History of Videogames

Vidiogames, a long overlooked area of animation. There are some in the animation field who think of it as kid stuff and not worthy of their attention. This is irony since the whole field of animation is looked at that way by the rest of America. But there more U.S. dollars spent and made each year on games then of movies. It is about time the field is looked at seriously.

Videogames are much on my mind of late as I prep for my upcoming History of Videogames class at Laguna for Fall 2008.

Thanks to my son I have examples of lots of the early games on NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Playstaion and Game Cube. He got rid of his SAGA Genesis, sad but I don’t blame him it was a bit of a dead end.

I have spent the week digitizing game play and cut screens and downloading old arcade games. I am working on teaching example DVDs.



The following is a list I put together of the different types of videogames. Most games are a mix of one or more of these areas. I am sure I will be adding to this list as I try to get a handle on the whole videogaming phenomena. A subject that has long been overlooked.

• Quest


• Simulation (Sim)


• Strategy


• Puzzle


• Labyrinth / Dungeon


• Arcade


• Action


• Adventure


• Fighter



1st Person Shooter Real Time Combat




2nd Person Real Time Combat




Bird’s-eye view Real Time Combat




3/4 Real Time Combat




2nd Person Turn Based Combat




Bird’s-eye view Turn Based Combat




3/4 Turn Based Combat



• Manual Dexterity / Skill



Race




Chase




Jump and Swing (Platformer)




Beat the Clock



• Role Playing


• 2 Player


• Multi-Player


• Multi-Player Online


• Massive Multi-Player Online


• Social Interaction (i.e. Harvest Moon)


• Intrigue


• Trade and Barter


• Sports


• Card


• Gambling