Early Video Games (1950-1970)

A little look back at games

So… What are video games about? Games have been around longer then people – the mother's pups play fight early on to learn essential tools to survive, social and physical. There is an inbuilt instinct in all animals to play, to learn to survive. As people progressed we started to acquire spare time and moved away from playing physical games with our siblings and neighbours and looked towards more intellectual games to play with our friends, family and peers. Board games have been first recorded from ancient Egypt from around 3,500 BC where they played a game called "Senet" http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/life/activity/main.html . Games have developed to serve many functions; personal, social, political, and religious even. In mezzo-America they would incorporate ball games with religious sacrifices; the games at the Coliseum were cruel yet entertaining to the masses & displayed the glory of the Roman Nation. Today if you watch the sports channel you will see a hundred different sports, game shows and quizzes of varying popularity, and in a way social standing…Games have always had a key role in society. Today it is more unified and revolves around the flow of currency – Just look at the Call of Duty franchise and the Manchester United football team. There is a lot of money involved especially with the growth of population and communications.

 

War-games http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cch0wrwg4tg (music from "Cannon Fodder" Sensible Software, 1993)

Video games are a recent spin incorporating digital technology to display and interact with the game. War is good for a few reasons (very bad for a million). War is a catalyst for production basically – do your very best to beat your neighbour by any means. *As an interesting side note the Civil War in America actually made the foundations for the development of their own "Classical" music - Jazz. The abundance of marching instruments left over meant available music for the masses. They soon grouped the instruments together and formed bands… This is actually the origins of what has become the drum kit*. The Second World War helped greatly to improve technology and early computers would evolve from calculators used for anti-ballistics. There was an early British computer called Electronic "Delay Storage Automated Calculator" or EDSAC for short which was finished in May 1949 (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/conference/EDSAC99/statistics.html).

A fella named A.S Douglas created the first videogame for this system. It was as you would expect very primitive. It was Noughts and Crosses (Tic-Tac-Toe is American) and had a simple program but shows fundamental Artificial Intelligence (AI). Ironically if you know the game or have seen the film "War-Games" you would know that there is no way of winning unless your opponent makes a mistake. I could imagine these games would have been more of a programming exercise then for fun. It was developed at Cambridge University by the Maths Lab – Is weird to think there was no computers study – These guys invented it by exploring calculations. Here is a link to an EDSAC simulator http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~edsac/ .


 

Spacewars!

In 1958 there was a game created which was very similar to Pong called "Tennis for Two" which I would give a mention. It's not really a game in its own right, it's a simulation of tennis and there were also flight simulators about which aren't really games either. The first proper videogame was of course "Spacewar!"

Have a go? http://spacewar.oversigma.com/

2 Player game

    Left    Right    Thrust    Shoot

P1    A    S    D    F

P2    K    L    ;    '

Quick Review

Is pretty good actually! I like the fluid analogue feel of the acceleration – A key feature to the Super Mario series, which adds a lot of variables and skill to the gameplay. Don't play Pong without an analogue controller (mouse or modern pad will do) you just miss out on the feel behind the game. Can see where asteroids came from – Another classic game. Is nice seeing this, for its day it was obviously cutting edge – Taking Sci-Fi influences from the "Lensman Series" of books by Edward Elmer "Doc" Smith.


 

The Television

TVs were new back around then and it took a man name Ralph Baer to incorporate games with it. In 1969 he finally (after nagging military and television establishments) produced two games... "Chase" and another Tennis game. He went on and produced the "Odyssey" console.

There are a thousand different consoles of all shape and sizes dedicated to this game – Few had new innovations like rotating the paddle and multi players. I'm not going too far into Pong as everyone knows what it is – Crappy table tennis. I did however like block breaking variations later made in the 80s – "Arkanoid" was my favourite, but "BreakOut" was its daddy, made in 1976 by Atari.

http://www.play.vg/games/10-Breakout.html = Play Breakout

One thing these games have retained is playability. The graphics are now primitive but the play is fluid – On Breakout there is that sweet "Analogue" variable I mentioned before the ball bounces vary on the area of the bat, this is a fundamental element (if maybe the only) to the play in these bat and ball games. With all of the flash and bang that you get in modern they often neglect the core of the game – how it feels. In my opinion Skyrim isn't all that – The gameplay is stale, my character is stuck to playing the same way now until I make a new one, I will be for hours sneaking and hiding as my other skills are weak/useless. I prefer RPGs in the Japanese vein, a little more number crunching, equipment & character building and imaginative foes.


