Traversing Virtual Dimensions - Preview
Traversing Virtual Dimensions
This is an interactive exhibition of moving through artificial spaces. The guest of our exhibit is no passive observer, but an active participant with the art itself.
Video game players must adapt to various control schemes in order to control on-screen avatars traveling through worlds of silicon and electrons. The human-machine interface has evolved over time, as have the players themselves. The controls of Spacewar! were too complex for the general public when they were adapted into Computer Space in 1971. However, in 1979 those same controls returned in Asteroids, the #1 arcade game of the year.
Controlling and manipulating a virtual game object is a visceral, tactile sensation. Ever watch a player instinctively lean left and right as they steer in a racing game? Game control is the link between player and game, yet it is an often overlooked, ill-defined “invisible art” (Swink ix). This art goes unnoticed when done well but is obvious when done poorly.
Each game chosen for the exhibit is a pioneer in motion and avatar control. Each game has a legacy of other games that have duplicated these controls almost identically. Each game is another step forward in game control evolution and in some ways a reflection of the culture of its time.
Exhibit Descriptions
Spacewar! (1962) by Steve “Slug” Russell
First inertia-based multidirectional shooter, first widely distributed game, first video game tournament (Brand, 1972).
Players are locked in intergalactic battle, using switches or buttons to pivot and thrust their spaceships forward. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney adapted the controls for the first arcade game, Computer Space (1971), but it was not successful. This control scheme worked for the engineering students who first played it at MIT but dealing with Newton’s laws of motion was too complex for the average player (Barton 2).
Legacy: Galaxy Game (1971), Computer Space (1971), Space Wars (1977), Orbit (1978), Asteroids (1979), Space Duel (1982), Blasteroids (1987), Star Control (1990), and Drexel graduate Kevin Carlos adapted to touch controls in Asteroid Ambulance (2018).
Pong (1972) by Al Alcorn and Nolan Bushnell
First commercially successful arcade game.
After the failure of Computer Space (1971), co-creator Nolan Bushnell needed a game so simple that, “any drunk in a bar could play” (Cohen 23). In Pong, the player simply turns an analog knob to move their paddle. The rotational position had a one-to-one match with the paddle vertical screen position. Control was as simple as using a fine-tuning knob on a contemporary television set. Pong's simplicity brought video games out of the computer labs and into the public sphere.
Legacy: Pong Doubles (1973), Elimination (1974), Home Pong (1975), Breakout (1976), Video Olympics (1977), Gee Bee (1978), Cutie Q (1979), Arkanoid (1986),
Gotcha (1973) by Al Alcorn
First maze arcade game, color version is first color arcade game.
The Pursuer (square) chases the Pursued (cross) in any of eight directions as controlled by a joystick. In contrast, many later maze games such as Amazing Maze (1976), and Pac-Man (1980) use four-directional controls, locking the player into orthogonal movement within the confines of maze walls. Gotcha’s movement controls were instead adapted for many run-n-gun overhead shooters.
Atari embraced the sexual nature of the chase gameplay. Gotcha’s advertising flyers feature a photograph of a man grabbing a woman from behind. The original cabinet’s joystick controls are pink domes intended to resemble a woman’s breasts (Goldberg 151).
Legacy: Gun Fight (1975), Berzerk (1980), Castle Wolfenstein (1981), Robotron: 2084 (1982)
Gran Trak 10 (1974) by Larry Emmons and Al Alcorn
First auto racing video game, first game with a ROM chip (Fries).
The player uses a steering wheel, gear shift, gas pedal, and brake pedal to drive their car around different race tracks, racing against the countdown timer. The screen shows an overhead view of the track and, much like Spacewar! (1962), the player must control their vehicle as if by remote control. The controls closely mimic those found in real cars, but the player’s view is disconnected, taking them out of the feel of being “in the driver’s seat.”
Legacy: Formula K (1974), Sprint 2 (1976), Super Sprint (1986), Super Off Road (1989)
Space Invaders (1978) by Tomohiro Nishikado
First fixed shooter, first high score, highest grossing video game ever (Leack).
Moving the player’s laser base at the bottom of the screen in Space Invaders was inspired by the linear movement of the player paddle in Breakout (1976) (Masuyama 36). Instead of the one-to-one analog control of a dial, the player may only move left or right with either a joystick or buttons. Movement is now binary: either at full speed or stopped. This restriction adds to the intensity of the game, especially when the invaders start slow but move faster and faster as they are eliminated.
Legacy: Galaxian (1979), Phoenix (1980), Demon Attack (1982)
Conclusion
There is an old axiom that any good game should take minutes to learn but a lifetime to master (Swink 302). To facilitate "minutes to learn,” a game’s controls should be intuitive and responsive. The challenge of the game should not be in figuring out how to move the character. The “lifetime to master” is found in the game’s depth: how simple game systems may come together and interact in complex ways.
Game designers can use pre-existing input mappings in order to make controls accessible. The steering wheel and the dial both mapped to existing controls many people are familiar with. New and innovative controls must be learned when players first encounter them but may become standardized as they are used in other games. What is novel and unusual in one generation becomes second-nature in the next generation.
Next time you play a game, pay attention to how it “feels,” how the game is translating input from the player to motion on the screen. Where did that control come from? Have you seen it before and how do you know how to play?
The answer may be in a game from the dawn of the digital era.
Works Cited
Barton, Matt and Loguidice, Bill. “The History of Spacewar!: The Best Waste of Time in the History of the Universe.” Gamasutra, Informa Tech. 10 June 2009. www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4047/the_history_of_spacewar_the_best_.php
Brand, Stewart. “Spacewar: Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums.” Rolling Stone, 7 Dec 1972. www.wheels.org/spacewar/stone/rolling_stone.html
Cohen, Scott. Zap: The Rise and Fall of Atari. New York: McGraw Hill, 1984.
Fries, Ed. “Fixing Gran Trak 10.” The Game is Not Over (blog), Word Press. 14 June 2017. edfries.wordpress.com/2017/06/14/fixing-gran-trak-10/
Goldberg, Marty and Vendel, Curt. Atari Inc.: Business is Fun. Carmel: Syzygy Company Press, 2012.
Graetz, J. M. “The Origin of Spacewar!” Creative Computing, vol. 7, no. 8 (1981): 56-67. archive.org/details/creativecomputing-1981-08/
Gran Trak 10 Operating and Maintenance Manual. Los Gatos: Atari, Inc., 1974. archive.org/details/arcademanual_GranTrak10_OperMan
Leack, Jonathan. “World of Warcraft Leads Industry with Nearly $10 Billion in Revenue.” GameRevolution. Mandatory. 26 Jan 2017. www.gamerevolution.com/features/13510-world-of-warcraft-leads-industry-with-near...
Levy, Steven. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. 1984. Sebastopol: O’Reilly Media, Inc., 2010.
Masuyama. “Pokemon as Japanese Culture?” Game On, edited by King, Lucien, New York: Universe Publishing, 2002, 34-43.
Swink, Steve. Game Feel: A Game Designer’s Guide to Virtual Sensation. Burlington: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2009.
