Now we venture on my childhood years. Everyone immediately links 1990s to the entire grunge scene, like the 60's and hippies, and the 70s with the short lived punk years. However, the video game industry has developed fast and strong during this period. This is when it's hitting a lot of people and getting them addicted, hard and heavy, like a virus.
Let's start this somewhat time line off with neo-geo in 1990. However, the next year the commodore cdtv was released. This was when the industry starting putting their faith more in to cds, and letting cds become the future due to the cds having such a massive storage (at the time anyway).
Now in 1992, two amazing things came along, one was me, and the second was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System aka SNES. I adore the history of Nintendo, it's so colourful and strong. I did so much history research on this company when I was doing my fmp at college. This was a turning point, cause this period became the decline of arcades and the rise of handhelds, especially the gameboy. Like I touched upon on my last post, the industry has changed to suit it's audience, who wants these amazing box of wonders in their own homes and not arcade. Also, Sonic the Hedgehog was released for the Sega.
A sad point in 1993, as Atari releases their last console before going broke, the mother who had nurtured and sculpt video games came to a final rest. Atari jaguar was the last console. However, they are not forgotten, not by a long a shot, but it shows how something as powerful and influential as Atari can come to a rest in an industry as this. It shows that everyone is striking to survive and be as successful as they possibly can in this industry, with there being no limit of how much success is too successful.
The third biggest company at the moment jumped the bandwagon, and came out with the Playstation in 1994. Sony has joined the video game race, and they have put up quite a good fight so far, considering I am a Sony slave and loyal fan. However, it had the Sega Saturn to rival it, but to be honest, it's not as good as the mega drive.
Nintendo came flowing back with their newest console in 1996, the Nintendo 64 (yes, mine is bright orange and I do have the Pokemon and Zelda games for it, but golden eye, not yet, which came a year later after the console...), which was a massive hit. During this year, Resident evil was also born and spread in to the world, creating the survival horror genre. It's amazing how one game can create an entire genre in the industry just like that, and create an new opening in the market which the audience is hooked upon.
The most wanted Zelda game came to everyone's hands in 1998, with the Ocarina of Time. The entire game got a new art make over which created a new style that influenced a lot of other games and style (big eyes, point ears, cartoony faces that does not show much expression nor hard to draw really, does this remind you of any other style of art?), but it gave the games a new style that a lot of people enjoyed. It kept the audience happy, and the amount of sales of this one game can vouch for that. The dreamcast was released, which I wasn't too keen of, but it was a standing point. Atari already dropped out of the race, and Sega joined them by having this as their final console, due to the rival of the Playstation 2.
In the 2000, we have the playstation 2 released. As well as the rise of World of Warcraft which made the rise of online multi-player gaming grabs the attention of the video game industry's eye, and where they decide to go next with their goals. That's all for the 1990s folks.
The industry has evolved and development viciously the last couple of decades, so it seems like they have touched upon a lot of areas and achieve it, like hand held and the different remotes so it seems like you're actually playing golf. However, from the top of my head, they can explore more in to voice control (playing with your voice), 3D is becoming bigger especially with TVs, actually putting the gamer in to the game, and making online gaming bigger and get more people involved. Just a few suggestions, but the industry is under a lot of pressure to succeed, and to serve the goods of something new and exciting to keep the audience keen.
A lot of people I know from back home go by the phrase "originality is dead", and I would like to disagree. Mainly because they have no original thoughts or ideas themselves and follows the crowd loyally but because they are not part of an industry that is anything like game art, and they give up too easily. I feel like going in to this industry, I will have to be tackling that phrase a lot, and proving to everyone that originality is not dead, and it is still striving.
Currently listening to: Nirvana.
Wednesday 26 October 2011
Tuesday 25 October 2011
History of Video games 1980-1990
Here comes one of the best periods of all time, especially for music. I get a lot of my inspiration from music, discovering it but rediscovering old and lost loves. I work constantly to music so this is a happy blog entry from me. Although you could have guessed that as I put what I am currently listening to on the bottom of my posts each time (expect a lot of repeats of bands). However, history always makes me happy, so the both combined is excellent.
During this time, a lot of things happened, like the cold war, the miners strike, and the tories with the riots (sound familiar right? Not like it happened recently or anything with the current tories being in power, oh wait?). But video games took off and evolved rapidly from arcades to home gaming and pcs. They became much more personal to everyone.
Let's start right at the beginning, starting off with atari.
In 1982, the lovely atari 5200 was launched, and for me personally, I felt that atari was the beginning of the video games and the development within it. A year later, we got Nintendo on the scene, and they had the unfortunate luck of naming it the Nintendo femicom which sound like a female product. But Nintendo has been around since 1889, so they weren't likely to change their name as they have become probably fond of it by then.
