Did you know that Pong; the first game made by Atari, wasn’t originally meant to be released to the public? A new Atari employee was given the assignment of making it simply as a test of his game design skills. Since Pong became a hit, video games have been a large part of the entertainment business. They have found their way into homes all over the world. “You can’t say that video games grew out of pinball, but you can assume that video games wouldn’t have happened without it. It’s like bicycles and cars. One industry leads to the other and then they exist side by side. But you had to have bicycles to one day have motor cars” (Steven Baxter). In 1931 David Gottlieb invented the first pinball machine. Gottlieb was a short, stocky person. He had brown hair and smoked a cigar. His machine was called “Baffle Ball.” Baffle Ball had no flippers or scoring devices. One’s score was determined by which scoring pocket the ball went into. One had to keep score in one’s head. The only moving part was the plunger; the part which one pulls back to launch the ball. The only way one could control which scoring pocket the ball went in was to shake the cabinet in different directions. To give a sense of how old baffle ball is picture this: seven balls for a penny. Because of Gottlieb’s success, imitators sprang up everywhere. Two of them were David Rockola and Ray Moloney. Moloney’s first machine was called “Ballyhoo.” It sold so well that Moloney renamed his company Bally. His and Rockola’s machines were cheaper but were lower quality. Before inventing Baffle Ball, Gottlieb invented a novelty game called Husky Grip. It tested the player’s strength. All kinds of novelty games were popular in arcades before video games. The first innovation i... ... middle of paper ... ...designing Wii software especially for surgical training. Doctors who had once played video games for more than three hours a week completed a scored and timed course of surgical drills much faster and more accurately than doctors who hadn’t played video games. Works Cited Inskeep, Steve. “Surgery Trainees Warm Up Using Video Games.” Morning Edition. NPR. WNYC, New York. 21 Jan, 2008. Kent, Steven. The Ultimate History of Video Games. New York: Random House, 2001. Polsson, Ken. “A Brief Timeline of Video Game Systems.” http://islandnet.com/~kpolsson/vidgame/mini.htm 2/10/08 Rasser, James. “Nurse, Joystick!” The Atlantic Monthly. June, 2007 pp. 36. “The Gaming Console Nearly 50 Years Old.” http://www.gamingdump.com/consoleevolution.html Gaming Dump. 2/12/08. Thompson, Jim. Game Design. Hoboken, New Jersey: Quarto Publishing Inc. 2007.
Part of the humor that was used in the show was originated from anachronisms that played off current audiences that included the amazing video game graphics of Pong which was a big hit ...
Boulanger, Amy. "How Video Games Can Help Children Succeed in School." Medical Daily. (2013): n. page. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
The author primarily appeals to the audience using logos. He brings statistics and data from research studies throughout the essay. He either provides background information on why the studies are misleading or just presents a fact. For instance, “According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General 's report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure” (Jenkins, “Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked”). He provides data like this through the essay. He is strongly trying to appeal to the audience’s sense of logic and
An examination of videogames in popular culture is a complicated one. There is a large debate as to what is the very first video game. The supposed earliest known video game was created by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann on a cathode ray tube in 1947. The game was a missile simulator similar to radar displays from World War II, and overlaid sheets of paper were used for targets since graphics were unknown at this time. On May 5, 1951, the NIMROD computer was presented in Britain. It used a panel of lights for its display and was used to play a game called “NIM”. Later, in 1952, Alexander S. Douglas made the first compu...
North American society is one that exploits people’s fears. When people are afraid, there is a desire to place blame on someone or something; to project our problems on to a issue so that we feel less responsibility. Modern media has found an easy scapegoat for this in the form of video games. Being a billion dollar industry that targets young people, video games naturally became the target of many news stories promoting fear and hostility to the gaming industry. News organizations, looking to capitalize on fear, realize that fear brings viewers, and may be too hasty in their reports against gaming. Because these for-profit companies often focus on violence, crude language and the impression that this will have on the children, it is easy to forget the good things that video games have to offer. I am by no means suggesting that parents should start exposing their children to sources of entertainment that they don’t see fit consumption, but rather to a closer look at the positives that gaming and technology has brought to medical fields such as
The video game industry has grown very powerful over the last five decades due to gamming consoles. A new generation of gamming was created, taking games from arcades and putting them in one’s household. Although arcade games were a great hit, there were modifications that needed to be done to them to make them smaller and more compact. In 1967, German born Ralph Baer and some of his coworkers were the first to get an actual prototype to work on a regular home television. After the console, Magnavox Odyssey (1972), was released and made a big impact on the market, more and different companies and corporations released more systems with such specifications. Although the consoles had been a great hit, there was only one playable game in each console. The purpose of creating gaming consoles was mainly to provide families with their own videogame console at their own home. However, the modifications made to these consoles were very small but at that time it took a long time to be able to develop adaptors.
