Game-Vet: September 2017

2D Games:

What are 2D games?

Today we have very advance technology for gaming, we have got VR, AR, 3D, 2.5D, etc. Back into the 90s where the technology for computers was not very advance, they mostly had 8-bit processors. Later on, with the advancement in technology use of 32-bit processors was adapted. 2D games can be played on any system, they just require a very few space. Now they are not so detailed like as much as 3D though. There are lot of versions in 2D too, like we say 8-bit 2D Game 16-bit 2D game, and finally 32-bit 2D Game, apparently 64bit might not be an appropriate option to be added in the list.

Image 1: 8-Bit Art

Image 3: 32-Bit Art

Image 2: 16-Bit Art

2D games are a set whole lot, that is implemented on a single plane also known as canvas. Now they deal with only X axis and Y axis, whereas the Z axis (used in 3D) is absent or we can say it today it is set as 0 (null). 2D games have a very restricted form of movement within a game. Such like moving front, back, up, down, rotation on Y-axis. As we can see, 2D art cannot provide us the detailed form of an art, like shadows, etc. this can be achieved in 2D by using multiple layers. This means multiple images with no background or transparent background are placed one or another on each other to achieve the respective goal.

Today, we have multiple 2D games out there, competing to other dimensional games. Back then, we didn’t have much of a competition in dimensions, but equivalently was a time of huge competition for the 2D games with multiple genres. But let’s talk about our past in video gaming. Former Nuclear Scientist Sir “Edward U Condon”, was the first to design a game, unofficial but true fact, first game name as “Nim”. It was developed on a computer with relay mechanism. This machine used to play the game was named as “Nimatron”.

Image 4: Nimatron

It was Filed on April 26, 1940, but was brought into consideration by the September 24, 1940.

In 1948, Alan Turing and David Champernowne had designed a concept of implementing a Chess game onto a machine. They also named it as “TuroChamp”. However, it failed due to lack of the machines capability. The machines during that period were not so advance to perform such complex calculations, was certainly failed due to technical issues.

Officially the Very first game to come into public was “Bertie the Brain”, Which was brought into an Exhibition of Canada named as “Canadian National Exhibition” in the year of 1950. However, it was just a virtual form of tic-tac-toe game. Now this game was not considered the first game and was really a great example for the electronic versions of game, which can be displayed on a visual screen.

This game got very famous, and was a point of attraction during the Exhibition, but was dismantled and never ever brought into public after that. Lack in the efforts of preserving the game made us to forget about it and was ignored and never brought up into the consideration for the existing world.

Image 5: Bertie The Brain

In 1958, here comes the most important incident and which is also considered a the most important and highly noted milestone for the era of gaming. “William Higinbotham” developed a game only and only for entertainment purpose. However, in past there were lot of games developed but these were made with a perspective of research, and had no mean of getting entertained. “William higinbotham” developed “Tennis for Two” on an Oscilloscope. It was dismantled after its exhibition, but rather got its important in the year of 1983 when “William Higinbotham” was interviewed for the purpose of history for the video gaming industry.

Image 6: Tennis for Two

The people working in The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, took a very important step into developing a video game which was brought onto a computer. It was significantly a brighter step towards the evolution of video gaming. The game they Developed was in the Year of April, 1962 and the game developed was “Spacewar!”. This game was a big milestone, it was the first game to be copied and sold on computer, marking around 55 computer machines containing Spacewar! were sold.

It was considered as the first game to gain this kind of achievement of reaching in to public wide away. It was like availability of same game at a same time at different location it was a huge invention. It was brought up and installed in to multiple American Educational Organizations, terming it as the first game ever.

Image 7: Spacewar

Looking further into the age of 1960, development of first ever programming language name as BASIC, made the developers job easy. It also led to ease of access for the people to look into the programming part of software apparently in to gaming also. It affected a lot, gaming industry got boosted due to this technology, long years had very few games developed, but now in this era of 1968 there were number of games being developed and brought into public.

Ralph Baer, who today is considered as “Father of Video gaming” had invented his first ever prototype of having a video gaming console at home and having able to play video games on Television. However, at that period people had a very different point of view regarding televisions. His patience paid him off, he successfully patented his work for the prototype of “Brown Box” in the year of 1968. This had a very huge impact on the gaming Industry and was apparently a new start towards a new Era of Video Gaming.