Friday, August 20, 2010

Videogame Cultural Studies Evaluation

In-class Exercise: Play three games on and then use or wikipedia to research the questions for evaluation.

-"the way a video game was made can say a lot about the past culture, just as film"

Game1- Evaluation

TITLE: Pong

YEAR OF PUBLICATION/RELEASE: 1972

GENRE: sports game

USER INTERFACE OF ORIGINAL GAME - JOYSTICK & BUTTON COMBO: gamepad

HOW LONG CAN YOU PLAY BEFORE BEING DEFEATED? 2 minutes

IS GAMEPLAY PATTERNED OR RANDOM? random

PUBLISHER/MANUFACTURER? Atari

ONE PIECE OF HISTORY FROM DOT EATERS ABOUT THIS GAME:

"Though Bushnell wants impossible-for-the-day sound effects like a roaring crowd, Alcorn pulls beeps and blips that are already present in the circuitry for the sound...and when Alcorn describes the noise of the ball hitting the paddles, he inadvertently names the game...PONG" - The Dot Eaters.com

http://www.thedoteaters.com/videos/PCATV_Games.mp4

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Game2 - Evaluation

TITLE: Battlezone

YEAR OF PUBLICATION/RELEASE: 1980

GENRE: first person combat

USER INTERFACE OF ORIGINAL GAME - JOYSTICK & BUTTON COMBO: gamepad - 4 directional buttons and one shooter button

HOW LONG CAN YOU PLAY BEFORE BEING DEFEATED? 3 minutes

IS GAMEPLAY PATTERNED OR RANDOM? random

PUBLISHER/MANUFACTURER? Atari

ONE PIECE OF HISTORY FROM DOT EATERS ABOUT THIS GAME:

"A version called The Bradley Trainer (also known as Army Battlezone or Military Battlezone) was also designed for use by the U.S. Army as targeting training for gunners on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.[1] Approaching Atari in December 1980, some developers within Atari refused to work on the project because of its association with the Army..." - wikipedia

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Game3 - Evaluation

TITLE: Centipede

YEAR OF PUBLICATION/RELEASE: 1980

GENRE: arcade

USER INTERFACE OF ORIGINAL GAME - JOYSTICK & BUTTON COMBO: gamepad - directional and shoot

HOW LONG CAN YOU PLAY BEFORE BEING DEFEATED? 3 minutes

IS GAMEPLAY PATTERNED OR RANDOM? patterned depending on obstacles created.

PUBLISHER/MANUFACTURER? Atari

ONE PIECE OF HISTORY FROM DOT EATERS ABOUT THIS GAME:

"The game was designed by Ed Logg along with Dona Bailey, one of the few female game programmers in the industry at this time. It was also the first arcade coin-operated game to have a significant female player base" - wikipedia

No comments:

Post a Comment