Javascript Games Tutorials Project Part II: The First Generation Arcade Games
The so-called first generation of consoles were on sale between 1972 and 1980 and included the Magnavox Odyssey, Telstar, Home Pong and Color TV-Game, and before that there were some arcade games that became very famous and are iconic.
Mainly this era’s games are simple arcades, with basic mechanics but are the ones that established some of the most durable things we now have: screen boundaries, moving elements, player stats and so on. Yes, someone had to do it first.
The more significant games I want to cover are:
- Pong
- Breakout
- Snake
- Tetris
- Space Invaders
- Asteroids
- Arkanoid
- Speed Race
- Star Raiders (first person space shooter)
- MUD (this can be fun)
- Columns
- Pacman
It’s a lot but well, here are most of the most basic mechanics that everything after them have repeated. I plan to do this in about four months, perhaps before end of the year, and in no particular order. Now on to the next generation!