 

Atari & The Golden Age of Arcade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_age_of_video_arcade_games

 

The Atari I see as the first definitive console – It had a slot so you could change games easily and had a variety of original games – Pacman being the flagship game. There were too many games to go into. This Console revolutionised the gaming industry, and truly broght videogaming to the masses. Even though its RAM was only 128 bytes… My PC is 4GB which is about 10,000,000 more powerful – enough said. In 1978 "Space Invaders" Was an Arcade breakthrough and paved the way for many more.

Please if you haven't seen it watch the film "King of Kong" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/
this documentary follows the people who have passionately guarded their arcade high-scores for thirty years, and gives a glimpse into the sad, seedy, and competitive world behind arcade games.

Fruit & Fibre.... Plus Coffee & Cigarettes

The last post was supposed to be about the routine I've been following and what I need to do to "work smarter"... Kinda went off on a tangent about discipline.  Oh well!  Last year on Foundation Art they insisted I kept a work diary - Was immensely for jotting thoughts, learning process, study notes, to do list...  Basically everything.  So far this term I have already filled an A4 pad - And I think I'm very organised for it.

I've devised a basic routine, which I have been following.  I like the work mentality, and from spending lots of my time in full time work, and part-time (overlapping) I totally appreciate routine.  Routine not only helps to maximize you're time (setting goals, actually working and not dossing around) but it is also healthy - our body clocks are on a routine too.

Anyways here's my routine.
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8AM-10AM  = Coffee cigarette & PC/facebook check, emails, My DMU... etc

10AM-10PM = Dedicated uni work  (10-1, 1-4, 4-7, 7-10)  made 3-hour blocks so can break up nicely depending on needs

MON 3D, TUE 2D, WED CRITS, THU 3D, FRI 2D

Weekends = basically the same if the work needs it (usually leaning 3D) but is more development focused.  Have been trying to learn to digi-paint and studies from books or looking at artists.

10PM-1:30AM
Late at night I have been doodling from my head and studying anatomy and the like - is a flexible time to unwind, often in bed with a film (or Columbo recently) playing. or a video game!
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It seems to be working pretty well.  I do have friends come round often - but sticking to this allows me the time to be a bit social, and is sometimes a welcome break - which we all need.  I tend to make another cup of coffee every couple of hours or so - stretches the legs, maybe snack, can say hello to a housemate maybe if I'm feeling secluded.

I have found that I don't sleep as much as I should - on weekends I naturally get up after around eight hours... kind of used to doing six though and struggle to rest at night... then sometimes morning.  Which is why they are "buffer" times.

Have also found that I am not eating properly.  Most days I'm lucky if I cook a meal, and lean towards frozen food so I can work while it cooks.  Saying that I eat a lot of snacks (cereal,fruit,toast) which is cheap in town (Market + pound shops), and I look healthy... guess it's all good.

I want to try adjusting the routine however - needs a bit more variety and time away from the desk.

I have got a few magazines recently (Nat Geo/digital art stuff) and haven't touched them - I spend no time away from my work unless in the company of others.  I want a bit of calm where I can read stuff... Maybe watch the news... Be a little socially aware.

I have also been neglecting my drawing board for the sofa, using my monitor for reference or as background entertainment.  I've been using Saturday mornings to go on the road (galleries/observational sketching/photos etc) which I could and should be doing every Saturday.

Sunday I have commitments as I drum in a band (with my friend Phil mentioned in previous post), and generally use to focus on weak areas or gaps in uni work... Mainly 3D rendering at the mo.

Things to add

30 mins a day observationals - self portraits/life/still studies a good time for this is around 5PM in the middle of work for a mental break.

Drawing Board time - My printer is wont print but I have many books and access to a great library.  Will spend the time after 10PM there for a while.  Will hopefully help focus on traditional media and get into my books more

Saturdays - Inconsistantly venturing out, should be a day of getting out the "office".  Should also get pissed every now and then to "feel alive" - love getting drunk, dancing and being a nuisance (three things I used to excel at)!

