Hello and welcome back to picsandportraits.
Today, we are going to be looking at something we’ve briefly touched on before: the intersection
of retrofuturism and video games.
This is obviously a huge topic, so we are going to be limiting this video specifically
to the years 1950 through 1974.
Because this period didn’t have a whole lot going on, we are going to be mostly focussing
on the game’s marketing.
We will be looking at ad campaigns from the first 25 years of gaming and how the future
was used to sell video games.
Before we get into that though, this and every video on this channel was made possible by
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We do not run ads.
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With that plug out of the way.
Let’s head back to the future.
We’ve talked before about how the future has been used to sell products.
It’s been a pretty powerful marketing tool for companies to promote their new ideas.
Usually the future, or the world of tomorrow, is used to show how cutting edge something
is, how far ahead of the competition it is.
Setting an ad in the future can also convey the idea of dependability.
This is a brand or a product that will stand the test of time.
It is so good, built so well, that it will still exist well into the future.
Now the roots of video games were planted during the Space Age, whose future was one
of great optimism.
A lot of this was centred around convenience of living, or quality of life, the possibility
of space exploration and of course new and exciting innovations, like the computer and
interactive games.
One of the earliest video games was Bertie the Brain, which was released in 1950, as
part of that year’s CNE, the Canadian National Exhibition.
One of the first videos I made on this channel was a trip to the next year’s Ex.
It’s basically like a state fair but in the past it was more akin to a world’s fair,
where new inventions and ideas were showcased, like Bertie the Brain.
Bertie was an early AI that would play a game of Tic Tac Toe against a human player.
This player used a controller to input commands.
It’s notable for allowing users to adjust the difficulty, which is pretty wild for how
old this is.
Early history is pretty hard track but Bertie was among the first interactive games to have
a visual display but what’s interesting is it is not actually displaying graphics
but instead using light bulbs that respond to the users selections.
In hindsight, this is hugely influential, but at the time, it was treated as little
more than an exhibit.
After the exhibition concluded, it was disassembled to be left in the past.
Moving forward in time to 1958, we begin seeing games displayed using an oscilloscope.
You are looking at Tennis for Two here, which allowed two people to play a simulated game
of tennis.
Users would input commands using controllers made of aluminium.
These two games are usually mentioned when talking about the first video game ever, but
for our purposes, everything starts with Spacewar!
Developed in 1962, arguably the peak of the Space Age.
Humans had left the planet but this game’s depiction of space can be considered retrofuturism,
despite its primitive graphics, as even today we are still far off from the warring space
crafts it depicted.
Like Tennis for Two, it was a multiplayer game where users competed against each other
in two distinct spacecrafts orbiting a star.
Basically shooting back and forth at each other.
Spacewar was developed by Steve Russell for the PDP-1 minicomputer at MIT and it was extremely
popular among programmers.
Its code was built upon to add new features and gameplay options throughout the years.
Obviously because of the technological requirements, it didn’t reach huge commercial success
but it did inspire a lot of things that did.
Its DNA can be found in Computer Space, designed by Atari founders Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney
in 1971.
This is a similar game with improved graphics and sound.
Unlike what we’ve already looked at, Computer Space was released commercially.
It came in an interesting cabinet that was designed to look futuristic, which is very
of the time.
You can see it in this marketing material I tracked down.
It’s marketed not only as a new game, but a new concept entirely.
Despite being basically a remake, it was advertised as innovative and cutting edge and in that
way it was.
Video games were something programmers and academics played around with, but here was
a game being advertised in magazines and aimed directly at consumers.
The idea worked.
Computer Space was released in arcades or sold to be played in public places and it
sold very well.
Shortly after its release, Bushnell and Dabney formed Atari, released Pong, which I’m sure
needs no introduction, and more or less kicked off the golden age of gaming.
Gaming came home with the first commercially released home console, the Magnavox Odyssey,
in 1972.
This was designed by Ralph Baer of Sanders Associates, which was defence contractor that
made electronic systems for both military and commercial use, like aircraft protection
systems and infrared imaging.
The Magnavox Odyssey is very primitive.
It could only display three dots, two of which players could control, and a single line.
Different plastic overlays could be purchased that users would stick to the TV and a lot
of imagination was needed to enjoy the games as intended.
As an example, hockey plays a lot like football which plays a lot like tennis or Pong.
A few games used light gun technology and a rifle accessory was sold separately.
These played similar to a shooting game at a carnival.
It’s name, Odyssey, travelling to strange new places.
The design is very of the time, with brown or the wood panelling.
The type font used is also futuristic.
We are a few years after 2001, still fresh in people’s minds, and it was a new idea.
Interactive video games at home.
The public needed this to be explained to them and you see this both in television in
print ads.
One commercial introduces it as the electronic game of the future, and that couldn’t be
more right.
While it wasn’t the most powerful or successful console, it kicked off a revolution in home
entertainment we are still very much feeling today.
But that’s going to be it for this video.
Again, this was not meant to be exhaustive.
Let me know if there was something that I missed.
I’d love for this to be a full series.
There is no shortage of material to choose from, so if this is something you’d like
to see more of, let me know in the comments.
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As always, thank you so much for your interest in this channel and thanks for watching.
See you in the future.