Graphics evolution in games

For many years, computer games have been the main engine of progress for both the central processors and the graphics subsystems. But lately, the growth rate of computing power and the introduction of new features have slowed down a lot. Probably, the thing is that the vast majority of gamers are quite satisfied with the current quality and realistic game graphics. Let's see this Friday how the graphics have changed in games for 45 years. Attention! The amount of video and nostalgia inside is rolls over.

Spacewar! (1962)

One of the first computer graphics games in history. It was written for PDP-1 computers. The gameplay was simple: two players controlled spacecraft, and tried to hit each other with rockets. In addition, it was necessary to avoid a collision with a star that attracted players' ships to itself. Ammunition and fuel for maneuvering were limited. The game was very popular in the 1960s, and was ported to various platforms.

So Spacewar! looked at the present PDP-1 (yes, the monitors were still those):

But if we discard the imperfection of the display, the game looked like this:

By the way, the starry sky was not generated from the baldies, but was a scheme of the real starry sky, which included stars up to the fifth magnitude.

Era of arcades

Pong (1972)

Primitive arcade table tennis simulator. The first game created by Atari, and in combination one of the most popular video games of that time. Here, two players controlled the "rackets" by turning the knobs, trying not to miss the ball. There was a single player mode. There were versions of the game for the set-top box and in the form of a gaming machine .

Space Race (1973)

This is the second after Pong game developed by Atari. For two or one player. It was necessary to fly on rockets, dodging obstacles. Who did not have time to evade - lost. Produced in the form of set-top box and gaming machine.

TV Basketball (1974)

This game was the first in three "nominations":

• the first ever basketball game;
• the first game in which sprites are used;
• The first game in which the image of people appeared.

Purpose of the game: moving the "basketball players" to beat the ball so that it falls into the basket.

Gun Fight (1975)

Game-Western, in which it was necessary to defeat the enemy in a duel with pistols. The first game, which depicts the battle of man with man. Each player had two joysticks: one was controlled by a character, and the second was a pistol. The number of rounds was limited - 6 per drum.

Death Race (1976)

In the 1970s, people were not so spoiled yet, so after their release the game was widely criticized for promoting violence. One or two players drove cars with steering wheels and pedals, and crushed the so-called “gremlins”. The more you crush, the more points you earn. In place of the innocently killed, a cross appeared, and soon the screen turned into a graveyard. It was necessary to avoid raids on graves. After 20 years, the game idea will form the basis of the epochal Carmageddon.

Canyon Bomber (1977)

One or two players enthusiastically flew over a canyon filled with spherical stones. They had to be bombed, and the more accurate the hit was, the more points you earned.

Space Invaders (1978)

The era of the game, has gained immense popularity and ported to many platforms. When these gaming machines appeared in Japan, there was even a shortage of coins of suitable denomination, there were so many people who wanted to play Space Invaders. The goal was simple: it was necessary to shoot hordes of invading aliens, gradually descending to the ground and also shooting at you. At the same time, the player’s gun was moving behind a row of four protective covers that were gradually destroyed by aliens. As you progress through the levels, the enemies maneuvered and went down faster and faster.

Despite the primitiveness of the graphics, the developer Tomohiro Nisikado had to create his own hardware platform based on the Intel 8080 processor. But he still didn’t cope well, and the rendering speed of the sprites slowed down significantly when there were many more aliens on the screen. The author turned this flaw into a feature - the less enemies remained on the screen, the quicker they became and the more difficult it was to get into them.

The formation of racing simulators

Speed ​​Freak (1979)

One of the first racing games in the first person, and the first world vector race. The goal is to reach the finish line without crashing into obstacles and oncoming traffic, without departing from the road.

Pac-Man (1980)

In terms of the degree and duration of influence on popular culture, this game can be compared with a megaton explosion in the middle of a megacity. The player had to manage the ever-hungry Kolobok, crawled into the dungeon, teeming with unfriendly fauna. In total, the game has 255 levels, and the kolobok is sometimes thrown up with useful nishtyaki, increasing speed and even making it temporarily invulnerable to ghosts.

