Copyright 2011 Neil S. Plakcy

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Introduction: Breakout and Breaking In

Want to play computer games for a living? I did that for nearly ten years, working for a developer and publisher of games for every computer platform and game console you can name. And you can, too. The video game industry continues to grow, with millions of consoles and games sold. In this book I’ll tell you about my background, a bit of history of the industry, the kinds of jobs available, and how you can get them.

In 1979, I was a college senior in Philadelphia, spending most of my evenings and all of my spare quarters at University City Pinball, a storefront arcade just off campus. It was a long, narrow room, lit by overhead fluorescents and the flashing multi-colored lights of the machines, with the sounds of bells, bumpers and paddles bouncing off the plain sheetrock walls.

I wasn’t tempted by those bright lights, by Dolly Parton and King Kong and the Playgirl bunnies. Instead I headed to the back of the room, to a computerized game called Breakout, a kind of one-man ping pong where I batted a small ball up toward a wall of bricks. Each time the ball hit a brick, the brick disappeared and the ball ricocheted back toward my paddle. There was a narrow space above the wall of bricks, and if you could break through to that space, your ball would bounce back and forth between the top of the screen and the wall, building up points rapidly. That was the breakout.

If you reached a certain score by the end of your game, before you missed the ball and used up your allotment of three tries, you got a free game. With luck, I could parlay a couple of quarters into an evening’s entertainment. I was hooked on video games, and if I could have then I’d have gladly signed up to spend the rest of my life in the glittering, noisy world of the electronic arcade.

The video game industry wasn’t as developed then, so I had to wait ten years to break into it. My big opportunity came with a company called GameTek, one of the earliest to develop games for the Commodore 64, Apple IIe, and, as we used to note on our boxes, “IBM, Tandy, and other 100% compatible computers.” We made dozens of simple games for kids and adults, under licenses from Fisher Price, Milton Bradley, and TV game shows such as “Jeopardy!, ” “Wheel of Fortune” and “Family Feud.”

I started out typing in the database for GameTek’s first Jeopardy! game, and when I’d finished, my boss suggested that since I already knew the answers and questions in the game, I should do some testing once the programmer had finished his work. I spent many hours finding typos in the database and errors in the programming, called bugs, and when I’d finished, my boss asked me to convey my bug list to the programmer. In those days, one guy, often working from his basement, wrote the code, designed the graphics and recorded the simple sounds that accompanied the games.

Together he and I figured out what had caused the bugs I’d seen, and he fixed them. When the bug-testing process was complete, my boss asked me to write the instruction manual, since I knew best how the game was played, and then come up with a list of the game’s top features to put on the box.

I repeated this process again and again, until one day a new boss gave me the title of producer, based on all the work I was doing. I began to learn more about the video game industry, as I worked on increasingly sophisticated games for new, technologically advanced platforms. We began to hire artists to create the graphics for our games, and then animators skilled at working with three-dimensional models. We hired professional musicians and voice-over artists to create sound and music. Our programmers learned new languages and new hardware platforms, and as the games got increasingly complex, they had to work in teams to get projects complete. Without realizing it, I had gotten in on the ground floor of the expansion of the world of computer games, and was able to witness much of its growth and development.

Today’s game business is booming. Latest figures show that Nintendo DS has sold nearly 150 million consoles, followed by the Wii at 87 million, the PSP (68 million), the Xbox (54 million) and the PS3 (51 million). That’s not counting the millions of personal computers and the tens of millions of games sold for them, as well as the massively multiplayer online games like Farmville.

These kinds of sales figures have led to burgeoning growth in the development of games. Computer and video game companies can be found across the country, though they are concentrated in certain areas, and there are many opportunities for young people to break into the industry.

In this book, I’m going to give you the background you need to understand today’s exciting world of video gaming, and point out the skills required to enter this highly competitive field. This background will be accompanied by lots of real-life examples from my own career and the experiences of people I know and have worked with.

I’ll give you a general overview of the computer game business as it stands today, but be aware: this is a dynamic, constantly changing industry. So I’ll also provide you with resources you can use to keep up to date with changes in hardware, software, companies and trends.

The industry is made up of many different players, including developers, publishers, manufacturers and licensors, and includes all kinds of hardware. Hand-held units range from those that play removable cartridge games, like the Nintendo Game Boy, to dedicated game units that play only one game, such as video poker. There are game machines that plug into your TV, like the Nintendo DS, the Wii, and the Sony PlayStation, games you play on your home computer, and games you play on-line. I’ll tell you who these players are, where they come from and where they’re going.

There are also lots of different kinds of games, for lots of different kinds of players, and you may find your niche in any of these fields, from sports games to RPGs (role-playing games), from shoot-em-ups to simulators, from animated graphic adventures like Myst to educational games to game show games like Wheel of Fortune. Each of these games requires the same kind of team to develop, test, manufacture and sell them, and each offers opportunities for creative, exciting, well-paid work.

