Blog #7 --------------------- 1995 to 1999

1995: There’s not much notable about this year. It was 1 year after the Playstation came out, so many games are being released for it, but the majority are still for the SNES. One big game that came out this year for neither console was Warcraft 2: Tides of darkness, released by blizzard. It was a much more refined version of Warcraft and was very popular.

1996: Following my theme from last week, Kirby Super Star was released for the SNES in this year. This game was one of the last major releases for the SNES, and is said to be one of the best games in the Kirby franchise. Kirby’s Block Ball was also released in May of this year for the Game Boy, it was more of a ‘Breakout’ clone than an actual Kirby game.

1997: This year is a very important year for gaming, not because it was the beginning of the Fallout series, but because it was the year that many of the people in our class were born. Although maybe Fallout was a bit more important. The game had its own game engine made for it by Tim Cain. It took him 6 months, but after it was developed, he had 30 people working on it for 3 years to make Fallout, an RPG series that is arguable the most popular of its kind today.

The game Introduced the SPECIAL system, which was a new way to keep track of character statistics. It stands for: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. The player and every NPC in the game would have their own unique set of stats, which would constantly be changing throughout the game, and determine the outcome of certain situations.

1998: A huge game was released this year, which I really hope wasn’t covered in the presentation. Blizzard released Starcraft, which might not have been very popular, but it started the franchise that eventually released Startcraft 2, which is one of the most played games in the world.

Also in 1998, only a year after the initial release of Fallout, Fallout 2 became available on Windows and Mac. This one took plays approximately 80 years after the first game ended. Although the game has essentially the same graphics as its predecessor, it has a much larger world to explore.

1999: The year that the perfect score on Pacman was reached, only 19 years after its initial release. This year, a company that used to actually make games, valve, released the first version of Team Fortress. It was just a modification on Quake, and used the same engine, but focused mainly on competitive team games, such as capture the flag, and featured 9 classes to choose from.

Finally, one of my favourite games that I grew up playing the sequels to: SoulCalibur. From a technical point of view, this game was a big jump for fighting games because of its 8 way walking. For me, I’m not sure why, but it’s the only fighting game I’ve ever enjoyed. Although if they hadn’t removed Amy in Soul Calibur 5, I might actually play it.

Blog #6 ----- 1990-1994

I honestly don’t know how to start off this blog. I've got a head cold and my thinking is pretty clouded, but I’ll try and make something somewhat readable.

We start this post in 1990, the beginning of the greatest decade in the 20^th century. Why? Not because of any ground breaking games, but because it’s the decade that I was born! (I'm totally not narcissistic)

Even though I would love to keep this blog about me (again, totally not narcissistic), it’s time to discuss the games that were released in this time frame. 

During this time period… and I suppose since its initial release, Mario has been a very popular franchise in both Japan, North America, and around the world. In the 90’s, Nintendo had the bright idea to combine Mario with something a little Tetris-like. They came out with Dr. Mario, which was the first game I ever played on the Wii. 

The game was originally released only for the NES and the Game boy consoles. It was extremely popular, is featured on many “Best Nintendo games of all time” lists, and has been remade for every Nintendo console.

1991 was the year that Yoshi was released! Err… Super Mario World, which is the first game to include Yoshi. This was also the year that The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was released, adding one more game to the most popular franchise to this date.

1992 Was an interesting year, because Mega_Man_4 was released in the US on January 15^th.  The game must have been very short, because the same year on December 31^st, Mega_Man_5 was released. The game has little innovation in plot and gameplay, but the graphics were amazing for its time.

In 1993, the game Doom was released by id Software. I believe this was covered in the presentation but I also believe that this game is too important (for me) to not mention.

Not only did this game have a whole new engine created for it, and advance 3D graphics for computer games, it also started a huge franchise that included many spin-offs and even a movie. There are 14 Doom games, including the one that will be released this year.