Pac-Man became the founder of a new genre - "chase in the maze." As Toru Ivatani, one of the game designers, later admitted, they wanted to make a humorous game without any violence, so that it would be comfortable for the widest possible audience to play. Although Pac-man was originally in his native Japan - then he was called PUCK MAN - he was met with absolutely indifference. But in the US, the game broke all the patterns, charts and sales records. As a result, Pac-Man began its triumphant march around the world.

The era of platformers begins

Donkey Kong (1981)

One of the early representatives of the genre of platformer. A character in a cap named Mario was supposed to save a certain mamzel named Pauline from the aggressive gorilla Donka Kong. Later, Mario will be one of the most popular characters in video games, if not the most popular. And he began as a fighter with monkeys.

Pole Position (1982)

Racing "Formula 1": it was necessary to first pass the qualifying race, and then participate in competitions. The configuration of the racing tracks repeated the real tracks. This game set the standard for displaying racing games for many years to come: sprite graphics, a third-person view.

Tapper (1983)

Bartender simulator: you need to throw full circles in time to hungry visitors, and grab the empty ones. If one of the unfinished clients reached the end of the bar, the bartender was thrown out the window. By the way, appreciate the inscription on the cover : "The most innovative game for slot machines 1984".

Duck Hunt (1984)

Another icon game. The Duck Hunt slot machines and Nintendo Entertainment System consoles (made before 1995) were equipped with pistols that operated according to the “light pen” principle. On the screen, ducks flew out of the undergrowth, which had to be shot with a minimum of misses. And the dog happily snapped the prey. If desired, it was possible to switch to the plate shooting mode. In terms of sales, the game ranks second on the NES platform - 28 million copies.

Super Mario Bros. (1985)

Four years after the release, Donkey Kong, an Italian plumber who is not afraid of vicious primates, began to conquer the world. In this arcade, it was necessary to manage a mustached peasant plumber Mario in a jumpsuit and a cap and his brother Luji. When traveling around the world, you had to dodge enemies or defeat them, jumping on their heads, as well as collecting hidden coins along the way. The goal - to reach the end and save the princess.

This game is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling in history - 40 million copies. Actually, not a few other game characters can compete with Mario in recognition. Echo of war The popularity of Mario still hovers in popular culture.

The Legend of Zelda (1986)

This game marked the beginning of the eponymous, very popular series of games produced for many years. The main character - someone Link - must save the kingdom from the invading army of the Prince of Darkness. He travels the world in search of a magical Artifact, fights enemies, pumps features and uses inventory: hello, RPG!

The flowering of fighting games

Street Fighter (1987)

And this game gave rise to a whole era of fighting games - games in which you had to fight hand to hand with each other or with enemies. Here there were combo attacks and six-button control of the character. In Street Fighter, it was necessary to win in fights, each round lasted for 30 seconds (if none of the fighters had time to knock out, the one who had more health left behind won).

Galaxy Force (1988)

Third-person shooter in which you had to manage a futuristic space fighter, fighting with the troops of the evil Fourth Empire. Fights were fought both in space and on six planets.

Prince of Persia (1989)

Another legend of the world of games. Making your way through the labyrinth of dungeons, you were to save the princess with the help of the Persian blond prince. You had only one hour to do this. On the way lurked traps, puzzles and enemies. The game was incredibly popular and ported to many platforms. For technologies of that time, the character had surprisingly realistic movements, and the game itself was very atmospheric. The MS-DOS version soon hit the USSR and quickly spread across institutes and factories, often paralyzing the work of entire departments. I met this game in 1993, and it made an indelible impression on me. I still remember that Shift was responsible for the sword strike.

Castle of Illusion (1990)

Platform for consoles company SEGA, in which Mickey Mouse saved his mouse passion Minnie Mouse, which the evil witch kidnapped and imprisoned in the castle. The game was distinguished by a variety of opponents, each type of which needed to find its own approach in terms of destruction, although in general the gameplay was similar to the games about Mario.

