# What computer games are The electronic gaming industry is *huge*. It's been pulling in more money than movies for some time now, and as technological implementations like ever-increasing [processing power](computers-cpu.md) and [VR](computers-vr.md) become more affordable, it's only a matter of time before games become the primary medium of electronic entertainment. Once technology opens up AR (augmented reality) interfaces, game design directly corresponds to real-world implementations. Further, the technology that feeds into games (e.g., [graphics](engineering-graphics.md) software) often feeds into other more practical outputs, such as [3D printing](engineering-printers.md) and [general-purpose AI](computers-ai.md). ## History The first electronic game was created in 1958 as a demo by a physicist named William Higinbotham called Tennis for Two. However, electronic games never reached *commercial* popularity until 1972 when Atari developed Pong. At the time, it was built with electrical engineering from the ground up, and didn't use any PCBs (printed circuit boards). While it wasn't distributed commercially for a few years, *technically* the first computer game was a text-based experience called the Oregon Trail in 1971, though it wasn't distributed commercially until 1975. For a long while, until the 1990s, there was a distinct divide between the domain of video games and computer games: - Video games were more interactive and had a lightweight learning curve (e.g., Combat, Space Invaders, Adventure). - Computer games were more challenging to master and required more reading (e.g., Zork). The 1970s represented some pioneering ideas in gaming, mostly dominated by Atari. However, processor limitations left the UX somewhat lacking, and the most timeless experiences from that era came through [vector graphics](engineering-graphics.md) (e.g., Missile Command, Asteroids, Battlezone). In the early 1980's, the graphics *heavily* improved, meaning that the visual elements started looking a bit more like what they were supposed to represent: - Vector graphics was phasing out, but a few games carried the idea farther in arcades (e.g., Tempest, Star Wars). - Many legendary games arose during this time: Pac-Man, Centipede, Defender, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Galaga, Joust, Ms. Pac-Man, Pitfall!, Robotron: 2084, and Lode Runner. - Text-based games on personal computers were in the background of the industry (e.g., Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord). - *Some* PC games started exploring more strategic games with improvements in graphics (e.g., Archon: The Light and the Dark, M.U.L.E.). Starting in the early 1980s, the game console companies had experienced an economic boom based on licensing. The console manufacturers had designed their games platform, but there were a *lot* of games available, and most of them were poorly-designed. Christmas of 1982 saw two *terribly* designed games released to the Atari home version: a badly tested port of Pac-Man, and an almost-unplayable movie cash-in for the E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial. This led to a general distaste for video games for years. Other titles, however, arose in the midst of the industry collapse: - Arcade games were still popular (e.g., Marble Madness, Gauntlet, Ghosts 'n Goblins). - PC games still had a market throughout the 1980s (e.g., Elite, Tetris, Ultima IV). It wasn't long until the Japanese companies Sega and Nintendo were able to fill the void from Atari. Starting in 1985, some of the best games were made for Nintendo and Sega consoles (e.g., Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda). The late-1980's started seeing the maturity of multiple technologies, along with improved graphics, and games became more associated with genres than the platforms that ran them: - By design, arcade games had better computers in them with more peripherals, so they still stood out in quality (e.g., Arkanoid, Bubble Bobble, Out Run, Contra, Double Dragon, R-Type, Final Fight). - Many of the easily-accessible games were still typically on consoles (e.g., Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Mega Man 2, Ninja Gaiden, Super Mario Bros. 3, Prince of Persia). - Strategy and role-playing games started becoming the specialty of the PC (e.g., Dungeon Master, Sid Meier's Pirates!, Populous, SimCity). The most dramatic development for games, though, came in the early 1990s, where the graphics and computer processing requirements had improved well-enough to effectively imitate *anything*: - 2D platforming games, in particular, had reached the pinnacle of possible UX (e.g., Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Castlevania