Inside Video Games

Inside Video Games — page 1 — CHAPTER ONE

Inside Video Games — page 2 — GAMING MADE REAL The player flies out into space She is ship She is hunting down rebels To in charge of a top-of-the-line fighter complete her mission she must find at least two enemy ships She flies the ship using the dashboard in front of her It has many buttons and lights Each button controls a different part of the ship Some make the ship go up or down Some make the ship go faster or slower In front of her is a joystick with triggers As soon as she finds her targets she can use the joystick to shoot them down Virtual reality headsets block out the player’s surroundings making it feel like he or she is actually inside the game

Inside Video Games — page 3 — MAJORING IN VIDEO GAMES As the video game industry grows it needs more workers Schools have created programs to keep up with the demand Many colleges now offer majors in video game design Students learn about programming the history of video games and new technologies They can design their own games and play them in class These university programs are a place for students to bring their own games to life The player flies the ship around an asteroid field She hears the rumble of the engines If she accidentally steers the ship too close to an asteroid she can hear the screech of metal as the ship crashes Everything seems so real But it isn’t real The player is immersed in a virtual reality VR video game In the real world she has a VR helmet strapped to her head She uses a controller to guide her ship as she plays the game The VR helmet blocks out the rest of the world The game feels like it is

Inside Video Games — page 4 — Graphics in early video games such as Spacewar were extremely simple compared to today’s games Blocks and lines represented spaceships and lasers actually happening The player is fully immersed in the game as a fearless fighter pilot An alarm sounds in the game The radar on her ship has picked up an enemy It’s time to take care of the rebels THE ROAD HERE The very first video game tournament was in 1972 The video game was Spacewar Players attacked each other with spaceships The graphics were not very good by today’s standards The spaceships looked like blocky triangles There were no background graphics It was just white ships on a black screen

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