0.1 What you will learn in this book.
00 INTRODUCTION
Digital games today create powerful virtual worlds. They allow their players to project themselves into alternate universes with their own characters and rules.
Digital games also reflect the people and time that produced them, and this book offers a survey of some of the most significant developments in digital games.
As we survey from roughly 1950 to the present day, we will identify and discuss the technological, cultural, and economic forces that have driven the video game industry.
Digital games also reflect the people and time that produced them, and this book offers a survey of some of the most significant developments in digital games.
As we survey from roughly 1950 to the present day, we will identify and discuss the technological, cultural, and economic forces that have driven the video game industry.
In this book, we will discuss the following and much more!
- Early theories of play and games.
- Johann Huizinga's Homo Ludens
- Johann Huizinga's Homo Ludens
- Early computer history.
- Alan Turing and ENIAC.
- The first Chess algorithm.
- Electrical engineering and circuits.
- The invention of the first digital games for large mainframe computers.
- Spacewar and MIT.
- Spacewar and MIT.
- From the mainframe computer to the arcade.
- Nolan Bushnell and Atari
- Nolan Bushnell and Atari
- The birth of the home video game console.
- Magnavox Odyssey
- Atari 2600
- What caused the video game crash of 1983?
- Game mechanics.
- Debates over violence in video games, from Dr. Everett Koop to the ESRB.
- Skeuomorphism and human computer interaction.
- Contemporary digital games.
- Virtual reality!
- Indie game development!
- Online communities!