So from now on
5PM = Observational (30mins)
10PM = Drawing board + Post days work on facebook (no matter how incomplete/failed)
Saturday = Out n about.  Will check how the "Urban sketchers" facebook group is doing... last time I arranged something all seven people failed to turn up though and went solo : /

Passion without discipline = hobby

There's been a lot of talk about self directed study time at the minute... This is one area I have already thought of a lot and have made all sorts of notes in my work diary.  There is all kinds of factors that effect personal development, the main ones being the amount of effort you put in, and your discipline to stick at it... Or "passion".  The next important ones are being smart and organising yourself so you're not only doing the right work but your doing the right things within it.

I have a couple of friends I'm gonna use in these examples... hope they never read this.  My first friend I'm gonna mention is a close friend of mine I have known since infant school - Lee.  Lee is a nice guy, we both applied for the foundation art course at the same time... Unfortunately Lee was unsuccessful at getting onto the course, I thought quite a bit why.  The obvious reason is his portfolio - he has lots of passion but is solely focused on evil things, namely dragons and robots.  Not only does he talk about them non-stop and the latest ones he's seen but he also draws them - almost exclusively.  Looking at his portfolio of twenty pages or so there was only one picture of anything that was not a dragon (this happened to be a predator).  To be honest the dragons aren't great either - lack of full anatomy, always drawing the same composition and never researching simple things like value, shadow and light, or anatomy.  Even now he brings me pictures which I would call "doodles".  See, he has a lot of passion and reflects it through images, it's just that he has never explored (against everyone's advice) different subjects.  His passion is more consumer based then creative - Every time I go around he is very excited about the latest toy (literally toy) or game he's bought... He has to be special editions of everything and has what I would call unhealthy addiction - Neglecting the whole spectrum of emotions and thoughts you can express through art.  Lee is keeping the faith and ambition though and has been taking life drawing lessons.

See, Lee has a lot of passion but no discipline - He's taken these life drawing lessons (missed a few) and has never even tried drawing himself.  Everything for him is waiting for the perfect time so he can commence.  "I need space in my room", "I need my PC fixed", "I'm too tired", "work won't give me Wednesdays off"... He procrastinates and finds excuses to put things off.  He asked me about when he should get his portfolio done & applying for this year.  When I said Get it done for new-year - Why wait and put it off and struggle?  My heart goes out to him, is frustrating to see him waiting for that day when he can finally do what he wants - I've told it's today and every day, but I think his passion needs to blossom so he can get out of his rutt.

The other friend I'm going to mention is Phil (used to be a drinking buddy when I was 16-20, he had to quit alcohol due to being a total piss-head and is happily married now and living on Narborough road).  Phil tends to be obsessive about his interest, for the gap I didn't see him a few years for he loved martial arts & Kung fu films.  Then it was singing and playing guitar in a band.  Now its comics.   He is certainly passionate - He actually bores me by talking about comic artists (a bit like Lee and dragons - they have both ruined two things I really like).  The difference between Lee and Phil is that Phil is focused on emulating... comic artists instead of musicians this time.   Phil puts in loads of hours drawing, reading, research and the like.  Phil's problem however is he is too focused on a narrow field.  He has spent so long reading on how to make comics that his drawing process sucks - I have never seen an original piece from him, or even coloured, and only a few even inked.  See through all of Phil's reading and artist studies he has never stepped back and developed the fundamentals.  He is all about page layouts and more about the process of making comics that he has as far as I know only drew one life study (under my advisement).  Also when you give him feedback (which he wants) he has a whole line of excuses why they don't matter - He knows more about comics and knows what he wants so fuck anything else.

The reason I mention Phil is that he is my example of having passion to draw, but lack of understanding and is not passionately learning what he should be to progress quickly.  Every picture he has to use book reference and takes very very long, and honestly i haven't seen many "striking" images.  On top of all of that he is very strict with his range of work and is "selfishly" just doing exactly what he likes.  This leaves him with weak images that look like poor emulations of something that looks familiar.

Like everyone else I learn from my friends (and hopefully them from me), and while me annotation may be a bit cold and judgmental it is honest and I tell them.  I am by no means perfect I can see that not only do you need passion, but you need discipline - Without it you are a person that talks more than does.

