Spring+2009+Lecture+9+Notes

= __Spring 2009 Lecture 9 Notes__ =


 


 * Toru Iwatani – joined Namco after graduating college in 1977
 * Wanted to make pinball games – Namco only made video-games
 * Iwatani made video-pinball games as a compromise
 * Gee Bee, Bomb Bee, Cutie Q – Iwatani's video pinball games
 * Gee Bee – Namco's only video-game in 1978
 * Bomb Bee and Cutie Q – 1979 – only a few games released by Namco this year
 * None of Iwatani's video pinball games saw wide release
 * April 1979 – Iwatani decided to break away from Pinball themes
 * Wanted new game to be non-violent – wanted to appeal to female as well as male players
 * Game based on “Taberu” - Japanese word “To eat”
 * Idea for main character came from pizza – circle with wedge cut out – Pac-Man
 * Enemies to be “cute” to appeal to female players – colorful “ghosts”
 * Iwatani got 9-person team, developed game
 * Game in a maze – players control Pac-Man - eats 240 dots in maze – chased by ghosts
 * Showed game around Namco – response not very positive
 * 4 games from Namco in 1980 – Pac-Man, Rally X, King and Balloon, and Tank Battalion
 * Rally-X seen as most promising – game also in maze, player control car to collect flags
 * Pac-Man was to be released in America – one minor change
 * Initially called “Puck-Man” – “Puck” reflected character's circular shape
 * Nakamura afraid American vandals would change “P” to “F”
 * Pac-Man shown at October MOA – Rally-X got much more attention
 * Once Pac-Man released, it greatly overshadowed Rally-X
 * Pac-Man sold over 100,000 units in US after its release – very popular
 * Pac-Man character showed up in unlikely places – Time Magazine, hit song, cartoon
 * Arcades bought entire rows of Pac-Man machines – video-game industry changed
 * Prior to Pac-Man, Space games most popular – after, Maze-Chase games most popular
 * Flood of maze-based games – Mappy, Pengo, Piranha, Targ, Eyes
 * Space Invaders revitalized arcade industry, Pac-Man made it incredibly profitable
 * Unlikely locations bought video-arcade machines – Hotels, Grocery Stores, Dr. Offices
 * MOA changes name to AMOA to reflect importance of video-games to the business
 * Pac-Man highest-grossing arcade video-game ever – Iwatani received little recognition
 * Rumor he left business after only getting $3500 bonus – not entirely true
 * Nakamura says Iwatani got less than $3500 bonus, but did not leave business
 * Iwatani's next game was Libble Rabble – did not do well in Japan, never made it to US
 * As sign of respect for Pac-Man, Nakamura promoted Iwatani to management
 * Iwatani became General Manager of Research and Development at Namco
 * 1980 – Williams re-enter video-game business
 * Williams pinball company – released 1st video-game in 1973
 * Paddle Ball – Pong Clone – no Williams video-games ever since
 * 1980 – Eugene Jarvis hired at Williams
 * Jarvis former Atari employee – built wide-format pinball machines
 * Left Atari after Bushnell, knowing pinball division would be closed
 * Former Atari employee Steve Ritchie asked Jarvis to come to Williams
 * Together they designed number of Williams pinball machines
 * Gorgar – pinball machine - 1st Electronic Game to use synthesized voice
 * Williams asked Jarvis to design video-game
 * Jarvis self-proclaimed fan of violence – though felt violence needed to be justified
 * Decided that if player was defending something, could be as violent as they wanted
 * Called game “Defender” – decided to set it in space
 * Space still most popular genre – this is still before Pac-Man took hold
 * Originally tried making Space Invaders-like game – didn't like outcome
 * Turned towards Asteroids – liked control which let player go anywhere on screen
 * Decided that he didn't like being confined to single screen
 * Made game-world larger than screen – scrolling – originally only forwards
 * Friend said it would be a bad game if player couldn't go backwards
 * Jarvis had programmer re-do game so player could go backwards and forwards
 * Defender NOT first game to use scrolling screen - Many games, including Rally-X (also 1980) already used scrolling
 * Atari Super Bug, in 1977, was the first game to use a scrolling playfield
 * Game incredibly behind schedule – had ship, controls, world – no enemies or allies
 * Spent weeks creating tiny astronauts walking on planet surface – Boss got angry
 * Jarvis didn't like being rushed, wanted to quit
 * Once sounds and explosions added in, he started having fun again
 * Game not completed in time – Jarvis put final-touches on game at MOA show floor
 * Same MOA convention Pac-Man shown at – Defender also did not gain attention
 * Post-show, Defender proved show opinions wrong
