Computing Terms

RAM: The acronym stands for Random Access Memory. It is a type of computer data storage that can be accessed randomly, which means that the data can be accessed without having to go through the preceding bytes. The data is lost when the machine is turned off since RAM is a volatile type of memory.

Raster graphics: Digital images created by using pixels, and which lose quality when resized.

MHz: Abbreviation of megahertz. It measures the speed of microprocessors, called the clock speed. It determines how many instructions the microprocessor can execute per second.

Pixel: Short for Picture Element. A pixel is a single point in a graphic image. Monitors divide the display screen into millions of pixels to create an image.

Resolution: It is the sharpness and quality of an image.  The screen resolution signifies the number of pixels on screen.

GPU: Graphics Processor Unit. Used in mobile phones, personal computers and game consoles to accelerate the creation of images to be displayed on screen.

GUI: Graphical User Interface. It is an interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons as opposed to text-based interfaces.

RISC: Reduced Instruction Set Computing is a CPU designed with a simple instruction set to provide higher performance.

CPU: Central Processing Unit is the most important part of all computing machines, since it is the place where all the calculations and instructions are executed.

ROM: Read-Only Memory. It is a type of storage on computing machines where data is stored and once it is recorded it can be accessed but it cannot be removed or edited.

Sprite: It is a 2D image, that can also be animated, that is designed to be part of a larger scene. An example of sprites are the objects in 2D video games.

GIF: Graphics Interchange Format. It is a bitmap image that supports up to 8 bits per pixel for each image and also supports animations and up to 256 colors per frame.

Vector graphics: images that are not made up of a grid of pixels and therefore can be resized to a larger scale without losing any image quality.

Byte: A unit of digital information that is made up of 8 bits (a single bit being represented by a ‘1’ or ‘0’ using the binary system). Bytes represent characters such as letters, numbers or symbols.

Bitmap: An image made up of rows and columns of pixels in the computer memory.

Hard disk: A magnetic disk that stores data on a computer.

Animation: Images slightly different from each other that are put in sequence to create motion. 

HDMI: High-Definition Multimedia Interface is a cable that transfers video and audio data from devices such as a display controller to a compatible computer monitor or digital television.

FPS: Frames per second. It is the rate at which consecutive images (frames) are generated per second.

 

Cartridge: It is a removable container such as tapes or memory chips, and it can also hold ink for printing. Cartridges can also contain whole games to be run by consoles. 

                                  

Bibliography:

Webopedia.com, (2015). RAM - random access memory. [online] Available at: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAM.html [Accessed 8 March 2015]
Webopedia.com, (2015). MHz. [online] Available at: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/MHz.html [Accessed 8 March 2015]

Webopedia.com, (2015). Pixel. [online] Available at: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/pixel.html [Accessed 8 March 2015]

Wikipedia.org, (2015). Graphics processing unit. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit [Accessed 23 May 2015]

Wikipedia.org, (2015). Graphical user interface. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_user_interface [Accessed 23 May 2015]

Wikipedia.org, (2015). Reduced instruction set computing. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_instruction_set_computing [Accessed 23 May 2015]

Techterms.com, (2012). Sprite. [online] Available at: http://techterms.com/definition/sprite [Accessed 23 May 2015]

Wikipedia.org, (2015). GIF. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIF [Accessed 23 May 2015]

Techterms.com, (2015). Vector Graphic. [online] Available at: http://techterms.com/definition/vectorgraphic [Accessed 23 May 2015]

Searchstorage.techtarget.com, (2015). Byte Definition. [online] Available at: http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/byte [Accessed 23 May 2015]

Webopedia.com, (2015). bit map. [online] Available at: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/bit_map.html [Accessed 23 May 2015]

Wikipedia.org, (2015). HDMI. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI [Accessed 23 May 2015]

Wikipedia.org, (2015). Frame rate. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_rate [Accessed 23 May 2015]

Webopedia.com, (2015). cartridge. [online] Available at: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/cartridge.html [Accessed 23 May 2015]

Social Movement - Arcade gaming

The era of arcade video games lasted from the late 1970s until the 1990s. Arcade games lost popularity when game consoles started releasing games with 3D graphics, but they still remain     popular nowadays, especially in Asia. Several conventions dedicated to these classic arcade games still take place today, such as California Extreme.

