12 replies to this topic

[ttony_at]

In 1958, at the Brookhaven National Lab, lab technions built a 'working electronic table-tennis game, using an analog computer.
It amused the lab visitors for years but failed to spur an industy.

I found this link that gives a 'good' general synopsis of the early developement of games.

http://www.emuunlim....s/play1sta1.htm

[david.winter]

It's amazing to see how much people can get confused with the definition of a video game. It's not because a game displays on a screen that it is a video game. Video game means game displayed through video signals. That 1958 game was obviously a precursor of the video game, but because it did not use any video signal, it wasn't a video game. Same with Space War (1961) which used an X/Y analog vector display, and older games such as TicTacToe from 1952 which displayed on a dot matrix CRT (which you can see on my 1952 TicTacToe page).


David Winter

[Haydn Jones]

I thought video just ment visual. So are the vectrex and gameboy not video game systems?

Haydn

[Zach]

Quote

So are the vectrex and gameboy not video game systems?

Interesting topic for a debate. I just checked the The American Heritage College Dictionary, third edition.

Quote

video adj. 1. Of or related to television, esp. televised images. 2. Of or relating to videotaped productions or videotape equipment and technology

Quote

video game n. An electronic or computerized game played by manipulating images on a display screen

So this source indicates that the Vectrex et al. are not video technology, but they are video game systems. I do recognize however that this book is not the ultimate authority.

Edited by Zach, Thu Apr 21, 2005 3:42 PM.

[batari]

david.winter, on Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:29 AM, said:

It's amazing to see how much people can get confused with the definition of a video game. It's not because a game displays on a screen that it is a video game. Video game means game displayed through video signals. That 1958 game was obviously a precursor of the video game, but because it did not use any video signal, it wasn't a video game. Same with Space War (1961) which used an X/Y analog vector display, and older games such as TicTacToe from 1952 which displayed on a dot matrix CRT (which you can see on my 1952 TicTacToe page).

You're right, I am confused about your definition of a video game.

By your definition, are you suggesting that Asteroids was not a video game, because it used a vector display? And the video card in my computer misnamed because it doesn't actually produce "video signals" as per broadcast standards? If so, I disagree, and I think you are taking the term "video game" too literally.

[ubersaurus]

He's using Ralph Baer's description of a video game, which would again, exclude all games based on handhelds, vector screens, and pretty much anything not a raster screen. This is obviously not accurate with the modern definition of a video game, which WOULD include all those, along with Spacewar, and that Tennis game.

[mister_pal]

Where can I get one it looks like so much fun!

[christianscott27]

i'd almost prefer a term like "electronic game" or "amusement computer", although they sound pretty clunky. obviously not everything thought of as video games uses a video screen. i ran into this issue with a vengence when i was working on a guide to handheld/tabletop games. in that area you have things like coleco pac man which are clearly video games and then you get things like merlin and simon which might not be. in the end i made my standard "does it have a playfield/ screen?". if the game was just a few random lights or a calculator type device i excluded it from the list but this gave me no end of headaches.

[Nukey Shay]

The term is in common usage...even regarding the early days when vector displays were nearly as common as raster in an arcade. "Video game" just means it's a game with a visual display (just as many people refer to facial tissue as "kleenex"...even if the tissue in question is not made by that company). An interesting point here is that now that LCD technology is advanced enough to be used instead of a video monitor...would games played on an LCD television cease to be video games? Of course not.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Basically, what Ralph Baer did wasn't to invent "video games", what he invented was video games that would display on a standard TV set with a raster display, rather than an X-Y oscilloscope.

You can call vector games "video games" or not, but I would say they are. Still, the real breakthrough was using a standard TV set as a display.

[gavv]

Bruce Tomlin, on Tue Apr 26, 2005 1:43 PM, said:

Basically, what Ralph Baer did wasn't to invent "video games", what he invented was video games that would display on a standard TV set with a raster display, rather than an X-Y oscilloscope.

You can call vector games "video games" or not, but I would say they are.  Still, the real breakthrough was using a standard TV set as a display.

why not just say he invented "home video games"

gavv

[david.winter]

The "video game" term was never used before the mid-1970s. In fact, Ralph Baer always talked about TV Games. The problem is that the definition of video game has changed by the time.
Everybody thinks that "video" means "vision on a screen" which is absolutely false. The "video" word qualifies the technology used to display the games. Of course, nowadays everybody will call videogame any game which displays on a screen.
Back in the 1960s, either you had to use a computer to display a game, or you had to build your own system to display games on normal TV sets and monitors which all required video signals. Hence the videogame term.
But now that computers are widely used to program and play advanced video games, people get confused. Theoretically, vector and LCD games aren't video games. Hell with that ! Let's call them video games if we want, but please don't forget the real story. If you decide that modern computer games are videogames whatever their display technologies, this is not a reason for saying that early computer games were video games. They were only precursors.


David Winter

[MegaManFan]

The ultimate problem here is that no matter how concrete and factual the textbook definitions are, the common usage of "video game" has long since blown those definitions out of the water. The historical meaning is at this point just that - historical. Rather than go against the grain and tell people I'm not playing "video games" if I'm using a Gameboy or a Vectrex, it's far easier to just say "yeah I am." And 20 years from now it will largely be forgotten there was ever any distinction at all, when the generation growing up now has kids of THEIR own. Why fight it?