Gaming History 101

[LunarWeaver]

Let's say you are a Professor at a University teaching a Gaming History class. You must assign 10 games to a classroom that they will play and discuss to teach them about the industry.

This is not a personal "10 favorite games" list.

Here are what I'd make the little bugs do:

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Atari 2600)
Super Mario Bros. (NES)
Tetris (NES)
Mortal Kombat (SNES)
Resident Evil (PSX)
Metal Gear Solid (PSX)
Final Fantasy VII (PSX)
Grand Theft Auto III (PS2)
The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (N64)
Halo (Xbox)

[Tavrobel]

Pick a group of games that have impacted the face of the current gaming industry?

Donkey Kong (Arcade)
Super Mario Bros (NES)
Legend of Zelda (NES)
Pokemon R/G/B/Y (GB)
Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)
Doom (PC)
FFIV (SNES) -- this is the first one that mattered
FFVII (PSX) -- this one split the generations
Dragon Quest/Warrior (NES)

There's more I could think of, but I only listed the first 10.

[NeoCracker]

Basically 101 Would be 10 of the Most popular and Revolutionary pre NES games.

First off, Some ARcade Games
Pac Man
Space Invaders

Then, Home Console Games
Pong - The first one ever to hit homes. (I might be wrong on this)

I can't think of many more Pre NES games though.

The next class, however, would be NES, SNES, and Genesis Titles.

The remaining class's would be from PS and N64 on.

[Tavrobel]

I have this feeling that if you assigned anyone with a game from 2000 or beyond, you might wind up losing students.

[phbr]

Super Mario Bros. (NES)
Metal Gear Solid (PSX)
Final Fantasy VII (PSX)
Wolfenstein 3D (PC)
System Shock (PC)
Monkey Island (PC)
Pong (._. ?)
Half-Life (PC)
StarCraft (PC)
Dune 2 (PC)

[LunarWeaver]

101 is just a silly title I used for no reason! Don't be so literal Crackaface

It can be any from any time period. Assume these people have no lives and plenty of time to play them. And even if they aren't interesting, they still have to beat them It's not like teachers assign fun homework all the time.

They wouldn't necessarily have to make an impact. Take something like... Soul Calibur probably had more impact on the Fighting genre than Mortal Kombat, but MK had lots of controversy so I picked it. It's kind of up to you.

[Tavrobel]

It can be any from any time period. Assume these people have no lives and plenty of time to play them. And even if they aren't interesting, they still have to beat them It's not like teachers assign fun homework all the time.

No, the point I was trying to make, is that if you gave them a post-2000 game (say, WoW), you might literally start losing students. Games, starting with FFVII, started to be come far more massive and filled with extra stuff. They became progressively more time consuming, as opposed to 32 levels in Super Mario Bros, a large chunk of which you could skip (1-1, 1-2, 4-1, 4-2, 8-1/2/3/4).

[LunarWeaver]

That's why I said assume they can play them all, despite the time factor It's not a real classroom xD I just wanted to see what people would pick. I was sick of top 10 favorite listsss.

[NeoCracker]

Oh shut it Lunar, I'll be as literal as I want.

And when I get arsed to get a list of games by dates, I'll make 101, 201, and 301 lists, so HAH!

[KentaRawr!]

If I were a professor at such a school, and I was assigning 10 games for students to play, I wouldn't go with the more popular titles and systems, because they probably already know about those things. I'd try to focus more on games for systems that failed, and analyze how the competition went. Then, for a special treat, the 10th game would be Halo 3.

[LunarWeaver]

Cracka, you're just trying to cheat your way out of a list of 10 you cheeky monkey.

But that's like not teaching grammar and spelling in English just because you can speak the language already.

[KentaRawr!]

Well, gosh. :0

First one would be Pong. It's one of the first Video Games, and thus, should be played for more than a few rounds. I'd focus on how this, and whatever spawned in its creation, seemingly had an extremely direct control of the values that represent the player's location, and how in later games, the system itself did much more math for the playing experience. The only thing the system worked out in Pong was the ball, and the values of the paddles were directly represented by the player's position on the dial. Such a method of direct control isn't seen on a mass level until much later, but even then, the system does most of the math.

