Lecture Notes 10/12/09

Lecture Notes Ch. 12

DQ: What were the first-day sales for Halo 3? $170 million. Movie (largest opening weekend) – Spider-Man 3: $151 million.

Videogames began as small hobby programs developed on large corporate and university mainframes.

Ralph Baer – often known as the “Father of Videogames”

Magnavox Odyssey – first home videogame console; built with switches

Pong – first home game product built with a microprocessor; developed by Nolan Bushnell’s Atari company

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPkUvfL8T1I

Atari 2600 – led the rise of the home console; released in 1977

DQ: What two other companies competed with Atari in the early days of videogaming? Colecovision and Intellivision.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GpptJusOjM

Activision – first company to develop software for other companies’ consoles

DQ: What game is widely considered to be the cause of the crash of the videogame industry in the early 1980s? E.T.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctgA0Sxo1kU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2o3mlg5AxQ

NES and Sega Master System – resurgence of home consoles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhzmnAp1R8g&feature=related

Portable games – Mattel’s Electronic Football, Atari Lynx, Nintendo Game Boy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNKgpAFOsa0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rshOhpNQUHM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TI64McyYF4

Playstation, Xbox and Wii – current consoles

Legislation

Parental Outrage
Jack Thompson

DQ: How do you think attitudes toward games will change as the “gaming generation” grows older and becomes parents?

Game System as Entertainment Hub

DQ: Do you think of the other features when deciding on what game console to buy?

The Rise of the MMORPG

DQ: Have you played an MMORPG? Do you know anyone who has gotten addicted to these games?

Future Developments

Sony’ Motion Sensing Controller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaQsXdKbUw8

Project Natal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qlHoxPioM