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Greatest Hits
Electronic games — arcade, computer and console — have been around for a couple of generations now. Here's a look at some of the favorites over the years — and a list of some of the top-recommended titles for this season's new game consoles, according to Yahoo! Games.
Spacewar
The first computer video game, created in early 1962 to run on a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-1 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's "Artificial Intelligence" lab.
Computer Space
Released in November 1971 by Nutting Associates, Computer Space was the world's first commercially sold video game. In the game, players try to evade enemy fire from flying saucers by controlling their space ship's thruster and rotational buttons.
Odyssey/Pong
The name "Pong" came from Atari's arcade version of digital table tennis, which was released in the fall of 1972. However, Magnavox had already introduced its own "Odyssey" home gaming console (which also played ping pong) in January, leading later to the one of the first patent infringement cases in the gaming industry. Trivia note: Nintendo's first foray into electronic gaming was as a distributor of the Magnavox Odyssey in Japan in 1975.
Space Invaders
Though it seems simplistic today, Space Invaders (1978) is considered one of the forerunners of modern video games. Players controlled a "laser cannon" that moved horizontally across the bottom of the screen, shooting a slowly descending squadron of aliens before they reached the bottom. Play could continue indefinitely as long as the aliens were warded off, with eventual invasion the only way to quit playing. This grim outcome led to protests that the game would encourage "defeatism" among U.S. youths.
Pac-Man
Wocka-wocka-wocka. First released as an arcade game in Japan in 1979 and in the U.S. in 1980, Pac-Man was a departure from the usual space war "shooter" games. A non-violent maze game, it and its sequels (such as "Ms. Pac-Man") appealed to both boys and girls, who enjoyed eating up the pellets and other prizes while avoiding the ghosts "Blinky," "Pinky," "Inky," and "Clyde." Trivia note: For the game's 25th anniversary, Namco released Pac-Man World 3 in November 2006, which includes the original arcade game as a special bonus.
Donkey Kong
In 1980, Nintendo released an arcade space shooter game called "Radar Scope" in the U.S., which had already been popular in Japan. By the time it reached America, however, the game was no longer in demand, and — facing financial disaster for its new U.S. division — Nintendo quickly developed a new game that could use the same arcade machine hardware, repainted to reflect the battle between a giant monkey and a little Italian plumber named Mario, which was released in 1981. Mario went on to become the most recognizable character in video game history — and a grateful Nintendo's official mascot.
John Madden Football
Today, thanks to a licensing agreement with the National Football League, the series is known today as Madden NFL. But in its first incarnation for the Apple II, the Commodore 64, and DOS PCs, John Madden Football (1988) almost didn't receive Madden's endorsement, because the initial proposed design had only seven players for each team. Now in its 18th season, Madden NFL 07 is available on most major game platforms — not including the Apple Macintosh, any extant Commodore 64s, or remaining DOS machines.
Doom
Shareware distribution. 3D graphics. Networked multiplayer gaming. Open-source customization and development. And violence, violence, violence. With its debut in 1993, Doom changed the expectations of gamers forever — and was the first introduction to game design for many of today's developers. Trivia note: a survey of 100 game designers in 2001 proclaimed Doom "the number one game of all time." Even in 2004, 11 years after its premiere, Doom was called "the most influential game of all time" by PC Gamer magazine.
Myst
At one time the best-selling computer game, solitary Myst (1993) players explored a strange, quiet but visually rich world of hidden challenges — and along the way helped spark a new genre of game that combined adventure-seeking and puzzle-solving. Myst's popularity, along with the earlier puzzle game The 7th Guest, helped build sales of CD-ROM drives for new home computers.
Pokémon
Released as Pokémon Red and Blue for the Nintendo Game Boy in 1996 in Japan and later in 1998 in the U.S., the Pokémon franchise grew to be the one of the best-selling in the video game market. Although the game grew increasingly complex with each new edition's release, the basic goal of catching, training, battling and trading various "Pocket Monsters" (or "Pokémon") helped drive the Game Boy's popularity.
Grand Theft Auto
Critically acclaimed and parentally criticized, the quest to feel good by doing bad has made Grand Theft Auto (1997) and its sequels a cult favorite. Playing a criminal anti-hero, gamers steal cars and cause death and destruction on their way to gaining points and reaching new levels. Trivia note: The game's publishers hired a publicist to enflame local controversy about Grand Theft Auto's sociopathic storyline. It worked: the more politicians and watchdog groups tried to ban the game, the more it sold.