Next up, we'd go on to a classic Computer RPG, to analyze how the system keeps track of data, and how the Computer's ability to calculate is absolutely crucial to the gaming experience. Also, I'd note that the control scheme was entirely different from Pong's. In Pong, your paddle was directly represented by the setting on the dial. In this, you add to either the X or Y axis by 1 or -1.

Then we'd go on to Metroid, for the NES, but just for the Password System. This is to show directly how saving works. The Password system in Metroid is possible because there's so little to store on the save file. It also has to be made in a specific format, that the company does not share with the public, as to avoid letting players cheat. Each part means something. We'd also take a quick look at the physics of the game. When Samus hits an enemy, she's knocked backwards in relation to where the enemy was. Meaning, in the opposite direction. When the X and Y values get so close to one another, that happens. But if the Y value is above the enemy's value by such an amount, (you jumped over) you aren't hit by the enemy, and you don't go backwards. The X and Y values of both Samus and the enemy must be very close for the reaction to happen.

Then, we'd go on to Sonic the Hedgehog, for more on physics. The more Sonic runs, the faster he gets. This is acceleration. When you let go of the button, and stop adding to the acceleration, he goes slower. If you hit the opposite direction, then his speed gets closer to 0 at a faster rate.

The things seen in the previous games are absolutely crucial, and commonly used in EVERY video game today. After that little bit, I'd make a quick note of a more recent game, Smash Bros. Brawl, and how if you knock the character "Toon Link" high at a very fast rate, and Toon Link uses his Down-A, he freezes mid-air for a short period of time. Let's say the upwards force of an enemy's attack was 10, and the downward force of Toon Link's Down A was 15. He'd stop the upwards force, and go down at whatever rate 5 represents. However, if the upwards force was 15, and Toon Link's Downward Force was 15, then Toon Link will be stuck in the air. If the upwards force was 20, and the Downward Force was 15, then Toon Link would still be stuck in the air, because Toon Link moving downward at a rate of -5 would be weird.

I'd also note how Video Game systems and Computers have increased in how much they can do mathematically at one time over the course of time, and use this to lead into the next lesson: Competition.

I don't feel like writing more. :3

[LunarWeaver]

Wow, Ken really went serious teacher on that business. I'd say he gets the job.

[Tavrobel]

Wow, Ken really went serious teacher on that business. I'd say he gets the job.

I was about to say the same thing.

[Roto13]

1. E.T. - The game that destroyed the leading video game company at the time, the game that nearly killed the entire video game industry, and the game that summarizes why these games based on movies need to stop.

2. Pac-Man - One of the oldest real "main characters" in gaming. Pac-Man had personality and was a character, not just an avatar for the player.

3. Super Mario Bros. - This game breathed life back into the video game industry. After E.T. and Atari failed so miserably, Nintendo took a chance and released the Famicom/NES, followed shortly by Super Mario Bros.. This game revolutionized platformers and spawned about a bajillion clones.

4. Enter the Matrix - Enter the Matrix is a horrible game by most accounts, but it sold over five million copies in all! It was a rush job that sold ridiculously well because of marketing alone. That's something that should be examined, in my opinion.

5. Street Fighter II - Revolutionized fighting games. The first fighter to include that much depth and influence so many games that came after. It's even still popular today and many fighting games still try to emulate it's success.

6. Mortal Kombat - Mortal Kombat brought violence in video games to the forefront and showed that games don't necessarily have to be for kids. The game that caused the creation of the ESRB.

7. Virtua Fighter - Renowned for an incredibly amount of depth and pushing the 3D fighting genre, Virtua Fighter is to 3D fighting games what Street Fighter II is to 2D fighting games.

8. Dragon Quest/Final Fantasy - The fathers of the modern RPG. I put them both together because neither of they both played important roles in popularizing console RPGs. One thing to note is that Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest have giant audiences in America and Japan respectively.

9. Tetris - Tetris is still played and remade today. Every falling block style puzzle game is a tribute to Tetris.

10. Galaxy Game/Computer Space/Pong - Galaxy Game was the first coin-op video game ever made. Computer Space was the first video game ever commerically released. Pong was the first one to become popular enough to really call the video game industry an industry at all. They all very important.

I could write a longer list, but I think 10 works. xP