On the other hand I think I am some times too separated from my work - When someone says it's fantastic I don't really care so much, but when they have something insightful  I'm very interested.  It is nice when Lee said he thought I had developed over the foundation year but I didn't really see that...  I kinda feels like it's work I had in me - it's just taking time to get it out.  I think I should take a bit more value in my work sometimes and try to reflect, but screw it - Move on.  The way I think about it is that (apart from with purely expressive work, but that has different goals) any work I do, I can immediately do a better piece after it, so why get hung up?  Is like a shot out a gun - it's gone but my next shot is gonna be better... If I focus.

Two-Party System

Game system trends are much like the two-party system often used in voting.  With the votes (or purchases in our case) being dominated by two parties - Labour vs Tories = Spectrum vs Commodore (ish), Amiga vs Atari, Sega/Nintendo, Microsoft/Sony.  That's not saying as a buyer there aren't more options, you may vote Green Peace or Lib-Dem - in which case you would probably be a PC gamer or have a more "casual" console like the Wii today.

What this means is that the main market is competed for by two major powers - These would now be Microsoft's Xbox 360 (this generations winner) and Sony's PlayStation 3 (too rich for the recent depression?).  Nintendo's Wii while being the outside choice (Liberal Democrats) is doing very well by filling the need in the market for a cheaper and more accessible alternative.

We are currently on the seventh generation of consoles - which funnily enough cycles about every four years just like elections.  The cycle with politics seems to stem from longing for improvement - In my eyes the system is broke and there is no real choice, is like having sauces to pick to go on your chips - at the end of the day it's still just chips.  The third choice is sometimes like ordering a kebab - Something different and sometimes risky... If Green Peace came into power how could they actually handle the economy and foreign affairs?  I'm guessing they would just get overcome with corruption in time and soon become as the previous government.

Eighth Generation Console Election "Policies"

Xbox 360
The First console (always a strong selling point), Strong live multi-player, big  name titles (Halo 3, Gears of War) and a large library of retail and live game, and independent games market.

PlayStation 3
Really cool gadget - HD gaming & BlueRay player, more powerful then Xbox, name releases... Gran Turismo

Wii
Family console, interactive control, simple, playable and accessible.

Personally I eventually got an Xbox - It was a lot cheaper then the PlayStation, and with a lot more "serious" games than the Wii, and more variety in games.  A big selling point for me was the news that both Tekken and Final Fantasy would be on the Xbox.  These were previously only on PlayStation consoles - The migration is a sign of the difficulties facing Sony's Playstation 3.  I think it was failing first due to the price tag (not many people could even originally afford a HD TV), the difficulty making games to run on it, and lack of many games to compete with it's market rival the Xbox.  To be honest I wouldn't mind a Wii now - The GameCube was great for the living room and had many 4-player games on the staple Mario series (Soccer/Tennis/Kart) among other "Party" games.  Nintendo have done well not to compete with the main two and take in what where innocent bystanders.

What's in the future?

Well government wise we are gonna keep getting screwed by the rich until something drastic happens.  We can always turn to consoles though and while away our evenings after a days work.  Console wise I think things are looking promising for Nintendo - With the rise of HD popularity they are taking the step up also, and have a good idea with the interactive pads with there Wii U (2012 release).  Their selling point for these is that they can work independently from the console - Great for shared TVs, good graphics and some serious titles "Batman: Arkham City, an Assassin's Creed game, Dirt, Ghost Recon Online, Tekken, Metro Last Light,Aliens Colonial Marines, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge, and Darksiders II all got a mention as coming to the Wii U" (TEKKEN!).  This means they are hopefully broadening their market and not shifting it.  


PlayStation is all rumors, maybe they've had it?  We should expect a 2013 release.  They should wait I reckon and make an affordable contender.  (Sorry I have little first hand PS3 experience)


Xbox is also rumors - I'd expect more of the same but juiced up.   They have been drastically updating the functionality of the Xbox (adding HDMI, and built in wireless & hard drive) not to mention the Kinect (their answer to the Wii motion sensors) this was pretty clever as they often broke and also keeps high and low ends of the market - older consoles being cheaper and more obtainable.  Being Microsoft means they can use the latest cores from PCs and gives them another edge in pricing/power ratio (and stability).


Think its gonna be a Microsoft/Nintendo election for me when it comes - Think it depends on Nintendo's marketing and PlayStation's ploy...  and how much of a life I have.

Consoles... a good influence?

