Help with my History of Video Games class

[Cooler]

Originally posted by: spikespiegal
Pop quiz everybody:

What was the first player -vs- player real time (not text based) combat game?

dose pong count?

 

[spikespiegal]

Only if it included a spell checker

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Cooler

Originally posted by: spikespiegal
Pop quiz everybody:

What was the first player -vs- player real time (not text based) combat game?

dose pong count?

Space Wars.

 

[EmperorIQ]

talk about human interaction in games like WoW. How people IRL aren't what they are in the game. Then compare. Say how the characters chosen in WoW are usually what that person would like to be IRL.

I had a friend who wrote a research paper on that.

 

[pcnerd37]

Do your paper on the history of Tetris. I saw a show on the history of it on G4 last week and its extremely interesting.

 

[Holycrap]

History of first party control of consoles (i.e., Atari 2600 vs NES cart licensing)
History of videogames to movies vs movies to videogames

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Originally posted by: pOwder

Originally posted by: waggy
a history of video games? WTF? sigh

I get that kind of reaction from a lot of people. But, believe it or not, it does have its place in school. Its good for people who are interested in going into the gaming industry. In order to go into the game industry, its important to have a knowledge of games and where they came from.

considering the billions of dollars that vid games markets represent i would think history of the field is a very good idea.

OP:

do something on the development of graphics, perhaps focusing on 3-D graphics.

 

[2Xtreme21]

.9999... = 1

 

[OOBradm]

Originally posted by: MechaSheeba
Masters of Doom by David Kushner. Excellent book, I've read it like 90 times, would make a great reference if you decide to do it on iD/Carmack/Romero.

QFE this is the way to go....

 

[Ronstang]

No wonder kids seem stupid these days.....History of Video Games? College has become an expensive joke in many ways.

 

[everman]

The rise and fall of Sega and Nintendo, why Sega never got up and Nintendo came back.

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: HamburgerBoy
Hahahahahahahahaha! I wish I could say that's the worst course I've ever heard of, but it isn't.

Coed naked Underwater basketweaving 101

 

[tfinch2]

I'm glad I'm not required to take any classes that idiotic.

 

[letdown427]

How excellent Japanese - Engrish translations can spark huge internet fads.

That's the only way I can see that you could quote ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US and not get marked down for bad grammar.

EDIT:

Or Recount how the introduction of a discrete GPU sparked a huge change in the industry, and then perhaps ponder whether the PPU will share this success. Comparing the initially skeptical receptions to both and so on.

 

[badmouse]

How about interviewing (old) people about why they think Duck Hunt has retained its popularity. You can do a poll about the dog - hate? love? And you can waste lots of paper by listing the ten zillion Duck Hunt spinoffs, improvements, parodies etc.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: OOBradm

Originally posted by: MechaSheeba
Masters of Doom by David Kushner. Excellent book, I've read it like 90 times, would make a great reference if you decide to do it on iD/Carmack/Romero.

QFE this is the way to go....

i just read that book, great read! it's surprising to see how the gods of the computer gaming industry started out - largely far from god status.

 

[Kelemvor]

Could do the history of DUke Nukem. That's probably a game that's come the farthers from the 2d scroller to the 3d shooter. But you'd have to end the paper with "To Be Continued.... Someday..."

 

[Alex]

SID MEIER

/thread

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: pOwder
I'm taking a History of Video Games course as part of the Computer Science program at my university. We have an upcoming paper due in a couple weeks, but we have to have our topics picked out by next Tuesday--a week from today. It can be anything, really. Anything regarding video games. It could be a biography, or history of a product, or history of a graphics engine, or anything. I just need some ideas for topics that have pretty accessable information and still would be interesting to write a paper about.

Thanks in advance!

Cliffe's:
1) Need topic suggestions for a research paper regarding the history of video games, can be biographies, history of a console or graphics engine, and anything regarding video games in general.

So far I have these ideas:
[*]John Carmack
[*]John Romero
[*]StarCraft
[*]Source Engine
[*]Zelda series
[*]Shareware
[*]Doom
[*]Half-Life

Screw Carmack and Romero, do a paper on Ralph Baer.

 

[sao123]

Originally posted by: everman
The rise and fall of Sega and Nintendo, why Sega never got up and Nintendo came back.

Or the Video Game crash of 1983 and the birth of the NES...

i did a paper on this and it was very interesting.

 

[Chiller2]

Atari

 

[Manuwell]

I'm amazed by the progress made on Flight Simulator.

Is that a game though ?

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: franguinho
SID MEIER

/thread

 

[Saint Nick]

I think I'm going to do my paper on iD software. I'm off to the bookstore this afternoon to pick up Masters of Doom today

 

[Skunkwourk]

3dfx