Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Week nine..........Game Technology.......
I.B.M.s Deep blue... Nintendo's Game glove...
This week is about the different platforms and their ergonomic design, I guess from my own point of view the PS2 dual shock pad is the king of ergonomic design unfortunately though this looks like being discontinued because the new PS3 pad has no rumble in it, BIG mistake Sony instead they have tried to copy Nintendo's motion sensing antics and have insisted you can't have both although Nintendo have proved that you can. What has happened at Sony HQ????
Anyway back to the task, personally I think its just plain wrong playing games with a keyboard and mouse it feels like you are controlling a robot arm rather than a computer game character whereas with a pad you get a sense of the weight of the gun or sword now I know game competitions and game playing pros swear by the mouse and keyboard combo but that's about winning not about being immersed in the game I will admit it is easier and quicker to aim with a mouse but I think having played Call Of Duty on the P.C. it ruins the experience.
They say that aesthetics have only come into play in the last 10 years of gaming which is true, there's not much difference between a top end P.C. and the old Amiga or the Odyssey and the neo-geo looks wise but with the launch of the Playstation looks became important as the market grew from nerds and geeks ( people who would have been happy having I.B.M.s deep blue in their bedroom) to a more discerning public who wanted something that would blend in with their stereo and T.V. and also looked less toylike, that's the market today at least for consoles.
Sony and Microsoft want a system that the family has sitting in their living room that can do more than play games, that's why we have the internet, DVD (Blu ray or HD) and CD capabilities for each format so why spend money on a new stereo or DVD player when the games machine can do it all cementing the relationship between the game system and the family.
The biggest gamble being taken by any game company is Nintendo with their Wii console, it's not a next gen console as the engine is a souped up cube engine but what it lacks in power it more than makes up for in its interface using what can only be described as a T.V. remote coupled with a "nunchuck" ( a little device that senses motion and has whole families standing in front of the T.V. flailing their arms like 90s ravers if the adverts are to be believed) this is the newest thing to happen to gaming as far as controllers but I doubt it will prove more than just a gimmick like the game glove, laser guns, dance mats and steering wheels.....
Till next time....
Friday, December 01, 2006
Storytelling in games............Week 8........
This is a huge issue in games at the minute and one where there are great examples from both sides of the argument on how important storytelling is or isn't in games but as this is my blog I am going to give you my personal opinion on this...
I'd like to start with a game that is all story and not much in the way of gameplay its called "Fahrenheit" the first game from David Cage's Quantic Dream studio, now I would have never played this if it hadn't been for an interesting article I read in "Edge magazine" over the Summer about how the next gen software will be capable of portraying emotion by basically allowing development teams to make virtual actors for games which is huge if you think about it and if you need an example of what that looks like check out Mr Cage's "Heavy Rain" demo which ran to much acclaim at this years E3, pretty impressive I'm sure you will all agree but enough about Quantic Dreams and back to the game itself, basically you play as four main characters and as you guide them through each scene you unlock more of the story until ultimately you reveal the ending of the game (think of an interactive novel as a good comparison). In this type of game the story is the motivation and reward whereas in a game like Doom3 the gameplay is the reward and the story is just about setting the scene.You see games like Fahrenheit need a strong story to work where as games like Doom don't, is one better than the other? No not at all but with each technological leap we are beginning to see more traditional writers i.e from t.v. and film becoming interested in the industry which can only mean better plots and stories...
I think that the next generation software is very important in this debate because for the first time we can actually make things like humans look really real, they can exude emotion and all and at this point a real connection with the characters can happen, after all games like films are visual and like great actors, game characters should be able to sell the plot and script I mean imagine instead of Robert De Niro you had one of the pointy headed freaks from half life in the starring role of Goodfellas, I think Martin Scorsese would have trouble pitching that to the studios don't you...but seriously the debate will rage on about how important a good story is in games and I would just like to close on this by making another comparison with Hollywood, in the film industry you have Hollywood blockbusters where special effects and lots of mindless action become the order of the day and lets face it, its fun but it hardly rocket science this is the state of the game industry we have today, never has there been a game that can compare to say Schindler's List, City of God or Elephant in making you think about human nature and the world we live in simply because, they are just that, games .....
Till next time.....