I remember the early nineties... I was around ten when other kids started getting the 8-bit consoles.  Back in the day it was a privilege getting such a wonderous machine.  Friends would soon gather around to have a look and hopefully even get a go on a Sega Master System or NES.  These babies were a big step up from Sinclair Spectrums and Commador 64s.  For starters you didn't have to wait five minutes for a game to load, and the graphics were a big step up in pixel count (or "resolution") and number of colours on the screen at once.  Even the joypads were a new concept - with multiple buttons which served different functions!  I actually remember my big brother Justin made me a special "joystick" which had several buttons like a keyboard which I was more used to.  For some reason I remember playing "CJ's Elephant Antics" (a bit like New Zealand Story but two player) testing it.

It took me a while to catch up and I totally missed the 8-Bit revolution.  Fortunately my friend Michael across,  the street and Carl up the road had a master systems.  The games of the day were Double Dragon and Golden Axe -  Brillaint side scrolling beat em up which took a good while to get through.   Back then you never got infinite continues and cheats were a rarity so there was a genuine challenge to games, many you would never see the end of.

As we grew up we get interested in different things and what-not.  Both Michael and Carl were "naughty" and our parents discouraged us from going out and dossing around.   So for me games and drawing were a way to spend time, which I'm grateful for.  Michael is currently back in Prison, Carl got lucky and his parents sent him away for a stint to stop him from robbing and joy riding.   Looking back I can see there's something wrong with society or just the social attitude people are raised with.  When we were younger we were all happy to play with each other and were equal, later I think lots of us grew rebellious to try and make sense of everything.  I can see I was actually lucky with my upbringing - Maybe I wasn't as cool as the other kids, but I learned that if have to commit arson and vandalism to hang out with people then there's something wrong.

My first console was the Sega Megadrive which I got for christmas.  I remember my parents tricked me - all my siblings got a decent amount of presents and I had... crap.  They saved the best for last, which was momentarily upsetting.  Yes!  A Sega Magadrive!!!  I had an amazing piece of elite equipment!! Quite a few of my friends would come round regular to witness the spectacle... and maybe have a go.  There would always be a point when you're around a friends house and some ones not happy with the amount of gaming they get done and they would cry "It's my house!  I get to pick"

I'll round this blog of saying that while staying in and playing games is often seen as a waste of time, it's really not.   It helped to stop me becoming an obnoxious thief and gave me windows into many different worlds portrayed through games; helped home my reflexes, lateral thinking and creativity.  Will talk a bit about the Nintendo vs Sega next blog.

Back to Basics

The critical studies lecture given by Mike last Wednesday was kinda personal to me.  Being born in 1982 I'm one of the few students who actually remembers the eighties, and I have fond memories.  Lots of the pop culture passed me by being so young, but also it wasn't so generic for me, sure Duran Duran and Wham were storming the nation, but my mom liked her cock-rock and my dad listened to prog-rock and classical on the family record  & cassette player.  I don't remember much about the Berlin wall, but I remember samosas and picking blackberries from around the corner for crumble.  I have my own little world of memories which are not on any TV broadcast .  All this reminiscing gave me a few thoughts to dwell on.

1) There is a whole universe behind every character or setting.  I can think back to the eighties and pull up vague images of how I thought the world was to me - and it falls nowhere near anything you can find anywhere in a library or on the internet.

Not only do these memories shape how I perceive the world - impacting on my visual work & experience, but they also show me that there is a different story for each person.  It's impossible for my not to be influenced by my past, but I can try to think about the inner workings of a culture/personality/location when illustrating it.

For example I have been modelling texturing a simple bin.  This bin I have made dirty, scraped and with a graffiti tag.  This is going to be very authentic as images used are all taken locally, beyond that is some artistic expression; Scratches and tarnishing shows scrapes as the bin has gone down a narrow ally way, the mud, graffiti and paint mark all make sense if the bin was place the place I would actually put my own bin - One side more exposed to the road and passers by.  The reflections from the graffiti show the cheap spray used and technique where the spray is more intense from close proximity.  The council logo I made to looks like inaccurate paint stamped over embossed pressing.

It is only a bin, but it has it's own story.

2)  The world is not a cliche'.  My story of my youth is unique, not everyone in the eighties is from the eighties.  I mean that we should look beyond the immediate.  Mike has said a few times "Don't just be influenced by the last game you played", this is rethink of that.  It is very true, but also you can look beyond google images and fabricate your own universe.

