- An activity providing entertainment or amusement; a pastime: party games; word games.
- A competitive activity or sport in which players contend with each other according to a set of rules: the game of basketball; the game of gin rummy.
- A single instance of such an activity: We lost the first game.
- games An organized athletic program or contest: track-and-field games; took part in the winter games.
- A period of competition or challenge: It was too late in the game to change the schedule of the project.
- The total number of points required to win a game: One hundred points is game in bridge.
- The score accumulated at any given time in a game: The game is now 14 to 12.
- An active interest or pursuit, especially one involving competitive engagement or adherence to rules:"the way the system operates, the access game, the turf game, the image game" (Hedrick Smith).
- A business or occupation; a line: the insurance game.
- An illegal activity; a racket.
- Evasive, trifling, or manipulative behavior: wanted a straight answer, not more of their tiresome games.
- A calculated strategy or approach; a scheme: I saw through their game from the very beginning.
- Wild animals, birds, or fish hunted for food or sport.
- The flesh of these animals, eaten as food.
- An object of attack, ridicule, or pursuit: The press considered the candidate's indiscretions to be game.
- Mockery; sport: The older children teased and made game of the newcomer
- The video game entertainment industry is a multi-billion dollar international enterprise that has seen many technological advancements since its inception in the early 1960s. From primitive home entertainment systems wired by simple integrated circuitry to the digitally advanced games of the twenty-first century, the industry has been the proving grounds for some very influential scientific minds. The evolution of games technology has resulted in improvements in the quality of computer graphics for business and educational application as well, and aided design efforts in virtual reality (VR) software and the construction of artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
Earliest Games
German-American inventor Ralph Baer (1922–), also known as the "Thomas Edison" of the video game, created the first video game console in 1966. While working for a company called Sanders Associates, he was commissioned to design a portable game for military training exercises based on strategy and reflex skills. Much of the early investment capital for projects at Sanders and in the collegiate think tanks came from the Pentagon. Baer believed the applications he was pursuing for the military would eventually have value in home entertainment.
Even earlier, MIT student Steve Russell brought widespread attention to the ability of computers to play games with his "SpaceWar," which was first played in the labs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a mainframe computer . The 1960 game was a precursor to the much later "Asteroids" that captured the hearts and imaginations of many gaming enthusiasts. "SpaceWar" was later adapted from a mainframe computer game to a stand-alone console, under the name of "Computer Space," but the game met with little commercial success. Other MIT techies invented the first joysticks to replace the original games' simple control knobs.
Video Games Go Public
The 1970s saw the most significant developments in bringing video games into the attention and the homes of the American public. Nolan Bushnell, a former employee of Ampeg of Sunnyvale, California, teamed up with design engineer Al Alcom to found the company Atari. Bushnell and Alcom designed the first "Pong" game, which was a form of computerized table tennis, and introduced it to Andy Capp's bar in Sunnyvale. After the first night of public use, people lined up at ten the next morning to play this novel bar game. The video game craze was about to grip the public's attention.
Further popularizing the game craze in the eyes of Americans was the 1972 release of Magnavox's "Odyssey" that was introduced during a television broadcast hosted by the "Chairman of the Board," Frank Sinatra. These first games were quite simple compared to later technologies. Early games were based onanalog systems using large-scale integrated (LSI) circuits. These game designs offered two-dimensional graphics with a restricted range of motion for participants and often-predictable responses from the computer.
The mid-1970s saw significant improvement in games and especially graphics technology with the introduction of customized microchips. Midway's 1975 game "Gunfight" was the first to utilize a microprocessor. Using an 8080 CPU (central processing unit), the game featured graphic and audio effects that had not been possible before. The simultaneous demand for higher resolution screens and increased depth of field was met by companies like Activision, using the new F8 microchips that were supplied by Fairchild Camera and Instrument.
Violence and Video Games
In 1976 Exidy's "Death Race" video game entered the market. Fashioned after a popular movie at the time, it was one of the games that first sparked public controversy aimed at violent video games. Considering the history of military involvement in early research funding, it is not unusual that the focus of video game design teams resulted in games with highly competitive strategies, a strong emphasis on physical conflict, and action and adventure settings. Many movies of the time period also reflected scenarios depicting violence and adventure: Jaws haunted the imaginations of beach-loving moviegoers, while Star Wars refreshed popular interest in the exploration and domination of outer space.
Video game violence has not been restricted by public moral outpourings. Games like "Mortal Kombat" continue to win audiences of all ages. Some observers argue that the ability to vent potentially violent aggressions in an electronic setting relieves the pressure to commit public demonstrations of violence. Other critics argue that these games provide a training ground for potentially violent youthful offenders. The 1999 Columbine School massacre in Littleton, Colorado, and other gun-related incidents in public schools throughout the United States are cited as occurrences where the perpetrators had demonstrated a history of fascination with violent games.