I just want to add a little about Half-life 2 as I recently went to the darkside and bought my first Xbox after many years vowing not to support Microsoft if possible, as I don't agree with their ethics but as the PS2 is over now I had no choice but to get one to play some classics that I had missed while I wait for the PS3. The first game I got was Half-life 2 and yes it looked great much better than anything on the PS2 I begrudgingly have to admit but I was a little disappointed I remember playing the first half-life years ago on the PS2 and loving every minute of it but the second though I admit looked and handled great but for some reason it just didn't do it for me and I couldn't figure it out why until I got Doom3, the missing ingredient was ATMOSPHERE there was none in half-life 2 in my opinion and that's why I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one.....
I'd like to start with a game that is all story and not much in the way of gameplay its called "Fahrenheit" the first game from David Cage's Quantic Dream studio, now I would have never played this if it hadn't been for an interesting article I read in "Edge magazine" over the Summer about how the next gen software will be capable of portraying emotion by basically allowing development teams to make virtual actors for games which is huge if you think about it and if you need an example of what that looks like check out Mr Cage's "Heavy Rain" demo which ran to much acclaim at this years E3, pretty impressive I'm sure you will all agree but enough about Quantic Dreams and back to the game itself, basically you play as four main characters and as you guide them through each scene you unlock more of the story until ultimately you reveal the ending of the game (think of an interactive novel as a good comparison). In this type of game the story is the motivation and reward whereas in a game like Doom3 the gameplay is the reward and the story is just about setting the scene.You see games like Fahrenheit need a strong story to work where as games like Doom don't, is one better than the other? No not at all but with each technological leap we are beginning to see more traditional writers i.e from t.v. and film becoming interested in the industry which can only mean better plots and stories...
I think that the next generation software is very important in this debate because for the first time we can actually make things like humans look really real, they can exude emotion and all and at this point a real connection with the characters can happen, after all games like films are visual and like great actors, game characters should be able to sell the plot and script I mean imagine instead of Robert De Niro you had one of the pointy headed freaks from half life in the starring role of Goodfellas, I think Martin Scorsese would have trouble pitching that to the studios don't you...but seriously the debate will rage on about how important a good story is in games and I would just like to close on this by making another comparison with Hollywood, in the film industry you have Hollywood blockbusters where special effects and lots of mindless action become the order of the day and lets face it, its fun but it hardly rocket science this is the state of the game industry we have today, never has there been a game that can compare to say Schindler's List, City of God or Elephant in making you think about human nature and the world we live in simply because, they are just that, games .....
Till next time.....
I just want to add a little about Half-life 2 as I recently went to the darkside and bought my first Xbox after many years vowing not to support Microsoft if possible, as I don't agree with their ethics but as the PS2 is over now I had no choice but to get one to play some classics that I had missed while I wait for the PS3. The first game I got was Half-life 2 and yes it looked great much better than anything on the PS2 I begrudgingly have to admit but I was a little disappointed I remember playing the first half-life years ago on the PS2 and loving every minute of it but the second though I admit looked and handled great but for some reason it just didn't do it for me and I couldn't figure it out why until I got Doom3, the missing ingredient was ATMOSPHERE there was none in half-life 2 in my opinion and that's why I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one.....
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Week 7........Art direction.......
If you look at the career structure of a game artist we can see that it goes: Entry level artist, junior artist, intermediate artist, senior or lead artist and then finally art director, this makes the art director position the top job in the game art industry.
The importance of the art director cannot be underestimated when producing a game, firstly they are responsible for the look and artistic style of the game, secondly they manage the game artists so that all the artwork is consistent and in keeping with the agreed deadlines and finally they recruit and maintain the art team.
As most art directors started out as game artists they are well aware of the processes involved in making 3D assets for a game, some art directors create assets, others delegate but all conduct the art team to complete the tasks required this is the difference between being a game artist and an art director, on the one hand you have the artistic skill but at the same time you are in a management position so your problem solving and team management skills become just as important as your creative side.
Art direction in games I would imagine is harder than in films because the art director in a film only has to worry about one viewpoint i.e. the camera but in a game the camera can be manipulated so an object can be seen from countless different angles, add to that the lighting and textures you can see there is quite a lot more work invovled to get assets to look correct in a game as opposed to a film....
Till next time........
The importance of the art director cannot be underestimated when producing a game, firstly they are responsible for the look and artistic style of the game, secondly they manage the game artists so that all the artwork is consistent and in keeping with the agreed deadlines and finally they recruit and maintain the art team.
