Hello and welcome back to picsandportraits.
Recently, we looked at the early history of video games through the lens of retrofuturism.
We covered the period from around 1950 through the early 1970s.
There we saw very primitive examples of video games, like Bertie the Brain, all the way
up to the commercial breakthrough Computer Space and the first home console, the Magnavox
Odyssey.
Today I’d like to continue this journey by rounding out the 1970s, looking not only
at the birth of the modern arcade, but also its golden age, when video games still were
the space age toy of the future.
Before we get into that though, this, and every video on this channel was made possible
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With that plug out of the way, let’s head back to the future.
Video games were a product of the space age and last time we briefly explored what exactly
that means in relation to the future.
I’d like to the same for this period because for as similar as its future is, or was, in
some ways it is drastically different.
The unfettered optimism of the 1950s and 1960s gave way to rational discussions as to whether
these imagined amazing futures were even possible.
Where in the recent past it was believed, or hoped, that we would have massive, liveable
space colonies very soon, the reality of space exploration moved much slower.
The tensions between the U.S and the Soviet Union fuelled the space race and America’s
landing on the moon was seen as the ultimate victory.
Space missions, like Skylab continued, but post-moon landing, NASA’s funding plummeted
as did public interest.
Humans impact on the environment was also becoming known.
There were predictions of the earth’s warming, due to carbon emissions, and the affect fossil
fuel production has on our climate.
It was becoming clear that resources, like water, fuel, food, were finite, and constant
increased growth was just not sustainable.
Projections of an increased global population posed concerns as well.
How will so many people be fed?
Where will they live?
What will their quality of life be?
Some of these projections were made by computers, which were quickly evolving, as we will see.
Technology in general was rapidly advancing, more and more, faster and faster.
Information became more accessible than ever.
We actually made a video on the Tofflers and their concept of future shock, where so much
changes so quickly that people just shut down and experience isolation, stress, anxiety.
Check that out for more on this, but yeah, sounds like it was a lot to take in, especially
when compared to the happy go lucky futures imagined just a few years earlier.
Still, these issues were still considered far off, some other future’s problem, and
the then present was on the precipice of an entertainment revolution.
We saw the dawn of the commercial video game industry last time with the release of Computer
Space, created by Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell.
We focussed mainly on marketing material, as the graphics weren’t a lot to go off
of and video games were being marketed as the toys of the future, so that’s where
we see a lot of the futuristic aesthetics.
We will be doing the same in this video but to understand where the industry came from,
we first need to head even further back in time, to the 19th century and the penny arcade.
These were amusement centres comprised of several coin operated games which grew out
of carnival games of chance.
It’s pretty wild to think about having to wait months to be entertained but that was
the reality in the 19th century.
A few times a year the carnival came.
Hopefully, you didn’t miss it.
Penny arcades were more or less static carnivals.
They had the same type of attractions, fortune telling, love testing, only they were automated,
coin operated.
They also had Mutoscopes, which were an early way to view film reels.
Apparently, porn films were very popular which gave penny arcades kind of a seedy reputation.
However, this business model was a hit, whether penny arcade or pleasure pier, the idea of
an amusement centre took.
People loved these machines we could interact with and have fun with.
As technology evolved, and prices increased, arcades dropped the penny and incorporated
different types of games, like, light gun games, pinball, and electro-mechanical games.
These were probably the closest ancestors to what we know as video games.
They go back as far as 1930s, with Nimatron, which was showcased at the New York World’s
Fair.
These are fascinating pieces of interactive entertainment.
Some had several moving parts and film projection to immerse you in the experience.
Notable examples include Auto Test, from 1954, which apparently was actually used to help
people learn how to drive.
Also, Periscope, where you could sink ships from a submarine.
Hugely popular.
This is where we start seeing some familiar names, Sega, Midway, Namco, all companies
who would transition into video game developers and publishers.
These EM games had a great influence over what gaming would become.
Back in the future, the early 1970s, Dabney and Bushnell founded their amusement company
Atari and revolutionised the industry with the release of Pong. 1972.
It was a game similar to tennis, where two players could hit a ball back and forth, or
one player against the computer.
As we’ve seen, this isn’t technically the beginning of gaming but it very much is
the beginning of modern gaming.
The future was here.
Arcades exploded.