Sonic The Hedgehog (1991)

In the early 1990s, this game was the face and icon of the Sega consoles in post-Soviet Russia. A piece of the gameplay was shown in television advertising, and it was very cool and colorful, where there are Chinese clones of Dendy. Still: 16-bit Sega was a bit higher in quality graphics and special effects than 8-bit Dendy. The protagonist of the game - charged with incredible adrenaline, jet hedgehog Sonic, who was driven by a thirst to find a villain named Dr. Eggman, a scientist who sharpened animals inside robots and stole the magical Chaos Emeralds.

Mortal Kombat (1992)

This is one of the best in the history of fighting games, which actually set a new bar for the quality of animation, the variety of combo attacks, and at the same time poured tons of blood on players. Initially, the game was developed for slot machines, but was ported to set-top boxes and personal computers (the graphics were better there). In Mortal Kombat there were a lot of game characters between which fights took place. Each character had his own tricks, his own strengths and weaknesses. The game was incredibly entertaining, playable and bloody. We had so much adrenaline during the fights, as if we ourselves fought with each other in the ring. Just an epic litter, you can not say otherwise. An excellent means of relaxation after a hard day’s work, like all games of the Mortal Kombat series. By the way, you will be surprised, but there is even a storyline in this fighting game.

3D march

Doom (1993)

Once there was no need to explain to anyone what a Doom is. Everyone knew about this game. In the course was even a meme "I will go on thinking ayu". Doom has set the standard for first-person shooters for many years. The plot is primitive, and the game itself is not disclosed. In fact, you play as a special commando on Mars, who shoots with extreme cruelty hordes of monsters that came to the planet due to an unsuccessful teleportation experiment that opened a portal to hell.

Compared to Wolfenstein 3D, released from the pen of the same id Software just a year earlier, Doom looked like an expensive foreign car next to a nondescript zhigulenok (although both of them seem like twenty years old):

Wolfenstein 3D:

Doom:

Tekken (1994)

A bright representative of Japanese fighting games, with a specific character design. However, unlike other fighting games, in Tekken, players could control each arm and leg of a fighter separately. Curiously, the game was originally created as an internal project of the Namco company, designed to test 3D-animation. But in the end it turned into a full-fledged simulator of melee fights.

Time Crisis (1995)

First-person shooter in which you had to play with a pistol (which is a “light pen”). The game itself controlled the movements of the camera, and the player needed to shoot all the opponents on the screen.

Quake (1996)

Heir Doom, much surpassed his ancestor. The first truly three-dimensional shooter in which you could approach the enemy's corpse and view it from different angles - in the same Doom it was just sprites that were displayed on the screen equally from any angle. It was with the release of Quake that such a thing as e-sports emerged, because this game has reached a new level of realistic graphics and demands on the players' reaction. In the people he was affectionately called "quake". And there was a rocketjack in Quake! This is when the player jumped up and fired from the rocket launcher while running, so that the explosion would raise him higher and throw him further, even at the cost of decreasing his health. So it was possible to move much faster and jump on the heights inaccessible in the usual way.

The plot is even more primitive than in Doom: you are some kind of abstract soldier, destroying the monsters that move on your military base. But Quake was originally created based on the multiplayer mode. True, at first only in local networks, because in those years the Internet was still a wonder, and modems and telephone lines did not provide the required level of delays.

Gran Turismo (1997)

This game marked the beginning of a whole series of racing games. The real samples of cars were modeled here quite thoroughly for that time, the features of their behavior on the track were simulated. An existing tuning system was implemented, which allowed the car to change its behavior by tuning / replacing various components.

Final Fantasy VII (1997)

Fantastic Japanese RPG, one of the many games of the very popular Final Fantasy series. By the way, this is still the best-selling part of the saga.

