game trailblazer

Chapter 282 Game Museum
"The designer of the 'Brown Box (BrownBox)' is the inventor Ralph Bell, and with his help, Bill Harrison finally completed this light gun..." He Lili continued to introduce.

Zhao Haiguang looked at the "brown box" in the glass counter and the light gun that looked like a shotgun, and said with emotion: "Le Xing, I never thought you could find such an ancient thing, really..."

"Well, it was really not easy. The 'brown box' is different from the previous PDP-1 minicomputer. A sum of money." Zhang Lexing was also very emotional, Zhao Haiguang's words reminded him of the price spent on collecting these "prehistoric relics", not to mention the time it took to find and visit Ralph Bell, and finally in order to get "Odyssey" " and "Brown Box" also had to spend tens of thousands of dollars to re-purchase Magnavox, which had been bankrupt for many years, which was a lot of money at the time.

Li Wenbo, who was standing at the end of the team, also shifted his gaze from the magical PDP-1 minicomputer to the "Odyssey" and "Brown Box". Guns were also a novelty to him.Before that, he thought that the earliest light gun was the one used to shoot wild ducks on Nintendo’s red and white machines. Unexpectedly, there was already a similar thing nearly 30 years ago, and it looked more professional than Nintendo’s plastic ones. A lot, which made him feel that his trip was worthwhile.

"Everyone, please come this way," He Lili greeted, and then led the crowd to move forward: "After entering the 70s, the world's first business machine (arcade machine) "Computer Space" was born. In 1971, everyone, please look this way."

Everyone looked in the direction of He Lili's finger, and there was a machine covered in a glass cover beside her against the wall. It had a full yellow shell, an arc-shaped appearance, and a console that looked like The shape of the thing is so peculiar that it is almost impossible to connect it with the arcade machine in the mind. Instead, it looks a bit like a computer placed outside for inquiries.

Seeing everyone's skeptical expressions, He Lili explained with a smile: "Everyone, don't doubt the identity of this machine. It is indeed a genuine business machine (arcade machine), and it is the oldest one. Its inventor is a A man named Nolan Bushnell, who was later honored as the "Father of Video Games", "Computer Space" was designed when he was still studying at MIT. The content of the game is that two players each Control a space warship that revolves around a planet with strong gravitational force and launch missiles to attack the opponent. While fighting, you must also pay attention to overcoming the gravitational force. Whether it is hit by the opponent's missile or fails to escape the gravitational force, the spaceship will crash. As the earliest My business machine (arcade machine) "Computer Space" uses a black and white TV as the display screen, and uses a 4-button control handle to operate.

After Nolan Bushnell made "Computer Space", he put it in a billiard room, but few people tried it, and it failed miserably.According to Nolan Bushnell's own reflection, the reason for the failure is probably because the players thought that the game was too complicated compared with the pinball popular in the United States at that time, and many players didn't know how to start.However, Nolan Bushnell did not give up. In the second year, he invested and established a small company called Atari with his friend Ted Barney, and launched a new product called "Pong (Pong)" in November of that year. Pong)" business machine (arcade). "

Although some people have seen the history of video games from magazines or newspapers, but it is the first time to see these real objects, so everyone listened very carefully, but the media reporters have not forgotten their work, filming After taking photos and recording the tour guide's commentary, Li Wenbo also took out his 135 camera again, and took several consecutive photos of the "Computer Space" business machine in the glass cover when there was no flash.

"Look, everyone, this is the business machine (arcade machine) named "Pong"," He Lili pointed to another wooden machine next to "Computer Space" and said: "It also uses a black-bordered TV The machine is used as a monitor, but the game can already be controlled by a joystick, which is much simpler than "Computer Space". There is another story about this machine, because of the failure of "Computer Space", for the re-launched "Pong ", Nolan Bushnell decided to be cautious. He moved a "Pong" to a tavern for trial sales. Unexpectedly, less than a day after the machine was installed, the tavern owner called angrily, saying that Nolan The machine provided by Bushnell was so bad that it broke down within a day. During the phone call, the boss also strongly demanded that Nolan Bushnell move his scrap metal back.

Although Nolan Bushnell didn't believe it, he could only rush over there in a hurry. When he got to the tavern, he dismantled the machine for a look. It turned out that the machine was blocked because of too many people inserting coins. Situations where you cannot continue playing.Nolan Bushnell knew that he had succeeded. Compared with the original "Computer Space", which was almost unattended, "Pong" is obviously much more popular. This may correspond to the saying "who underestimates the intelligence of Americans, Who will get rich', and a new era of video game consoles has kicked off..."

……

"Everyone, please look here. With the continuous advancement of technology, especially the emergence of microprocessors, more and more home game consoles have begun to appear on the market. In the early days, the well-known Atari 2600 was launched in 1977. , originally named Video Computer System (VCS), was the earliest home game console that could replace the cassette, and was the most popular at that time, and it was also the Christmas gift that many children dreamed of at that time.

Next to the Atari 2600 is the Intellivision launched by the famous American toymaker Mattel in 1980, which is more powerful than the Atari 2600.Well, that controller looks a bit like a button-type telephone dial, and the direction is controlled by something like a shuttle at the bottom of the handle, which is very different from the common game handles now.

