Week 4 ... Nintendo Gives Birth and Beyond

Week 4, Task Four-ness-ness ... Yet more game history.

Picking up where I left off. Which was the late 90’s on the verge of the new millennium. The arrival of 128-bit, in the form of SEGA Dreamcast…the ugly thing. Then the big daddies of yesterday started to arrive (in order, earliest first) SONY PlayStation 2, NINTENDO game cube, and in 2001 the MICROSOFT Xbox, lovely daring’s that they are.

The PlayStation 2 toped the market selling 120 mil, cant see why personally, as non of the games really appeal to me, defiantly aimed at boys. Xbox was second with 24 mil. The only reason they sold less is because the PS2 was released just before and therefore most in the market had just purchased a console leaving little for the Xbox to work with. As far as I’m concerned the Xbox is far far better than the PS2.With these fella’s much better games came. Such as EVIL DEAD the game, JSRF, HALO and Splinter Cell.

These platforms were huge successes so what to the companies do? Why make more of course. But this time bigger and better so they can sell them all over again, to the same people. Also to make matters worse they stop making games for the original platforms. But hey that means I can get awesome Xbox games for only £5.oo.

So yea in dances the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2005.

Also they try to sell the same products to you for a third time with there portable version‘s, in the form of PSP (PlayStation Portable) and NINTENDO DS.

THEN <<<<2006>>>> NINTENDO GIVES BIRTH TO THE WII.
The Wii is aimed at the whole family, focusing on new gameplay methods and new forms of interaction, rather than amazing over the top graphics. The Wii is the best console so far.

Food For Thought.
Having looked at the previous game crash of 1983, I cant help but feel it will happen again. What with 3 major companies competing, each with more than one platform on the go (apart form the 360). The sales of video games are once again struggling under spilt market conditions. Most gamers will not own both a PS3 and 360, let alone a Wii as well. Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony may all be surviving sharing the market, but it will make life hard for third party game publishers to chose what platform to create games for. Future platforms will have more money spent on them and yet will receive lower returns, with each generation. Id say the companies will have to combine efforts to survive.

Uninspired

This organic character brief must be the best I have ever had, its the most open by far. So why… … WHY !! am I so uninspired. All I can come up with is a guy with a fish head hat and a lady with wasp tattoo’s. could have gone to town making some obscure monster. But but even with Google’s help, I’m still well and truly stuck.…HELP.!!!.

Thinking about it why do I even bother trying to create good art, and be on a course that specialises in visual stunning-ness-ness when people are entertained just as much by the amazing http://www.ratemypoo.com/

I think I could pass this course if all I do is a poop in the middle of the room and leave it there for the 3 years. Oh wait sorry that’s how to pass a “FINE ART” course. (me slag of the course I’m on … NEVER)

Week 3 ... My Middle Bit

Week 3, Task three-ness-ness… and it goes on ....My Middle bit.

This is going to be hard. Hmmmmmmm, well ok so after the Amiga. We got are first computer, whoop whoop. But again I never really got a turn in the beginning, and I only ever really used it for homework. Until I got myself some “good” games. I went through a longgggg faze of sim type games like Theme park, Theme park world, Startopia, Theme hospital (yea there all bullfrog games, I loved them) OOO OOO and not forgetting Dungeon Keeper, god of Bullfrog games.

A yes I did play on Sims and had all the add on’s, that was a great game but only with the cheats, building HUGE houses was defiantly entertaining. However the whole making them go to the loo and cooking dinner was boringgg. Even with all the boring bits it was inevitable that I was going to get Sims 2. So I could build bigger better houses with basements and loft conversions, the works. I also managed one hell of a family tree, brothers had kids with the same lady who was also sleeping with there dad. social services took the kids, Pftt if they cant be bothered to feed them then neither can I.

Oh yea did I mention the Guybrush Threepwood and Indiana Jones obsession? Well that’s still there. Games like that are amazing oo oo especially GRIM FANDANGO. But most importantly ….I WANT A MONKEY ISLAND 5, on Wii. Also cant w8 for Lego Indiana. I know I know miss spent youth bla bla bla… After a stressful day at school there was nothing better than a good dose of insult sword fighting or puzzle solving.

