitor was introduced, yay, they called them selves IBM PC’s. Now IBM offered the same package and service at lower costs than Atari and Commodore Amiga. IBM developed a VGA (Video Graphics Array) standard in 1987 that allowed their PC to potentially get a resolution of 720 by 400 pixels using 256-color graphics. This was a huge!!!! jump from the 8-bit games, used in home computers, but strangely enough still had to tag behind consoles like Amiga because of their lack in built –in sound and graphics hardware. Even more stranger that that was the odd trend between 1989-1991 that made it known as an inferior machine. Saying that Commodore Amiga and Atari ST were near the end of their times and their reign didn’t even last longer than that of the 8-bit consoles but will always be remembered as the hosts of many excellent games. Rest In Peace…
The golden ages sparked a whole new era of gaming. That was the time to make, develop and expand on games that would be remembered for years to come. Most games that are released today still use the basic principle of games developed in the late 70’s and early 80’s but obviously they’re much more advanced now due to technological resources.
The golden age started in the late 70’s with its popular release of ‘Space Invaders’ in 1978 made by Taito and the introduction of Pac-Man. This game made it so big that it inspired loads of manufacturers to enter this new market. One manufacturer was Atari which released a game called ‘Asteroids’ in the same year that also made it big. Atari was founded in 1972 by a man called Nolan Bushnell, Noaln worked with Ted Dabney for Nutting Associates and created an arcade version of Spacewar which manufactured 1,500 copies but Bushnell wasn’t receiving his fair share of the profits so decided to form his own company, good thing he did to because Atari is a console every one has played on at least 50 times.
In the same era just a little further on in time around 1982 consoles that were gods in their times were released. Consoles with titles such as Commodore 64, Apple II and the ZX Spectrum and of course the already mentioned Atari 800. All these consoles were known worldwide except maybe the ZX Spectrum which was only well known in the UK, to tell you the truth I didn’t even hear about it until I did some research on it. Over the time of 15 years Apple II had over a whopping 20,000 programs making it the 8-bit computer with the most software overall.
The golden era was half way through its time when it hadn’t even started yet. New games bought new ideas and creativity to the industry, they introduced new types of game play such as scrolling shooter (Defender 1980), vector graphics (Battlezone 1980), Pseudo-3D (Pole Position 1982), laserdisc and full motion video (Dragons Lair 1983).
After Commodore 64 came Commodore Amiga and with that came their rivals Atari ST. These consoles came out in 1985 and were the new era of 16-bit machines and for most users were far too expensive to purchase until later in the years but by the time it was cheap a new competitor was introduced, yay, they called them selves IBM PC’s. Now IBM offered the same package and service at lower costs than Atari and Commodore Amiga. IBM developed a VGA (Video Graphics Array) standard in 1987 that allowed their PC to potentially get a resolution of 720 by 400 pixels using 256-color graphics. This was a huge!!!! jump from the 8-bit games, used in home computers, but strangely enough still had to tag behind consoles like Amiga because of their lack in built –in sound and graphics hardware. Even more stranger that that was the odd trend between 1989-1991 that made it known as an inferior machine. Saying that Commodore Amiga and Atari ST were near the end of their times and their reign didn’t even last longer than that of the 8-bit consoles but will always be remembered as the hosts of many excellent games. Rest In Peace…
posted by Taz at Tuesday, November 21, 2006
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