Magazine article about games

Firstly in This blog article I am going to be talking about the history of video games, the history of video games started in 1972 with the game called "Pong", and pong is a two dimensional game where you play against the computer.

This is a screenshot shows what pong looks like, now this was gaming in its baby steps but i suppose it looks like it was made by simpletons but you cant make an omlette without cracking a few eggs, same with a computer games you cant create one without an idea and some circuits. The sounds in this game are simple, simple games simple sounds. but the sounds sound like a beep from a checkout at tesco's but the sounds are computer generated by a micro chip from the game itself.



This console here was the very first of its kind before consoles such as nintendo, this was the grandfather of game consoles. This electrical device  is called an arcade machine, it is a coin operated device which allows players pay to play it, the places that you would find this device would be in places such as restaurants, amusement parks and in arcades.

The next game that I want to talk about is from the platform S.N.E.S (Super nintendo entertainment system), and the game is super mario bros 1.
   

This game was created by Nintendo in the year 1985 and the game is based around a plumber that has to save a princess from a dragon. You have to play through 36 levels I think and you have to play through 8 worlds. Originally this game could be played on a N.E.S (Nintendo entertainment system) which was created in the early 1980's. As well as this mario game being released on this game console it was later bought out or I should say re-bought out with other mario games that came in one cartridge, but this was not for the N.E.S it came out for the S.N.E.S (super Nintendo entertainment system) which was released to the public in 1992.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIIDxMmk1h0&safe=active,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xbrfyD2VIA&safe=active 


 





The final game i want to talk about is Robocop vs the terminator this is a game that was released for the S.N.E.S, now the release date for the game is 1993-1994. Other platforms for this game are sega mega drive, S.N.E.S, Game boy, sega game gear, sega master system, genesis and the N.E.S. The game has two different plots for three different platforms, the mega drive and the genesis and the S.N.E.S, the mega drive and genesis have the same plot where as the S.N.E.S version of the game has a totally different plot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboCop_Versus_The_Terminator),
but the main objective of the game is to find the seven terminators that were sent back through time and destroy them.


The consoles:

The start of game consoles yet again started with the game pong but instead of it being a little box that sits in front of your television this was one of the original arcade machines that you would have to pay about 10P or something to play, through the years of developing games the technology that we use to create games had advanced so much we are creating game consoles like the N.E.S, S.N.E.S, the game boy etc all the way to the ps3 and xbox 360.

This is the N.E.S the nintendo entertainment system the early stages or i should say the baby steps of nintendo and the games that could be played on this console or the original mario games, the mario game saga is the mascot of nintendo and mario is what made nintendo popular, other games for this console include Robocop vs the terminator, and super mario bros. The cartridges for the games are quite big, basically the cartridges look like this.

  This console is another step for Nintendo this is the evolved version of the N.E.S, this is its little brother the S.N.E.S the super nintendo entertainment system, when this console came out a lot more games did for example the games that came out with the original nintendo entertainment system like the mario games another mario game that came out for this console is super mario world, other games that came include star fox, and as well with this console it is smaller than the nintendo entertainment system so are the cartridges for the console. This cartridge is different from the Nintendo Entertainment    
                                                     System because it is more portable and easier to use.

                        The final game that i want to talk about is the gameboy colour now    this splendid device allows you to keep this console in your pocket and allows you to take it out wherever you go due to it being handheld and yet again more different games have come out but they are based on films for example when i first got a gameboy colour the game that i got for it is "small soldiers" but the graphics on them was not really special mainly because there was no colour when you played the games, to be honest it was not really all that, where as with the nintendo entertainment system and the super nintendo entertainment system with their games they were a bit more exciting and more willing to play and as well being more popular.















The way sounds are put on to games are that they all have microchips place onto the circuit board so when you are playing the game on either console, like the sega mega drive or the nintendo all the way to the gameboy colour whenever you press a button to either make the character jump or attack that button you press sends an electronic pulse through the wires of that console all the way to the microchip of the console you are using, basically it works like the nervous system of our body, if we wanted to move our arms for example then electronic impulses would go through our nervous system sending the message to the right side of the brain making either our left or right arm move, the same thing applies to the console the microchip of the console is the brain behind it and as well all of the electronic stuff inside the console is the game characters nervous system. But as well with the technology to create these sounds, the technology has advanced so much that instead of the bleeps and that we can now make the sounds realistic, this means that if someone in a game is hurt then the sounds that we hear in that game sound very realistic so it would put us in that persons shoes and also to mention with the advanced technology that is used to create the sounds in games if you are playing a game like "call of duty" and there was either machine gun fire or an explosion, we can now now record them and then edit them so they sound very realistic so it suits the game and the audience of the game.

Different composers for games:
1. Scott R. Morgan, this composer created the soundtrack to the action game "Prototype 2", in this soundtrack the are sixteen tracks that are the background music to the different missions that you have to do whilst playing the game, the soundtracks are as followed in the correct order. And how long the tracks are

1. Resurrection.
2. Project long shadow.
3. The lab rat.
4. Operation flytrap.
5. Feeding time.
6. Salvation.
7. Natural selection.
8. The white light.
9. Taking the castle.
10.A maze of blood.
11.A stranger among us.
12.A nest of vipers.
13.Fly in the ointment.
14.Burned from memory.
15.A labour of love.
16.Murder your maker.

A sound designer that i have chosen to talk about is Benjamin burtt, he is an American sound designer that has worked on films such as Star Wars and the film series of Indiana jones and invasion of the body snatcher. Whilst working on the star wars franchise he was responsible for creating the iconic sound for R2-D2 by using his voice, recording it and then editing it by changing the pitch of it so it sounds like he has taken some helium. As well in the film Star Wars episode 3: revenge of the sith, the heavy breathing sound of darth vader's breathing was yet created by him heavily breathing in a scuba gear.

The game Prince of Persia warrior within is an interesting game for sounds because one of the enemies in the game is the guardian of time called the dahaka and when he speaks in the game he speaks in reverse, the way that this was recorded is someone speaking then the pitch is lowered to an inhuman level then played in reverse for the demonic tone of the character, other sounds in the game include smashing the sword against a stone wall the sound was probably recorded as something was being made in a steel mill like someone was bashing metal for example. my final sound to talk about is the decapitation of a demon in the game this was probably recorded by having a dog whimpering the the pitch of the recorded sound was then messed with so it was suitable for the game.



As well in video games, songs from different artists are used for example in the end credits for the game  Prince Of Persia Warrior Within the song Straight out of line by Godsmack was used and the song I stand alone was used in the game firstly as to probably promote it and secondly it was used in the game as a soundtrack called chased by the dahaka. This as well makes the viewer or audience of the game aware of it.

As well with this game it was bought out for consoles such as the playstation 2 and xbox, and with these game consoles they did not have any cartridges for it nor was it a built in game this game was bought out in discs.

In conclusion to this article i believe that sounds in a video game are more realistic so it makes the game realistic to the audience i also believe that the way of recording these sounds have changed because whilst recording sounds for the original mario games for example there were only a limited amount of sounds that can be recorded so over the years that space has expanded to a wider variety  and now we can probably multi-track sounds for certain games for warped games.