In 1971 students at Stanford University created a coin-operated version of the Spacewar video game, the Galaxy Game. This is known to be the earliest example of a coin-operated video game. The first mass-manufactured game was released that same year and it was called Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell for the arcade game manufacturer, Nutting Associates. Atari, which was formed in 1972, essentially created the coin-operated video game industry with its game Pong, but even if the game proved to be popular, imitators kept Atari from dominating the coin-operated video game market.

The golden age of arcade video games is the time when arcade video games were the most popular and a time of technical innovation. This era started in the late 1970s and lasting to the mid-1980s. It spawned numerous cultural icons that are still recognized in today’s culture, such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.

Figure 1 - Pac-Man arcade games

Figure 2 - Donkey Kong arcade game

Some of the most popular games of this era had a great influence on the industry and also on the development of games. For instance, Space Invaders was considered to be the game that "revolutionized the video game industry" (Shigeru Miyamoto). This game has influenced shooter games ever since its release. Lunar Lander was the first Atari game to use vector graphics, and Centipede was one of the first games to use trackball control. Pac-Man was one of the most influential games; it had the first gaming mascot, it established maze chase genre, introduced power-ups and also opened gaming to female audiences. 

Bibliography:

Wikipedia.org, (2015). Arcade game. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcade_game [Accessed 8 March 2015]

Wikipedia.org, (2015). Golden age of arcade video games. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_age_of_arcade_video_games [Accessed 8 March 2015]

3rd Generation - Congo Bongo

Congo Bongo is seen as Sega’s version of the highly successful arcade game Donkey Kong. But unlike Donkey Kong, the graphics are more detailed and there are more enemies and traps. It had raster graphics, a resolution of 256x224, and a 256-color palette. The game contained simple 2D sprites and a basic sound that played whenever the character jumps.

Figure 1 - Congo Bongo gameplay 

The game shows a safari hunter trying to catch “Bongo”, the ape that set fire to his tent, in order to have his revenge. The game was made up of four levels: Primate Peak, which is the closest to Donkey Kong in style, Snake Lake, Rhino Ridge, and Lazy Lagoon.

Initially, when Cong Bongo was released it was a commercial failure, but despite this, it has been ported to nearly every major gaming platform, including SG-1000, MSX, Intellivision, Commodore 64, Atari 2600 and Atari 5200. Recently, a remake was released for the PlayStation 2.

Some of the weaker computers and consoles at the time were unable to render isometric graphics. For instance, the Atari and Commodore version use an oblique perspective, whereas the SG-1000 has a top-down view. Many version also left out some levels of the game due to space restrictions.

Bibliography:

Wikipedia.org, (2015). Congo Bongo. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Bongo [Accessed 7 March 2015]

Segaretro.org, (2015). Congo Bongo. [online] Available at: http://segaretro.org/Congo_Bongo [Accessed 7 March 2015]

3rd Generation - Sega SG-1000

Sega was founded in 1940 by Martin Bromley, Irving Bromberg and James Humpert, in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 1965 Rosen Enterprises merges with Service Games to create Sega Enterprises. In 1968, Sega had its first smash hit; the submarine simulator Periscope. Sega aims to develop the first proper home console in Japan.

Sega released their first home console, the SG-1000, a cartridge-based home video game console, also called the Mark I. The console featured specs superior to most consoles, however it was not successful compared to others. Initially Sega released this console for Japan in 1983, then they exported the console to Europe and Australia in 1985, in attempt to expand the market.

Figure 1 - Sega SG-1000 console

Then Mark II was released, a remodeled version using gamepads instead of joysticks, which also had a keyboard attachment slot available, and 47 unique games were released.

The SG-1000 had an 8-bit, 3.58 MHz NEC 780C processor, 2KB RAM, 16KB video RAM and 256x192 pixel resolution. It was capable of displaying 16 colors and 32 sprites per scene. It used ROM cartridge, cassette tape, or Sega card game storage. A Texas Instruments SN76489 sound processor was used to create a 4 channel mono sound.

Although it sold 2 million units worldwide, the launch of the SG-1000 was not successful. Reasons for this include the more advanced hardware of the Famicom, which was released on the same day by Nintendo, and the North American video game crash of 1983.

The SG-1000 failed to capture the market share that Sega had been aiming for, which lead to the creation of the Sega Mark III, a revision of the console with improved video hardware and an increased amount of RAM.

