Friday, 17 October 2008

The now and the futurific

The most recent history of video games focuses around the sixth generation and seventh generation of console. At the start of the millennium the Playstation 2 reigned supreme in the market, the Dreamcast was fading away, the GameCube was lacking mature games and the Xbox made it’s debut. There was also mutliple alternative controllers such as the dance mat for games such as Dance Dance Revolution, Maracas for Samba de Amigo and a Guitar for Guitar Heroes. Many people also turned to online massively multiplayer online role-playing game playing World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI.
In 2004 the seventh generation of consoles started as the Nintendo DS and the Playstation Portal were released. The major consoles then followed suite as the Xbox 360 came out along with the Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. All three consoles are all quite different when it comes to playing and due to this the battle to be number one console has become tougher. A trend that has started to appear these days is exclusive games being released on other consoles which has meant that similar games have been released on all three consoles.

When it comes to future gaming I tend to keep my mind open and look at anything that takes my interest. I’m hoping to play the next Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy games and a game that has caught my eye that is to be released next year is Bayonetta. But when it comes to things as future consoles I would love to be able to play games on a system much like the one shown in the games and anime series .hack where the player wears a virtual reality headset and uses a controller making them seem like they are actually in the game. Even more farfetched from that idea is to be transported into the game directly making game play seem even more real and tangible.

The middle bits and gap filling

In the early 1980s many of the first gaming computers were released, this included the Commodore 64, Apple II and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. The 80s was also the era where the arcade games reached the golden age. In 1983 there was a crash in the video game company, which brought the end of the second generation consoles.
After the crash the Nintendo Entertainment System(NES) was released with the game Super Mario Bros. and it instantly became a hit. Along with the Super Mario Bros. coming out in the 80s many well known games were also brought out for the NES including Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda and Metal Gear.
Right at the end of the 80s the Sega Mega Drive was released starting the fourth generation of consoles. Nintendo released the Super NES in response to Sega’s console. It was on the fourth generation consoles that the first basic three-dimensional graphics entered the mainstream and this was visible in such games as Virtua Racing and Star Fox.
The fifth generation consoles appeared in the 1990s including the Playstation and the Nintendo 64. It was cartridge Vs. CD-ROMs throughout the 90s and though cartridges were unique among the consoles it was the CD-ROM that won, and by the end of the era Sony had become the leader in the video game market.

Throughout my history of gaming, after Duck Hunt, the NES console was updated to the SNES. This was when I was introduced to the game Star Fox. Other games that I played on the SNES included Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter, Indiana Jones, Taz The Tasmanian Devil and the first game I ever completed which was Donkey Kong Country. While the SNES actually belonged to my brother I was brought a Gameboy in which I played Pokemon non-stop. I had a few other games for the Gameboy but they were hardly ever played.
It wasn’t long until my brother decided to buy a Playstation and I got introduced to the Tomb Raider series and the Final Fantasy series. Ever since playing the Playstation I have continued collect the Sony console allowing me to continue playing the Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider series.

Gaming, the early years and my rambling of games

Video games seem to have started within the 50s when technology was definitely not at its finest but that never seemed to have stopped mankind. It was OXO, a version of tic-tac-toe created by A.S. Douglas was the first game to come out but a few years later William Higinbotham brought out “Tennis for Two” which was created for entertainment purposes rather then scientific. In the 60s SpaceWars! and Chase came out and it was in the 70s when Pong was released. If it wasn’t for the people from the 50’s who created dots and lines on computer screens I doubt that games would be as advanced as they are now and I wouldn’t be playing the games I play now.

The first game I ever played was Duck Hunt for the Nintendo Entertainment System where the aim was to shoot pixelated ducks with a gun, which for me was exciting more because of the large orange gun that came with the game and the crazy dog that poked its head out of the grass . This is a contrast to the game I have most recently played which is Dragoneer’s Arias for the Playstation Portable, a role-playing game which resembles a game I feel kept me playing video games. Though Duck Hunt is important in my gaming life it was Final Fantasy VII that got me truly hooked on video games. I can remember so vividly the opening sequence: the music starting up, the screech of the train brakes, the dingy lighting and eventually the main title. It was this game with it’s crazy plotline that made me continue playing Playstation games.