Computer Games Theory and Practice

- Nintendo founded 1889 in Kyoto. Only made playing cards to about 1970's when diversified into toys. In mid 70's moved into arcade games.

- The legendary Shigeru Miyamoto employed in 1977, with a degree in industrial design.

- Nintendo's early 1980's arcade games included Radarscope (1980) and Donkey Kong (1981), designed by Miyamoto

- Some consider Donkey Kong to be the first video game with any significant narrative content. (see Chapter 3, Power Up - How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life by Chris Kohler)
- Donkey Kong introduced Jump Man who went on to become Mario.

- Nintendo's first console release in 1983
- Called Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan

- Released with ports of three of Nintendo's arcade hits - Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye.

Download Donkey Kong ROM for MAME

Some threads in the origins of first person shooter games. There are many more.

Renaissance Perspective

Photography

Subjective Cinema

The Lady in the Lake, 1947, watch clips

According to Galloway, subjective shots used in four general instances:
- Mental Affect, e.g. intoxication
- Detachment or distancing, e.g. disembodiment in Being John Malkovich
- Criminals and monsters, e.g. Alien

Alien, 1979, watch trailer
Lambert scene

- Machinic vision, e.g. Terminator and Robocop

Terminator 2, 1991, watch biker bar scene

Military and Flight Simulation

A321 Flight Simulator

The Institute for Creative Technologies - killing people one video game at a time

Computer Technology

Xerox Alto, 1973

Processor speed over time - Moore's Law

Vector Mathematics

view frustrum

Coordinate systems 17th century - Descartes. Vector mathematics beginning of the 19th century.

In later 80's and early 90's John Carmack spearheaded many developments in 3D computer graphics such as binary space partitioning used in Doom.

Doom, 1993