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Nick
Sherriff
Abstract
In
Chapter 1 I review the literature on the history of videos games
attempting to set out its’ size, importance and make-up within
society. Chapter 2 encompasses a further literature review of pleasure
and attempt a scheme to chart the possible options. Chapter 3 offers
some pilot research and Chapter 4 summarises the findings. In Chapter 5
the conclusions and recommendations are discussed.
Chapter
1
The
Instigators
Arguably
physicist Willy Higinbotham at Brookhaven National Laboratories invented
the very first video game in 1958. (Donald. 2000)
( see references) Arguably because others (See J,C, Herz
‘Joystick Nation’ and Le
Diberder and Le Diberder ‘L’Univers
des Jeux Video’) would have us believe it was actually some
four years later and with Steve Russell. However, Higinbotham who had
worked on the notorious Manhatten Project (The Atomic Bomb) had produced
a table tennis type of game played on an oscilloscope for the purpose of
entertaining the visiting public at his workplace. At this point it is
worth noting the military links, a presence that, remains throughout the
video game’s development. A year later he improved on the initial idea
and moved the game on to a 14” monitor however believing he had not
actually invented anything novel he failed to patent it. (Herman,
Horwitz and Kent. 1998.) Perhaps a rather fortunate error when one
considers that any patent of ‘oscilloscope tennis’ would have
belonged to the US government, a thought that one doesn’t wish to
speculate upon.
Ralph
Bear on the other hand has been called the ‘Thomas Edison’ of video
games and it was under his supervision that he and some 500 technicians
built the first video games console in 1966. (Hart. 1997.) Bear had been
working for Sanderson Associates who were a consultancy firm for the US
military when military strategists approached Sanderson’s with a
proposal for a secret project. Here the military is more directly
involved but not with actual games although it may sound game-like by
modern standards. Sanderson Associates were asked to develop
computerised simulations for the battlefield soldier in order to improve
the soldier’s strategy and reflex skills of which Bear was tasked with
building the best TV set ever. The first attempt showed two dots chase
across a black screen and within a year the team had developed a working
ball and paddle game. (Referring to the joystick or controller.)
By the end of 1966 this moderately sophisticated video game (a
sort of tennis or hockey) was in console form and ready to show to the
Pentagon. (Hart. 1997) Although it is alleged that the Pentagon was not
impressed they did see enough to warrant further research.
Therefore video games could be seen as rather an ironic spin-off
in a similar way to that of the Sony Walkman some years later. (See
DuGay for the complete story.) It was alleged that at this particular
meeting Baer first expressed his entrepreneurial leisure skills and
rather opportunistic theory that this sort of device could be a
profitable form of entertainment, however this was of little interest to
the military at this time.
Baer
later recalled,
“The
question of how to make use of home TV sets, other than watching
over-the-air programmes, had been bothering me since the early sixties.
There were well over 100million TV sets in the US alone by 1965.
The idea of attaching some device to even a small fraction of that many
TV sets was a pretty powerful incentive for coming up with something,
anything, on which people might actually want to spend their money.
(Cited
in Haddon. 1988.)
For
the next several years Baer would covertly try to obtain the rights to
commercially reproduce the game machine but it was not until 1968 that
Baer was actually able to patent his interactive TV idea. Baer must have
realised the potential hence the covertness of his actions. For many
such as Harvey (1990) this is the influence of post-fordism, ‘As mass
production becomes less profitable [post-fordism] flexible accumulation
has led to capitalism exploiting smaller markets with more tastes thus
encouraging greater diversity’. As such the original use of computers
and televisions is extended to include video games increasing the market
place and in turn facilitating diversification.
In
1970 Magnavox obtained the licence from Sanderson Associates and in 1972
began the manufacture of the first commercial video game console named
the Odyssey. The Odyssey by modern standards looked more like a
compendium of games with over three hundred separate parts including
overlays rather than background graphics, dice and playing cards.
Despite such complexities the Odyssey achieved moderately good sales of
over 100,000 units at $100. (Hart. 1997) Although, it must be noted that
this was the only system commercially available at this time, therefore
Magnavox had a monopoly on the market, which could suggest that sales
may have also had a novelty value, thus further detracting from the
Odyssey’s perceived success.