The main reason why this game is so important is because it’s the reason I'm here (Again, totally not narcissistic). Technically this wasn't my first game, but it was the first game my dad played and got into. He was so amazed by it, that he bought almost every fps that was released after that, and even went on to win UT tournaments. If he hadn't been so into games, I wouldn't have started playing games (that I shouldn't have been playing) when I was 6, and I probably wouldn't have the passion that I do today.

And finally, 1994. This was the year that Warcraft was released, which started a franchise that you may or may not have heard of. This was a very big jump for RPGs.

Blog #5 --- 1985-1989

I’d like to start out this post by asking, why are people from America, Mexico, Romania, and Russia viewing my blog? 19 people from America? Unless my mother found my blog, I find that a little bit concerning.

Someone once told me:

“The second half of a decade is what’s remembered, and what defines the decade”.

I would say that person was you, but it turns out my teacher isn’t the only one reading this, so that might be a little too direct.

The statement is definitely true in the gaming industry, with huge releases that would have many sequels, such as Super Mario Bros 3, Dragon Quest 3, Zelda 2, and even final fantasy, all games which anyone today would recognize, even the one person in Romania who found my blog.

1985 was the year that Bethesda was created, but they didn’t release their first title until one year later, which was called ‘Gridiron!’ which is “a frame of parallel bars or beams, typically in two sets arranged at right angles, in particular.”

Seriously though, I learned about this game when I had a tour of the EA studio in Burnaby. Bethesda focused not on graphics, but trying to make the physics as good as possible. It was so impressive that EA bought it and used it for Madden, so technically, this game spawned many successful football games.

The next game the released was called ‘Vortex’, meaning that, again, I have to be extra specific when I google it. Due to the fact that it has no wiki page, and the only description on any site is that it’s “an action game published by Bethesda”, I’ll have to assume that it wasn’t very successful.

[Literally 0 images of Vortex]

1986 was a very successful year in the gaming industry, many amazing games were released such as [that one game you discussed in class], and [those other 2 games you discussed in class]. One that wasn’t stolen mentioned in class, was Starflight, and EA game that went to sell over a million copies.

The game was originally developed for IBM compatible and Tandy systems (Which I’ve never heard of), but due to its success, was later released for the Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh and Commodore 64. The game was set in the year 4620 and blah blah blah I’m running out of words and I’ve only covered 2 years. 

1987 looks like the year that video games start becoming real business. EA and Activision are going around buying companies, and Nintendo is suing [A company that was named during the lesson].

This is also the year that Zelda was released, which is said to be the longest running and most popular series of games. I played Zelda on the Gameboy when I was about 8, but it was too late. I had already been corrupted by Halo and World of Warcraft.

I’ll skip ahead to 1989, which is the year that I was ‘born’ according to every social media site I joined when I was 12. This was also the year that Lucasfilm Games, which is a bit redundant, released Pipe Dream, renamed to Pipe mania. You can find this game on essentially any platform nowadays. It’s a game that visually represents hacking a computer.

Blog #2 – (Again because I deleted it the first time)

I have a Bandaid on my index finger so typing this is terrible, and it’s due in less than 2 hours from my starting point, so this should be really fun.

The game designer that I have chosen after 14 seconds of searching is Markus Persson, who is responsible for the game “Minecraft”. You probably haven’t heard of it, but it’s a game that I’m sure took the creativity of an absolute genius to design. It’s like life, but cubes!

Now obviously I’m not too fond of Minecraft, I’ve tried it on multiple occasions (thanks to my brother forcing me) on PC, PS4, and XBOX ONE. All of which were completely disappointing and I felt as if I was just wasting time.

I have to admit though, some of the Minecraft that uses Augmented Reality that I’ve seen is very impressive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgakdcEzVwg – Around 2:45 is where it gets crazy.

Moving on to the actual designer, Markus Persson (aka Notch – which I did not know until now) is a game designer (and programmer) who founded Majong with Carl Manneh and Jakob Porser in late 2010.