New revelation Davy Jones is a LeChuck rip off. There I was looking for a little LeChuck for my Blog and I come across this = ( who ever though this up, was thinking way to much ) o_O

AND now to pay homage to JET SET RADIO and JET SET RADIO FUTURE / JSRF. The random ass graphics on these games are groovi and I have to say it had a big influence on my artiness-ness. PLUS the music is amazing I have the whole lot on my mp3 still.

Then came the time when all I did was play on my bros online games. There was guild wars, managed to get a level 14 Necromancer (necro‘s rock) considering the max level was 20, lvl 14 was amazing. I loose interest in these games quickly, can u blame me?. And then there’s wow (World of Warcraft) now this I had 2 characters both pitifully low levels. One EVIL undead freak for harassing ppl, one good little gnome for socializing. Yea cant say I actually played that game, just bopped around. My chars had the best names Moth and Aphid, I am proud of myself for not having overly long stupid names like everyone else on there. Sad thing is there are still “friends” from the game on my msn list who STILL harass me and call me moth. Its getting a little weird to say the least. But I could not imagine my online world without them, there part of the package. Any-hoo that game got boring as all games do. eventualy.

Yea I know this blog entry is a bunch of random statements and the like. But hey the man said “we’sa no do essays” so I think I’m covered.

Gahh Water Cooler

Taa-Daa
Ok so this is my last water cooler attempt. This little baby is 5th generation, possibly 6th. Yes that right folks why you were all off making lovely Pagodas, I’ve made 6 bloody water coolers, and I still can’t remember how to do the texturing malarkey. But hey now I can UV map with my eyes closed.

OK but this thing is hard to make look good when the ref photos to make the skin from are taken at stupid ass angles and are really naff quality. Plus the templates you make the model from are based on someone else’s model and not the actual water cooler. There for the finished results look like someone’s gone at it with a chain saw and stuck it back together with chewing gum.

I'm not just making excuses.

Week 3 ... The 80's and 90's

Week 3, Task Three-ness-ness … work work work … This ones a long one.

Ok so back to the history of games, I left you in the late 70’s now this is were we start getting interesting (hopefully). The first home consoles have arrived in the form of the impressive 8-bit, with the groovy cartridge based games. The most popular of these consoles was the Atari 2600 which was released in 1977. The Atari played games such as space invaders, pac-man and the like. Competition was strong for the Atari but the little guy stood strong almost dominating the market.

So everything was booming in the game industry until the Atari hit 5 in 1983, the public was loosing interest and looking for the next big thing. The market became over clogged with “new” consoles and games. Overproduction and lack of interest resulted in the north America video game crash. When I say clogged I’m not joking … Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Bally Astrocade, ColecoVision, Coleco Gemini, Emerson Arcadia 2001, Fairchild Channel F System II, Magnavox Odyssey2, Mattel Intellivision, Tandyvision, VTech CreatiVision, and Vectrex. I could list more but I’ve made my point.
QUESTION?-Who Named these things?

Also about this time was the start of the home pc which was generally a keyboard that hooked up to the TV, this added to the problem. As these babies had better graphics, better sound, more memory and generally opened up the market for more sophisticated games.
One more thing ….. The break out of the home computer resulted in a highly competitive price war.

Soooooooo it really was inevitable that the industry went out the window, and the whole video game thing was declared as a fad.

BUT THEY WERE WRONG …

Home computers were a big success in Europe with the Commodore 64 and the saying “Why buy your child a video game and distract them from school when you can buy them a home computer that will prepare them for college?” Yea right ! As Europe had already moved on from video games they were relatively unaffected by the crash.

Dam I’m dribbling on a bit, but this is actually quite interesting. I surprise myself. I don’t blame you if u stop reading.

OK ok sooo, Then came the rise of NINTENDO with its NES/Famicom (family computer) and later on in 1989 the game boy, whoop whoop. But SEGA came along with its Sonic the hedgehog which began the Super Mario and Sonic Hedgehog's rivalry. Sonic has always been my fav. 16-bit came and went in the form of the Super Nintendo and Sega Mega Drive in 1990. With it came Zelda, Metroid, Final fantasy and Street fighter.

Hehehe ! Now I had a little precious Super Nintendo, I got one after they were cool, out of pity really. I treasured its Retro-ness-ness and it was very loved. Only recently did the happy fella leave my side. I came home one day and someone has put him on eBay, just to see how much he was worth. I will always miss him, my little SNES, I hope he went to a good home.