IV, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Donkey Kong Country, Super Metroid). - For a while, there was a unique platforming genre called Run 'n Gun (e.g., Contra III: The Alien Wars, Gunstar Heroes, Mega Man X) - The extra storytelling capacity created the Action-Adventure genre (e.g., Another World, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Flashback, Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening) - The processing power was high enough to produce *many* genres and domains: - Adventure (e.g., The Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road) - Simulation (e.g., Wing Commander, SimCity 2000, Theme Park) - Strategy (e.g., Civilization, X-COM: UFO Defense) - The graphics became fast enough to develop the Real-Time Strategy genre (e.g., Dune II, Star Control II, Syndicate, Command & Conquer) - Role-Playing (e.g., Final Fantasy IV, Ultima VII, Phantasy Star IV, Secret of Mana, EarthBound, Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger) - Sports (e.g., Speedball 2, Sensible Soccer, NBA Jam, Sensible World of Soccer) - Racing (e.g., Micro Machines, Virtua Racing) - Fighting (e.g., Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Samurai Shodown) - A unique spinoff of fighting called Beat-Em-Up (e.g., Streets of Rage 2) - Other strange genre permutations, such as puzzle and artillery (e.g., Lemmings, Worms) Somewhere, starting around 1992 but in home consoles by 1995, there was a jump to 3D graphics. They were rudimentary at first, using polygons to vaguely represent shapes, but the technology rapidly developed as well: - A new genre called the First-Person Shooter (e.g., Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom II) - A new genre called the Shoot-Em-Up (e.g., Star Fox, Tempest 2000) - Racing (e.g., Super Mario Kart, Virtua Racing, Ridge Racer, Daytona USA, Sega Rally Championship, Wipeout) - Adventure (e.g., Myst) - Survival Horror (e.g., Alone in the Dark) - Simulation (e.g., Star Wars: TIE Fighter, MechWarrior 2) - Fighting (e.g., Virtua Fighter 2) From there, most of the late 1990s was polishing the styles and formula present in the earlier part of the decade: - Action-Adventure (e.g., Tomb Raider, Grand Theft Auto, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Shenmue) - A new genre called Stealth (e.g., Metal Gear Solid, Thief: The Dark Project) - Holdouts to the old Adventure genre (e.g., Grim Fandango) - Platforming (e.g., Yoshi's Island, Super Mario 64, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Crash Bandicoot: Warped) - Strategy (e.g., Warcraft II, Civilization II, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Age of Empires, Total Annihilation, StarCraft, Age of Empires II, Homeworld) - First-Person Shooter (e.g., Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, GoldenEye 007, Quake II, Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, Half-Life, Quake III: Arena, Unreal Tournament) - Shoot-Em-Up (e.g., Star Fox 64) - Role-Playing (e.g., Pokemon Red and Blue, Diablo, Fallout, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy VII, Baldur's Gate, Fallout 2, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Suikoden II, Planescape: Torment, Pokemon Gold and Silver) - The first foray into Action Role-Playing (e.g., System Shock 2) - Fighting (e.g., Tekken 3, Soulcalibur) - Survival Horror (e.g., Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, Silent Hill) - Racing (e.g., Wave Race 64, Wipeout 2097, Mario Kart 64, Gran Turismo) - The first Rhythm games (e.g., PaRappa the Rapper, Dance Dance Revolution) - A new multiplayer concept of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, or MMORPGs (e.g., Ultima Online, EverQuest) - Further genre explorations (e.g., Nights into Dreams) Throughout the 2000s, the availability of better computers and simpler software development meant the constraints of the past were mostly gone. This yielded longer expected play times and more in-depth storytelling: - Platforming (e.g., Jet Set Radio, Psychonauts, Super Mario Galaxy, LittleBigPlanet, Spelunky) - Action-Adventure (e.g., Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Devil May Cry, Ico, Metroid Prime, Beyond Good & Evil, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Devil May Cry 3, God of War, God of War II, Uncharted 2) - Stealth (e.g., Thief II, Metal Gear Solid 2, Splinter Cell, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Metal Gear Solid 3, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Hitman: Blood Money) - A new style of Action-Adventure called the Third-Person Shooter (e.g., Max Payne, Max Payne 2, Gears of War, Gears of War 2) - The first steps into the Open-World genre (Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Shadow of the