This is also when malls were being built and they were a match made in heaven.
Machines popped up anywhere there was likely to be children, pizza parlours.
Chuck E. Cheese, founded by Bushnell, was a chain of restaurants with arcade machines
as its backbone.
This period, the 1970s and early ‘80s, was the golden age of arcade games.
Several iconic games were released, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, characters that are still around
today.
I wanted to give them quick a shout out because as important and popular as they were, that’s
not our focus here.
I’d like to look at more futuristic games.
Now retrofuturism just to clear up, is more than explicit predictions of the future.
It can also be an aesthetic or a marketing tool.
There is obviously a lot of crossover with science fiction, so some of what we are going
to be looking at isn’t necessarily in the future but definitely will evoke those kind
of feelings.
While general interest was waning, we are still very much in the space age.
So many early games used space as the theme, in situations that were simply not possible
then.
This makes sense, given gaming grew out of Spacewar.
Tons of clones, like Atari’s precursor to Pong, Computer Space, which we mentioned last
time.
Or 1977’s Space Wars.
Early gaming was rife with piracy and plagiarism.
Even the largest companies ripped each other off.
One of the most influential, and copied, games was 1978’s Space Invaders, developed by
Tomihiro Nishikado.
This game featured wave after wave of alien forces descending on earth, and the player
was tasked with shooting them down, before they landed on the surface.
Not explicitly futuristic, but looking at the marketing material we a few creative and
new spaceship designs.
While Pong got people hooked on video games, Space Invaders really kicked everything off.
It sold amazingly well and set a new standard, not only for gaming as a medium, for also
for profits.
Going through these flyers, which were meant for businesses, we see over and over the promise
of profits.
Mentioned again and again, how much money you are going to make.
Business was booming.
Following Space Invaders lead, we got Galaxian in 1979, another hugely popular game.
Astro Fighter as well, whose marketing is a great example of I guess the video game
pinups.
Sex appeal was used to sell games in the west, while in Japan, where a lot of these games
were developed, focussed more on future designs.
Astro Fighter did both, tapping into Star Trek here.
That same year, Cinematronics released Star Hawk, which looks a little different, thanks
to its use of vector graphics.
I don’t know.
There is something about vector graphics that will always look futuristic to me, in a dated
sort of way.
Asteroids was another video game benchmark for Atari in the late ‘70s.
Being such a young medium, video games evolved quickly through “conversation” one thing
inspired another, or one company, Spacewar, Computer Space, influencing Space Invaders,
which then influenced Asteroids.
Things were moving quickly.
Into the 1980s, Zero Hour, which had such a great illustration of a ship travelling
through meteorites in its marketing material.
Stratovox, or Speak and Rescue, another Space Invaders clone with beautiful colour graphics.
Also marketed itself as the first talking video game, having synthesised voices.
Also in 1980, another vector game from Cinematronics, Star Castle, as well as Space Zap.
As you can see, graphics are quickly improving and becoming more detailed.
The next bit of arcade history I’d like to look at is from a little company called
Nintendo.
While they would go on to later dominate the home console market, Nintendo’s earliest
video games appeared in the arcade.
Donkey Kong was probably the most popular, but they also produced space related games,
like Space Launcher and Space Demon.
Both were Space Invader clones.
Nintendo also released Radar Scope and Space Firebird in 1980.
Again, very similar to Space Invaders and further proof of its just massive influence.
1981, arcades arguably peak in popularity.
They are the subject of news reports, focussing on parents concerns of the affect video games
have on children.
1981 saw the release of Galaga, notable, Galaxian’s sequel.
This is also the year Defender was released.
It was marketed as a brave new world and it was, in terms of presentation.
Its use of side-scrolling, back and forth, made it so the player could navigate a world
that existed outside of the current screen.
Mind-blowing at the time.
There was also a mini-map that showed users this world.
Scramble, which came out two months later, did something similar, but was more on the
rails.
The ability to move like this gave Defender a sense of freedom that made the game feel
comparably huge.
The visuals and sounds were great.
This was years ahead of its time and its contemporaries.
Just a monumental success.
In the running for the greatest arcade game, or at least the most important.
Next time, we will be looking at this same period for home console gaming, but that is
going to be it for today.
Now this was not meant to be exhaustive.
I am not an expert so let me know if I missed anything.
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