 * Sold over 55,000 games – brought in over $700 a week at good locations
 * Defender attracted players – game engine allowed 16 colors on every screen pixel
 * One of the most difficult arcade games ever – new players only lasted a few seconds
 * Players shot at aliens trying to steal 10 astronauts in stasis on planet below
 * If alien took an astronaut and reached the top of the screen, it turned into a fast-moving, more dangerous "Mutant"
 * Players could shoot creature and retrieve astronaut
 * If all 10 taken, planet explodes – players go into hyperspace being chased by aliens
 * High-scores in Defender earned a gamer lots of respect
 * Players devised different strategies to play game
 * Some let aliens take astronauts to shoot them and catch falling astronauts on ship's back
 * Some let all astronauts be taken so they could earn more points in hyperspace
 * Defender put Williams on the map – sparked long design career for Jarvis
 * Also 1980 – Atari returns to tank themes
 * Battlezone – group effort, most credit goes to Ed Rotberg – game programmer
 * Battlezone – 1st-person tank game – 3D terrain – used Howard Delman's Vector generator
 * Used periscope-like viewer – NOT 1st for a video-game
 * Midway's 1976 game Sea Wolf 1st VIDEO-game to use periscope
 * Sea Wolf created by Dave Nutting – man who redesigned game-play for Gunfight
 * Sea Wolf players looked through rotating viewer to see screen behind
 * Used viewer to aim and shoot torpedoes at boats on screen
 * Sea Wolf not first game ever to use periscope
 * 1966 – Sega – then Japan's largest arcade-game maker – game called Periscope
 * Periscope also used a periscope viewer to aim torpedoes
 * No screen – plastic waves and lights simulated sinking ships shot by player's submarine
 * Though 1980 Battlezone not 1st game to use periscope viewing device – added new ideas
 * Screen attached to periscope viewer – players had to press faces to viewer to see game
 * Rotberg never liked isolated viewer
 * Felt it would hurt game's ability to take in money – others couldn't see game while played
 * Also, previous periscope-viewers were movable – Battlezone's was stationary
 * Increased feeling of isolation in a tank – players always faced-forward, tank moved
 * Battlezone used 2 joysticks for controlling movement of tank
 * Enemies included other tanks, anti-tank missiles, and occasional flying saucers
 * 3D terrain seemed to stretch a long way – horizon in distance with active volcano
 * Blocks and pyramids – added sense of depth – also gave players place to go for cover
 * Game realistic enough to attract attention outside of video-game industry
 * Shortly after game's release, Atari approached by group of retired Army generals
 * Wanted to use version of game to train military soldiers
 * Atari needed to make significant changes to game quickly to meet military deadline
 * Turned to Rotberg who was totally against idea
 * Rotberg wanted to make games, not train people to kill – vehemently protested
 * Still, felt connection to game – didn't want anyone else to alter it
 * Eventually agreed on condition that Atari never dealt with the military again
 * Military Battlezone – number of changes
 * New weaponry added – realistically re-created with real-world ballistics per weapon
 * Projectiles affected by accurate gravity
 * Tank turret independent from movement of tank
 * Targets changed to be recognizable by soldiers
 * Both real-designed enemy vehicles and friendly vehicles added in
 * Rotberg spent 3 months virtually non-stop making Military Battlezone
 * Not much reliable information in public on fate of Military Battlezone
 * Have read that only 2 were ever made – seems as if it was not used for training
 * Rotberg resented Military Battlezone – completely non-real-world game for next project
 * Dragon Riders – game based on fantasy novels by Ann McCaffery
 * If it had been completed, would have been 1st game based on novels
 * Atari never licensed McCaffery's books – game never made it out of production phase
 * Rotberg's last game at Atari was called Warp Speed
 * Warp Speed fast-paced space-flight simulator – used vector graphics
 * Rotberg left Atari before game completed
 * Those who completed it used joystick controls from Military Battlezone
 * Game had players attacking heavily-armed space-fortress
 * Obvious similarities to the 1977 George Lucas film Star Wars
 * Not surprising that Atari made a licensing deal with Lucas to use film properties in game
 * Enemies and events changed to match the battle over the Death Star
 * Voices from movie added in
 * Name of game changed from Warp Speed to Star Wars on final release


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