Thursday 5 November 2009

1980-90

Computer games were, by this point becoming more and more commercial and the industry began to explode into a vast collection of publishing houses, some of these would stand strong through the next 20 years ( Atari, Sega and Electronic Arts). Some of the earliest 80’s games were spin-offs and clones of earlier titles but with the dawn of personal consoles came a new genre of computer game.

Adventure games and storylines could be introduced to home consoles as the player could return to the game and continue to play, this made the target audience grow rapidly with people now being able to follow a character through a story like you would a film. Portopia Renzoku Satsuiin Jiken was released in 1983 and was the first visual novel and one of the earliest ‘graphic novel games’. The game is played in first person, one of the first of its kind, paving the way for more and eventually FPS(first person shooter)’s.

The racing title Pole Position pioneered the rear view racer format where the players view was from the outside of the car, this style still remains today even after 3D graphics became standard. Another important point of the 1980s was that it was the dawn of the point and click interface thanks to LucasArts building the SCUMM system.

No comments:

Post a Comment