Lecture+2+Notes

= __Lecture 2 Notes__ = ===For the Fall 2010 Discussion Board, Click [|HERE] ===

Back

 * Tech Model Railroad Club – group of MIT students who like to “tinker” with things
 * Today would be called Nerds
 * MIT – group of students like tinkering – use terms like hack
 * 1959 – TMRC student stumbles upon computer
 * IBM 407 – huge machine, uses punch-cards
 * TX-0 – has a monitor – MIT one of 4 universities to have computers with monitors
 * TMRC prefers TX-0 (more efficient due to military design, and has monitor)
 * Digital Equipment (manufacturer of computers, etc.) - make Programmable Data Processor 1 (PDP-1)
 * Steve Russell – transferred from Dartmouth, joins TMRC
 * impresses TMRC by helping Professor implement LISP programming language
 * Decides to create computer game
 * 1961- 6 Months and 200 hours of programming, Spacewar! is born
 * Spacewar! – often considered to be the 1st computer game
 * As noted earlier, many others came first, but Spacewar! is most widely known - and likely the most "fun"
 * Note: the name of the game is "Spacewar!" spelled as one word, with an exclamation point - if spelled differently on a test, it will be counted incorrect, as there are later games with almost an exact name but different spelling (there is a later game named "Space Wars" for example)
 * Spacewar! - Duel between 2 ships – needle and wedge
 * Switches controlled rotation (clockwise and counter-clockwise), fired missiles, engaged thrusters
 * Motion obeyed laws of physics (objects in motion tend to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force)
 * Sun in the center with realistic gravity – pulled ships into it
 * Improvements by Russell and other TMRC members - added star-field into background, added Hyperspace “button” which made ships disappear and reappear randomly on screen
 * Final version in 1962 – big hit at MIT and other campuses
 * Neither Russell nor TMRC get money
 * Computers not commercial – PDP-1 alone cost $120,000 (figures vary – some say it cost as much as $8 million)
 * Digital Equipment, creators of PDP-1 use Spacewar! for diagnostics of their machine
 * PDP-1 customers get Spacewar! for free
 * Since Russell only wanted to prove a game could be made, he never copyrighted it
 * A number of companies MUCH later outright ripped off Russell with direct copies of the Spacewar! game
 * Ralph Baer - Another often-forgotten video-game creator
 * Jewish family in 1930's Germany, was kicked out of school when he was 14, came to America at 16, self educated
 * took correspondence course in radio and television servicing from National Radio Institute
 * joined American army to fight in WWII, continued to educate himself
 * after war went to the American Television Institute of Technology
 * Bachelors in television engineering
 * Made a reputation for himself in the industry
 * 1955 Hired to manage 200 person design department at Sanders Associates
 * Sanders Associates – Military Defense Contractor
 * At Sanders, Baer first thought of alternative use for TV's
 * Idea to play game on TV – imagined a $19.95 price tag for his intended home-videogame
 * So, being the head of a huge design team at a large technology corporate, Baer could take a few people to help him on a separate project.
 * Bill Harrison – lever to change color of square of screen
 * Bill Rusch – maze game
 * Dot catching game – later becomes ping pong
 * Sanders is a military defense contractor - can't release toys
 * Baer markets to cable companies – they pass
 * Baer markets to cable companies TV companies
 * Magnavox buys idea
 * Odyssey – overpriced at $100 – bad marketing (only showed game playing on Magnavox TV's)
 * A number of variations of the ping-pong theme, from tennis to hockey, with backgrounds and score areas changing
 * Also played other games, by swapping out "chips" that were not quite self-contained cartridges
 * Other games included maze games, ski/race games, roulette, etc.
 * Also educational games – number game, a game naming state capitals, and a "simon says" game, which was marketed to "help preschoolers associate parts of the body with the printed word"
 * "Rifle Pack" also released – 1st "light gun" for home use, though not very advanced
 * Gun could only sense light, without any precision – would register a "hit" even if pointed at a light bulb, rather than screen
 * Shooting gallery and other target games worked with the gun
 * Though Baer earns over $100,000 in royalties, the Odyssey does not sell well.
 * Initially sold decently well, for a new, unkown product – over 130,000 sold in 1972
 * Though Steve Russell and Ralph Baer were the among the first videogame creators, they represented opposites sides of the gaming industry
 * Russell making games for the sake of making them
 * Baer meticulously documented his ideas, and protected them legally
 * Such documentation and attention to detail would serve Baer in later legal battles

**__ Spacewar! __**
The Tech Model Railroad Club of MIT

Play a Version of Spacewar! Online

Download an Exact Emulation of the Original 1961 Spacewar! (Requires the M.E.S.S. Emulator)

**__ The Magnavox Odyssey - The First Home Video Game __**
Odyssey

Ralph Baer and Bill Harrison Playing and Explaining the Prototype for the Odyssey

TV Commercial for the Magnavox Odyssey

Pong Story - A site dedicated to Ralph Baer, and predominantly discussing the Magnavox Odyssey and the history of Atari's Pong (discussed in lecture notes 4)

Video on the History of Pong (with German subtitles) - begins with Ralph Baer and moves on to Al Alcorn and Pong (discussed in lecture notes 4)