I have seen many talented artists who's work I just don't like.  Not because it is bad, but because it adds nothing to anything.  I'm really put of concept drawing for this reason, lots of the characterisations & stylisation appear generic or stale.  Is like looking at a picture of a picture (done with a textured brush).

Doodles

 am a massive-massive fan of doodling, Which I would vaguely describe as "Daydreaming on paper".  I'm not going to get all deep about "pure expression" or any crap.

I think creativity is at the heart of doodles, and recently I have been using it as a tool in a new way.  Recent studying has improved my awareness and judgement (I believe).  This has improved my initial lines/shapes but more importantly has made me more objective.

I drew a character last night in bed, no reference or what-not.  It looks OK, it's an amalgamation of whatever has influenced me recently.  When looking at it I saw flaws in anatomy (for a humanoid), then I thought of how it could work as part of a larger creature or maybe as a damaged/growth state. 

I then thought further about how it could work as a class/role in different types of game (RTS/RPG/FPS) and it would play - I came up with a ranged (from fragile form), Necro-Cyborg (Bone & exposed brain with wires, probably influenced by videos in Visual Design), Psychic/Magic user (harnissing the power of the brain through technology).

I then thought of how I could justify and rational what was the realistically(ish).  I started thinking of a whole mini-universe to explain exactly how everything there.  This gave me further ideas of an "upgraded" or evolved state.  All of this opened a doorway into creating more and more ideas to support and realise a quick doodle.

Not only did I find this process enjoyable, but also a great form of idea generation.  Doodling is a great way to relax the mind , focus it, or just as a way to think in a different way... Not to mention a great break from coursework.

Breakdown of thought process


Purpose of image?
Unwind.  Practice unique-character creation.  Anatomy & rendering. Spontaneous unreferenced drawing.

Method/Media?
Most comfortable as possible.  Bed, A4 pad, and Pencils.

First Stroke?
I start at the brow - think it might give me good reference points in my mind.
I wanted to do some spindly horn-ish things, but not horns (cliche').  Turned into a hand helmet.

Let it flow
Here is where the doodle takes over - The image is at the mercy of your experience, mood, and influences.  I'm good at this part, just zone out and see what happens.  Lots of the time different forms/ideas flow from whatever you just drew or thought.

Have a quick look from a distance, squint a bit, and think.
Let it flow again.

>STEP THAT'S NEW TO ME<  Annotate
Think about all the different things mentioned earlier.  Looking at the work more objectively can turn a "throw-away" image into a powerful tool.

Develop conclusions and ideas generated.


Rinse.


Re-cycle.


Alright!  Doodles for me are very good.  I just have to keep learning how to incorporate it better with my work and making time to develop ideas further.  I'm hoping this will come with time from learning and repeating the process.  As part of a "personal Project" I'm going to do exactly that.  I struggle to sleep and will use this zombie time to doodle.

Flashback.. to Basics

This week got me thinking...

Seeing all the old computing machines and how far they have evolved was quite humbling.  I thought I had it hard with my Spectrum 48K, initiating load sequence, listening to the bit information scream at me while it loaded for five minutes.  The shear size of these machines was ridiculous also, memories of working for a bank flooded back after Mike said "Back Office".  In the pictures shown the machines took up a whole room yet banks still call their core database "Back Office", which is a streamlined old looking program with no GUI still used today.  I must say that I thought it functioned brilliantly - So flexible (can perform a million different proccessing tasks and is immediately updated throughout the country).

What I'm trying to get at is that it's not the machine or even the software that makes something good or bad - It's the functionability and making best use of the tools at hand.  This was also making me reminiscent of older games I thought were brilliant, one in particular is "Flashback" - Delphine software and U.S Gold (Whatever happened to U.S Gold?  Did some good games... Probably owned by Nestle or Macdonalds or something).

This game was pushing out the boat - Great cut scenes, fluid animation, great puzzles and atmosphere you can cut with a knife.  The game was very successful at creating a mood (very Bladerunner in parts, but with more organic & alien levels).  The gameplay was amazing too - Similar to it's predecessor "Another World" and also the original "Prince of Persia".  It had an invisible grid to guide you and help gameplay flow (as in Prince of Persia and later Tomb Raider).  This game was amazing - many ways you can do a puzzle and take down enemies - I had to show everyone that you can jump down then get baddies to shoot each other while you go back up.