As most art directors started out as game artists they are well aware of the processes involved in making 3D assets for a game, some art directors create assets, others delegate but all conduct the art team to complete the tasks required this is the difference between being a game artist and an art director, on the one hand you have the artistic skill but at the same time you are in a management position so your problem solving and team management skills become just as important as your creative side.
Art direction in games I would imagine is harder than in films because the art director in a film only has to worry about one viewpoint i.e. the camera but in a game the camera can be manipulated so an object can be seen from countless different angles, add to that the lighting and textures you can see there is quite a lot more work invovled to get assets to look correct in a game as opposed to a film....
Till next time........
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Week six... Game design....
What is gameplay, this is a tricky one because its hard to tell when game design stops and gameplay takes over, I guess the easiest way to work this out is to go back a few years to the era of board games, lets look at monopoly, lets say the board is the level or setting the player token is the game character and the love of monoploy money is you're motivation now its fair to say that everything concerned with this game has been designed by someone and since we haven't started the game yet there is no gameplay to talk of so this must be still game design. I roll the dice and get a five and since the rules of the game are that I can only move forward I have no choice but to land on a railway station NOW this is interesting because I know that my girlfriend loves to own the railway stations me, I can take them or leave them but I do remember losing a lot of games to my girlfriend when she has had the stations so do I buy it to stop her getting the set or do I skip that and hope to land on better properties THIS my friends is gameplay, there is no possible way the original game designer would know about me or my predicament but because of game design giving me strict rules I have been led to a point where I must make a decision and I believe that this is where gameplay takes over from game design.
Back to the here and now and video games, how many times have you played a game and because you don't have a certain key you can't get past a door even though you could easily break the door down or climb over it, this I believe is bad game design firstly it breaks the reality of the game world and secondly it doesn't make sense to the player especially when you have just fought and killed some monster that looked a hell of a lot more sturdy than that door. If we look at today's games there is one game designer that stands out for me, his name is Hideo Kojima of MGS fame, in his games he gives you a reason as to why you can't go through that door yet to be fair it will probably come with a 4 hour cut scene but at least you know and more importantly the game keeps it's integrity this is good game design, it's an attention to detail and just as importantly lets the player enjoy the games parameters and its world.
You see the trouble with game design is that you need to finish it early in the process of development so that the rest of the dev team can make the game so unless you have physic game designers the chances are there are not going to realize all the possibilities that the game world allows e.g. I'm sure you have all read interviews with studios on a upcoming game and in the interview they say something like ,once we finished the game and gave it over to the testers to play we seen them doing things that we had never though of. I know I have and I think this shows how hard it is to design a game to take everybodys ways of playing into account.....
till next time.....
Back to the here and now and video games, how many times have you played a game and because you don't have a certain key you can't get past a door even though you could easily break the door down or climb over it, this I believe is bad game design firstly it breaks the reality of the game world and secondly it doesn't make sense to the player especially when you have just fought and killed some monster that looked a hell of a lot more sturdy than that door. If we look at today's games there is one game designer that stands out for me, his name is Hideo Kojima of MGS fame, in his games he gives you a reason as to why you can't go through that door yet to be fair it will probably come with a 4 hour cut scene but at least you know and more importantly the game keeps it's integrity this is good game design, it's an attention to detail and just as importantly lets the player enjoy the games parameters and its world.
You see the trouble with game design is that you need to finish it early in the process of development so that the rest of the dev team can make the game so unless you have physic game designers the chances are there are not going to realize all the possibilities that the game world allows e.g. I'm sure you have all read interviews with studios on a upcoming game and in the interview they say something like ,once we finished the game and gave it over to the testers to play we seen them doing things that we had never though of. I know I have and I think this shows how hard it is to design a game to take everybodys ways of playing into account.....
till next time.....
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Task 5...Game journos do we need them...
As you can imagine from my title I've never really been a fan of game journalism....
On the one hand they provide a service, they tell the public about what new releases are coming out, they provide info on titles in development and offer their own opinion on games that are about to be released, or at least that is what they used to do, now thanks to the great leveler of the internet their industry is less important in the chain of game production and in the end isn't that what all this moaning is about from game journos. You see game journos are ego driven, once a long time ago they could make or break a game even before it had been released so the real game industry had to treat them with respect but not anymore, take the recent example of "We love Katamari" every game journo was praising it saying this game deserves to be a hit because it moves the industry forward, it has great ideas blah blah blah but in the end the general public had no interest in it and it was relatively ignored in Britain now in the old days because the press was behind it that would have guaranteed "We love Katamari" top spot in the charts for weeks to come.