Colossus, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Grand Theft Auto IV) - First-Person Shooter (Counter-Strike, Perfect Dark, Halo: Combat Evolved, Battlefield 1942, Half-Life 2, Call of Duty 2, BioShock, Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2) - Shoot-Em-Up (e.g., Ikaruga) - Strategy (e.g., Advance Wars, Warcraft III, Rome: Total War, Civilization IV, Company of Heroes) - Role-Playing (e.g., Baldur's Gate II, Final Fantasy X, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Quest VIII, Mass Effect, Persona 4, Valkyria Chronicles) - Action Role-Playing (Deux Ex, Diablo II, Vagrant Story, Elder Scrolls III, Kingdom Hearts, Elder Scrolls IV, The World Ends with You, Fable II, Fallout 3) - Fighting (e.g., Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Soulcalibur II, Street Fighter IV) - Sports (e.g., Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3) - Racing (e.g., Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, F-Zero GX, Burnout 3, Gran Turismo 4, Burnout Paradise) - Survival Horror (e.g., Silent Hill 2, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, Resident Evil 4, Dead Space) - MMORPGs (e.g., World of Warcraft) - Puzzle (e.g., Angry Birds) - Puzzle-Platformer (e.g., Portal) - Further explorations into new aspects of Simulation (e.g., The Sims, Animal Crossing, The Sims 2) - Further genre explorations that *didn't* take advantage of new technologies (e.g., Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Plants vs. Zombies) - A new genre called the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, or MOBA (e.g., League of Legends) - Other one-off genre explorations (e.g., Rez, WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgames!, Katamari Damacy, Ōkami) Around the mid-2000s, there was an attempt to incorporate new peripherals, with at least moderate success: - Rhythm games with musical instruments (e.g., Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Rock Band 2) - Interactive games that heavily used motion controls (e.g., Wii Sports) Somewhere starting around 2009, most of the games started developing *huge* worlds with highly immersive rendered environments that took at least dozens of hours to play through: - Action-Adventure (e.g., Assassin's Creed II, Batman: Arkham Asylum) - Beat-Em-Up (e.g., Bayonetta) - First-Person Shooter (e.g., Borderlands) - Role-Playing (e.g., Dragon Age: Origins) - Action Role-Playing (e.g., Demon's Souls) Somewhere before 2010, game innovation had peaked its [trend](trends.md). From about 2010 and onward, almost all the new games became either high-budget "AAA games" or smaller-scale "indie games". AAA games throw a *ton* of budget behind games they expect will safely sell, typically by releasing sequels of prior successful games: - They tend to simply be an [improved version](computers-software-versionctrl.md) of the previous game, with borrowed "game mechanics" from other games. - For [marketing reasons](marketing.md), the game would add easily-implementable gimmicks or [hacks](hacking.md) to advertise a feature: - Endless Customization! - add hundreds of useless features to the starting character interface - X Hours of Gameplay! - spread out the world with tons of relatively empty space to travel through - Character Progression! - add an incrementing bar that slowly leveled up, even if it didn't materially change the experience for the player - Since 2010, most popular games have been AAA, and the genres have been hybridized to the point that a genre is simply for marketing purposes: - Platformer (e.g., Super Mario Galaxy 2, Super Mario Odyssey) - Puzzle-Platformer (e.g., Portal 2) - Action-Adventure/Open-World (e.g., God of War III, Red Dead Redemption, Batman: Arkham City, Grand Theft Auto V, The Last of Us, Uncharted 4, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, God of War remake, Red Dead Redemption 2) - Stealth (e.g., Dishonored, Dishonored 2) - Third-Person Shooter (e.g., Fortnite) - Adventure/Narrative (e.g., Heavy Rain, The Walking Dead) - First-Person Shooter (e.g., Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, Bioshock Infinite, Destiny, Overwatch) - Role-Playing (e.g., Fire Emblem Awakening) - Action Role-Playing (e.g., Mass Effect 2, Xenoblade Chronicles, Dark Souls, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bloodborne, The Witcher 3) - Strategy (e.g., Civilization V, Starcraft II, XCOM: Enemy Unknown) - Sports (e.g., Rocket League) - Fighting (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) - Rhythm (e.g., Rock Band 3) - MOBA (e.g., Dota 2) - Collectible Card Games (e.g., Hearthstone) Indie games, by contrast, are made by no more than a few dozen developers, but always less than 50 or so: - The limited budget meant the games were [meaningful](meaning.md), but