What I'm saying is that the core-gameplay elements are what makes it a good game, the presentation, graphics and score are what make it a brilliant game - Highly stylized and atmospheric, one of the first games I played through many times, just to see what else you can do or find.

See, unfortunately I'm a bit artsie fartsie and love imagery, but I have to be working on my core skills for this year at least.  Even after two weeks I am more aware of perspective and proportion and still have to work on that.  I can spend hours doing a pretty picture - but if it's wrong it's wrong.   This year I'm gonna mostly treat as getting my Back office streamlined.  If I can immediately see whats wrong or right it will save me hours and hours later on.  For example I've been practicing using a mirror for self portraits - This showed me I need to take a step back and do a very simple thing... Stay still - Is changing my thinking.  When I was aware I was moving around slightly and stopped this my pictures became more accurate and easier to do - Instead of making up stuff between the gaps, try and know whats there.

Talking of Flashbacks we watched the Machinist last Wednesday - Unfortunately I remembered I saw it a while ago and it started to drag.  Without the air of mystery the suspense and intrigue are lost.  Lovely stylisation and mood and characters.  There were lots of subtle repeating images/locations (carousel, cross roads) and questions they just didn't answer til later - Blood streaming out of fridge... wouldn't you check it?  I guess it was nice how your rewarded by thinking back and making links... The fish was left there from Rezniks fishing trip a year ago, which also linked to the photo.  Ivan was cool - An embodiment of his guilt.  I have got to say though, since Fight Club you can normally see the twists when it's mind-fuck time.

A few I think may be entertaining/interesting "King of Kong" (Documentary), "Planet Terror"/"Machette"/Hobo With A Shotgun" (stylization), loads of classics like Pi, Taxi Driver, Erasor Head, Delicatessen, Old Boy etc, but assume everyone has seen them too

Posted 17th October by Tom Mackie

A bit about me

Hi, this is my first attempt at blogging, and a little scared of the idea!  I guess I should start by introducing myself.


I'm a mature student(twenty-nine and counting) and have had a long lasting passion for drawing and computer games.  The earliest picture I remember drawing was a helicopter on some dot-matrix printer paper under my parents bad - think I was about four.  The first "console" I had was a Spectrum 48K when I was six. Fave games "Dizzy" collection, Blind Panic, IK+, Trapdoor, Renegade, Xenon, Robocop...  I'm not going to real out my fave games over different platforms.


Being a consumer I tend to appreciate games that play well over what they look like... And if someone asks whats my favourite game, I'll tell you the one I'm currently playing.  Have been many games and moments which have blown me away - It was a big step up with PSX/N64 and decent 3D... Tomb raider!!  Final Fantasy 7!!  These were epic games at the time - Immersive, imaginative and highly playable.


Being the fourth child born I think has also influenced me considerably, not only learning and taking inspiration from my siblings (Biggest bro = IT nerd, Sis = Bohemian Artist, other Bro = Party animal/chilled out).  Thinking about it I take after my dad somewhat - He spent day after day in his shed - he's a clock "master", and to be honest he is truly skilled and very technical - but maybe not the most attentive father


My parents split and I tending to go between them a lot and some of the consistant things were games, music and drawing.  I remember having an Amiga, Gameboy, & Megadrive around then & spending a lot of time in a dodgy video shop in Highfields living on the arcades.  Claim to "fame" - Complete "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" with 50p.


When I did A-Levels I didn't really take them seriously, I lived and worked in a pub and surprised I got to the end of the course let alone pass.


In my time I've done quite a few jobs etc, most notably studied and performed drums on a decent level.  I do love music too - I think it may be an intravert thing, I enjoy the freedom you can only obtain through artistic expression.  It is a skill - something that stays, something unique, something special.  To be able to develop this skill and for it to be an asset in a job is like a dream come true.


I have just started to study "Game Art" at DMU, and am going to throw everything I've got at it.  The employment rate is astonishing and the students all work off each other, which is exactly what I want - Friendly competition with some talented & ambitious people.


One thing I need to concentrate on is socialising and staying in loops.  It's a skill like any other, which I know from experience is often as important as the work you do and can only help a lot (maybe distract you a little) - especially on this course where our peers share information so freely.