Nintendo did it first!

[jarrod]

They don't use a computer to generate images on a screen. Most people would consider this a necessary part of being a video game besides containing both "video" and "game". It's the reason games like Space War and Pong are mentioned in early video game history and Wild Gunman is not. It's not something I planned to debate though as my comment was about the myth that the Nintendo Zapper was the first home video game gun.

Sure... I just figured it was worth noting Nintendo's history with light gun gaming stretches back over a decade earlier than the Zapper.

ARPGs are traceable to The Temple of Apshai. My strategy knowledge is kind of weak but Square's Hanjuku Hero is older than Fire Emblem and seems to qualify as an SRPG.

The Temple of Apshai games are actually Roguelikes, not ARPGs (splitting hairs, I know). Zelda's usually creditied among Japanese developers though I think Adventure is usually credited in the west.

Hanjuku Eiyuu is really more of a Monster Rancher style creation/breeding/battle game, though it does have some strategic battle placement (then again, so does Lunar and most don't consider that to be a SRPG). Fire Emblem though is really credited as being the first "Tactics" RPG, where terrain/placement became to focus of the genre (an idea derived by blending the team's Famicom Wars games with RPGs elements). Langrisser, Just Breed, Ogre Battle Saga, Front Mission, Shining Force, Albert Odyssey, etc all followed in it's footsteps really.

Thanks for the compliments from the sane people here.

Oh this is a great thread. I just like to nitpick.

[NeoZeedeater]

The Temple of Apshai games are actually Roguelikes, not ARPGs (splitting hairs, I know). Zelda's usually creditied among Japanese developers though I think Adventure is usually credited in the west.

That's the problem with genre definitions and the reason I didn't put Zelda in the first post. A lot of people don't even call Zelda an ARPG but call it an adventure game or something else. Personally, I don't know what to call it anymore. Apshai was the first to combine action and traditional RPG elements which is why I call it the first ARPG but if we're talking exploration based adventure stuff than the two games called Adventure(Crowther and Woods's 1972 text game and Atari's 1978 VCS game) are the origins. Even among Japanese stuff, Dragon Slayer(1984) and Hydlide(1985) could be called ARPGs before Zelda.

Anyway, that's why I avoid talking about Zelda and it's genre origins.

[LOL]

Why don't you write for TNL?

He did once. It was awesome.

Why didn't you want to do anymore history threads?

[NeoZeedeater]

Why didn't you want to do anymore history threads?

I guess I overdosed on them by posting them every week for over two years at TNL. It was a combination of getting sick of writing them and running out of ideas. A few different fan sites have asked me to write stuff for them and although I said I would it was bad timing as I wasn't able to drive myself to come up with anything. I'm still going to make threads on old-school games, just not many huge history ones.

[Scourge]

Just for the record, Ralph Baer, maker of the Magnavox Odyssey, made the first light gun and light gun games for home tv video games for what would become the Odyssey, called the Brown Box back in 1967.





I know you already mentioned it, but I wanted to put a date on it and qualify it by stating that it was for home televisions/raster monitors.

Nintendo's first games department was founded in 1969. Their Beam Gun series started in 1970 and wasn't used on tvs.







Laser Clay shooting was 1973 while Wild Gunman was 1976.

[epmode]

it bears repeating: tnl would be a better place if you wrote for the site proper, neo. even if it was nothing more than polishing up the old history threads. they're all golden.

[toxic]

An early EA write-up would be awesome too ... you know, before they became a soulless, demonic company.

EDIT: nevermind, I found a great article: http://www.emuunlim.com/doteaters/play4sta4.htm


The guy (Bunten) who influenced Sid Meier to do Civilization, had a sex change!! woah.

[Drewbacca]

By that do you mean a success? Because nothing's changed in EA except their size.

[toxic]

You are too young to remember when EA defined innovation in gaming.

Then in the 90's they used that money to buy other peoples innovations.

[NeoZeedeater]

By that do you mean a success? Because nothing's changed in EA except their size.

The difference is that EA in their early days as a publisher didn't buy up and gut developers. They also started off as computer exclusive and didn't originally make console games.