The point of Majong’s creation was to continue the work of a first person sandbox game called Minecraft, which gained popularity in 2009 after its tech demo. Since the official release of Minecraft in 2011, Persson has won multiple awards, such as the BAFTA games special award, and has gained much recognition in the industry.

After the game’s release, Markus passed creative authority over to Jens Bergensten, and in November of 2014, Markus left Majong after it was sold to EA for 2.5 billion.

Markus got an early start when it comes to gaming. At the age of 8 years old, he made a text based adventure game using his father’s commodore 128. He has also started 7 competitions for the Java 4K Game Programming Contest, such as “Left 4K Dead”.

Markus isn’t only known for Minecraft though, although it is his first major game after working as a developer for King.com for 4 years.

Markus Persson and Jakob Porser came up with the idea for Scrolls which include elements from board games and collectable card games, although Markus made it clear that he would not be as involved in this game particularly. Bethesda sued Markus Persson over the name (Because of their Elder Scrolls serious). Markus challenged them to a Quake 3 tournament to determine the outcome of the dispute. In the end, Markus was able to keep the name.

0x10c is (or was going to be) Markus’ next game. It was a space game “Set in the distant future of March 2012”. It was essentially going to be Minecraft in space, and the same composer of Minecraft’s soundtrack was even hired to make, well, the soundtrack. Production was halted by Persson in August 2013.

Although Mark Persson is a very interesting person, and I still have 4 more games to discuss… I’m running out of time, (Plus I’m at 506 words) woooo.

(I think he wears a fedora in every single pic)

#enlightened

Blog #4 ----------- I’m totally not starting this 25 minutes before class starts.

Our era begins in 1980, a leap year that started on a Tuesday. Not entirely important, but that’s what you get when you give a student a morning class the day after a night class.

Pac man was released by Namco in 1980, it was an arcade game first released in japan on May 22^nd. The game was developed mainly by one employee of Namco named Toru Iwatani, who completed it in about a year with a 9 man team. 

Within 2 years, Pac man overtook space invaders in North America and turned into one of the highest grossing arcade games in history, making over a BILLION dollars in quarters after ~10 years, which Wikipedia wants you to know is “more than the highest grossing star wars film”.

Pac man was also the first video game to include cut scenes. I also just remembered that you may have gone over Pac man in class, but I’m not too sure, so I’m just gonna keep going. The game also is said to have opened gaming for female audiences.

1981 brought out Frogger, an arcade game made by Konami and released in Japan on June 5^th, North America on October 23^rd, and Europe on August 6^th. The game was renowned for having the most ways to die, 9 lose conditions in total.

The game inspired and “unofficial sequel” by Saga in 1991 called Rabbit, as well as many other clones, including Crossy Road.  

1983 brought the unofficial and unauthorized game called Ms Pac Man. After 10 more seconds of research, I have come to the realization that Ms Pac man was actually released in 1982. This is the first game that I’ve covered that was actually released in North America before it was released in Japan.

The game was pretty much exactly like Pac man, except you get a little pink bow. The game has 10 other changed, but nothing worth noting other than the fact that this game has more bugs than the original Pac man.

1983 actually had the release of Mario bros, which was the first time Mario's brother Luigi was introduced. The game was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and was released as an arcade game by Nintendo.

The game obviously had many, many follow ups, and I’m pretty sure that there’s a Mario game for every console available. This one version alone sold more than 1.63 million copies just for the NES.

In 1984, Pac-Land was released, which many say was a game ahead of its time. It included parallax scrolling for some background elements, which was not a common thing for many more years until the 16-bit console era.

The game was released on the Commodore 64, the Commodore Amiga, the Atari Lynx, the Atari ST, the TurboGrafx-16, the ZX Spectrum, the Amstrad CPC, the MSX, and the NES.

The game was also included as a stage in Super Smash Bros for the Wii U.