Above Intellivision is ColecoVision, which was launched in 1982. It is also the handicraft of a toy manufacturer. This home game console launched by Coleco in the United States has more powerful performance. What is interesting is that the control handle is still similar to a telephone dial, not only has the numbers 0~9 , and even "#" and "*", making it a bit confusing whether they are making a home console or a phone.

During this period, the main battlefield of home game consoles was in the United States. Many companies made a lot of money in games at this stage. This was also the first glorious period of the home game market. Ignoring the quality of games led to flooding of retail shelves with poor quality games, and the public's interest in video games gradually dissipated.

Less than a year after 1982, a large number of garbage games flooded, leading to the final collapse of the home game market in the United States, and game companies that were once prosperous had to lay off staff, close their doors, and go bankrupt..."

He Lili introduced several ancient home game consoles behind her to everyone as she walked, many of which were never seen by many people, causing everyone to stop, and while paying attention to the explanation, He looked carefully at the antique home game console with traces of vicissitudes in the glass cabinet.

Li Wenbo took out his own 135 camera again, intending to record these histories. For him, the Atari 2600 is not unfamiliar. ColecoVision or something, he had never heard of it, so he had to save something for himself to remember.

……

"When home game consoles were popular in the United States, RB had just started in this area, but just like their automobile industry, they quickly caught up with the United States. Represented by the game commonly known as 'Big Bee', it created an era of business machines (arcade machines), and the famous game image "Pac-Man (Pac-Man)" was also born in this period..." He Lili continued He introduced "Road to Game" to everyone.

……

"I believe that many people have seen this game console. This is the famous Nintendo Family Computer in the 80s. It is also called Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe and the United States, which is the Nintendo Entertainment System. Many classic games were born on this machine. For example, the "Final Fantasy" series that is in full swing on the PS game console, the "Zelda" series that is very popular in the North American market, the "Contra" series that is well-known in China, etc... This is after the collapse of the North American home game console market. , a second revival from RB that also created the Nintendo dynasty of the 80s and early 90s..."

……

"These machines were launched by Sega, Nintendo's main competitor, to compete with the Nintendo Famicom in the mid-80s, including the SG1000 that followed the Nintendo Famicom, and the SG1000II, which was launched successively in the following years. Improved models such as MARKIII and MASTER SYSTEM, unfortunately all failed due to the quality of the game and the closed development strategy.” He Lili said with a smile: “Actually, the basic architecture of these four hosts is the same, and the games can also be backward compatible. , but four consoles in a row aimed at one opponent, but they all failed, this kind of thing may only be done by Sega.”

……

"Entering the era of 16-bit game consoles, Sega finally took the lead in launching the famous Sega fifth-generation MegaDrive, which is called Genesis in North America, taking advantage of the fact that Nintendo's next-generation game consoles are not yet on the market...these It is the peripheral accessories of Sega MD, including MegaCD for reading discs, 32X for improving performance, etc... Here is the new generation of game host Super Nintendo Super Family Computer, also known as Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which Nintendo uses to counterattack..."

……

"Since the 90s, with the gradual increase in computing power and cost reduction of Intel 80386, 80486, and Pentium processors, as well as the gradual increase in performance of graphics cards and the emergence of 3D acceleration sub-cards, from "Sim City", "Wolf3D" By "Sim City 3000" and "Thor's Hammer 2", the image processing capabilities of computers began to catch up with home game consoles. With the upgrade of "multimedia" capabilities through sound cards and optical drives, computers have further transformed into multimedia entertainment in the home. Terminal. As a branch of electronic games, computer games have also begun to prosper and flourish, and new game modes such as real-time strategy and real-time tactics are constantly being born..."

……

"Home game consoles are also constantly developing. PlayStation, Saturn, and N64 have been launched successively, bringing home game consoles from the 16-bit era to the 32-bit or even 64-bit era. The performance is constantly being refurbished, and the number of games is increasing day by day...now A new round of game console battles has begun. In the end, will the Dreamcast console, which is one step ahead, take the lead, or the upcoming DreamBox128 will be a late striker, or PS2 and 'Dolphin', which have not yet determined their release date. We can only wait and see if we can fight back steadily.”

As He Lili's voice fell, everyone realized that they had unknowingly walked along the "Game Road" to the second floor. Except for a Dreamcast host and a DreamBox2 prototype, there was nothing beyond. Presumably it is reserved for the development of game hardware in the future.

After watching the final exhibits of "Road to Games", Li Wenbo felt dazed for a while. He walked all the way, as if he had traveled through time and space without realizing it, from the earliest oscilloscope games to the latest game consoles. "Odyssey", Atari 2600, "Pac-Man", Nintendo Famicom, Sega [-]th Generation MegaDrive, Pentium Multimedia Computer, Dreamcast, all familiar or unfamiliar game machines appeared in front of his eyes, and he couldn't help but Thinking of his youthful years of gaming, those happy hours in the afternoon, those days of clanging tanks with friends, those nights of sitting alone in front of the computer to tackle problems, thinking about the faint smile slowly climbed up his face.

(End of this chapter)