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15 Firsts In Video Game History

Nick ElliottNick Elliott
edited May 2010 in Games
Was directed to this article from TechSource:

http://listverse.com/2010/05/11/15-firsts-in-video-game-history/

Good to see 3D Monster Maze in at number 9.
Post edited by Nick Elliott on

Comments

  • Matt_BMatt_B
    edited May 2010
    Nick Elliott wrote: »
    Was directed to this article from TechSource:

    http://listverse.com/2010/05/11/15-firsts-in-video-game-history/

    Good to see 3D Monster Maze in at number 9.

    It's good to see it getting a mention, and I'd never dispute its classic status, but it certainly wasn't the first 3D game for a home computer. Star Raiders pre-dates it by a couple of years at least.

    That's not the most egregious error they made though. The NES as the first 8-bit games system? The PC-Engine as the first 16-bit one? Er... come again.

    Then they have Natal topping the list and the cheek to mention the Eyetoy, which did precisely the thing they're crediting Natal for being first at, in the same paragraph.
  • VampyreVampyre
    edited May 2010
    I always thought Monster Maze the first game played to be played from a First Person perspective.

    Haven't they also got their facts wrong on the PC-Engine (first 16-bit game system)? IIRC it was famously powered by an 8-bit CPU, although I suppose they could get around it by saying the GPU was 16-bit. I don't think the SNES had a "proper" 16-bit CPU either, I seem to remember some articles at the time stating it used two 8-bit ones instead.
    ZXSR - Speccy Mags Reviews
  • Matt_BMatt_B
    edited May 2010
    Vampyre wrote: »
    I always thought Monster Maze the first game played to be played from a First Person perspective.

    Haven't they also got their facts wrong on the PC-Engine (first 16-bit game system)? IIRC it was famously powered by an 8-bit CPU, although I suppose they could get around it by saying the GPU was 16-bit. I don't think the SNES had a "proper" 16-bit CPU either, I seem to remember some articles at the time stating it used two 8-bit ones instead.

    The SNES uses the 65816 CPU which has a 16-bit internal databus, but only an 8-bit one externally. It was chosen because it has the same pinout and a similar instruction set to the 6502 used in the NES.

    The PC-Engine uses a Z80; the same as the Spectrum.

    The crucial thing about both systems though us that they have dedicated hardware for handling the graphics; in particular both machines can push lots of sprites around and scroll backgrounds at very little CPU cost. Having a true 16-bit CPU, such as the 68000 in the Sega Megadrive, wouldn't really have made much difference to what they could do. The whole "16-bit" era was just a marketing thing.
  • joefishjoefish
    edited May 2010
    That article is utter balls. They even forgot to mention how Bruce Everiss made everything more wonderful than it ever could have been in some desolate parallel universe where he never existed.
    Joefish
    - IONIAN-GAMES.com -
  • Matt_BMatt_B
    edited May 2010
    joefish wrote: »
    That article is utter balls. They even forgot to mention how Bruce Everiss made everything more wonderful than it ever could have been in some desolate parallel universe where he never existed.

    Actually, I could imagine a Bruce Everiss version of the list. It'd have things like the first game to have a 4 colour inlay, or to have had a year's worth of magazine adverts only for it never to turn up.
  • ZagrebZagreb
    edited May 2010
    The article's badly-researched bollocks and doesn't even seem to care that it's innaccurate. In the "first 32-bit system" entry they admit the Amiga CD32 was first and then mumble something about it selling "only" 100,000 units before brazenly pretending something else should take the prize because it was more "successful". When you've got that level of sloppy can't-be-arsed research going on, you just shouldn't bother.

    I probably don't need to explain that the NES wasn't the first 8-bit system (they use weasel-words about "success" once again to excuse their brazen wrongness).

    Seriously, that article is a great example of how wikipedia and the internet are ruining journalistic research. People don't put the effort in any more, they just google a bit and write-up what they find, without bother to check it against proper sources. Skivers, the lot of 'em!
  • ShiruShiru
    edited May 2010
    Matt_B wrote: »
    The PC-Engine uses a Z80; the same as the Spectrum.
    No. It has HuC6280, a custom version of 6502 @1.7 or 7.16 MHz, with some additional hardware like memory manager and sound generator. Nothing like Z80.
  • Matt_BMatt_B
    edited May 2010
    Shiru wrote: »
    No. It has HuC6280, a custom version of 6502 @1.7 or 7.16 MHz, with some additional hardware like memory manager and sound generator. Nothing like Z80.

    Oops! My mistake. It's still very much an 8-bit CPU though.
  • VampyreVampyre
    edited May 2010
    Matt_B wrote: »
    Oops! My mistake. It's still very much an 8-bit CPU though.

    You may have been thinking of the Sega Master System. Pretty sure that used a Z80.
    ZXSR - Speccy Mags Reviews
  • milemile
    edited May 2010
    Zagreb wrote: »
    The article's badly-researched bollocks and doesn't even seem to care that it's innaccurate. In the "first 32-bit system" entry they admit the Amiga CD32 was first and then mumble something about it selling "only" 100,000 units before brazenly pretending something else should take the prize because it was more "successful". When you've got that level of sloppy can't-be-arsed research going on, you just shouldn't bother.

    yeah what was all that about, i was looking forward to seeing a good article about one of my fave machines, but no it started gonig on about the playstation. mongs.

    i think the first few things about the first ever games was interesting, but the rest was a bit crap.

    like the first game with blood and gore, was that really a milestone for videogames?
  • XTM of TMGXTM of TMG
    edited May 2010
    What the hell?
    Strictly speaking, the ‘Nintendo Entertainment System’ was the first successful 8 bit machine, selling nearly 62 million units to date and being Nintendo’s top selling system. However, some other machines surfaced at the same time as the NES, namely the ‘Atari ST’ and the ‘Commodore Amiga’. In this same year, these two machines marked the beginning of the 16 bit era of video gaming.

    This is what I posted in response (though in hindsight I should have added that it should not be the number of machines sold that defines the "starter" status, but even then the breadbox probably had already been sold lots worldwide when the NES appeared).

    So, the ST and Amiga - home computers - marked the beginning of 16 bit video gaming, but 8 bit machines like the ZX81, VC20, Atari 800, ZX Spectrum or C64 and many more - home computers created years before the NES - did not yet mark the beginning of 8 bit video gaming? Only with the advent of the NES did 8 bit video gaming start? That's some great logic there, hats off to you sir.
    -- -
    I also wonder how old the author is ... looking at his username "nathaaan90" one may assume he is 19/20 years old, if so then we'd have a case of someone talking about a lot of stuff he didn't even experience back in the day. Guess what Zagreb said could be correct.
  • dm_boozefreekdm_boozefreek
    edited May 2010
    Are you surprised it's a load of old bollocks though matey?

    Most of these things posted up nowadays are, written by clueless monkeys barely out of their teen years if at all.

    Like Zagreb says they need to do some fucking research instead of googling and then posting some crap they find loaded with buzz words and bugger knows what else to get some kudos from their Halo playing 10 year old friends.

    Things like this entertain me though, especially when they come across all smart about the old stuff, but as it gets newer and newer within their reports the facts become more and more skewed like their own opinions take control of what really happened, or they ate a big spoonfull of wikipedia stew :D
    Every night is curry night!
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