Up
until this point very few individuals had ever played a computer game
like Steve Russell’s ‘Spacewar’ and even if they had it was only
feasible on $40000 machines, which at the time took up the space of a
small room. (Herman, Horwitz and Kent. 1998.)
Russell and friends had developed ‘Spacewar’ as students at
MIT in the early 1960’s using the new computer PDP-1. The game had
obvious cold war connotations and melodrama with two spaceships firing
torpedo like lasers across a stellar backdrop. At this time President
Kennedy’s promise of getting to the moon was still fresh in the minds
of the public and the game seemed to capture the imagination of all who
played it. However after a
brief attempt to sell the game Russell concluded that nobody would buy
it and releases the source code to all who wanted it, more desperation
than altruism. During the games circulation of the computer labs across
the US that Nolan Bushnell was to see it, a name soon to become
synonymous with the video gaming world. In 1962 Bushnell first saw the
game Spacewar and would spend the next seven years trying to improve on
the size and cost of the machines. Again like Bear, Bushnell does appear
to be somewhat of an early leisure entrepreneur and was eventually
successful in his task. At this time the video game had not reached the
masses, the world at large was unaware of a plethora of pleasures that
await them. As Poole suggests, ‘It [video gaming] was a closed
community, a priesthood without a parish’. (2000.).
In
1971 Bushnell’s new and improved ‘Spacewar,’ called ‘Computer
Space’ was launched and although it was the first arcade video game
unlike the Odyssey it failed to catch on. (Haddon. 1988.) In a later
interview he suggested,
"You
had to read the instructions before you could play, people didn't want
to read instructions. To be successful, I had to come up with a game
people already knew how to play; something so simple that any drunk in
any bar could play."
(Bushnell,
N cited in Hart. 1997.)
It
is interesting to note that Bushnell was sent by his parent company
Nutting Manufactures to the Burlington Game Convention in order to look
at Baer’s Odyssey but after playing it he reported back that it was
uninteresting and not valid competition for Computer Space, probably
because the two markets where somewhat different. At this time there was
no such thing as Haddon’s cross licensing (1988:67) notion of
competing for the same entertainment dollar. Understanding that games
needed to be less complicated Bushnell left Nutting and started the now
infamous Atari Company. Bushnell hired Al Alcorn but due to Alcorn’s
programming inexperience had him programme a simple video tennis game as
a kind of assessment. (Herman, Horwitz and Kent. 1998.) They later tried
to sell this proto-game to established arcade manufacturers Bally but
after their disinterest the pair decide to go it alone in a typical
entrepreneurial garage industry style. The game Alcorn programmed was
‘Pong’ and was an immediate success and it ironically broke down in
the first week because the coin drop was full; such was the interest at
the time. (Donald. 2000.) Bushnell’s earlier complexity problems had
been overcome and simplicity had been achieved, Pong’s one line
instruction read ‘avoid missing ball for high score.’
Magnavox
however, saw the striking resemblance of ‘Pong’ to their Odyssey
tennis and sued Atari. The case was eventually settled out of court once
the guest book from the Burlington Game Convention showed Bushnell’s
name, suggesting that he had stolen the idea of Pong from Magnavox at
the convention. Atari
agreed to pay a license fee to Magnavox and went into production of
‘Pong’, which became an arcade phenomenon. Such was the obvious
success of the video game at this time that by the end of 1973 over
twenty five different companies including Nutting are creating similar
consoles all of which were cutting into Atari’s profits (Herman,
Horwitz and Kent. 1998.) although Atari’s sales were still $3.2
million (Donald. 2000.) but at the end of 1975 those sales soared to an
incredible $40 million. In 1977 Bushnell sold Atari to Warner
Communications for $28 million although he retained a seat on the board
but by 1978 he left Atari completely although not before signing a
lucrative five-year deal not to compete with the company he had started
back in 1972. It is an assumption to think that the video games were a
garage industry as the evidence shows they soon became the property of
corporate business, a trait that remains to this day.
