Arcade History Timeline Research

Arcades (Centralised areas built around games of any form) have existed since the 1920's, but did not feature video games until much later. Because this is about video games in arcades, these will not be considered.

The first video game cabinet to be publicly playable was The Galaxy Game, which was the first coin-operated machine made. It was installed on Stanford University campus. In the same year, Computer Space is sold commercially, being the first arcade game that can be owned by anyone willing to front the cash. In 1972 Pong was released, becoming the first commercial success. It also showed how popular sports games could be if played digitally.

In 1973, Taito Corp. released Astro Race, an early example of a racing game that used a basic four-way joystick controller. They then went on to follow up this with other notable releases in 1974, such as the sprite-based game Basketball and Speed Racer, which used a skewed perspective to give an illusion of distance.

In 1974, Taito released Interceptor, a game that was an example of an early FPS and flight simulator, controlled with an (advanced for the time) eight-way joystick. This scaled enemies in sight depending on distance to the player. This kind of technique is seen in a later classic, Space Harrier. Another innovative release from Taito was Western Gun, a two player shoot-em-up. This game made particular use of joysticks to make a multi-directional control mechanic, which make the game much more action-oriented when a second player joins. It was also the first to depict a firearm and a story with characters to progress through the narrative.
Later in the year, Midway MFG adapted and re-released Western Gun under the same of Gun Fight. This edition, whilst playing in exactly the same way, was one of the first to represent a step up in hardware used in cabinets; the microprocessor. This allowed for higher graphical fidelity and smoother animation.

1976 saw SEGA release Moto-Cross, a motorcycle racing game that used a handlebar controller in place of a joystick. The game used a similar scrolling method to newer games such as Super Hang-On to create track movement, but more interestingly is the use of haptic feedback in the controller that could make it vibrate when the player collided with something. They used some elements from Moto-Cross in Road Race, which played from the first person instead of third. Atari followed suit with Night Driver, which played in an identical fashion.

The standout release of this year is Breakout, which has famously spawned a plethora of clones, some such as Shatter would dare to expand on the concept. This year's final hardware advancement came from Cinematronics with Space Wars, a game that used a vector graphic display. This would be used in the Vectrex home console, which unfortunately came out at a time when Vector graphics weren't as popular.

The Golden age of gaming would start with Taito's Space Invaders in 1978, which was the world's first blockbuster game. It has influenced shooters since its inception, and has also gone through several make-overs over the years. It also was responsible for a sumoured shortage of 100-yen coins in Japan, something which was quickly debunked. SEGA also released Secret Base, which was the first to feature co-operative gameplay.

In 1979, Atari released the classic Asteroids which sold tremendously well in the United States, becoming Atari's best selling game of all time. Namco released Galaxian, a shoot-em-up that began the use of basic RGB colour values to set it apart from all before it. Nintendo then released Sheriff and Radar Scope, both doing something different. Sheriff used dual stick controls akin to Geometry Wars and Super Stardust, and Radar Scope used a 3-Dimensional third person perspective that Konami would go on to use in games like Juno Fist.

1980 saw Namco's biggest selling game, Pac-Man. It introduced staples of the industry such as cutscenes and mascots, as well as opened the pastime to a female audience. They also released King & Balloon, which was the first game to use dual-core processors and synthesised voices. They had another hit with Rally X, which was the first to have background music and scrolling in more than one direction. Another innovation was the DECO cassette system, which bacame a popular standard.

Nintendo kicked off 1981 with Donkey Kong, which kickstarted the platformer genre. It was also Mario's first appearance. SEGA released Eliminator, which was the first vector game to be played with four people. Konami pitched in with several titles; Scramble, Frogger and Basconian. Each did different things to the predecessors in their genres

1982 had the first use of Parallax scrolling in Moon Patrol from Irem. The inrecidlby popular Pole Position was released, along with SEGA's Star Trek, Konami's Time Pilot and Atari's Quantum, which respectively had highly intricate simulation levels, free-roaming gameplay and boosted hardware.

1983 saw the first 3d-polyon game I, Robot, as well as Bally Midway's Journey that used digitised sprites, and Dragon's Lair which seperated itself by using cel-animations. The most well-known release would be Star Wars, the vector re-creation of the attack on the Death Star.