The Sims
The best-selling computer game of all time, The Sims (2000) explores the day-to-day activities of virtual people in a virtual suburb, simulating the ambiguity and choices in real-life — unlike other games with clear objectives, goals, and outcomes such as winning and losing. Its creator has called The Sims a "digital dollhouse" — and the overall Sim franchise (SimCity, SimFarm, SimEarth, SimPark, etc.) have been likened to digital playgrounds.
Best Games* for the New Consoles
*According to Yahoo! Games
MICROSOFT XBOX 360
1. Gears of War
2. Dead Rising
3. Saints Row
4. Battle for Middle Earth 2
5. Prey
SONY PLAYSTATION 3
1. Resistance: Fall of Man
2. Ridge Racer 7
3. Rainbow Six: Vegas
4. Call of Duty 3
5. Tony Hawk Project 8
NINTENDO WII
1. Legend of Zelda
2. Warioware: Smooth Moves
3. Rayman Raving Rabbids
4. Trauma Center: Second Opinion
5. Downhill Jam
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Gamers and makers
Gamers
What will gaming be like for gamers in the near future? John Cohn, an IBM Research Fellow, has some ideas.
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- Half of all Americans-and 92 percent of American kids ages 2 to 17-play video games. The average age of a gamer is 25.7 years old.
- In the U.S. 39 percent of gamers are women, with similar estimates for Europe and Asia.
- The average gamer spends over two and a half hours each day gaming.
- Americans now spend more money on video games each year than they do on going to the movies, and more time at home playing video games than watching rented movies.
Makers
Game developers today straddle two industries-software and entertainment. What does it take to become a game developer?
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- Top-selling computer games can take up to 3 years to complete and can cost as much as $25 million to produce.
- Game developers use products like IBM's Rational Software to help them program millions of lines of code and automate the testing parts of the code. They are also developing games with massive amounts of art and sound that need revisions and updates just as often as the code. Tracking these non-software assets is also a new imperative.
- Some of the typical roles on a game development team are:
designer
programmer
art director
sound engineer
multimedia specialist
artist
animator
producer
tester
- The most popular games usually take the work of up to 60 people-although most of those join the team in the final months. The beginning team is often about 10 people or so-although they do not necessarily all work in the same office or, these days, even on the same continent.
- The best way to break into the game industry is often as a programmer, an artist, a producer (who manages schedules and budgets), or a tester. Writing and communication skills are also important.
Massive, multiplayer, online
In a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), hundreds of thousands of players' characters construct houses, palaces, towers and skyscrapers; populate cities, forests and shires; buy and sell virtual goods and services for virtual (and even real) dollars; and interact in just about every possible way they do in the physical world, except with the sometimes added ability to fly, hex each other, and cloak themselves with invisibility.
The first commercial MMORPG on the Internet with graphical, three-dimensional depictions was Meridian 59, which debuted in 1996 and is still going strong. But it is Ultima Online, which launched in 1997, that is credited with popularizing the genre the most by taking an already-popular video game into the "massively multiplayer online" environment.
Today, games like World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Lineage all have several million subscribers each. (World of Warcraft is currently the largest, with nearly 7 million subscribers paying approximately $12 a month.)
IBM's own Virtual Universe Community of employees is more than 230 strong- researchers, consultants, engineers, and others-all working on ways to apply virtual worlds to real business problems. Hundreds more IBMers are involved on an ad hoc basis, and actual work meetings among IBMers and other experimentations occur in virtual worlds like Second Life on a daily basis.
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The action at this year's Wimbledon was, for the first time, replicated in a virtual tennis court built by IBM in Second Life. While the game was played out in reality, spectators could sit with their friends or even walk on the court to view the game, ball-by-ball, from any angle. |
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In fall of 2006, in anticipation of a "town hall" meeting IBM's chairman, Sam Palmisano, was scheduled to hold with IBMers in Beijing, IBM's Virtual Universe Community began to build a three-dimensional replica of China's famous Forbidden City-mostly to scale and including many of the intricate wall and ceiling details found in the original-in Second Life.
