Video Games: Pushing programming and hardware to the limit by Adolfo

Video Games: Pushing programming and hardware to the limit by Adolfo - August 2018 Scholarship Essay

Since the creation of Pong, there has been a driving force behind the minds of programmers to push the limits of software to create games. Many early video games such as asteroids and space invaders had very strict parameters due to hardware. Asteroids in particular was developed using a vector graphics engine provided by Atari inc and used a micro-processor to send graphics commands to the digital vector generator. The audio cues have dedicated circuits, and is activated by the microprocessor. All of this for a game that requires 6 KB of ram in total with 2 KB dedicated to the vector graphics CTR. This is less bytes than notepad files, In order to port to home consoles from arcades, a ingenious technique called bank switching was used to overcome console limitation of having only 2 memory banks containing 4 kB each.
As Nintendo began to port out their handheld consoles called Gameboys, many games produced for this system needed to overcome the tight conditions presented by the system. Games like Pokemon and Mario often had memory issues and often used allocated memory addresses multiple times for different purposes. This allowed many gamers the ability to "break the game" the ability to access parts or situations that the creators did not intend the players to experience.
Doom is considered to be a classic, a game amongst games. A progenitor to many titles and an inspiration for many gamers and developers. The creators found a way to make a 2d game to appear and act like a 3d space. Using a trick in the graphics engine they created the illusion of 3d by playing with how the graphic engine produces images. However by playing the game you realize that while the game appears 3d you can only shoot your weapon straight at the same angle at all times even when enemies are "above" or "below" the player character and still manage to hit them with your munitions.
In conclusion these examples along with many others demonstrate the idea that video games bring the passion and creativity from people to further develop programming and hardware to new heights. As 2019 approaches, with Virtual Reality becoming a new phenomenon in the mainstream of western media, one muses how far videogames have come.