“Most reported effects of videogames – particularly in the popular press – appear to centre upon the alleged negative consequences… Research has consistently shown that playing computer games (irrespective of genre) produces reductions in reaction times, improved hand-eye co-ordination and raises players’ self-esteem,” (Griffiths p. 47), states Mark Griffiths in his article, “The educational benefits of videogames”. When people think of video games, they often tend to think about the negative side effects that video games can have on a person. Will Wright in his article, “Dream Machines” also defends video games by providing positive effects that video games have on those who play them. Wright presents
The first point that needs to be addressed is how video games are used for training purposes. Video games are used by the United States Army to train soldiers (Suellentrop). America’s Army helps the soldiers develop their fighting skills (Suellentrop). This video game also helps to teach soldiers how to learn to function as a team (Suellentrop). Along with the Army, video games train individuals how to respond in emergency situations (Issitt). Video games train people in many ways, even if it is unknown to many people how important they can be to society.
Gallagher, Danny. “7 Health Benefits of Playing Video Games.” The WEEK. The WEEK Publications, Inc. 10 March 2013. Web. 3 May 2014.
Video games have come a long way. They have evolved from the simple game of Pong into a complex, multi-platform, multi-genre, multi-billion dollar industry.
(Attention Getter) Since 1972 with the creation of pong, video games have been one of the leading ways to spend free time around the world. (Link to Audience) With the creation of all sorts of different
Video games can give players experience and knowledge, but they can also, at the same time, drain energy from a player by taking away vital sleep the night before a game . Video games can be a great source of basic athletic skills, improving hand eye coordination and visual search skills. Young athletes, who have been playing and practicing with sports video games have a greater understanding than older sports stars did when they first began playing a sport, but video games cannot create an athlete. Video games help athletes become better at their sport, but the video games cannot help a person become an athlete. "A better analogy for virtual training [sports video games] could be weight lifting: It’s an activity that won’t turn you into a professional athlete, but if you are one, it will make you better at your sport" (Suellentrop 20). Sports video games impact sports performance positively, but a balance must be found between video games and real life practicing, as video games can cause harm just as much as improvement for and athletes sports performance
Norcia, Andrea. "The Impact of Video Games on Children." Palo Alto Medical Foundation Apr 2007 20 Mar 2008 .
There are several negative stereotypes associated with video games and those who play them; some of these may often hold true. However, there are plenty of learning opportunities in video games. While the direct purpose of some games is to educate or train, other games that do not directly have this purpose can still become a learning experience for the player. As Ntiedo Etuk, president of the educational video game company Tabula Digital said, “The traditional view of video games has been that they are distractions from the task of learning” (Electronic Education Report 1). Video games are an effective tool for learning and retaining skills both inside and outside the classroom environment. The basic cycle of game play--the introduction to the game, game play, collaboration, improvement of these between each round, and evaluation at the end of the game (Klievink and Janssen 159)--are nearly parallel to the traditional classroom learning cycle of reading a textbook or listening to a lecture, taking a quiz, studying, focusing on items missed on the quiz, and taking a test or exam. Within this cycle, there are many opportunities to develop and perfect both educational, life, and occupational skills.
When playing video games, the coordination and concentration can physically, socially, and mentally benefit the user. Research today shows that certain video games can reduce fat and therefore promote weight loss. Other sources state that doctors have instructed parents to let their children play video games to help control focus. It is found that video games can improve hand eye coordination and have been used for rehabilitation of wounded soldiers. Gamming has developed in technology, and created many new positive effects. Over the years video games has become popular, the history of gamming continues all the way back to board games, new equipment has created constructive and entertaining learning experiences.