The gaming press in general have a great talent of blaming everybody else for their own mistakes take the argument that because of the internet, game magazines are selling less copies WELL look around Q magazine, FHM, NME, What magazine, GQ you don't hear them complaining hmmmmnn maybe your shoddy attempts of journalism have finally caught up with you and in reality the average guy on the street could write a better review of FIFA 68 than you...
Lets take Kieron Gillen as an example on the one hand he says "If Games Journalism is just a job to you, you really shouldn't be doing it. The word should be vocation. but on the other hand he moans about having to meet 19 day deadlines surely someone who is doing their vocation should be able to pull out all the stops and make deadlines isn't that just basic journalism.....
As I was saying earlier journalists no longer have an impact but to be fair its not all entirely their fault lets take "Need for Speed Carbon" as an example. Let me start off by saying that I hate the need for speed series, bad handling coupled with the fact that I can't understand why anyone would want customizeise a virtual car have made me always stay clear of this series but I know that this game will top all the game shop charts for weeks to come, why! well because its the next update from one of E.A.s franchises, same can be said for the next G.T.A, Halo and Final Fantasy games you see if what you are writing about is stagnant then how can you make that interesting, so a modicum of sympathy goes to journalists in that respect...
Now a little bit about New game journalism or NGJ well what can I say, talking about your personal perceptions of a game rather than being subjective or neutral, I have a problem with this style when it come to games writing firstly when Hunter S Thompson did it in the 60s it was in reaction to the time. Watergate happened, for the first time the American public found that their government was lying to them, the facts became less important to people and journalism became about expression now I don't think a bunch of journalists feeling threatened by the internet really compares. so for that reason I think the gaming press can do without it, secondly if you are going to write about any technology be it games or otherwise, I'm sorry but facts are the story, not a story about the facts please....
Till next time.......
On the one hand they provide a service, they tell the public about what new releases are coming out, they provide info on titles in development and offer their own opinion on games that are about to be released, or at least that is what they used to do, now thanks to the great leveler of the internet their industry is less important in the chain of game production and in the end isn't that what all this moaning is about from game journos. You see game journos are ego driven, once a long time ago they could make or break a game even before it had been released so the real game industry had to treat them with respect but not anymore, take the recent example of "We love Katamari" every game journo was praising it saying this game deserves to be a hit because it moves the industry forward, it has great ideas blah blah blah but in the end the general public had no interest in it and it was relatively ignored in Britain now in the old days because the press was behind it that would have guaranteed "We love Katamari" top spot in the charts for weeks to come.
The gaming press in general have a great talent of blaming everybody else for their own mistakes take the argument that because of the internet, game magazines are selling less copies WELL look around Q magazine, FHM, NME, What magazine, GQ you don't hear them complaining hmmmmnn maybe your shoddy attempts of journalism have finally caught up with you and in reality the average guy on the street could write a better review of FIFA 68 than you...
Lets take Kieron Gillen as an example on the one hand he says "If Games Journalism is just a job to you, you really shouldn't be doing it. The word should be vocation. but on the other hand he moans about having to meet 19 day deadlines surely someone who is doing their vocation should be able to pull out all the stops and make deadlines isn't that just basic journalism.....
As I was saying earlier journalists no longer have an impact but to be fair its not all entirely their fault lets take "Need for Speed Carbon" as an example. Let me start off by saying that I hate the need for speed series, bad handling coupled with the fact that I can't understand why anyone would want customizeise a virtual car have made me always stay clear of this series but I know that this game will top all the game shop charts for weeks to come, why! well because its the next update from one of E.A.s franchises, same can be said for the next G.T.A, Halo and Final Fantasy games you see if what you are writing about is stagnant then how can you make that interesting, so a modicum of sympathy goes to journalists in that respect...
Now a little bit about New game journalism or NGJ well what can I say, talking about your personal perceptions of a game rather than being subjective or neutral, I have a problem with this style when it come to games writing firstly when Hunter S Thompson did it in the 60s it was in reaction to the time. Watergate happened, for the first time the American public found that their government was lying to them, the facts became less important to people and journalism became about expression now I don't think a bunch of journalists feeling threatened by the internet really compares. so for that reason I think the gaming press can do without it, secondly if you are going to write about any technology be it games or otherwise, I'm sorry but facts are the story, not a story about the facts please....