The first shooter in which the story is told on the game engine

Half Life (1998)

Another epochal game in the genre of first-person shooter. In the course of an unsuccessful scientific experiment in the top-secret Black Mesa research complex, aggressive aliens get into our world. You - the scientist Gordon Freeman, an employee of the complex, begin to fight the creatures, in the hope of correcting the situation.

The game was innovative from the point of view that the plot was told as the game progressed, in conversations between characters and other scripted scenes, and not through video inserts or text blocks. Half Life has become one of the first games where the player has allied characters as they pass. Moreover, the AI ​​managing them acted surprisingly sensibly, which was one of the breakthroughs in computer games. The plot and its unusual presentation were so exciting that Half Life is considered by many to be one of the most exciting games in history. And the gameplay itself was very vigorous.

Unreal Tournament (1999)

Continuation of the game Unreal, released in 1998. In Unreal Tournament the multiplayer mode was brought to mind, and for several years this series of games has become a serious competitor to the Quake series.

Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed (2000)

Perhaps one of the most harmonious in terms of playability in the Need For Speed ​​series. It was also the first of the NFS, fully dedicated to cars of the same brand - Porsche.

First use of bullet time effect

Max Payne (2001)

Third-person shooter. You are the agent of the anti-drug administration, Max Payne, forced to hide from arrest on a false charge. In this game, for the first time, a time dilation mode (bullet time) was implemented, which, in combination with all sorts of tricks during the skirmishes, created a sort of cinematic effect of the narration. By the way, the authors of the game did not borrow a chip with a slowdown from The Matrix, the game began to be developed before the film was released, and its gameplay was originally built on this effect.

Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven (2002)

Beginning of the Mafia game series. The name says: you start from the bottom to build a career for the Italian organized criminal gang. The authors beautifully conveyed the atmosphere of the Great Depression in the United States. Because of this, as well as the excellent story and good playability, the first Mafia is still considered by many to be the best game in the series.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2003)

Cels-shooter, which promotes the difficult work of the special forces of the American NSA, which should prevent a war between the US and China, as well as perform another delicate task related to the President of Georgia and some secret weapon.

New level of physics simulation

Half Life 2 (2004)

Continuation of the first Half Life. You're all the same Gordon Freeman, fighting a totalitarian government, appointed by the enslaving Earth aliens. The main feature of the game was the Source engine, which provided realistic graphics that had never been seen before. Also to the advantages of the game belonged excellent character animation, powerful AI, shader rendering. Thanks to the physics engine, Havok Physics provided a very natural player interaction with the world.

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (2005)

Continuation of a series of games GTA. In fact, the plot remains the same - you play for a certain character, whose life circumstances and / or character and education deficiencies make you wander around the city and create all sorts of indecent acts, constantly breaking the law. The strong game included a huge open game world filled with numerous NPCs with whom it was possible to communicate, which was good for the atmosphere. The main character learned to swim, dive and climb over the fence. In addition to cars, it was now possible to ride bikes, towing vehicles, tow trucks, motorcycles, quad bikes, airplanes, combines, trains, and even with a jet pack. In general, about 200 types of transport were implemented in San Andreas.

New generation of graphics in RPG

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)

Epic continuation of the series The Elder Scrolls. The action of this RPG takes place in an alternative world where magic and dragons are as real as swords and arrows. The main character fights against representatives of a cruel cult who wants to conquer an empire. One of the strengths of the entire series of The Elder Scrolls remained a completely open world, through which you could move freely, perform side storylines, lead a free hunt for monsters and gangsters, acquire houses in different towns, and generally do what you wanted. At the same time the game could boast a great physics engine, advanced AI system and beautiful graphics. For example, for generating landscapes, trainee generators were used that provided the greater realism of the world of Oblivion.

Halo 3 (2007)

Halo has a large army of fans thanks to a very vigorous gameplay and good graphics. The story takes place in the 26th century, you are an elite fighter, a genetically modified soldier in an exoskeleton costume, fighting with aliens who invade Earth.