You’ll need some technical background on the industry and the tools we use in programming and developing art and video. I’ll explain how these tools have been developed and what they do. Microsoft has been advancing the technology of computer gaming in their efforts to bring gamers from the TV to the desktop, and I’ll show you how these efforts have affected game creation. You may already be playing games on-line; I know I am. The on-line business is a big part of the future of gaming, and I’ll show you how it will be growing.

I’ll explore with you the interaction that has been occurring between Silicon Valley and Hollywood; that is, between the world of movies and the world of computer gaming. I’ll also give you some historical background on the computer game industry that I think you’ll find interesting, as well as useful in your future career. Finally, you’ll be able to read interviews with people in the human resources departments of major game developers and see what it is they are looking for in personnel, and how you can get the skills you need for the job you want.

You, too, can turn your love of game playing into a satisfying and lucrative career. Read on to find out how!

History? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ History!

Yeah, you do. When you work at a computer game company, you’ll be part of a team, whether you are beta testing, programming or creating art or animations. Your team will probably contain grizzled veterans in their forties (like me!) as well as young dudes in their twenties, who were born with Game Boys clutched in their chubby little fists.

These are often guys (and increasingly girls) who have lived and breathed video games for as long as they can remember. They have played every game in recorded memory (or at least those in the genre they like) and have followed news briefs in Nintendo Power and Electronic Gaming Monthly. If one of them makes a reference to Nolan Bushnell (father of the modern computer games business) you don’t want to be the one who pipes up and goes, “Whoa, who was that? Some gnarly thrasher dude?”

Game designers also often refer to past games in trying to describe new ideas. “Well, it’s kind of like a 3-D Space Invaders on acid,” someone might say. Or, “It’s Command and Conquer set on an alien world with no gravity and no traditional power structure.” You’ll want to be able to get the drift. To help you out, you can refer to the reference list I’ve created at the back of the book, which lists the major games that have been developed in our industry’s short history, as well as some brief information on what makes each one a great game. I’ve surveyed my friends and co-workers throughout the industry to discover the games they have enjoyed, what they were about and why they were great.

Throughout the book, you’ll find sidebars on major developments in computer game history. The game industry is littered with mistakes, large and small, made by companies that are only fondly remembered for one or two great games. If you don’t want your tombstone to lie next to some of them, learn from what they did wrong.

The computer game business has a lively and interesting history, from the original entrepreneurs working in their garages to the smashing failures of major companies. It’s a story of people who have been devoted to their ideas, working in obscurity and then jumping into the spotlight when a great game hits the market. If you have been working in your basement or attic bedroom, hunched over your computer trying to create the next great game, or if you have just been in the arcades and living rooms playing because you love games, you’ll want to know more about what has happened so far.

The First Gamers

No one knows who played the first game, but games have been a part of every civilization. The ancient Greeks originated the Olympics, while the Aztecs played lachti, in which you hit a small rubber ball with your hips or thighs and knocked it across a special court. Roman emperors played paganica, using a bent stick to drive a soft, feather-stuffed ball, and other Indo-Europeans played chess. Strategic games like the African board game Mancala and the Asian board game Go arose as societies became more complex and it was important for society members to develop strategic skills.

How It All Began

The idea of computer based gaming can be traced back to a group of students and assistants at Harvard’s Littauer Statistical Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where a PDP-1 mainframe computer was installed in the fall of 1961. This computer was a huge machine, the size of an average living room, but it was faster than computers had been before, and it had a CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor. It could be turned on and off easily and it didn’t require a team of engineers to operate it. This new computer finally allowed the students and assistants, who had been fantasizing about using a computer to run games, to put their ideas into practice.

The Three Types

Games fall into three categories: physical skill, strategy, and games of chance. Video games contain elements of all three. Video game players develop physical skills, improving hand-eye coordination and reflexes, and as players learn a game they develop strategies for winning, based on observing repeated patterns. And sometimes an element of randomness is incorporated into video games as well.

Games Defined

Video games are not just a new phenomenon, but a combination of all the types of games that preceded them. They are also a product of the technology that allows them to be played. As technology has improved, so have video games. Let’s define video games as enjoyable, interactive experiences that involve a computer-driven intelligence and a video monitor. That definition will encompass games played on mainframe computers, desktop computers, and dedicated game machines for arcades as well as for home play.

The Theory of Computer Toys

In 1961 the Hingham Institute in Cambridge produced a Theory of Computer Toys, published by the Institute’s Study Group on Space Warfare. This theory stated that game programs should:

1) utilize as many of the computer’s resources as possible

2) be interesting and different while remaining consistent

3) involve the player in a pleasurable, active way, just as a game does.

Influenced by science fiction, particularly Japanese adventures like “Rodan” and “The Mysterians,” and the post-Sputnik emphasis on space exploration, the group’s game ideas frequently revolved around space adventure, exploration and combat.