Games that could be played on the SG-1000 include; Congo Bongo, Girl’s Garden, Flicky, Champion Golf, The Black Onyx, and Space Invaders.

Bibliography:

Wikipedia.org, (2015). SG-1000. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SG-1000 [Accessed 7 March 2015]

Segaretro.org, (2015). SG-1000. [online] Available at: http://segaretro.org/SG-1000 [Accessed 7 March 2015]

2nd Generation - Pac-Man

Pac-Man was released in 1980 by Namco as an arcade game, and it was originally called Puck Man. The character of Pac-Man was an idea of Toru Iwatani, who focused on designing this game to attract more women to the game industry. Pac-Man became the first iconic character of the video game industry.

The power pills shown in the game introduced the first prey-to-predator mechanic in video games. The game was a success and it also kicked off a wide variety of merchandise, like an animated television series, lunch boxes and t-shirts. It also spawned many sequels, such as Super Pac-Man.

In 1982, Atari Inc. designed this game for their home video game console, the Atari 2600. The player would use a joystick to move the character around the screen. the goal of the game was to eat all the food on screen while avoiding four ghosts that would lose you lives if you made contact with them. Some differences from the original arcade game are the maze pattern, and the items in the game, like the wafers and vitamins.

Figure 1 - Pac-Man gameplay

When the arcade game Pac-Man was ported onto the console it lost some of its qualities due to the hardware limitations of the Atari 2600. Programming was handled by Tod Frye. The screen resolution was lower after the game was ported on the Atari console and fewer colors than the arcade game were shown on screen and sometimes the ghosts gave a flickering effect or did not appear on screen at all, since the Atari 2600 could not handle the characters on the screen in real time with its hardware. The game used a 4KB ROM cartridge, while the arcade game stored four times as much ROM, and the Zilog Z80 CPU it used was three times faster than the processor used by the Atari console.         

Many players returned their copy of the game due to the low quality it had. this was one of the main causes of the North American video game crash that took place in 1983, since the production of Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 made the customers lose confidence in the company. 

In1982, Pac-Man was modified in order to be ported to the new version of the Atari console, the Atari 5200. This new version of the game made it look more realistic and it was more similar to the original arcade game than any other version on console released before. It was followed by Pac-Man’s sequels, such as Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man, for the Atari 2600. Both these games made a better impact than Atari’s first Pac-Man title. For instance, Ms. Pac-Man features a larger Rom cartridge.

Several copies of the game were designed in order to improve it. In December 1987, Mindscape’s IBM PC version of Pac-Man sold over 100,000 copies. The game was also released for Atari’s 8-bit computers, Intellivision, the Commodore 64 and VIC-20, and the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was also released on handheld game consoles like Game Boy, Sega Game Gear, and the Neo Geo Pocket Color. The gameplay of Pac-Man was so popular, that remakes of the game are still being made today.

Bibliography:

Wikipedia.org, (2015). Pac-Man. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man [Accessed 6 March 2015]

Wikipedia.org, (2014). Pac-Man (Atari 2600). [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man_(Atari_2600) [Accessed 6 March 2015]

Gamefaqs.com, (2015). Pac-Man. [online] Available at: http://www.gamefaqs.com/atari2600/584949-pac-man/trivia [Accessed 6 March 2015]

2nd Generation - Atari 2600

Atari 2600 was the first cartridge-based home console system, released in September 1977 by Atari, Inc., although the project for this console had been going on since Atari acquired a company called Cyan Engineering in 1973. At the time they were developing a console with the name “Stella” which they changed to Atari 2600 later on.

This home console popularized the use of microprocessor-based hardware and ROM cartridges containing game code. Atari 2600 came with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game.

The Atari 2600 used an MOS 6507 CPU with a speed of 1.19 MHz. The console also contained a RAM of 128 bytes and 4Kb of ROM. It had a maximum resolution of 160x192 pixels and it could produce 16 colors without the need of screen overlays. The game produced a 2-channel, mono audio sound, with the use of a TIA Atari sound chip. Multiple peripheral devices were released, such as: touch pads, keyboard controllers and paddle controllers.

The console was originally priced at $199, and it came with two joysticks and a Combat game cartridge. To compete with the Channel F console, Atari named their machine the Video Computer System (VCS). The VCS became popular because unlike other games at that time, the users could play games other than Pong on it. After Pong, Atari released Space Invaders in 1980, and it was such a great hit that it rapidly increased the console's popularity. The console had sold 10 million units by 1982, while its best-selling game Pac-Man sold 7 million copies.

