The beauty and simplicity of video games from the 1980s and 1990s is something to behold. Forget the motion picture realistic rendering of the newest gaming engines; let's look at pixel art characters and animation.




Initially, it was to demonstrate the power of computer systems. The fact that the human mind (which we class as intelligent) was used to play 'games' like Nim, Noughts and Crosses, and Checkers/Draughts meant that computers which could play these games were perceived to have artificial intelligenceI have no idea what this means. However, for most of these games, the 'best' moves are simply algorithmic and no intelligence we required in order to play them. Next came education and research - often during investigations into human machine interaction. It was only with the advent of the video arcade machines, starting with 'Computer Space' in 1971 (wow!) that financial gain became the prime objective of games design (I suppose entertainment may also be a factor).


First, familiarise yourself with the timeline of video games and consoles. Like most lists, this is probably incomplete. Take some time to read through the linked Wikipedia articles - there are some interesting things here.




Download the cardsort, print a copy for yourself or your group, cut up but keep together in sets. Shuffle the little fellas and then simply lay them out in chronological order, marvelling at the events. The cards have the name of the game/device, the year it 'appeared' and a brief description.



There are 8 generations of video game consoles loosely based on the architecture.


Take a look at this slideshow - work through each generation in your groups - which consoles do you recognise? Which are most significant - they aren't always the same!



Now is the technical challenge (which hopefully your teacher has risen to)! There should be at least five Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) consoles set up. Your teacher may be using an emulator instead. These are the games you will play...


As you are playing the games, try to pay special attention to the appearance and behaviour of the characters, the movement, direction and animation.





Definitions: pixel, colour palette, display screens

Manually - colour in grids, make them with sweets, Hama Beads, Fuse Beads

Donkey Kong
Link
Mario
Mega Man
Pac Man

Online: Piskel


This introduces binary encoding, color palettes.

Bitmap Canvas Editor - this is an excel spreadsheet.
Need to make an online version of this (or find one)


Piskel, Zeotrope, stop motion animation (new workshop), microbit, arduino

Summing up