Moving Dots

In January, 1962, Harvard researcher Steve Russell created a dot he could move around the CRT screen, and quickly converted it to a spaceship. Additional dots became stars in the game’s galaxy. By February, he had two spaceships on the screen, each controlled by a box with two levers (one to move left and right and one to move up and down) and one torpedo button. When you pressed the torpedo button, blasts of light came out of the ship’s nose and destroyed the enemy.

Another Harvard researcher, Peter Sampson, rearranged Russell’s dots into constellations that corresponded to those in the sky, while another, Dan Edwards, calculated the gravity of the “heavy star,” one of the stars that would draw you into its radius unless you steered away from it. With this element, the game moved from being a skill-based shoot-em-up requiring good reflexes and hand-eye coordination into one that required skill and strategy. Finally, J. M. Graetz added the programming for a “hyperspace” button that allowed for a quick escape from enemy fire.

The game these researchers finally came up with, called Spacewar, was shown at M.I.T.’s annual Science Open House in May, 1962, and was a big hit. Spacewar spread from university to university across the United States, wherever there was a mainframe computer and a group of students who wanted to play.

Bringing it Home

In 1966, a German-born electronics engineer named Ralph Baer was working for Sanders Associates, a defense-oriented New Hampshire electronics firm, and he began experimenting with the idea of playing games on a TV set. He took his ideas to his company’s corporate R&D director, and the company funded his development, providing two engineers to work with him. Soon they had created basic ball and paddle programs, and by September of 1967 they had a playable version of an electronic hockey game. The puck had the dynamics of a real puck, and velocity and direction depended on how the puck was hit.

Ancient History: Arcade and Mainframe Games

For video games to have mass appeal, they had to be affordable and easy to handle. After all, not everyone had access to a living-room sized mainframe computer with a CRT display. made the next step forward.

Atari was the market leader at this point, but other companies, such as Ramtek, Meadows Games, and Midway were entering the field. Midway had manufactured electromechanical games for years, and was purchased by Bally in 1969. Gunfight, engineered for Midway by Japan’s Taito Corporation, was one of Midway’s first ventures into the video game market. It was a cowboy shoot ‘em up based on traditional arcade principles. It was followed in 1976 by Sea Wolf, a periscope game.

At this time, the video game arcade was still in its infancy, and a game that sold 5,000 pieces was a solid success. Then a Silicon Valley company called Exidy launched a driving game called Death Race, which garnered a huge amount of publicity because of its violence, and the market took off. Death Race was a driving game with a difference: you negotiated the road from behind the wheel, but along the way you had to hit gremlins that darted into your path. As you hit them, tombstones popped up to take their place, and then you had to avoid hitting the tombstones. Crashes were accompanied by loud noises. The National Safety Council called it “Sick, morbid and insidious,” but it jump-started the video game industry. More machines were sold, and more quarters were dropped into slots.

Midway went back to Taito in 1978 for another game, and got much more than they bargained for with a new game called Space Invaders, which was eventually to pull them neck and neck with Atari in the coin-op video game market. Space Invaders was a simple game in concept: kill the alien invaders. But to do so required concentration, speed, aggression and strategy, as wave after wave of the blue-green invaders swept across the screen.

Space Invaders became a huge phenomenon. Players loved to combat the machine, dropping in quarter after quarter in search of the thrill of victory in the man vs. machine contest. In addition to a rabid devotion, Space Invaders inspired songs, and created a new medical ailment, “Space Invaders Wrist.” The Midway factory in Franklin Park, Illinois turned out 60,000 machines, and they infiltrated dozens of new outlets, places where video games had never been played before.

Space Invaders opened the market in a huge way, but two technological breakthroughs were on the way, as well, that would open up the possibilities for video games. So far, games had been based on raster technology: the display of dots on a CRT. But Larry Rosenthal, an MIT graduate who had played Spacewar on the engineering department’s computer, developed a simplified algorithm (a type of mathematical formula) that allowed a small game unit to use vector graphics. Vector technology involved displaying lines on the screen, not just the simple dots of raster technology. With rasters, a game scans back and forth across the screen, sending thousands of tiny dots to the screen to display any picture, and the amount of memory required to assemble all those dots together is prodigious. As a consequence, the raster can move relatively few independent objects simultaneously.

But vectors don’t scan, they draw. So the screen is limited only by the computing time it takes to draw these objects, and using vector technology a computer can draw as many as 40 independently moving objects, a massive leap over the 10 of games such as Space Invaders. Vectors became the new technology for gaming, and a San Diego company, Cinematronics, was the first to capitalize on vector technology, with its Space Wars game. In addition to its use of vectors, Space Wars brought many other innovations to gaming: multiple controls, including forward, left, right and fire buttons and hyperspace ability, different game levels, including beginner, intermediate and expert, and an expanded universe featuring black holes, no gravity and negative gravity.