History of Computer and Video Games (1 credit)

Teacher: Petri Kuittinen

preliminary dates: 17.10. - 12.12. (Wed 17-19), 8.11. and 29.11. (Thu 17-19)

content: The course provides an archeological view to world of computer and video games from the earliest experiments to current date, including all major game genres and platforms. It concentrates on the introductions of new concepts, important persons, design methods, technological breaktroughs and biggest commercial hits. For more detail see the program below.

Participating 80% of lectures and doing the case study is compulsory for passing the course.

Case Study

Case study is an analysis and review of single game or several related games. The subject is given by the teacher, but own subjects are also OK if approved by the teacher.

Case study is done in groups of two students or on your own. The result is some sort of eletronic document (preferably a WWW page or PDF document with links to futher information or medias, such as video and audio files). Typical length is few pages of texts (or about 1000 words), but it can be longer. The case study should present the full structure of the game, compare the game with the similar games, analyze game's historical importance, perhaps provide information about the authors of the game and address the good and bad points of the game. Reserve your time and subject for case study by sending email to teacher.

The results are also presented to the rest of the students. The length of the presentation is 20-30 minutes.

Preliminary Program

There is certainly going to be some changes to it!

1. 17th October 2001: Course Introduction and The Early Years (up to 1972)
   • what is a computer game? terminology
   • predecessors of video games
   • "Tennis for Two"
   • Space War!
   • Ralph Baer and Magnavox Odyssey & Ping-Pong
   • Nolan Bushnell & Atari
   • Computer Space
   • PONG
2. 24th October 2001: Rise Video Games
   • Tank, Gunfight
   • Breakout
   • Space Invaders
   • Asteroids
   • Pac-Man
   • Mr. Shigery Miyamoto: Donkey Kong & Mario & Zelda
   • Eugene Jarvis: Defender, Robotron 2084
   • Jeff Minter and the laser-spitting Llamas!
3. 31st October 2001: Fall of Video Games
   • home video games: Atari, Mattel, Colecovision, Sega
   • laser disc games
   • hand-held games
   • E.T.
   • the great crash
4. 7th November 2001: Rise of Home Computers
   • case study by Sami Sorvali: Classic C-64 games: H.E.R.O., Bruce Lee and Giana Sisters
   • case study by Risto Ranta-Aho: Computer Chess and variants (Archon)
   • fighting games from Warrior to Street Fighter II to Soul Calibur
   • quest for realism in driving games: Driver -> Pole Position -> Outrun -> Hard Drivin' -> Virtua Racing -> Daytona -> Gran Turismo etc.
   • flight simulators etc.
   • sport games
5. 8th November 2001: History of Computer Game Music
   • - on/off speaker with timer (Apple II, Spectrum, PC beeper)
   • square wave and pink noise generators
   • GI AY-819x & YM-2149
   • SID
   • Paula
   • Trackers (.MOD, .S3M, .XM, .IT etc.)
   • FM, Adlib
   • MIDI, GM, XGM...
   • SoundBlaster, GUS
   • surround sound
   • interactive music (DirectMusic)
   • importantance of music & sound effects in games
   • lots of demos by the legendary game musicians
   • case study by Sami Pekkola and Vesa Puhakka: C-64 Trackers
6. 21st November 2001: Adventures in ASCII
   • history of role-playing games (TSR)
   • text adventure games from Adventure to Infocom
   • group case study: one classic text adventure game
   • roguelike games
   • randomness in games
7. 28th November 2001: Graphical Adventure Games and Computer Role-Playing Games
   • games series: Ultima, Gauntlet, Baldur's Gate, Diablo etc.
   • FTL: Dungeon Master (1988)
   • Multi-user Dungeons (MUD)
   • virtual communities
   • EverQuest, Ultima Online
   • case study by Teemu Kivikangas: Monkey Island 1 & 2 and history of Lucas Arts
   • case study by Egon Randlepp:Legend of Zelda
   • Shenmue
8. 29th November 2001: Lack of New Ideas or Not? (1990's and 2000's)
   • God-games: Populous, Lemmings, Black & White)
   • Civilization, SimCity, Sims...
   • real-time strategy
   • simulations and the rise of AI in games
   • case study by Carl-Magnus Dumell: Civilization
   • Shenmue (continues)
9. 5th December 2001: Multiplayer games
   • pioneer: Dan/Dani Bunten Berry (Wheeler's Dealers, M.U.L.E., Modem Wars
   • From MIDI-maze (Hybrid Arts 1987) to Quake and Unreal Tournament
   • MOD culture (from Doom WADs to Half Life -> Counter Strike)
   • tribalism, clans, LAN parties
   • case study by Annina Rüst: Unreal Tournament level editor and modifications
   • case study by Tatu Harvinen: Half-Life (the dramatic structure of the game and its history)
   • group case study: clan
10. 12th December 2001: The Future
    • Nintendo Gameboy Advance and Gamecube
    • Playstation 2
    • Xbox
    • Set-top boxes for digital television
    • Audio CD/Movie DVD games
    • mobile gaming (SMS, WAP, inbuilt games)
    • case study by Sami Haartemo: Soccer games