The real-world meeting of employees therefore had a virtual component when avatars of Palmisano and Irving Wladawsky-Berger met in the Forbidden City replica with other IBM employees' avatars and discussed the various projects IBM has underway in Second Life and other synthetic worlds. (Wladawsky-Berger is IBM's "senior location executive" for the virtual world-and vice president of technical strategy and innovation in the physical one.)
If it all sounds both confusing and exciting, just wait-the line between carbon-based people and digital environments will only become more porous as technology, our understanding, and the possibilities for innovation grow.
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Game consoles
It's been called the video-game console war, with many news reports comparing and contrasting the relative merits of the Microsoft Xbox 360, the Sony PlayStation3, and the Nintendo Wii. As only a few have noted, however, the one definite winner already is IBM, which designed and makes the microprocessors for each of the consoles.
So you'll find no favorites at IBM-each system offers something different for gamers, because each manufacturer had a unique vision for its console and therefore each wanted something different from IBM.
Nintendo Wii
The company that grew up with video games is reinventing and reshaping the gaming experience for gamers of all ages with the new Wii.
For its new game system, Nintendo created a motion-sensitive controller called the Wii Remote, which resembles a TV remote control and is designed to be more inviting and comfortable for most people to use.
And it contains a speaker, which makes the experience all the more real. The Wii Remote can be swung like a racket in a tennis game or like a sword in an adventure game. For example, one new game, EXCITE TRUCK, will have players using the Wii Remote like a steering wheel.
To immerse gamers young and old into the gaming experience in this groundbreaking way, Nintendo needed advanced chip technology and turned to IBM to produce millions of fully tested, Power Architecture-based chips featuring IBM Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology that's only 90 nanometers thick-or 90 billionths of a meter.
Sony PlayStation 3
The world's largest maker of video game consoles wanted to provide gamers the most visually rich and detailed virtual worlds that designers could imagine.
To accomplish this, Sony collaborated with IBM and Toshiba to create a breakthrough chip design-called the Cell Broadband Engine- which features eight synergistic processors and a central processing core.
With its Power-based core and top clock speeds exceeding 4GHz, Cell can supercharge the graphics-intensive applications that will define a new generation of visual entertainment-offering blindingly fast performance for games and handhelds, virtual-reality, wireless downloads, real-time video chat, interactive TV shows and other "image-hungry" computing environments.
Cell processors are so powerful, they can also render highly accurate real-time three-dimensional images of the inner workings of the human body and hyper-realistic geographic surveys. The chips also enable increasingly precise "physics engines" that can accurately simulate the properties and laws of the natural world.
Microsoft Xbox 360
The most recent entrant to the video game console market, Microsoft has made the online, connected community of gamers on its Xbox Live a central part of the gaming experience. In the last four years, nearly 250,000 total years of gameplay have been logged on Xbox Live, so Xbox 360 buyers have a rich world of online services, multiplayer gaming and downloadable games already well established when they venture netward.
To deliver a chip more powerful than those used in desktop computers, Microsoft began working with IBM in 2003 to create a customized version of our industry-leading 64-bit PowerPC chip. The result features 165 million transistors and is made using IBM's 90-nanometer Silicon-on-Insulator technology to reduce heat and improve performance.
In technical terms, the Xbox 360 chip includes three identical multi-threaded cores operating at 3.2 GHz, enhanced with specialized function VMX acceleration for gaming applications and a high-speed 128-bit vector unit. The chip also contains 1Mb Shared L2 Cache with custom logic, which allows for high-speed data streaming for graphics and system applications.
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Advanced chips
IBM Research Fellow John Cohn explains how game console chips enable more complex mathematical calculations, which make games more realistic today than ever before.
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Talented designers, artists, and programmers have made huge advances in the last few years in how realistic virtual worlds and game characters look, what those characters can do and to what extent they can interact with their environments and other characters.
That's because the underlying computer chip technology has been advancing as well, approximately doubling every three years.
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If automotive engineering had advanced at the same pace since 1973, cars could go 180,000 miles per hour and get 24,000 miles per gallon. If aeronautics had made similar progress, you could fly from Los Angeles to New York in 8.8 seconds.
Today, such advances mean that game consoles are actually more powerful than the average personal computer.
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What's a "core"?
The silicon chips at the heart of computing power hold the microelectronic components that process calculations, which enable a game system to render realistic looking forests and wall surfaces or a mainframe computer to simulate genomic structures.
