Undolog.com

"Once upon a time" a time when the word had no meaning Personal Computer. It was the time of the console, small gadgets that are connected to the TV, the precursors of the Playstation today. And really you could see in magazines of all colors: Intellivision, Atari , Philips, large machines - for the time - that guaranteed fun coupled with amazement. And here are the first journals, such as the yearbook of video games (pictured) in 1984. The ads, appealing for the time, showed a technology never seen before. There was the Colecovision, with its video game system, "a home console for video games on cartridges ColecoVision standards," the exceptional price of 485,000 lire.

The ' Atari ("maybe," as he recited the spot) with its System 2600, which cost a little 'less (299,000 lire), like the other console by connecting directly to the TV worked, and was sold with the gift of a beautiful cartridge: Defender!

Philips presented his Videopac Computer G 7200 (these names really funny, do not you think?) With the Monitor 9 "black and white built a true" portable "vintage 1984. This system claimed to run on a normal TV in color. Of course the games were what they were, to see those 4 colors in black and white was really exaggerated. But the idea was great.

There was also one of the best-selling console, at least I seem to remember, the 'Intellivision, the figure of 399,000 lire. One of his strengths was the amount of games available and the innovative control system used in the joystick. Nevertheless, there is always something more you sell, without a real reason, as if the fate chooses a random lucky better fate.

One thing that struck me, regarding these old magazines, is the lack of "propaganda techniques" that accompanied the advertisement. Were not acclaimed the number of colors, the speed of the CPU, memory, no one mentioned anything that could somehow confuse the reader, a potential buyer. It is not that terminology was still widely abused so today. They tried to use words similar to Italian and impressive as a vision, video, system, etc. ..

This arsenal of the ColecoVision was my favorite. Note (enlarging the photo) also Modem headset. It was truly complete with its monitor, the printer. Who has not dreamed at that time to have it?! With its cost 415,000 lire, also boasted a serial-parallel and a cassette recorder! What you would not believe

But there was the real battle between two jewels of the time in computer history: the Commodore 64 and Sinclair Spectrum's. Two real giants who dominated the scene at the end of 1983 and 1985, while the PC (Personal Computer more professional) straightened their MS-DOS.

Here the battle was really tough. They soon formed two camps: those of the Spectrum and the Commodore! Each avid supporter of their investment. But in the end, as we know, the C64 won, despite the undoubted quality of the product of Sinclair. As was the case between the PC / Microsoft and Apple , no one really knows why he got the better of the other, we know only that - somehow - had to happen.
And to think that one of the proponents of the expansion and dissemination of the concept of Home Computers, and then the Personal Computer, was the TI99 Texas Instruments, the precursor of the C64 and Spectrum. I remember the first time I saw a TI99 was in a TV show, maybe Sunday IN, where it was explained that the computer - the Home Computer - was the future, because, unlike the console games that promised only were able to perform numerous other functions including that of being programmed as desired. In the transmission was proved as easy to draw and design a simple video games or use the computer as a powerful calculator. The console, as we know, they are not missing from the market. A dedicated machine surely offers superior performance to any PC, as "faired" may be. Although, lately, this could not be more true!

Already at that time, in fact, the so-called console graphics and animation bar offered a truly incredible. I remember I spent hours watching these magnificent works of art, made of pixels and mysterious codes. It was a challenge to try to recreate those effects on the home computer, then find beautiful photographs and interviews with game developers, exciting peek into their studios, trying to figure out what the hell they used machines to create games "from Bar".

The Editorial Group Jackson was a master at that time the newsstand. Many of the computer magazines carried his mark, before the competition made ​​him "one of the many" - no offense! Indeed, we owe to the merits of these media groups difuusione "information" of those years. Of particular interest in this issue, appeared an exclusive interview. The editors of Video Games had gone to North Halsted, Chicago, to visit a software company headed by Eugene Jarvis, author of Defender, Stargate and Robotron. Here's Jarvis had founded a "small" company, Vid Kidz, has worked successfully on their own.

After Laureto in computer science and electrical engineering in 1977 at the University of Berkeley , Jarvis was hired by Hewlett-Packard . He resigned after three days. "The main problem," says Jarvis, "is the fact of working in a large company. When you are doing a creative job you do not want to ask permission every time you need to do something. "

Already at the time the infrastructure company apparently wore out the invention and the tranquility of the developers. Jarvis went well at the ' Atari , and began to work on pinball. The fate was adverse and the section of the flipper was closed: an alarm bell of the new information age. When between 1977 and 1979 came in the first game of American homes, Jarvis was immediately impressed and started to play. "I was an old pinball player [...] but suddenly I began to only play video games. We thought the best games available. It was then that I decided that I wanted to make one. "

So in February of 1980 began development of the Defender, a classic. With 24K of memory, 16 colors, sound generated by the sound chip 6800, processor 6809, and a horizontal scroll with a parallax effect, it was really a show for that time. Continuing to wander in the study by Jarvis, admire the work table. P 6809 A system stands out on the table, along with a Winchester disk of 20 megabytes and two floppy 5 ¼ "maximum capacity of 700Kbytes! The P 6809" is the most advanced 8-bit microprocessor on the market, "Jarvis points out," It is very good even if probably the next generation of games will use 16-bit chip. "The language of development could it be the Assembly. "We use this language to take advantage of the speed. It would be easier to write a game in BASIC or Pascal, for example, but with the Assembly the program runs faster and is an IBM 6809 look like our P70" .

Original interview Jarvis is a laugh at this point and we can not but follow him in this his visionary externalization. The seat of the creator of Defender can also see Computer Space, the first video game bar of history.

It is true that water has passed under the bridge since that time. But it is also true that the technological advances of recent years have made us forget how to program once. There were no standard development tools like today.

"We develop everything ourselves. Because we want to understand each step and then because we have high standards of quality. When you make a game I'll have to write you. " How you can give the wrong?
The quality seems to be inversely proportional to the technological progress and this applies not only to the computer, obviously. The Assembly programming and in-depth knowledge of hardware of the machine on which you work, are gradually disappearing from the cultural baggage of the "new developers". Anyone who has lived and continues to live by the "style of development", i would gladly give up today for a P GHz 6809 MHz to 2 yesterday. Nothing, we believe, is now comparable to the results that were obtained in those years'. Let us ask, therefore, it is worth it.

This article was useful to you?:

Loading ...

• 

• Tweet