The golden age of arcade video games reached
its zenith in the 1980s. The age brought with it many technically innovative
and genre-defining games developed and released in the first few years of the
decade, including:
Action-adventure
game: The
Legend of Zelda (1986).
Action role-playing games: Dragon
Slayer II: Xanadu (1985) is
considered the first full-fledged action role-playing game.
Adventure games: Zork (1980) further
popularized text adventure games in home computers.
Beat 'em up: Karateka (1984), with its pioneering rotoscoped animation, and Kung-Fu
Master (1984).
Cinematic platformer: Prince
of Persia (1989) was the
first cinematic platformer.
Computer role-playing video games: Akalabeth (1980) was
created in the same year as Rogue (1980).
Console role-playing video games: Dragon
Warrior (1986),
developed by Yuji Horii, was one of the earliest role-playing video games.
Fighting games: Karate
Champ (1984), Data
East's action game, is credited with establishing and popularizing the
one-on-one fighting game genre.
Hack and slash: Golden
Axe (1988).
Interactive movies: Astron
Belt (1983), an
early first-person shooter, was the first Laserdisc video
game in development.
Platform games: Space
Panic (1980). Donkey
Kong (1981),
an arcade game created by Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, was
the first game that allowed players to jump over obstacles and across gaps,
making it the first true platformer. This game also
introduced Mario, an icon of the genre. Mario
Bros. (1983).
Scrolling platformers: Jump
Bug (1981), Alpha
Denshi's platform-shooter, was the first platform game to use scrolling graphics.
Scrolling shooters: Defender (1980)
established the use of side-scrolling in shoot 'em ups, offering
horizontally extended levels.
Isometric platformer: Congo
Bongo (1983),
developed by Sega, was the first isometric platformer.
Isometric shooter: Zaxxon (1982) was the
first game to use isometric projection.
Light gun shooter: The NES
Zapper was the first mainstream light gun. The most successful lightgun game was Duck
Hunt (1984), which
came packaged with the NES.
Maze games: Pac-Man (1980) was the
first game to achieve widespread popularity in mainstream culture and the first
game character to be popular in his own right.
Platform-adventure games: Metroid (1986) was the
earliest game to fuse platform game fundamentals.
Racing games: Turbo (1981),
by Sega, was the first racing game with a third-person perspective,
rear-view format.
Rail shooter: Astron
Belt (1983) was an
early first-person rail shooter.
Real-time strategy: Herzog
Zwei (1989) is
considered to be the first real-time strategy game, predating the
genre-popularizing Dune II.
Run & gun shooters: Hover
Attack (1984) for
the Sharp X1 was an early run & gun shooter that freely scrolled
in all directions and allowed the player to shoot diagonally as well as
straight ahead.
Rhythm game: Dance
Aerobics was released in
1987, and allowed players to create music by stepping on Nintendo'sPower Pad peripheral.
It has been called the first rhythm-action game in retrospect.
Stealth games: 005 (1981), an
arcade game by Sega, was the earliest example of a stealth-based game. Metal
Gear (1987),
developed
by Hideo Kojima, was the first stealth game in
an action-adventure framework, and became the first commercially
successful stealth game.
Survival horror: Haunted
House (1981)
introduced elements of horror fiction into video games. Sweet
Home (1989)
introduced many of the modern staples of the survival horror genre. Gameplay involved battling
horrifying creatures and solving puzzles. Developed by Capcom, the game would
become an influence upon their later release Resident
Evil (1996).
Vehicle simulation games: Battlezone (1980) used
wireframe vector graphics to create the first true three-dimensional
game world. Elite (1984),
designed by David Braben and Ian
Bell, ushered in the age of modern style 3D graphics. The game contains
convincing vector worlds, full 6 degree freedom of movement, and thousands of visitable planetary systems.
It is considered a pioneer of the space flight simulator game genre.
Visual novels: The
Portopia
Serial Murder Case (1983),
was the first visual novel and one of
the earliest Japanese graphic adventure games.
Home Gaming Computers
Following the success of the Apple
II and Commodore PET in the late 1970s, a series of cheaper and
incompatible rivals emerged in the early 1980s. This batch included the Commodore
VIC-20 and 64; Sinclair ZX80, ZX81 and ZX
Spectrum; NEC
PC-8000, PC-6001, PC-88 and PC-98; Sharp
X1 and X68000; and Atari 8-bit family, BBC Micro, Acorn
Electron, Amstrad CPC, and MSX series.
Although the industry of video games was going from strength to strength at the end of 1983 the industry
experienced losses more severe than the 1977 crash. This was the
"crash" of the video game industry, as well as the bankruptcy of
several companies that produced North American home computers and video game
consoles from late 1983 to early 1984. It brought an end to what is considered
to be the second generation of console video gaming.
In 1985, the American Video Game Console market was revived
with Nintendo’s release of its 8-bit console, the Famicom, known outside Asia
as Nintendo Entertainment System(NES). It was bundled with Super
Mario Bros. and instantly
became a success. The NES dominated the
North American and the Japanese market until the rise of the next generation of
consoles in the early 1990s.
The 1990s were a decade of
marked innovation in video gaming. It was a decade of transition
from raster graphics to 3D graphics and gave rise to
several genres of video games including first-person shooter,real-time strategy,
and MMO.
In 1993, Atari re-entered the home console market with
the introduction of the Atari Jaguar. Also in 1993, The 3DO Company released the 3DO
Interactive Multiplayer.
In 1994, three new consoles were released in Japan:
the Sega Saturn, the PlayStation, and the PC-FX, the PlayStation quickly
outsold all of its competitors, with the exception of the aging Super
Nintendo Entertainment System.
In 1996 Capcom released Resident
Evil, the first well known survival horror game.
It was a huge success selling over 2 million copies and is
considered one of the best games on the PlayStation. Another major game
and console would be the Nintendo 64 (1996) and the release of Goldeneye 007 (1997)
, which is considered one of the first major first
person shooter that was exclusive to a console.
Finally in 1998 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released for the Nintendo 64 and is widely considered
the highest critically acclaimed game of all time.
In conclusion the ‘middle’ history of computer games was
–apart from the crash
of 1977-
one of innovation
and dramatic change to the industry that enabled companies to produce much more
visually pleasing and complex levels within affordable home console systems
that resulted in the ‘boom’ of the industry of the era and such iconic names
like Playstation and Nintendo 64.
The changes in videos games in just one decade were
phenomenal between the 80-90’s moving past and beyond 8 and 16bit technology to 64bit, the first CD-ROM drives were first seen in
1988 and 3D graphics entered into mainstream hands.
Many of the features and conventions of modern game
genres were also laid out within this time through games like Zelda and Goldeneye, Super Mario and
Final Fantasy.
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