Each chip has at least one such processor, or "core," but in recent years, greater demand to run simultaneous calculations, or "threads," has led to multi-core processing, in which two or more processing units are integrated into the same circuit.
Yet more cores on a chip do not automatically result in faster or better software-or even better games. The challenge is for software and game developers to learn how to exploit the additional cores.
For example, Intel recently announced a "quad-core" processor, which has the promise of delivering higher performance to the well-established x86 architecture chips used in most desktop machines and smaller-sized servers. To meet the challenge of this improved chip technology, IBM engineers developed new System x and BladeCenter servers with significantly better input/output (I/O), memory handling, reliability and availability than previously available-and even better than those found in other quad-core systems.
The Cell Broadband Engine chip, developed by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba and used in the new PlayStation3 console, takes the concept of multi-core processing to an entirely new level. Instead of two, three, or four cores on a single chip, the Cell BE chip incorporates nine cores-which enable game designers to create the most realistic and visually stunning games yet developed, and also provides the computing power for advanced scientific, business and entertainment purposes.
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What's next?
Medicine and chemistry are just two areas where the technology behind games could be applied to some serious challenges. And John Cohn, IBM Fellow, discusses the world he's discovered in virtual worlds like Second Life.
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Games break out
As demonstrated by the heavy demand for the new game systems, video games are serious business in their own right. But their influence has started to extend far beyond the screen or controller.
- Authors John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade, in their book "The Kids Are Alright: How the Gamer Generation Is Changing the Workplace," argue that video games and game culture may be the greatest distinguishing difference between a company's younger employees (and future leaders) and its older employees and current leaders: "If you are a business professional over 34, the chances are very good (two to one) that you had little or no video game experience as a teenager. For professionals under 34, the proportions are not only reversed, they are also doubled; our survey shows that chances are four to one that people in this age group have had substantial game experience growing up."
- Beck and Wade also contend that immersion in games and game culture has a huge impact on learning and work styles. For one thing, adults learn only about 10 percent of what they watch, such as in a video or on TV, but over 70 percent of what they do, as in a game.
- Academic studies have linked game play in adults to everything from increased creativity and physical activity to increased participation in the political process to better learning and being more informed on current events.
- Virtual economies are starting to show up in real economies. In the online fantasy role-playing action game World of Warcraft, professional players develop characters and amass "gold," either of which they'll sell to another player in exchange for real dollars or yen. Other items, such as weapons and shields, are bought from other players with fantasy gold or real money via eBay.
- In the virtual world of Second Life, players can use "Linden dollars" to buy hipster clothing for their avatar from the very real American Apparel, music from Sony BMG, and even a virtual Toyota, Scion or Pontiac to drive around in. But Linden dollars have a real value of approximately one U.S. dollar for 250 Linden dollars. Recently, as much as $500,000 real dollars (125,000,000 Linden dollars) were spent by players in Second Life in a single day.
- Two disturbing examples show how the virtual world may still end up with the inevitabilities of the physical world: In China, a player (not just his character) was killed by a friend because he'd "borrowed" a sword and then sold it to another player. And in October 2006, the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress announced that it is examining the implications of taxing the real dollar equivalents of money made in the virtual world.
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Technology breaks through
As big as games have become for their entertainment value, the same technology that powers the latest gaming platforms has potential uses far beyond a virtual skateboard or fantasy battle.
- In June 2005, Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. said that it will partner with IBM to integrate Cell architecture to build new high-performance, digital signal and image processing computer systems. Mercury, the first company outside of the gaming industry to use Cell design services from IBM, intends to take imaging technologies such as radar, sonar, MRI and digital X-rays and others to a new level of sophistication and performance.
- In February 2006, IBM introduced a blade computing system based on the Cell Broadband Engine. The nine-core IBM Cell blade-the first Cell-based product from IBM itself-is designed for businesses to tackle tasks involving computer-intensive workloads and broadband media applications.
- In September 2006, IBM announced that a revolutionary hybrid supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory will harness Cell chips and AMD Opteron technology, aiming to produce a machine capable of sustained speed of up to 1,000 trillion calculations, or one petaflop.
- Given their processing power, a grid of networked game consoles could be used during idle time as the equivalent of one of the world's most powerful supercomputers, processing complex calculations to address such medical problems as Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease.
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