Till next time.......
Friday, October 27, 2006
today the future and beyond of gaming...Task 4
Today's game industry is a strange one, we have eye blistering graphics, amazing sound and an ability to create a pretty convincing atmosphere to play in regardless of genre but all this has come at a price, a price we will continue to pay for the foreseeable future,the price is innovation.
How many times have you perused the game aisles only to find that there's not much to play or got home put a brand new release on and have seen it all before, these are the signs of a stagnant industry an industry that needs new ideas coupled with the fact, that if one company has a hit with a game or feature in a game every other company jumps on the bandwagon and clones it until you forget why you liked the original e.g. Stealth I'm sick of creeping around in just about every single game just shoot the guy and be done with it...
You see the industry has changed for better or worse (depending on you're point of view) it has become big business, corporate if you will and like most corporations has gone on to trade innovation for profits, why gamble on a new type of game if you can make a FPS based on world war two and guarantee decent profit margins, this is the industry we have today...
So how did this all come about? well before the 90s the industry operated like this, you had a developer who could be anything from one guy in his bedroom to a modest company who would finance and produce a finished game then they would take this product to a publisher who would handle the mass duplication, packaging, and shipping to retailers around the world, easy eh! but in the 90s technology improved offering more detail and options for developers to incorporate into a game meaning that lots more people where required to produce the game therefore pushing up the development cost to unprecedented levels, add to the fact that more gaming platforms arrived meaning that you had a better chance of making more cash if you could make your game multi-platform but of course you needed to redesign certain aspects of the game engine to take into account the differences in the gaming guts of each format which of course meant more programmers more costs, this turned the industry into a jungle where only the strongest survived but in some cases even a successful franchise was not enough.
If we take the example of Origin Systems who had a strong franchise in the form of Ultima but still ended up being bought by Electronic Arts because they lacked cashflow for future development this trend continued and has made E.A. one of the biggest players in the industry today...
As you can see success is now measured in money and unfortunately innovation does not always guarantee cash in the bank so that is why we have such a copycat, risk averse industry, today's publishers just will not take risks on quirky or different games just look at all the sequels we have coming out on the next gen platforms the technology may be next gen but the corporate line is still the same...
With all this said I think the future is still bright because for the first time the industry is working on getting the public involved with developing, Xbox 360 and Ps3 are offering easy to use dev kits to the general public where you can publish your creations online and for the first time consoles are working to offer virtual market places to buy your games online negating the need for old style publishers like E.A. this is something that is going to happen and should shake up the industry once again but this time in a good way...
Next we have the beyond part, biotechnology that is the future, we as gamers will not just play games anymore but experience them as if they where real, instead of viewing a scene the scene would be imputed directly to your senses, imagine a game system that produces the chemicals and impulses to fool your brain to change your reality, the game would become you're reality. Film and T.V. do offer insights to what this would be like, the holodeck on Star Trek, the films eXistenZ and Minority report, this is what I believe the future of gaming will be, it will be an experience that will quite literally change your reality lets just hope that the industry changes enough so that when we get to that point I don't have to go out and buy a bloody stealth suit to play.....
All the best folks.........
How many times have you perused the game aisles only to find that there's not much to play or got home put a brand new release on and have seen it all before, these are the signs of a stagnant industry an industry that needs new ideas coupled with the fact, that if one company has a hit with a game or feature in a game every other company jumps on the bandwagon and clones it until you forget why you liked the original e.g. Stealth I'm sick of creeping around in just about every single game just shoot the guy and be done with it...
You see the industry has changed for better or worse (depending on you're point of view) it has become big business, corporate if you will and like most corporations has gone on to trade innovation for profits, why gamble on a new type of game if you can make a FPS based on world war two and guarantee decent profit margins, this is the industry we have today...
So how did this all come about? well before the 90s the industry operated like this, you had a developer who could be anything from one guy in his bedroom to a modest company who would finance and produce a finished game then they would take this product to a publisher who would handle the mass duplication, packaging, and shipping to retailers around the world, easy eh! but in the 90s technology improved offering more detail and options for developers to incorporate into a game meaning that lots more people where required to produce the game therefore pushing up the development cost to unprecedented levels, add to the fact that more gaming platforms arrived meaning that you had a better chance of making more cash if you could make your game multi-platform but of course you needed to redesign certain aspects of the game engine to take into account the differences in the gaming guts of each format which of course meant more programmers more costs, this turned the industry into a jungle where only the strongest survived but in some cases even a successful franchise was not enough.