Now you can play for zombies.

Left 4 Dead (2008)

Multiplayer shooter, which was implemented a curious idea. According to the plot, a pandemic arose on Earth, during which almost the entire population turned into Infected. A group of four surviving people trying to break through the hordes and find a place of salvation. So, the idea is that in multiplayer random players gather four people into a team, and the rest play for the Infected. And thanks to advanced AI, the game adapts to the tactics and style of the game, changing the parameters of the levels, the locations of respawns, and so on.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)

The Call of Duty series has been competing with the Battlefield series for many years. Each of the brands has its own vast army of fans. In the campaign of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, you can try yourself in the role of fighters of different special forces, and in multiplayer mode waiting for a hurricane action, many types of weapons and military gadgets, as well as a curious system of perks.

BioShock 2 (2010)

Fantastic first-person shooter, which is the sequel to the first game. You are in an underwater city built by a mad scientist, and play as one of the Big Daddies: a man in a huge diving suit.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)

Epochal and, perhaps, to date, the best game in the genre of RPG. The storyline is almost not connected with Oblivion, so you can safely play it for beginners. The game has set new heights in terms of realism generated landscapes, graphics and physics. Although over the past years it is morally obsolete, but so far numerous fans do not let Skyrim fall into oblivion: they have riveted a huge number of updates, thanks to which the game today continues to look very modern and rich. Actually, it was fan updates that formed the basis for the recent reissue of Skyrim.

Far Cry 3 (2012)

Continuation of the famous series of action games Far Cry. This time you are playing as an American tourist who, with friends, went to a tropical island and became the victim of a gangster attack. The tourist was not a blunder, he ran away and began to rescue his friends and create retribution to the scumbags.

Tomb Raider (2013)

If in previous decades you managed not to play the adventures of Lara Croft, then the penultimate Tomb Raider is a great chance to catch up, since the game of 2013 is the restart of the series. This is a third-person action game. The main heroine - a skater young anthropologia falls on a ship with her fellow scientists to a secluded island ruled by a mysterious and ancient cult. To save herself and her companions, Lara shows the wonders of acrobatics and gun possession.

The most "live" game city

Grand Theft Auto V (2014)

For the first time in one of the most popular games in the world, three main characters are at once, and you can switch between their storylines at will. In this case, each character has its own unique features: slowing down the time when driving, when shooting, berserk mode. The game world of GTA V is 3.5 times larger than in GTA San Andreas. Here is a very detailed underwater world, which can be explored with a scuba or in a bathyscaphe, on the seabed you can even find a UFO. The variety of classes in the city is greatly expanded, sports facilities and facilities have appeared, it is possible to trade on the in-game stock exchange, visit entertainment facilities and so on. The total budget for the development of the game was $ 270 million. Two hundred and seventy million dollars, Karl!

Skyforge (2015)

MMORPG, created on the engine, developed in Mail.Ru Group. The game was sawed for a long time, about 5 years. Here you can stand on the side of gods and immortal heroes, jointly destroying the invading mythical and alien creatures. One of the main features of the engine was the huge range of the rendered space - 40 km: it was necessary to convey the scope of the world, the "divine" capabilities of the players, the scope of the tasks. Today it is one of the most long-range engines in the gaming industry.

Horizon Zero Dawn (2017)

Very fresh open world RPG. In connection with some kind of apocalypse, civilization almost came to an end, the world was enslaved by robots, people slipped to the level of primitive times. You play as a young hunter who explores the world, earns livelihood, fights - in general, lives a rich prehistoric life.

That turned out to be a digression into the history of the development of computer games graphics. Progress is not only impressive, it is like the evolution of life in miniature: from primitive graphic forms to the most complex models of the world with the highest level of graphic and physical simulations. So much so that even processors and video cards no longer show the same performance growth rates. Of course, partly because of the difficulties that engineers face, but in many respects due to the decline in demand from the gaming industry. After all, far from all games use at least 90% of the capabilities of modern hardware.