The
Golden Age of Gaming
The
period from 1978-1981 is nostalgically known for many as the ‘Golden
Age’ for video games. During this time new companies such as Nintendo,
Midway, Milton Bradley, Mattel, Sega, Intellivision, Imagic and the
infamous Activision appeared to give Atari what they might have
considered as, real competition.
Disgruntled employees of Atari left during this time because of a
dispute over accreditation for their work – there is no room for
individualism within the corporate image. The disgruntled workers formed
their own third party developer, Activision, which recognised game
developers and put their names on the packaging and marketing.
Later more Atari workers along with Intellivision staff left to
start Imagic but promised to release games for both Atari and
Intellivision. (Herman, Horwitz and Kent. 1998.)
Keyboards
also started to appear during these years with the Atari 400 – 800,
Magnavox Odyssey 2 and both Mattel and Milton Bradley many of which
offered future upgrades to become personal computer like. However, the
public associated many of the companies with games and few were ever
taken seriously. (Herman, Horwitz and Kent. 1998.) This is a rather
interesting point that was to set a precedent for future years. The
video game would have to wait until the turn of the century to be openly
accepted by society as an entertainment media for all ages.
Vectored
graphics (line drawn) appeared for the first time in the shape of
Cinematronics Space Wars similar to Bushnell’s earlier Computer Space.
Other games to utilise vectored graphics include the cult status game
Tempest (colour vectored graphics), Battlezone the tank simulator that
was the first 3D, first person perspective game; later to be
commissioned for the US Army but in an enhanced version; and Atari’s
best selling title of all time, Asteroids. (Hart.1997.) Note the
persistence of military involvement and space themes a trait that seemed
to dominate the early video game.
Fiske
suggests video game arcades had a bad reputation and influence upon the
youth of society hence the initial acceptance of the video game home
market. Presumably the adults could keep an eye on the youngsters and
regulate their behaviour. However as the video game industry grew so did
the arcade and many games were cross-licensed. Midway imported Taito’s
Space Invaders, which broke all known sales, records in 1978 and whose
popularity saw coin shortages and truancy both in Japan and the US
respectively supporting Fiske’s and others ‘moral entrepreneurial’
stance. Space invaders was also reproduced for the home market on the
Atari VCS (later known as the Atari 2600) as well as the arcade, during
this years Atari sales reached $238.1 million. (Donald. 2000.) As such
players could be introduced to a particular game at home and continue
their interest more socially at the arcade. Thus the perceived
negativity of video games rather than being regulated in the home was
further facilitated by cross-licensing.
Williams
the pinball manufacturer released it’s now famous Defender, a
horizontal scrolling game with only part of the action displayed
therefore the use of a radar at the top of the screen was required to
show the whole picture. However the ‘golden age’ will probably be
remembered for the release of Namco’s Pac Man which is the most
popular arcade game of all time, selling over 300,000 units worldwide.
Pac Man was the first game allegedly to appeal to both males and
females. (Herman, Horwitz and Kent. 1998.) As to why needs
clarification, the yellow pizza like character is genderless and slides
across the screen constantly searching for and consuming smaller dots
whilst negotiating a maze and avoiding the characters (ghosts) that
police the maze. The game
is the ‘personification of eating’ celebrating our genderless
relationship with food thus the similar appeal to both sexes. However I
would argue that another perception is available, the name Pac-Man is
somewhat masculine and whilst eating is genderless the gathering of food
has been predominantly the remit of the male. Look deeper at the
semiotics and a Marxist scenario of late-capitalism is witnessed with
Pac-Man constantly searching for things to consume whilst at the same
time avoiding those who wish to slowdown, alter or stop such
consumption. He is a pure consumer wanting only to feel whole, something
he can never attain. (See Poole. 2000:189-193) As to whether players
actually understand or see such semiology is unclear but both sexes saw
or experienced something that they found pleasurable.
At
the end of this period the US arcade market had at the time their
highest revenues of $5 billion. (Herman, Horwitz and Kent. 1998.) At
this point the video game industry might have seemed fruitful but
lurking around the corner was the near extinction of the industry, The
Great Crash. (Herman, Horwitz and Kent. 1998.)