16-bit processors were used frequently from 1984 onwards, resulting in better visual quality of games. Atari hit the JAMMA board running with Marble Madness and Paperboy, and Namco released Pac-Land, which went on to be very influential.

Atari released Gauntlet in 1985, and Gradius was released by Konami. Space Harrier was released, and Super Mario Brothers made its way into arcades from the Famicom. The perhaps first signs of modern soccer games was released, Tekhan World Cup, using a top-down perspective.

1986 was the year SEGA took the world by storm with Out Run, a game which has since been remade many times. Creeper was also released, which was the first use of blood and gore, which was met with heavy disdain from critics.

After the Golden Age, Namco relased Shadowland, and Tehnos Japan released Double Dragon, going on to become a massive hit and the bair raiser for brawler-style games in 1987.

1988 sees the first 32-bit processor game, NARC. In addition to this, Reikai Doushi is released, becoming the first claymation game. Assault was released by Namco, which utilises rotating and scaling of large sprites. Splatterhouse was also introduced, which made prolific yet suitable use of violence. Winning Run was brought out which made use of Namco's 3D Polygonizer technology. Tetris was abso brought to the scene in a coin-op setting.

In 1989, Hard Drivin' is released and is the second game to have 3D graphics. The industry is changed with Exterminator, sporting the highest quality digital sprites for a time. The 3D technology is reinforced ahead of the 2D mechanics with S.T.U.N Runner, which used 3D graphics in a high speed.

Capcom stands above the competition in 1991 with Street Fighter II, which revitalised competitive fighting games and built even more upon the standard Double Dragon set years before, this trend persisting with Mortal Kombat in 1992, and its own sequel in 1993. SEGA capitalised on the new interest with Virtua Fighter, expecting 3D graphics to help it stand out. They also released the most successful arcade game in existence, Daytona USA.

Killer Instinct is released in 1994, being the only game to have a hard disk. This allowed the rest of the budget to go towardsadding more to the game, making it the best use of the movie background technique.

Two years later, SNK release Metal Slug, sporting superb hand-drawn sprites, a slapstick sense of humour and two player action well suited to the revided side scrolling mechanics.

Dance Dance Revolutiuon is released in 1998, which would enjoy much success and many iterative releases.

In 1999 Rush 2049 is released, the last game to bear the Atari Games logo before the name change to Midway Games West and the cancellation of the coin-op production line.

Timeline: Megaman

Finding a Suitable Essay Subject

When choosing an art movement to use as the subject matter for an essay is not an easy task, so it's best to go through the ones I have in mind before making an informed decision.

The first one I have in mind is Street Art. This is one of, if not my favourite movements that has been observed, since it is everyday people's expression in a public place that doesn't give you a choice but to see it. Some would think that this would be an easy art movement to cover, but this isn't the case as most graffiti that is seen is mere vandalism, whereas the only hot-spots for any artistic street art are places like Melbourne, Australia and The Bronx, New York City. These places and many others have a legacy for Street Art, which isn't common in the North West. 

In terms of how Street Art has influenced media, there doesn't appear to be much of an influence in entertainment media, considering the relative unpopularity among the public with this movement. This would mean that an essay on Street Art would be near empty.

Another movement I could do an essay on is Photorealism. Photorealism is an unorthodox movement in that the objective is to make a painting seem as realistic as possible. It can seem like an unimaginative concept, but it demonstrates skill on the artist's part, and can make existing places look even better than their real-life counterparts.

Unfortunately, like Street Art, there isn't much in terms of media influence. The only real way this could influence creative media is graphical technology. The desire to make CGI look as realistic as possible (in games and film) is a pursuit that could have been partially influenced by this "movement", although this was a technical goal to begin with.

A third movement I could write about is Superflat.

Superflat is, as the name suggests, flat artwork. A Japanese art movement, this is incredibly popular world wide, not only for its simplicity and accessibility, but the unique feel it gives artwork.

There's no question that this has influenced all forms of expressive media, manga and animé are prime examples of its influence. There are also various games made using this style, nearly all of them are sprite-based, including games such as Mark of the Ninja, the King of Fighters series and the Pokémon series.

