Spring break, no class was held.
Spring break, no class was held.
In this class we looked at the emergence of home computer gaming, which was very closely tied to gaming:
We’ll talk more about this system after spring break, and cover some other home systems, too.
The third assignment was given, and is due on April 2, when you’re back from break:
Have a great break!
In this class we looked at the home videogame crash of 1983, and what happened leading up to this event. We also covered some additional topics from the same era (1978 - 1983)
Around the end of this time (1983), a series of factors led to a complete crash of the home market:
Because of these and many other reasons, the home market crashed, games and system were sold at clearance prices, and many companies left the market (Coleco, Mattel, Milton Bradley, and countless others).
Home computer gaming was alive and well during this time, and we’ll talk about that next…
No assignment was given.
Grades updated again - everything that has been turned in has been graded.
The grades page has been updated. Everything I’ve received for the 1st assignment is included. If anything is wrong, or you have any questions, please contact me.
To view grades, just click on the Grades tab at the top of the page.
In this class, we focused on more games from the arcades during the golden age. Games covered include: Ms Pac-Man, Radarscope, Donkey Kong (and DK Jr and DK3), Defender, Burgertime, Congo Bongo, Moon Patrol, Robotron, Zaxxon, Track & Field, Scramble (and Strafe Bomb), Tapper, and more.
We could spend the entire semester on games from this time, it’s a shame we don’t have time to cover more of them.
This class was an examination of the early programmable home game systems - systems that stored games on removable cartridges.
These systems include:
The system that would last was the Atari VCS, which would later be known as the Atari 2600 (the name was changed when later Atari systems were released). We looked at the reasons the VCS took off, and we obviously examined and played many games.
The second assignment was given: Play and review two Atari VCS games:
This assignment is due at the beginning of class next week, and must be submitted electronically via email before class, or turned in to me at the start of class.
Please contact me if you have any questions.
This class was focused on the beginning of The Golden Age, a period starting with Space Invaders arcade, and lasting through the early to mid-80s.
We examined Space Invaders, created by Taito, published by Midway in the U.S. This game was the first true global hit, and it propelled gaming forward in many ways.
We then looked at many other games that would follow, in the late 70s to early 80s, and saw a progression of technology and gameplay, up to and including Pac-Man, the first big character-based game.
The first assignment was given: Design your own arcade game from The Golden Age:
This assignment is due at the beginning of class next week, and must be submitted electronically via email before class, or turned in to me at the start of class.
Please contact me if you have any questions.
This class was focused on the mid 70’s arcade and home markets.
We looked at several 70’s arcade games, including:
We then looked at the home market:
At this point, we’ve got the arcade market maturing a bit, and many single-game consoles in the home market.
No assignment was given.
This class was taught by Dan Higgs, a grad of MCAD.
This class was a viewing of the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, a film that documents the competitive side of classic gaming, and illustrates the surprising depth of many early, classic games.
No assignment was given.