Many companies now offer Internet gaming services, which allow up to a few people to thousands of players to play a game simultaneously. Among the most popular applications for these multi-player games are interactive games in which a group of characters, activated by users who may be located geographically anywhere in the world, explore a virtual world to collaborate or kill one another. Regardless of the controversies, graphically sophisticated action video games of all kinds continue to be popular.
Japanese Contributions
No mention of video game technology would be complete without discussion of the Japanese market and its major contributions from the 1980s into the twenty-first century. The year 1980 saw the introduction of the "Pac-Man" game, which was invented by Toru Iwatami and associates for Namco, Ltd. Iwatami, who had tired of much of the violence depicted in video games, decided to develop a comical game that he felt everyone could enjoy.
"Pac-Man" became one of the largest selling arcade games ever, with more than 100,000 units sold in the United States alone, surpassing the then-monumental 70,000 unit record of "Asteroids" and the extremely popular "Space Invaders." Heavy use of the coin-operated "Pac-Man" was blamed for a severe coin shortage in the Japanese economy. The merchandising of "Pac-Man" T-shirts, posters, toys, and spin-off games ("Ms. Pac-Man" and others) would start another trend in home entertainment sales.
While "Pac-Man" and other arcade games grew in popularity during the early 1980s, there was a marked decrease in the sales of video games for home use. Most theories point to Atari's near dominance of the market with its 4-bit VCS console and what the public saw as limited graphical variation in game software available for home units. Nintendo's 1985 introduction of the 8-bit microprocessor dramatically changed the home video game market forever. The Japanese company became the dominant force in gaming technology with its proprietary console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and such popular games as "Donkey Kong" and "Mario Bros." The advent of 16-bit technology, most successfully marketed in Sega's "Genesis" console, allowed for a much more sophisticated graphics processing system with as many as 63 times more onscreen colors and the use of anti-aliasing and screen flipping techniques. This also brought competition to Nintendo's market dominance.
Advanced systems design furthered the competition between Nintendo and Sega and improved the market for video game sales across the globe. The 1990s saw the advent of 32-bit systems and the Nintendo 64 with turbo 3-D graphics, as well as popular hand-held video game units like Nintendo's "GameBoy." Strong competition from Sega's continuing developments and the Sony PlayStation have chipped away at Nintendo's former market position as the leader of the home video game market, but the Japanese influence on the industry remains considerable.
From Video Games to Corporate Giants
The video game industry has nurtured designers and entrepreneurs who have gone on to make major contributions to the computer industry as a whole. Steven Jobs and Steve Wozniak were employees of Atari before leaving to start a small company that grew into a huge corporation—Apple Computer, Inc. While at Atari, Jobs and Wozniak created a game called "Blockbuster." Their game design knowledge and experience would prove influential in their personal computer designs.
Another major player in today's computer marketplace had its roots in video game technology. In 1979 a company called Control Video Corp. offered a service called "Gameline" via the telephone network. Consumers accessed their service using a 1200-baud modem to receive features including e-mail, news, banking, and financial management information. CVC became Quantum Computer Services in 1985 and in 1989, the company changed its name to America Online.
Simulation Game Technology
One of the most profoundly powerful gaming metaphors to emerge in the 1990s was the use of simulation technology that allows gamers to explore "what if" scenarios. The field was kicked off by Maxis with the game "SimCity," and was refined with various classics such as Microprose's "Transport Tycoon" and Art Dink's "A-Train."
This technology helps people understand and work within complex systems. Although many enjoy the products as entertainment, simulation games are used for education in schools and corporations. Maxis launched a spin-off to apply this technology to business systems. Chevron created "SimRefinery" to simulate the management of a large refinery operation. Another game called "SimHealth," which was commissioned by the Markle foundation, demonstrates some of the tradeoffs of different health care policies.
A number of war games have also been built around this kind of simulation technology. Some of the earliest hits have been "Warcraft" and "Command and Conquer," which both allow multiple players to create and control production facilities and armies of soldiers that can be directed in real time. These games introduce an element of non-linearity in which players must be able to focus on multiple things simultaneously.
Gaming technology such as this has deep implications for the way decisions are made in our modern society. We can expect to see electronic information systems monitoring the flow of goods and services in the global economy as well as potentially determining strategies that humans will adapt for their environment.
see also Artificial Intelligence; Game Controllers; Internet; Simulation; Telecommunications.
George Lawton
Bibliography
Burnham, Van. Supercade: A Visual History of the Video Game Age, 1971–1984. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.
Kent, Steve L. The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon and Beyond—The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed Our World. Roseville, CA: Prima, 2001.
Internet Resources
"Classic Gaming." Game Spy Industries.
" The History of Nintendo." Game Spot web site.
MOBILE GAMING
Background. Colonists knew many board, card, and gambling games that were popular in Europe. For the most part these were inside activities played in taverns or private homes. Often they were played for money and rewarded both luck and skill. Men and women played various kinds of games with each other. Heavy gambling was a male vice since women did not have access to the taverns and private clubs where much of this play occurred. During the eighteenth century taverns became larger, offering more rooms and thus a greater variety of games and diversions. While the law attempted to limit such recreation right from the beginning, especially on the Sabbath, it was not successful. People wanted to play and used even Sunday time to do it.