The
Dark Ages.
The
great crash or the ‘dark ages’ as Hart calls it followed the best
ever figures for the video gaming industry. At its peak the video game
industry grossed upwards of $3 billion in America alone with Atari’s
sales grossing $2 billion encompassing two thirds of the market (Donald.
2000.) but at the end of 1985 total worldwide sales only reached $100
million.
Various
theories have been offered but the most plausible does seem to be the
failure of the industry; namely Atari; to keep pace with technology. (to
convert its data storage device to the then new magnetic disk drive.)
However it is important to understand that the arcades did change. This
change increased the storage capacity from 4-16 kilobytes to 180
kilobytes per side a vast difference in the amount of information that
could be used for gamming. In a 1982 Atari press release they suggested,
‘ [Magnetic] media is entirely to fragile for the consumer to
adequately handle.’ (Hart.1997) Due to Atari’s domination of the
industry there was little resistance to their decision and those that
did for instance Coleco did not last for long. Up until this point there
had been little difference between the qualities of the arcade machines
to that of the home console, however with the inception of new magnetic
devices the gap became a gulf. This is clearly demonstrated with the
1982 release of Atari’s Pac Man clone on the VCS that did not actually
resemble the arcade original and Cinematronic’s first arcade laser
disc game Dragons Lair that, was too advanced for home consoles. Such
failures for Hart were some of the many causes for increasing public
disenchantment towards Atari, their games stopped breaking new ground,
perhaps even becoming a Bricolage but lacking eclecticism. The industry
as a whole could be considered as suffering from a kind of ‘commercial
intertextuality’, every thing looked similar and as soon as an
original appeared so did various clones. It is accepted however that
this is no different from today’s’ industry but due to its size such
intertextualities are lost in a sea of variety. However in 1982 the
industry was not so big or diverse as such on 7th December 1982 Atari
announced that VCS sales had not met their predictions and Warner
Communications stock dropped 32% in a single day. (Herman, Horwitz and
Kent. 1998.) This could be seen as the beginning of the end for Atari
and by the end of 1984, faced with rising loses, Warner Communications
sold off Atari Incorporated but kept the arcade division. By 1985 Atari
sales had fallen to only $141 million. The new Atari owner Tramiel
announced that the company has no plans to sell video games consoles.
The
Techno Age.
The
re-launch of the VG industry was reborn during the mid 80’s and it has
been suggested that this was due in part to the advance in technologies.
New cheaper technology made hardware less expensive and therefore more
viable as a marketable and profitable business. The reduction in cost of
the microprocessor and Dynamic RAM (DRAM) further allowed for greater
memory capacity and a better transfer rate than conventional magnetic
disks. Arguably the most obvious tag associated with game consoles is
the bit-processor, which at the re-launch was an 8-bit processor. All
these had the effect of lowering the prices of previous machines and
therefore increasing the financial accessibility for the consumer.
However despite the availability of new technology many established VG
companies tested the re-launch waters with old rehashed machines and
games more akin to Eco’s ‘camp recycling’ or ‘simple
revivalism’ (1984:71) like the clone or the sequel for instance. Thus
a sustainable re-launch of the VG industry was to come from new
companies with fresh ideas.
Then
came Sega with the launch of its Master System (8 bit) that achieved
very good sales but in the short term only. Launching its Famicon (short
for family computer) in Japan, Nintendo had no intention of an oversees
product, however renaming itself the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
the NES (8 bit) was released six months after the Master System, and the
battle commenced. Over the next ten years these two giants of the VG
industry did battle brining out more machines and better games to keep
up with technology and some might say the publics appetite. Perhaps a
little of both when one examines the (As discussed in ‘The Dark
Ages’ P: 12) downfall and some might say the ineptitude of Atari and
it’s earlier failure to keep up with technology. After the 8 bit era
came the ’16 bit’ with Sega’s Genesis and Nintendo’s Super NES
following this was the imaginatively titled ’32 bit’ machines
however because technology is moving so fast it does seem that this era
was paid lip service to, at least for the two main players, although
Sega did release the 32X but it was an add-on to an existing system
allowing it to play new 32 bit cartridges.
