Video Games: Past, Present, and Future - A Game History and Speculation
By Edwin Zee
Video games have existed now for several decades dating back to the 1970's. The most famed game of the time, "Pong," was a simple recreation of tennis played electronically. The premise was advance at the time because nothing ever before existed. However, looking back on "Pong" we feel that the design was too simple, not challenging enough for our tastes, and left modern gamers wanting more. Yet this game was simple enough for our grandparents to play, how have times changed? To analyze this question, I'll take into account one game franchise that has stood the test of time.
Origins
In 1981, a young video game developer named Shigeru Miyamoto was charged with developing an original video game concept that could be used to enter the North American Market. Drawing on inspirations from Popeye, King Kong, and other popular culture, Miyamoto designed a game that starred a carpenter, a gorilla, and a damsel in distress. The self-proclaimed "Jumpman" was given the name Mario and a legend was born. Over the course of a few years, Mario changed his profession to a regular plumber and revitalized the gaming industry with one spectacular game.
A Brand New Game
Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System
In 1985, Super Mario Bros. was released for the Nintendo Entertainment system. The game was met with critical acclaim and for good reasons.
What's new about it?
Super Mario Bros. was the longest and most complex video game upon its publication. The game world was extensive with locales ranging from underwater to underground and it was the first home console game to feature smooth level scrolling. The combination of colorful graphics, a memorable soundtrack, and smooth game play made this game revolutionary to all who played it.
How do you relate: Relation to reality
Most notably in Donkey Kong, but carrying over to Super Mario Bros. Mario was one of the first video game characters ever created. That is, in Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros., graphics were used to represent characters. These characters became an extension of our own personalities when playing these games. Thus, when playing Super Mario Bros. the player was no longer themselves but instead the portly Italian Mario running through the Mushroom Kingdom trying to save Princess Toadstool. Super Mario Bros. was one of the first video games that allowed us to leave our reality and enter alternate one.
Skills to Pay the Bills: What skills were required?
The only skills a player needed were good eye hand coordination as well as a sense of timing and precision. The player had control over Mario as he jumped, ducked, swam, ran, and threw fireballs in eight different worlds. There were only two buttons used in the game, one dedicated for jumping and the other for throwing fireballs and running.
Games of our Fathers
Many parents, including my own have played the original Super Mario Bros. The most interesting thing is that many of them were good at it. Many people forget that Super Mario Bros. came out in 1985, a time in which we were infants and our parents were twenty years younger. Most of my friends who I surveyed revealed that the Nintendo Entertainment System that they grew up on actually belonged to their parents'. Super Mario Bros. was really the game of our parents. Sure we played it and grew up on it, but this was only through inheriting it from those who passed it on. In 1985, Super Mario Bros. was the most advanced game ever created and our parents played it and loved it. When our grandparents saw the game, the longed for the earlier days of much more retro games like Pong and Space Invaders.
Hindsight
Compared to the games today, Super Mario Bros. is hardly groundbreaking or complicated. Its gameplay is fairly simplistic and repetitive and its 8-bit graphics and bleep bloop soundtracks are severely outdated to today's HD graphics and orchestrated soundtracks.
Revelation
Our stroll through Super Mario brings us to the main thesis. How have video games changed? What will be the games our children teach us? First of, we note that with every passing day technology is growing incredibly more advance. The technology that exists today is incredibly superior to the one that existed just seven years ago. Obviously, the games of the future will much more technologically advance. But to what extent? In order to speculate what games our children will teach us, we must first remember what games we taught our parents.
The Games We Taught Our Parents
In 1996, Nintendo launched the Nintendo 64. Two generations after our parents' beloved Nintendo system, the Nintendo 64 was eight times more powerful and capable of generating 3D images. Enter Super Mario 64, one of the most revolutionary titles in the gaming industry. Super Mario 64 expanded the video game world by taking the traditional linear obstacle course of 2D plat form games and replacing it with vast worlds in which the player must explore.
Entering the Third Dimension
When my friends and I asked our parents to play Super Mario 64, the results were quite similar. We found that our parents, masters of the 2D Mushroom Kingdom, could not quickly and easily adapt to the new 3D gaming found in Super Mario 64. Some eventually learned how to play with dedicated practice, but others lacked the patience or cognition to learn. Most longed for the nostalgic days of 8 bit gaming. It was true, Super Mario 64 was technologically superior to Super Mario Bros but how could we, mere children who grew up on Super Mario Bros., quickly adjust to this new game while our parents who played the same classic could not?
Advances in technology
Revelation
The reason, I believe, is based on several factors but most importantly our ages. When our parents purchased the Nintendo Entertainment System and played Super Mario, they were already adults. As intelligent as they are, their ability to grasp new concepts was at their peaks while ours was just beginning to develop. It is scientifically proven that children at young ages have the ability to understand new concepts the older people. That is why many parents rush to have their children learn a musical instrument or foreign language when they are only in elementary school. I believe the same idea stands true for games. As children, we are brains are more willing and eager to learn new concepts than those of our parents. This is why it was easier for us as children to jump into Super Mario 64 than our parents.
Revolution
Mario is now entering his fifth generation of technology: The Nintendo Wii. Many gamers are waiting his debute in Super Mario Galaxy at the end of the year. As college students, we still have the ability to develop new cognitive thinking patterns to learn how to play this game. But here is an interesting thought: many of us are in our twenties. Maybe in the next several years some of us might get married and have children. For those who do, your children will be growing up on the Nintendo Wii. Just like how you grew up on your parents' Nintendo, your children will be playing the same game as you. Just don't be surprised if they are better than you at it.
Super Mario Galaxy
Future: The Games Our Children Will Teach Us
I don't know about my fellow classmates, but sometimes I can feel my age as a gamer. Maybe I don't have the patience or time to invest in my games anymore or maybe my cognitive skills are slowing. But watching a video like this can be discouraging:
The only thing that remains to be answered is what Mario game will our children teach us? I doubt we'll see any marvelous graphic transformations in the future because graphics can only get so good before you cannot improve on them. Case in point, the jump from Super Nintendo to Nintendo 64 was revolutionary but the jump from the XBOX to the XBOX360 wasn't that groundbreaking. Thus, I believe the future lies in gameplay. Just like Super Mario Galaxy will be changing the way we play games and showcasing the Wii hardware, the Mario that our children will teach us will undoubted transform the way we play games again. Maybe Nintendo's next console will be a Virtual Reality Console in which we actually become Mario. When we jump, he jumps. When we punch, he punches. The physical immersion of the game would be immense and hard to imagine. However, one thing for certain is that our children will probably be able to play it better and leave us longing for the nostalgic days of the Wii.