comparatively short. - Limited marketing resources also meant the game didn't stand out among the other developers, making it hard to find unless the developer was lucky. - Some of them have persisted alongside AAA games, however: - Platformer (e.g., Super Meat Boy, Shovel Knight, Inside) - Puzzle-Platformer (e.g., Braid, Limbo) - Adventure (e.g., Journey) - Role-Playing (e.g., Undertale, Disco Elysium) - Action Role-Playing (e.g., Hades) - Sandbox (e.g., Minecraft) - Casual/Life Simulation (e.g., Stardew Valley) - Other genre-defying experiences (e.g., Hotline Miami, Papers Please) While [web-based](computers-sofware-webdev.md) PC game platforms in the late-2010s (e.g., Steam, GOG) have leveled the competitive playing field a bit, there's still a stark discrepancy between the risk-taking [artist](mind-creativity.md) indie game developers and the mass-produced corporate AAA game development team. ## Console eras No matter how competitive games are, there have been hard limits on what games could be, based on the technological limits of the time. For that reason, it helps to understand the general eras of "video game consoles". There are idiosyncratic differences between the eras, but there's a general technological trend that defined the limits of game consoles: 1. 1972-1980 First Generation: - Very rudimentary black-and-white graphics - Each console had all its games pre-installed - e.g., Magnavox Odyssey, Pong arcade console, Coleco Telstar 2. 1976-1992 Second Generation: - Still rudimentary 8-bit graphics - 1-2 MHz CPU, 32-KB memory - Introduced loadable game cartridges instead of integrated games - e.g., Fairchild Channel F, Atari 2600, Mattel Intellivision) 3. 1983-2003 Third Generation: - The pinnacle of 8-bit graphics (like Super Mario Bros.) - 2-4 MHz CPU, 72 KB memory - e.g., Sega Master System, Atari 7800, Nintendo Entertainment System 4. 1987-2004 Fourth Generation: - 16-bit graphics - 4-8 MHz CPU, 8-128 KB memory - Introduced CD-ROM add-ons - e.g., NEC TurboGrafx-16, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, SNK Neo Geo 5. 1993-2006 Fifth Generation: - 32-bit/64-bit graphics - 12-100 MHz CPU, 2-4.5 MB memory - CD-based except for the Nintendo 64 - e.g., Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation, Nintendo 64 6. 1998-2013 Sixth Generation: - 128-bit graphics - 200-733 MHz CPU w/ 100-233 MHz GPU, 16-64 MB memory - All CD-based, some internet support - e.g., Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft Xbox 7. 2005-2017 Seventh Generation: - 0.73-3.3 GHz CPU w/ 243-550 MHz GPU, 88-512 MB memory - Started distributing digitally, using better graphics resolutions (HD) and introducing motion-based controls - e.g., Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii 8. 2012-now Eighth Generation+: - 1.0-?? GHz CPU w/ 300-?? MHz GPU, 2-?? GB memory - Introduced even better graphics resolutions (4K) and SSD internal memory caching - e.g., Nintendo Wii U/Switch, Sony Playstations 4/5, Microsoft Xbox One/Series X/S - At this point, it doesn't matter because nearly every game eventually "ports" to PC For a long time, PC titles were lagging behind video games' graphics. Mostly, this was because of the quantum leaps in technology that PCs saw, meaning that the average game developer had an absurdly wide range of PC specifications to create for, so it made more sense to design for video games except for a geekier PC-leaning game-playing crowd (like flight simulators or real-time strategy genres). Now, PC gaming has effectively taken over the dedicated graphical experience of video games, for multiple reasons: - [Graphics](engineering-graphics.md) technology has largely slowed down now that it's reached a hard limit. More cores is possible, but ~3.8 GHz is a core's electrical limit before the heat sink is no longer economically feasible. This makes the technology generally more homogenous for developers to build. - PCs have certain advantages over consoles including personal freedom in choice of gaming peripheral, the multi-use nature of a PC versus dedicated gaming hardware, online download services like [Steam's](http://store.steampowered.com/), [GOG's](http://gog.com/), and [Epic Games'](http://epicgames.com/) that give a wider variety of playable titles than a console could provide, and even the freedom to [emulate](computers-distsys-vm.md) game consoles directly. - The power of typical graphics cards peripherals for PCs are more-or-less the same price/power ratio as many game consoles. - All the developers use mostly the same tools for different platforms, so console-exclusive titles are slowly becoming a fading trend from the lost profits that could have come from porting to PC, though Nintendo has still been holding out as of 2023.