Computer Game Evolution
A journey through many years (and occasionally centuries) to find out who is responsible for modern computer and video games. May contain balls, Napoleon Bonaparte, robots, organized crime, and the US Air Force.
3.24 Pens, swords, boards
If you've written a novel or two, writing a few pages of rules should be easy… right?
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3.23 War(game)s are over?
As the Cold War takes a turn, computer wargames transform into strategy games, where a president does whatever the last person to see him told him to, dudes multiply in castles, and officers ask Napoleon to speak proper English.
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3.22 To Command and Control
The Cold War continues to terrify and inspire, so say hello to orbital laser strikes, new games of power politics, and the start of a long-running Japanese series. The British are still weird.
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Scheduling update
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3.21 Shedding Old Skin
Is a paper Call of Duty possible? Can Sid Meier design a good wargame? What's the punishment for being horny in Camelot? Would you kill if you had to?
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3.20 SPI to SSI
Is the Canadian PM good in a fight? What are the best places to summon demons in Armenia? How to overthrow the US Government in 2020? Jim Dunnigan could tell you all of that, but not how to run his own company.
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3.19 Historians Gone Wild
In the dark days before everyone had a microprocessor, some people just didn't care. They simulated current events, politics, and fantasy epics with paper.
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3.18 Sliding Faster
It turns out that lasers, mines, and various bombs can be used for more than just pure mindless action. Also, sliding blocks – you need lots of sliding blocks.
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3.17 Home Video
These games looked so good… and failed so hard.
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3.16 Running in Circles
Why are arcade joysticks so tiny? Who let Peter Molyneux into the industry? Both answers are somehow related to a game where robots call the player "chicken."
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3.15 Between an Abbey and a Skyscraper
More action, more adventure, a 3D engine, a physics engine and a whole lot of other great ideas are arriving year by year.
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3.14 Between Spaceships and Hell
Action-adventuring comes to busy city streets and schools, heaven and hell, Wonderland and Scotland. Also, Nintendo makes an OK game.
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3.13 Between Roots and Towers
Fidel Castro and Sylvester Stallone return for another round, joined by Aztecs, wizards, keys, and an unhealthy but adorable number of bats.
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3.12 Armed and Dangerous
You never know for certain what you're going to get. Sometimes, it's a box of grenades. Sometimes, Santa gives you a gun arm to take down Albert Einstein. Sometimes, a nuclear power plant melts down.
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3.11 A Rocky Road to Glory
It's the longest episode so far for two reasons: weaponised boobs, and Margaret Thatcher.
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3.10 A Leap Forward
Will jumping be mastered? Will it ever work in a way that satisfies players? Do players even know what they want? Can Mario beat Goku?
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3.9 A Hop, Skip, and a Jump
Apes on vines, frogs on lily pads, cats on cheese, and plumbers on ice – everybody wants to jump, but for now it is still optional.
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3.8 Spaceships, Helicopters, Jets
A dung beetle, a comet, and a Buddhist counsellor walk into a bar and order a scrolling shooter.
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3.7 Out of the Mystery House
Your most influential game is not always your best one.
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3.6 Computerworld
While micro makers keep trying to improve their product, the saga of IBM's terrible decisions continues.
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3.5 Computer Lib/Dream Machines
Selling micros was tough when everyone wanted to invent their own.
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3.4 Generation 6502
Arcades decide to stand together rather than die alone, while consoles are advancing into a generation that might not be real.
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3.3 Going Down, Going Up
A promising start-up splinters into an alphabet race, while nobodies from Japan accidentally make a good game and pretend they meant to.
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3.2 The Art of Business
A future legend of game design shows a kid a computer game. What's the worst that could happen?
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3.1 The Long-Term Outlook Has Never Been Better
What happens when a company that is the American video game industry is run by incompetent grifters long enough?
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2.12 Infinite Possibilities
Computerless entertainment strikes again.
Improvised stories: https://wobbupalooza.neocities.org/
Random music: https://opus-infinity.org/
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2.11 The Agony of Choice
Who would have thought years of permeating fear could be so inspiring.
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2.10 From Paper to Rust
There are so many types of media to put your game on, but each is promising both exciting opportunities and terrifying flaws. And don't forget the Dutch.
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2.9 Playing on the Go
The competition for pocket money and pocket space brings about strange machines and technological advances.
I've got a few pictures of the Microvision here
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2.8 Insert Credit, or Else
Ray Kassar has pissed off the wrong four people with a very particular set of skills.
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2.7 Offers They Couldn't Refuse
One day the mob wants your quarters, the next day IBM lobbies your business into dust. It's a wonder anything got done in the industry at all.
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2.6 Artificial Artificers
Weary game masters rejoice at the sight of computers generating dungeons for them. They quaff as many drinks as their magic sack funds allow them, and go watch rats fight giants.
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2.5 Downwards! To Adventure!
The world discovers the joy of applying items to problems, and escaping mazes.
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2.4 Call of the Void
It turns out that getting people excited about space for a decade makes their imaginations run wild.
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2.3 A Platonic Ideal
Sometimes, a military network project becomes a place for Microsoft to borrow games from.
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Surprise announcement
And I hate surprises.
https://ko-fi.com/post/A-special-announcement-V7V7BHKYT
2.2 Programmed to Succeed
Not all pioneers of computing and video games were white and male.
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2.1 The Happy Dead End
Sometimes, people want their own pizza place a little too much.
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1.11 So Close, and yet so Far
How hard can it be to understand what was happening 50 years ago in an industry based in information? Pretty hard, as it turns out.
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1.10 Before the Beginning
Time marches on, bringing us closer to video games with every step.
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