Sega launched their Sega master in 1986, and two years after that, they launched their famous Sega genesis (which I have at home, with Sonic, and Castle of Illusion, the amount of abuse I shouted at Mickey Mouse from a young age is amazing for my vocab, especially as I was not savvy with the language when I was younger as I am now).
1989 was an important year, my brother was born, (who held a lot of influence over me and my games), as well as the Berlin Wall coming down on November 9th. However, the gameboy was released. The original grey brick which opens up the entire world to one addictive game: tetris. Yes, I did have it, and I still have my original one, as well as every generation of gameboy known in history, except the 3DS (I only have room for one 3DS in my life, and that's 3DS Max).
Lastly, in 1990, the amstrad gx4000, which sounds more like a bike and is a mouthful, was launched.
This was a short period, despite like my last blog entry which had everything coming out year after year. But this was when gaming became much more personal to homes. Before hand it was for work and office use (the development of computers), whereas now the market decided to target homes for their sales. From cracking german codes, to becoming a blue hedgehog collecting rings, I have to say it has gone from one extreme to another, from being a life or death situation to a "nah I've got another 5 lives left till it's game over" or "where are my damn rings?".
The most significant developments during this time period in my opinion was not the technology exactly, but how it's audience had changed, as well as purpose. An industry strives on it's audience and market, and if it's audience changes then so does the industry to suit the audience, so it can survive. Less companies became interested in video games, and more the general public, from arcades to wanting it in their households. Video games became a new industry, away from the computer industry, with the sole purpose of entertaining. It became the computer industry's little brother which plays pranks, but seemed to be as much in high demand from the public than computers were, both growing up together and evolving in different separate ways but still having some of the same connections, and the same beginning.
Another significant point, was the rise of the war between the companies. I do not think that it had much impact on the industry up until when the three major ones hit later in the 2000s. However, it was the beginning and start of the competition between the companies, and the sales. Which made them more determined to out do the other one in graphics, games, sales, audience and technology.
Currently listening to: Rage Against The Machine.
During this time, a lot of things happened, like the cold war, the miners strike, and the tories with the riots (sound familiar right? Not like it happened recently or anything with the current tories being in power, oh wait?). But video games took off and evolved rapidly from arcades to home gaming and pcs. They became much more personal to everyone.
Let's start right at the beginning, starting off with atari.
In 1982, the lovely atari 5200 was launched, and for me personally, I felt that atari was the beginning of the video games and the development within it. A year later, we got Nintendo on the scene, and they had the unfortunate luck of naming it the Nintendo femicom which sound like a female product. But Nintendo has been around since 1889, so they weren't likely to change their name as they have become probably fond of it by then.
Sega launched their Sega master in 1986, and two years after that, they launched their famous Sega genesis (which I have at home, with Sonic, and Castle of Illusion, the amount of abuse I shouted at Mickey Mouse from a young age is amazing for my vocab, especially as I was not savvy with the language when I was younger as I am now).
1989 was an important year, my brother was born, (who held a lot of influence over me and my games), as well as the Berlin Wall coming down on November 9th. However, the gameboy was released. The original grey brick which opens up the entire world to one addictive game: tetris. Yes, I did have it, and I still have my original one, as well as every generation of gameboy known in history, except the 3DS (I only have room for one 3DS in my life, and that's 3DS Max).
Lastly, in 1990, the amstrad gx4000, which sounds more like a bike and is a mouthful, was launched.
This was a short period, despite like my last blog entry which had everything coming out year after year. But this was when gaming became much more personal to homes. Before hand it was for work and office use (the development of computers), whereas now the market decided to target homes for their sales. From cracking german codes, to becoming a blue hedgehog collecting rings, I have to say it has gone from one extreme to another, from being a life or death situation to a "nah I've got another 5 lives left till it's game over" or "where are my damn rings?".
The most significant developments during this time period in my opinion was not the technology exactly, but how it's audience had changed, as well as purpose. An industry strives on it's audience and market, and if it's audience changes then so does the industry to suit the audience, so it can survive. Less companies became interested in video games, and more the general public, from arcades to wanting it in their households. Video games became a new industry, away from the computer industry, with the sole purpose of entertaining. It became the computer industry's little brother which plays pranks, but seemed to be as much in high demand from the public than computers were, both growing up together and evolving in different separate ways but still having some of the same connections, and the same beginning.
Another significant point, was the rise of the war between the companies. I do not think that it had much impact on the industry up until when the three major ones hit later in the 2000s. However, it was the beginning and start of the competition between the companies, and the sales. Which made them more determined to out do the other one in graphics, games, sales, audience and technology.
Currently listening to: Rage Against The Machine.
