Spring+2009+Lecture+1+Notes

= __Spring 2009 Lecture 1 Notes__ =

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 * Pinball – precursor to videogames – established games in the Amusement Industry, made people familiar with playing games at Arcades and Bars
 * Bagatelle - precursor to pinball - everything starts somewhere
 * Very popular game for a long time period (1600's through early 1900's) - existed in various shapes, sizes, styles
 * Offshoot of billiards (once again, everything starts somewhere)
 * Uses a cue (like billiards/pool) to shoot balls into pockets across the table, blocked by "pins"
 * Cue eventually replaced by "plunger" device - no records exist explaining why
 * Once cue is replaced, the first true "pinball" games come into existance
 * David Gottlieb – Baffle ball – early 30's
 * Tilting – used to control ball using "Body English"
 * Harry Williams – tilt mechanism – ball on pedestal, then pendulum - 1932
 * Electricity - “Contact” - scoring holes shoot back out balls - 1933
 * Legal troubles – gambling/organized crime
 * Fiorello LaGuardia – ban pinball in NYC – other cities followed suit
 * 1947 – Gottlieb employee Harry Mabs - flippers (6)
 * Steven Kordek – revised to 2 flippers
 * Skill added to pinball, Gottlieb tries to reverse bans
 * Many cities reverse ban, NYC keeps ban into the 70's
 * 60's – games becoming more complex
 * Chicago Coin Speedway
 * Around this time first videogame born
 * 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 1st computer game
 * First computer game may have technically been by Willy Higinbotham – scientist – "Tennis For Two" on oscilloscope
 * 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 later outright ripped off Russell
 * Ralph Baer - Another forgotten videogame creator
 * Jewish family in 1930's Germany, was kicked out of school when he was 14, came to America at 16, self educated
 * took correspondance 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
 * Though Baer earns over $100,000 in royalties, the Odyssey does not sell well.
 * Though Steve Russell and Ralph Baer were 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

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