History of Computer Games

 

a reading passage from North Star Reading and Writing 2

 

OXO, TENNIS FOR TWO, and SPACEWAR are the first digital games. Only the scientists who have computers can play these games.

 

PONG is invented. It is like tennis on a computer. People stand in line for hours to try out this new kind of entertainment at Andy Capp's bar in Sunnyvale, California.

 

The Japanese company Nintendo starts selling SUPER MARIO. Shigeru Miyamoto is the designer of the game. Miyamoto thought about the mountains where he grew up as he created the places where Mario goes.

 

Will Wright's SIM CITY is released. Players in Sim City build cities. People show played Sim City found out that they were learning serious skills from the game. They were learning how to plan cities and buildings. They learned that bad planning can cause many things to go wrong in a city. Some Sim City players became architects.

 

John Carmack and John Romero combine very real-looking computer art with a game to create DOOM. In Doom, players have to kill monsters and other creatures to survive or stay alive. It's a survival game. Like all games of this type, it is quite violent.

 

Will Wright shares his new idea for THE SIMS with people at his company. In The Sims, players take care of a family and manage their daily activities such as going to school, playing bills, and working. The people Wright works with think the game sounds childish and that adults won't be interested in it. They don't take his idea seriously. (Another company liked the idea. The Sims went on sale in 2000. It earned over $1 billion from 2000 until 2006.)