Monday 24 October 2011
The history of computers 1840s-1980
Quite a massive chunk of history that I shall be covering in this entry. However, I will be touching on the topics quite lightly and in a quick manner. For my course, I will be using computers for half the time, and as it's linked to video games, I thought it was best to start from the very beginning. Computers played a big role in the development of video games, and it snowballed from there, so I want to grasp a better understanding of the history. However, like the entire of history, everything is biased and written by the winner's point of view, so I have gathered my sources together to work out which part came when and in which order (thanks to my lecturer for the helpful links as well).
Let's start from the beginning, with a wonderful invention in 1849. It was called Difference Engine. Which is basically a mechanical calculator, and most likely the biggest calculator still to date. However, it was automatic which got the ball slowly rolling. It had the foundations of the working of a computer, and it could be reprogrammed. Seemed like an amazing calculator, and it still is extremely shiny today.
The picture displays the one, the original, in London's Science Museum. I told you it's still shiny.
In 1939, the first HP came to our eyes, it was a box that made noise. However it was the first HP to be invented and they will stay with us for many more years to come. In 1940, the CNC typewriter was produced. This showed the idea of monitors and the keypad which is the basic layout of a computer today.
One of the main breakthroughs were 1943, whilst the men went to fight for the country with their guns and helmets, the women were left at home to cover for them. They created collosus, which was a code breaker for the German enigma code. A lot of women worked on the early computers, but the men like to take the credit.
IBM decided to come on to the scene, with style in 1948. They decided to give the computer a chance to be stylish, and it somewhat worked from that I guess. The Lions invented the Leo in 1951, which was an actual stock control, yes as well as creating delicious treats, they invented this. In the same year, the univac was invented which could store and retrieve data.
The year 1960 was a turning point, the dec pdp - II was invented which displayed a monitor, and the keyboard. It was also small, and able to be placed in offices. Pong also came stumbling along in this year too. Both a massive turning point in this decade, as Pong is classed as the original video game, but that's quite debatable.
The qwerty keyboard and space bar came on to the scene in 1972 on a tv typewriter. The first paint program was created, called super paint. Up until this point, computers were mainly homed on people who have certain skills, like stock taking, or data inputting, the mathematical side of it. This program was the mother to Photoshop and Coral painter. It was the first computer directed to the art subject field. In 1974, the mouse came on to the scene. Two years after that, the very first apple came on to the scene, where it looks pretty but it's not all there. Two more years later, the commodore pet was created, where multiple programs could run at once.
Now the turning point for video games, the atari vcs prototype was born. The very first video game console, with an input for a joystick. Plus, it could play more than one game. A bit humdrum compared to today's technology, but back then, it was a strong powerful turning point. The atari 2600 was born and shelved, which had little cartridges.
Space invaders became hot and mainstream in 1980, which I shall then leave this post on. So in a few decades, the computer had become developed fiercely, and the creators had understood that this is where the future is at. They tried to push the limits with their technology, and to make the entire computer system more compact. However, it had branched out from just mathematics to the design field and to the entertainment field for family fun and homework repellent for the children.
Now, a lot of technology has developed throughout this time period. The computer started off as having a solo purpose, used for businesses. The people who had money to invest, and spend on the development of computers was the big businesses or the government, so obviously, they knew what they wanted to achieve with this technology. Being a little fat plumber going to the wrong castle again to rescue the princess was not what they were concerned about whilst we were being bombed in the blitz. However, these foundations were strong, and everything is quite significate. If it wasn't, then we would not be at the stage we are at now. Before being able to use anything for fun, you have to understand the concept and context and the foundations of it (personal experience, 3ds max, which at the moment, is a horrible piece of software). I think the arcades was one of the bigger turning points, because it got the industry noticed, and how companies understood that people want these games at home, and it gave them a goal to work towards (to make money) which helped developed the technology of video games.
Currently listening to: Lights.
The picture displays the one, the original, in London's Science Museum. I told you it's still shiny.
In 1939, the first HP came to our eyes, it was a box that made noise. However it was the first HP to be invented and they will stay with us for many more years to come. In 1940, the CNC typewriter was produced. This showed the idea of monitors and the keypad which is the basic layout of a computer today.
One of the main breakthroughs were 1943, whilst the men went to fight for the country with their guns and helmets, the women were left at home to cover for them. They created collosus, which was a code breaker for the German enigma code. A lot of women worked on the early computers, but the men like to take the credit.
IBM decided to come on to the scene, with style in 1948. They decided to give the computer a chance to be stylish, and it somewhat worked from that I guess. The Lions invented the Leo in 1951, which was an actual stock control, yes as well as creating delicious treats, they invented this. In the same year, the univac was invented which could store and retrieve data.
The year 1960 was a turning point, the dec pdp - II was invented which displayed a monitor, and the keyboard. It was also small, and able to be placed in offices. Pong also came stumbling along in this year too. Both a massive turning point in this decade, as Pong is classed as the original video game, but that's quite debatable.