Figure 1 - Atari 2600 console

In 1980, the VCS was redesigned so that the console was left with four switches on the front, after the difficulty switches were moved to the back. In 1982 the console was released again, this time without wood grain. These consoles were nicknamed “Darth Vader” due to their all-black appearance.

Some of the games that could be played on the Atari 2600 were: Pac-Man, Pitfall!, Asteroids, Galaxian, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, and Defender.

Bibliography:

Wikipedia.org, (2015). Atari 2600. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600 [Accessed 5 March 2015]

Gaming.wikia.com, (2015). List of Atari 2600 peripherals. [online] Available at: http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Atari_2600_peripherals [Accessed 5 March 2015]

Wikipedia.org, (2015). List of Atari 2600 games. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Atari_2600_games [Accessed 5 March 2015]

1st Generation – Pong

Pong was designed by Ralph Baer and it was the first game for home consoles, released on the Magnavox Odyssey. The game was controlled by using two knobs on each side of the device; one for each player. This tennis sports game features simple two-dimensional graphics; two paddles and a ball represented in white, on a black background. The game had no sound and no on screen scoring, and it is the only game for the Odyssey console that does not require fixing a color overlay to the television screen.

The goal of the game is for the players to use the paddles to hit the ball back and forth and try to keep the ball on screen. If the player fails to return the ball, the opponent gains a point.

Figure 1 - Ralph Baer playing Pong

Pong, also known as Table Tennis, was a great success, mainly because it was the first game that people could play at home on their television set. After its release, several companies began producing games similar to Pong, including Atari, which built the first commercially successful arcade video game machine inspired by Magnavox’s Table Tennis.

In 1973 Ralph Baer wanted to make the games of the Odyssey look more realistic, so he created advanced cartridges that he added to the console, but Magnavox rejected his ideas.

Bibliography:

Mobygames.com, (2006). Table Tennis (Odyssey). [online] Available at: http://www.mobygames.com/game/table-tennis [Accessed 4 March 2015]

Pong-story.com, (2015) Technology of the Odyssey. [online] Available at: http://www.pong-story.com/odyssey.htm#P10 [Accessed 4 March 2015]

1st Generation – Magnavox Odyssey

Rudolph Heinrich Baer was born in March 1922 in a Jewish family living in Germany, and moved to New York in 1983. He graduated from the National Radio Institute as a radio service technician in 1940. He then graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Television Engineering in 1949. In 1956 Baer joined Sanders Associates in Nashua, New Hampshire, where he was promoted to head of instrument design, which enabled him to develop a game-playing device that plugged into a television set. He was joined by Bill Harrison (technician) and Bill Rusch (chief engineer) to work together to create such consoles, but Sanders Associates could not find partners to promote the device, which put it on hold.

In 1971, Baer signed a deal with the company Magnavox, where he created Magnavox Odyssey, the very first home video game system. Magnavox Odyssey was released in May 1972, and since it was heavily advertised, it sold 100,000 units in the same year. The Odyssey was an instant success when it was launched in 1972, but after selling over 330,000 units for around $100 each, it was discontinued in 1975 and replaced by rivals like Atari and Intellivision.

Figure 1 - Magnavox Odyssey console

This console contained no processor or memory, and it required six C cell batteries to work. It used cards that contained pin outs, in order to change the game settings. Plastic overlays could be placed over the television screen to create graphics and color, since the actual display consisted only of white squares on a black background. The Odyssey originally came with 6 game cards, multiple game and score cards, a master control unit, 2 player control units, a game cord, a game switch and 2 sized sets of 11 overlays for medium and large television screens. Some of the games that could be played on this console were Pong, Table Tennis, Football, Hockey, Submarine, and Roulette.

Bibliography:

Wikipedia.org, (2015). Ralph H. Baer. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_H._Baer [Accessed 28 February 2015]

About.com/compute, (2015). Hardware Profile - Magnavox Odyssey - The First Gaming Console. [online] Available at: http://classicgames.about.com/od/classicvideogames101/p/MagnavoxOdyssey.htm [Accessed 28 February 2015]

Videogameconsolelibrary.com, (2014). Magnavox Odyssey. [online] Available at: http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg70-odyssey.htm#page=reviews [Accessed 28 February 2015]