If we take the example of Origin Systems who had a strong franchise in the form of Ultima but still ended up being bought by Electronic Arts because they lacked cashflow for future development this trend continued and has made E.A. one of the biggest players in the industry today...
As you can see success is now measured in money and unfortunately innovation does not always guarantee cash in the bank so that is why we have such a copycat, risk averse industry, today's publishers just will not take risks on quirky or different games just look at all the sequels we have coming out on the next gen platforms the technology may be next gen but the corporate line is still the same...
With all this said I think the future is still bright because for the first time the industry is working on getting the public involved with developing, Xbox 360 and Ps3 are offering easy to use dev kits to the general public where you can publish your creations online and for the first time consoles are working to offer virtual market places to buy your games online negating the need for old style publishers like E.A. this is something that is going to happen and should shake up the industry once again but this time in a good way...
Next we have the beyond part, biotechnology that is the future, we as gamers will not just play games anymore but experience them as if they where real, instead of viewing a scene the scene would be imputed directly to your senses, imagine a game system that produces the chemicals and impulses to fool your brain to change your reality, the game would become you're reality. Film and T.V. do offer insights to what this would be like, the holodeck on Star Trek, the films eXistenZ and Minority report, this is what I believe the future of gaming will be, it will be an experience that will quite literally change your reality lets just hope that the industry changes enough so that when we get to that point I don't have to go out and buy a bloody stealth suit to play.....
All the best folks.........
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Its that time again...week three task..
1971 the start of arcade gaming as we know it, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created the first arcade version of Spacewar called Computer Space although not a commercial success Bushnell would go on to start his own company the legendary Atari the following year...
The following year Atari developed a commercial hit in the form of pong the classic table tennis game which sold 19,000 units which to Atari's joy brought about the start of the arcade craze..
What is interesting about this era is that the micro chip was yet to be invented so games like Pong where made using small scale intergrated circuits consisting of 4-16 line decoders which would limit the software it wasn't until 1976 that the first microchip was developed...
Also in 1972 the first commercial video game console became available in the form of Ralph Baer's Odyssey this would come with 12 games programmed its hard to believe that in the short time from Spacewars! we would start to see two separate marketplaces opening up but as with most new technologies it takes a while to regain the momentum after the initial buzz not really until 1978 when Taito would release Space invaders along with Atari's Asteroids the market began to heat up to the point that other companies were wanting to get in on the act. The good times kept rolling with the likes of Pac-Man and the arrival of color screens well into the mid eighties until people lost interest and companies lost lots of money, its funny how an industry that runs on new technology is prone to boom and bust while people wait for the next leap and how this has always been the same for the game industry even from the start...
In a strange twist affordable home computers became available as the price of microchips went down, this hurt the arcade industry because people could get arcade conversions at home without having to pay for credits this prompted the likes of Sega and Atari to look at the home market and this would ultimately move us to the next chapter in video game history...
Until next time .....
The following year Atari developed a commercial hit in the form of pong the classic table tennis game which sold 19,000 units which to Atari's joy brought about the start of the arcade craze..
What is interesting about this era is that the micro chip was yet to be invented so games like Pong where made using small scale intergrated circuits consisting of 4-16 line decoders which would limit the software it wasn't until 1976 that the first microchip was developed...
Also in 1972 the first commercial video game console became available in the form of Ralph Baer's Odyssey this would come with 12 games programmed its hard to believe that in the short time from Spacewars! we would start to see two separate marketplaces opening up but as with most new technologies it takes a while to regain the momentum after the initial buzz not really until 1978 when Taito would release Space invaders along with Atari's Asteroids the market began to heat up to the point that other companies were wanting to get in on the act. The good times kept rolling with the likes of Pac-Man and the arrival of color screens well into the mid eighties until people lost interest and companies lost lots of money, its funny how an industry that runs on new technology is prone to boom and bust while people wait for the next leap and how this has always been the same for the game industry even from the start...
In a strange twist affordable home computers became available as the price of microchips went down, this hurt the arcade industry because people could get arcade conversions at home without having to pay for credits this prompted the likes of Sega and Atari to look at the home market and this would ultimately move us to the next chapter in video game history...
Until next time .....