The qwerty keyboard and space bar came on to the scene in 1972 on a tv typewriter. The first paint program was created, called super paint. Up until this point, computers were mainly homed on people who have certain skills, like stock taking, or data inputting, the mathematical side of it. This program was the mother to Photoshop and Coral painter. It was the first computer directed to the art subject field. In 1974, the mouse came on to the scene. Two years after that, the very first apple came on to the scene, where it looks pretty but it's not all there. Two more years later, the commodore pet was created, where multiple programs could run at once.
Now the turning point for video games, the atari vcs prototype was born. The very first video game console, with an input for a joystick. Plus, it could play more than one game. A bit humdrum compared to today's technology, but back then, it was a strong powerful turning point. The atari 2600 was born and shelved, which had little cartridges.
Now, a lot of technology has developed throughout this time period. The computer started off as having a solo purpose, used for businesses. The people who had money to invest, and spend on the development of computers was the big businesses or the government, so obviously, they knew what they wanted to achieve with this technology. Being a little fat plumber going to the wrong castle again to rescue the princess was not what they were concerned about whilst we were being bombed in the blitz. However, these foundations were strong, and everything is quite significate. If it wasn't, then we would not be at the stage we are at now. Before being able to use anything for fun, you have to understand the concept and context and the foundations of it (personal experience, 3ds max, which at the moment, is a horrible piece of software). I think the arcades was one of the bigger turning points, because it got the industry noticed, and how companies understood that people want these games at home, and it gave them a goal to work towards (to make money) which helped developed the technology of video games.
Currently listening to: Lights.
Monday 10 October 2011
My name is Kendall Mcewan (yes, as in the mintcake and the place but spelt differently, and yes it's my first name not my last name, and yes it is spelt correctly and it can be spelt many variations, and yes, this joke has been done to death, if you wish to catch me off guard mention the Kendall battery, piercing needles or tobacco) and yes, my parents liked mintcake so much that they called me after it. My name gets a lot of talk about it.
I started off in a little spit of a village near the lovely land of Loughborough. I went through all the boring schools till I reached Burton college a few years a go. I studied Art and Design as a btec national diploma, and I specialised in Graphics as I've been naturally good at it since the beginning of GCSE. I got introduced to this course by my tutor Rich, we then had a £10 bet on if I liked the place or not, as it was so close to home I had already made judgement of it. However, I arrived and I was impressed which made it my first choice and I stood corrected. That £10 I gave my tutor went on coffee.
I aim quite high, cause I don't really know any other way to aim to be honest. I wish to get the top grade possibly on this course, and my dream job is like everyone else's on this course, a concept artist. However, I would happily settle for character designer, or creature designer. It's quite standard to understand the skills needed to obtain this job, obviously knowing and understanding the software and being able to draw and make everything come alive and tell a story within a single illustration. A good grasp on proportions and anatomy is needed as well. Basically, all I need is a lot of time spent on my skills to develop them further so they are at a much higher professional standard than they are now.
I know I came off as quite sarcastic in this, but I really did not mean to so I apologise for it now. I'm not that sarcastic, I just highly dislike talking about myself on a brand new blog where there is nothing else for people to grasp what my personality is like. Here have a smiley face for actually reading this :) have two actually :)
Currently listening to: Example.
I always do a currently listening to in my blogs cause it makes the entire blog seem a lot more personal if my music tastes are involved in such a way. Also, you can see where I get some of my inspiration from, or my influences.
I started off in a little spit of a village near the lovely land of Loughborough. I went through all the boring schools till I reached Burton college a few years a go. I studied Art and Design as a btec national diploma, and I specialised in Graphics as I've been naturally good at it since the beginning of GCSE. I got introduced to this course by my tutor Rich, we then had a £10 bet on if I liked the place or not, as it was so close to home I had already made judgement of it. However, I arrived and I was impressed which made it my first choice and I stood corrected. That £10 I gave my tutor went on coffee.
I aim quite high, cause I don't really know any other way to aim to be honest. I wish to get the top grade possibly on this course, and my dream job is like everyone else's on this course, a concept artist. However, I would happily settle for character designer, or creature designer. It's quite standard to understand the skills needed to obtain this job, obviously knowing and understanding the software and being able to draw and make everything come alive and tell a story within a single illustration. A good grasp on proportions and anatomy is needed as well. Basically, all I need is a lot of time spent on my skills to develop them further so they are at a much higher professional standard than they are now.
I know I came off as quite sarcastic in this, but I really did not mean to so I apologise for it now. I'm not that sarcastic, I just highly dislike talking about myself on a brand new blog where there is nothing else for people to grasp what my personality is like. Here have a smiley face for actually reading this :) have two actually :)
Currently listening to: Example.
I always do a currently listening to in my blogs cause it makes the entire blog seem a lot more personal if my music tastes are involved in such a way. Also, you can see where I get some of my inspiration from, or my influences.
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