Game History: Part 1

I originally thought that games were a modern development when I first laid eyes on my cousin's N64. Computers, to me at the time, were boxes which I could type words into and not understand much about. Little did I know as I sat with the 64-bit sounds of star fox buzzing in my ears that there had been a long and deep history behind how that little grey box had come into existence.

Computer games and computers were not created at the same time. The first computer was essentially a programmable mechanical calculator. These great big devices, called 'Difference Engines' or ‘Babbage Engines’ were able to perform trigonometric functions and resembled more of a sewing press than any modern day computer. These machines eliminated the need for multiplying and dividing numbers, which saved time and man power, which is why the British government commissioned him to invent it for them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlbQsKpq3Ak 

(explanation of how the Babbage engine works)

Im going to jump ahead 100 years to 1944, where computers like the Z4 and Colossus were primarily used in the war effort to decode German code. The use of computers at this time were not so different from their original predecessors in the 1800s, but they were certainly more advanced than the giant steam punk type calculators they had evolved from. 

The Colossus system was unlike other super computers, which at the time printed code onto paper streams. Instead, this computer used a series of valves which read and decoded code from paper streams which were fed into it and aligned using the pulse of a clock. Unlike other computers from 50 years ago, it was electronic, which allowed for a huge improvement in processing power available to the machine.

(An old thermometric switch used with the original Colossus machines)

In the 1960s, computers designed for use in aiding the navigation of aircraft were being prototyped. The ‘Datasaab’ d2 had 15kb memory and could do 100,000 additions per second.  Only 15 years later and the apple 2, one of the first successful home computers became available to those who could afford it. as Originally retailing around $1400. For this hefty price tag, your apple2 had 4kb of ram, and the system could play tapes. A disk drive was also compatible with the apple2, but that also set users back $495.

 It is strange to think that such primitive computer systems were still in use only 25 years ago, as so much has changed within that short span of years. Tapes have become a relic and the use of computers in general has shifted from a primarily linear, mathematical use, to an incredibly personal, practical and powerful multimedia tool that has not only revolutionized, but dominated modern society and the way it functions.