Whilst this battle was raging there were other bit part players
such as NEC (TurboGrafx), Commodore Dynamic Total Vision (CDTV), SNK
(Neo-Geo), JVC (Wondermega) and even a change of heart from Atari who
jumped straight in with a 64-bit console (actually 2 x 32 bit
processors) named the Jaguar. (Herman, Horwitz and Kent. 1998.) The two
horse race became three in 1995 when Sony entered the arena with the
Playstation; the release coupled with a good collection of titles was
praised by the media and consumers. Oddly the Playstation was designed
to be an optional peripheral for the NES but Nintendo dropped the
project leaving Sony high and dry (a move that would cost them dearly in
the future). Consequently Sony decided not to waste their technology and
proceeded to launch their own console, the Playstation. Sega also
unveiled a new console; the Sega Saturn; but sales were poor and third
party developers were caught off guard by an earlier than expected
release date. Later in the same year Nintendo released the long awaited
N64, which almost caused riots in Japan but sales almost came to a
complete stop due to the lack of software. However rumours were
alleviated for the US launch and third party developers embraced the new
console. At this point it is worth noting the importance of the software
developers (people who make the games) who often are the difference
between success and failure. The game writers and developers can carry a
poor system but a good system with poor games cannot. Perhaps this was
one of the reasons for the most successful next generation console at
this time, the Playstation whose sales topped $12 million per day
through the Christmas period 1996. (Donald. 2000.) At the beginning of
the next year Sony suggested it had installed a base of 3.2 million
units within the US alone and Nintendo counter claimed that it could
have sold 2.5 million units had it been able to manufacture that many.
This is nothing compared to the figures later released by Sony who
suggest that 5 million units were sold in Japan, 4 million in the US and
2.2 million in Europe but within the next four months the figure doubled
as the 20 millionth unit is sold. (Herman,
Horwitz and Kent. 1998.)
It
was not until 1999 that a genuinely new era for the console was to
appear. Sega released the Dreamcast complete with unique internet access
for online gaming, Sega also released the Dreamcast for the arcades
allowing for easier conversion of arcade titles and it also used
Microsoft’s operating system; Windows CE; again allowing for easier
conversion to and from the PC. All of which was to maximise sales via
cross licensing. Microsoft joined the affray with news of their console
named the X-Box also using the same Windows CE operating system. The new
Playstation 2 was released in 2000 whilst not with internet access it
had the capabilities for upgrades such as a computer like hard drive and
an internet connection. The reason for this was the rudimentary nature
of existing technology and Sony felt it better to wait until certain
technologies had been proven. Early in 2001 Sega announces the
termination of its console based operations in favour of software
development (games) and promised to write for both Sony and Nintendo.
As
the industry crosses the threshold into the 21st century it
is prudent to note that statistical information is now available to
dispel certain myths surrounding video game culture. According to the
Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) more than $250 million
computer and video games were sold in the US during 1999 and sales
topped $6.1 billion for the same year. In a more recent press release
the IDSA suggested that they expect US sales to grow 20% between 2000
– 2004 increasing video game software sales to more than 10 billion.
(IDSA. 13 November 2000.) In its 1999 report The State of the Industry
the fastest growing entertainment industry in the world is the computer
and video game industry with a 25% increase in 1998 followed by films
(9.2%), books (6.4%) and records (5.7%). In the same report it suggests
that statistical evidence shows video games, as a Childs’ medium is no
longer true with 69% of PC game and 54% of video game players being over
18 years of age. (Peter, D. Hart Associates for the IDSA. 2000.) In fact
the IDSA go further and suggest that of the most frequent players only
42% are under 18 yrs, 37% are between the ages of 18 and 35 leaving 21%
who are over the age of 35 yrs. What is more remarkable is that of these
21%, 13% are over the age of 50.
Having
established that video games are not a passing fad and that there
popularity is unquestionable across the ages, what exactly is the
appeal, what are the pleasures of these video games?
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