Backgammon. Among the oldest games known to humans is backgammon. Ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece,Japan,
China, and the Near East all have versions of a game played on a board using dice and pieces moved along the board. By the Middle Ages all European nations had a form of backgammon, also called trictrac. The Spanish, French, Dutch, and English all brought it with them to their colonies. As early as 1656 New Netherland listed “backgammon or ticktack” among a host of other “idle and forbidden exercises and plays”which were banned on Sunday. Like so many other games, backgammon was portable and required little equipment. It could be played on a table with the points inlaid into it or on a portable game board or box. Taverns and coffeehouses often had multiple games going at once, each making the characteristic click of the pieces being laid down.
Billiards. Played on a special table with a cue and balls, billiards was known to the many European nationalities that settled in America. Because the average billiard table was twelve feet long, it was played in public houses, taverns, or the homes of the wealthy. Southern plantation owners were drawn to billiards for a variety of reasons. The table itself made a statement about wealth, and the game required only two people. William Byrd II outfitted Westover, his plantation on the James River, with many diversions, including a billiard table. In 1711 he confided to his diary that “Mr. Mumford and I played at billiards till dinner.... In the afternoon we played at billiards again and I lost two bits.” Byrd also on occasion played with his wife.
Cards. Playing cards, like backgammon, is an old recreation and is known through many parts of the world. By the eve of colonization all European nations had playing cards, often of great beauty. These were standardized into four suits, although different games called for different numbers of playing cards. Card playing came to the New World with the earliest colonists and was recognized as a great seducer of people’s time. The Dutch tried to regulate card playing on the Sabbath. Early Virginia, not usually thought of as being overly restrictive, was faced with so many problems that the government there passed harsh laws against idleness, which included card and dice games. A Massachusetts law directed ordinary citizens to get rid of their playing cards in 1631. William Penn’s “Great Law” of 1682 prohibited playing and placed a fine or five days in jail on all lawbreakers. None of this worked, and by the end of the seventeenth century card playing was a normal part of tavern life everywhere.
Colonial Games. Three colonial card games were whist, euchre, and piquet. Whist, also called whisk, came into its own in the eighteenth century. It is a game of fifty-two cards played by two pairs of partners who try to win tricks; it is an ancestor of modern bridge. Euchre was a French game and possibly came into America through French Louisiana. It uses a thirty-two-card deck, ace through seven. It is also played by four players, two to a team, and has one suit as trump. Piquet was originally a French game that spread to other parts of Europe. It could be played by two people, so it was suitable for home entertainment. Piquet required a deck like euchre. In piquet both sides declare what they hold, thus providing room to lie. William Byrd and his wife, Lucy Parke, played piquet during quiet afternoons or evenings at Westover, but as Byrd recorded in his secret diary, his wife could get annoyed with him when she found him cheating.
A SMALL LOSS
William Byrd II kept a diary in which he recorded his daily activities. As a member of Virginia’s Royal Council he spent some time in the capital, Williamsburg. This entry from Williamsburg is dated 17 April 1712:
After dinner [lunch] I went to Mrs. Whaley’s where I saw my sister Custis and my brother who is just returned. Here we drank some tea till the evening and then I took leave and went to the coffeehouse, where I played at cards and won 40 shillings [£2] but afterwards I played at dice and lost almost £10. This gave me a resolution to play no more at dice and so I went to my lodgings where I said a short prayer and had good health, good thoughts, and good humor, thank God Almighty.
An unskilled laborer in Virginia at this time would get ten pounds for ten weeks’ worth of work.
Source: Louis B. Wright and Marion Tinling, eds., The Great American Gentleman: The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover 1709–1712 (New York: Capricorn Books, 1963).
Lower-Order Games. All males in colonial America had opportunities to play games and to gamble on their outcome. In the New York City of the 1740s male slaves had the leisure and the wherewithal to play and gamble as whites did. At the alehouse of John Hughson they gambled at cards. As children they played with marbles. They played for pennies, threw dice, and played a game called papa. Taverns catered to slaves and to lower-class
whites, offering them an outlet for competitive urges and a place away from the eyes of masters and spouses.
Sources
Berthold Fernow, The Records of New Amsterdam from 1653 to 1674 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1976);
Daniel Horsmanden, The New York Conspiracy (Boston: Beacon, 1971);
Louis B. Wright and Marion Tinling, eds., The Great American Gentleman: The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover 1709–1712 (New York: Capricorn Books, 1963);
Oswald Jacoby and John R. Crawford, The Backgammon Book (New York: Viking Press, 1970);
J. Thomas Joble, “Sport, Amusements, and Pennsylvania Blue Laws, 1682–1973,” dissertation, Pennsylvania State University, 1974;
Kym S. Rice, Early American Taverns: For the Entertainment of Friends and Strangers (Chicago: Regnery Gateway, 1983);
Nancy L. Struna, People of Prowess: Sport, Leisure, and Labor in Early Anglo-America (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996).