So summing up the early 90’s.
32-bit came then 64-bit, Sony Playstation entered the room in 1994, Sega and NINTENDO !! were still going strong, game boy colour arrived, the PC had evolved and the internet had started its world domination. Oh and not forgetting 3D games.

Ok just read that back and it’s one huge ass list. Pftt it was inevitable.

Week 2...My Beginning

As a wee lass I never ever got a look in on the computer, what with a older and younger brother. I was the one who was told “you don’t want to play that, just go paint or play with Barbie” thinking about it that must be why I like art so much because Barbie sucked and Shelly went off on an “adventure” in the garden and sadly never came back. So glitter and paint it was.

However I remember are first computer type thing vividly, The Amiga 500. The Amiga was release in 1987, and it cost around $500 dollars, we got the Amiga around 1995/6 because around that time it would have been affordable to mortals (by my calculations, that would make me 7ish).

Anyway this thing was brilliant, even if I was only watching others play, and being deemed as an annoying pest. On the off chance I did get to play, without a doubt I would play ZOOL 2, amazing upbeat music, funky characters, bright colours and Chupa Chup lollypops throughout, what more could a young girl want in a game. Pure ZOOL worship. And yes of course I was the girl char.

There were some other “GREAT” games like, Secret of Monkey island (I’m a huge Monkey island fan, DO NOT MOCK) From the box advert you thing the game is an amazing work of art with its “swashbuckling graphics“ but then u play it lol, hey if it says swashbuckling graphics in the add its got to be a good game. Guybrush Threepwood is my hero, followed close by Indiana Jones (ill not go into that, I bet your already freaked).

Other good games were, lemmings, the settlers and loom (I could not play loom, but it looked pretty). But the best is still ZOOL. GO ZOOL GO.

A must go place if u had/have an Amiga ... http://www.lemonamiga.com/ ... brings back the memories. Xd

Week 2.... The Beginning

Week two, task two. A bit late, but better than never.

When ever you think of early video games everyone instantly thinks of Pong, Pac-man and the like. But apparently the video game was born in the early 1950’s.

Early programs were simple, such as checkers and tic-tac-toe. However these programs were not classed as true electronic games as they were representations/copies of the average board game. So even though these were make before, the first “true” electronic game is Tennis for Two by William Higinbotham created in 1958, 6 years after checkers. The purpose of this game was to entertain visitors to the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Its extremely primitive, like pong only a lot worse. As u can see =

So this dude Higinbotham was a American Physicist, created Tennis For Two on a oscilloscope. Oscilloscopes are normally use for testing electronic signals, displaying voltages in a graph. So what on earth compelled him to use this as a base? I’m thinking since it was the 1950’s there was nothing else that fit his requirements (just guessing, I could be wrong) I’ll see if I can find anything further. Unfortunately for him he never attempted to market or patent his device and it never really had much impact on the word, so the potential of the electronic game remained unrecognized by the public.

It was not until the 1970’s more that 10 years later that video games were commercialized, this was very hit and miss the industry struggled and even collapsed in 83. But they managed to build the basis for what is now a booming industry. console hardware alone is predicted to make 3.89 billion this year and 5.77 billion in 2010. (I hate statistics, so this is most likely wrong XD)

Games from the 70’s are amazingly primitive with simple targets, but amazingly addictive.

(Wikipedia rocks, best place for information EVER)

GameCity

Gamecity. Hmm were to start. I even said before I went the only thing worthwhile to come from game city would be the possibility of a photo with a storm trooper. Well here it is, proof that I actually did go to a game convention for the first time. And to be honest it was not the most impressive game convention. As in most of the lectures the majority of people there were from the same course (were we the only ones dumb enough to go) having said that it did entertain me and it made a change from the norm. the presentations were surprisingly really entertaining and obscure things. Like how to tape your Wii control to a lightsaber, so you can play Lego Starwars on Wii to the “extreme“.

Oh yes im cool. lol. I was forced.

As far as KEITA TAKAHASHI and nobby nobby boy is concerned I’m still utterly bewildered by the entire thing. I lost 2 hours of my life to growing plants, odd videos and a miffi cup and bowl. BUT hell It was funny XD.