Mood Board: Futurism

REFERENCES:

Mood Board: Street Art

REFERENCES:

Bomb-hugging Girl [Image]. (2004). Retrieved from http://www.printed-editions.com/upload/standard/_Banksy_Bomb_Hugger_Signed_395.jpg

Girl with Baloons [Image]. (2005). Retrieved from http://blog.bt-store.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/banksy-westbank-wall-balloon-girl1.jpg

Bronx subway carriage [Image]. (2010) Retrieved from http://www.tooft.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/5-train-pano.jpg

123Klan spraycan [Image]. (n.d). Retrieved from http://b.vimeocdn.com/ps/160/983/1609837_300.jpg

Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure concept art [Image] retrieved from

Street Art

Street Art is not a recognised art movement, nor is it indeed one in the traditional sense, but that is exactly the point of it: artists that use the public environment to show their work are using something that was designed to look one way, and making it their canvas.

This kind of artwork is more controversial than others. The general impression around street art is that it is graffiti. What most people don't realise is that there is a distinct difference between the two. Graffiti is made without artistic intent, with nearly no effort put into the artwork or any underlying message at all. Street Art has a message in it, and is very well produced so that it is a pleasure to look at.

Of course, whether even that work is good or not is subjective; politicians, authorities and many members of the public will say that it is all an eyesore. However, what these people will forget is that they could say that about nearly everything they would see in an art museum, the difference is with street art is that the artist isn't giving you a choice but to see it, and that is one of the reasons why it is so powerful.

This 'movement' spans many different types of media: Stencils, wheatpasting, mosaics and sculptures are all used to varying extents. The most known artist is Banksy, who is known for creating politically heavy artwork with stencils in a matter of a few seconds, often in broad daylight:

This is one of his pieces which simply references cultural elements whilst taking advantage of the scenery.

Banksy is known for taking the traditional paradigm of being classed as a vandal and turning it on his head:

This works on the principle that advertisers are just as much, if not more, of a vandal than he is. 

He was quoted as saying "People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish. But that is only if it's done properly"

Other artists who have a less political message include Ces53, a dutch artist who uses very vibrant colours to make environments look nicer. 

It isn't clear why, but Ces53 seems to create art simply to make walls and buildings look a little brighter.

Ces53 gained fame by being one of the first to paint on trains in Holland, Belgium and Germany, the amount of artwork he created as well as the variety made him very popular among enthusiasts.

Pop Art

Pop Art was a movement that was founded from around 1954 in the United Kingdom, and around 1958 in the United States, and was started by the Independent Group.

Pop Art was different from the norm at the time in that it included images and other media from popular culture, such as advertisements, flyers, newspapers, and so on. These materials are often taken out of their original context to produce a different kind of artwork tha what was seen traditionally.

Pop Art started off un the United Kingdom as an attempt to challenge the modernist approaches to culture and design. The first artwork that conformed to the Pop Art style was the collage "I was a Rich Man's Plaything" part of a series named "Bunk!". This collage evolved to become the standard bearer of the movement, as it was the first to reference itself in the artwork.

The first mixed media piece to be classed as Pop Art, featuring what would've been cultural staples of the time.

The movement's takeoff in the US was different as it was in the UK. Advertisers had started to use different elements of modern art and had become more sophisticated, and this made it difficult for artists of this movement to find usable media that would differentiate their work from advertisements. Because of this, artwork from the US was bolder and was more aggressive, whilst artists from the UK thought the artwork felt more humourous, romantic and dramatic.

The movement's popularity in the US was thanks to artists including Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichenstein. These artists had their own styles that reflected the Pop Art ethos in an effective manner:

Andy Warhol is perhaps one of the more famous names from this movement, who was known for his exploration of artistic expression, use of advertising and celebrity culture in his artwork.

Campbell's Soup is one of Warhol's more bizarre pieces, but reflects his nature of expression through popular culture.

Robert Rauschenberg's artwork, whilst categorised as neo-Dadaist, had social messages as their focus. He would take imagery of normal American culture and manipulate them into something different:

This sculpture was designed to something different with something people saw so often.

Roy Lichenstein's artwork was made on large canvases made with magna paint. Most of his earlier work mimiced the style of comics, using half-tone patterns, vibrant clours with basic tones and thick black outlines. 

This painting, made on a canvas measuring four meters in length and standing at nearly two meters tall, was based on a page from DC Comic's All-American Men of War. The original artist was uncredited.