Video games have been developed for half a century now, and the first video game that is currently well documented is "Space Wars" in 1962, which represents countless stars with white dots in a black background, and outlines the shape of the spaceship with dots and lines, although simple, it is also the founder of the future development of the game.
But some believe that the earliest game was the 1952 computer game Noughts & Crosses, a tic-tac-toe game developed by A.S. Douglas, a computer scientist at the University of Cambridge.
Due to the age, there is no picture to refer to.
In 1955, Hutspiel, a military-themed game that simulated war, appeared.
In 1958, William Singison, known as the father of the world's video games, used an oscilloscope to create Double Tennis, which uses a side view and the player plays by manipulating the knobs.
In 1962, Steve Russell, a student at MIT, developed the space wars mentioned above, and although there were prototype video games before, this game was the first video game that really had the basic characteristics of modern video games.
In 1967 Sega launched periscope, a pinball-based shooter that received a lot of popularity after its introduction due to the first use of visual display.
The 1969 racing game Speedway was launched by the Chicago coin-operated game console manufacturing company, which not only had visual display, but also electronic sound technology, and was also the prototype of today's arcade game, breaking through the player experience again.
In 1971, several students at the University of Minnesota developed the text adventure game "Journey to Oregon", which has a very rich single-player content and rich and interesting encounter events, players' supplies and items are displayed on the screen, and also pioneered the function of saving and suspending at any time, which quickly occupied the market at that time and became an enlightenment game for many people.
That same year, the game officially embarked on the road to commercialization, and Computer Space, developed by Atari founders Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was also the first game to go public.
In 1972, Atari released the arcade game Pong, which, despite its monotonous graphics and simple gameplay, still caused a sensation among the player community.
Subsequently, the rise of game consoles, the game into explosive development, Nintendo FC in 1983 officially came out, "Tetris", "Super Mary", "Tank Wars" and other games of the characters are stacked with pixel blocks, but also vivid and interesting.
In 1986, the world's first role-playing game appeared, as one of the longest-lived game series, the Dragon Quest series was originally born in Nintendo's FC home console, and today there are as many as 15 titles.
In 1990, 3D sprouted, developed by Origin Systems to develop an engine demonstration, although the configuration is only 386, memory 2MB, hard disk is only 200MB, but at that time this is a high-end configuration, hardware limitations make this project endless, but this also laid a good foundation and inspiration for future games.
In 1991, "Civilization" was born, yes, it was the first work of "Civilization 5" that passed for three days and three nights as soon as I opened the game a while ago.
Most of the shooting games of that era were horizontal versions, the most typical example of which should be "Contra", the game jumping, lying down, shooting and other elements are all there, if the player wants to hit the enemy, you need to keep the same level with the enemy, because it is a 2D screen, so the player's shooting angle only needs to consider the up and down front and back can be.
In 1992, "Wehrmacht Headquarters 3D" came out, which is the world's first 3D perspective first-person shooter, although technically, the game is a pseudo-3D effect created by changing the "camera" perspective with 2D graphics, but compared to other games at the time, the immersion and realism brought by the first perspective of "Wehrmacht Headquarters 3D" is unmatched by other games.
With this wind, DOOM then appeared, although it was also a pseudo-3D game, but whether it was a variety of weapons, enemies or a grand map scene, DOOM performed better than Wehrmacht Headquarters 3D.
Subsequently, In 1996, Electronic Arts's "Red Alert" and Valve's "Half-Life" in 1998 were popular around the world at the time, and they were the best representatives of their respective categories.
In 1998, there was another military game with a very far-reaching impact, Delta 3 Land Warriors was a very hardcore game at the time, with fine graphics and unique in-mirror magnification effects that were very advanced concepts, but due to technical limitations, no bullets were animated.
With the development of hardware technology, the graphics screen has also changed qualitatively, and the game screen has become more delicate from the polygons and rough textures visible to the naked eye.
From 2000 to 2006, there were more and more excellent games, and many games are still active on the stage of the game world today, from "Max Payne" in 2001, "Call of Duty" in 2003 to "Battlefield 2" in 2005.
From 2006 to 2007, game graphics once again ushered in a period of innovation, and the first-person shooter that best reflected the fineness of the graphics replaced the role-playing and real-time strategy that were popular in the previous game market and became the mainstream of the market.
Around 2001, the Medal of Honor series generated a World War II gaming craze that lasted for seven years. In 2007, the release of Activision's first-person shooter Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare ended the World War II game market and officially ushered in the era of modern warfare games.
Of course, the years 06 and 07 are also the era of blockbuster blowouts, and Resident Evil 4, Gears of War and graphics card killers "Crysis" are all works of these two years.
It can be seen that in just a few short years, the fineness of the picture quality has been a qualitative leap. At this time, first-person shooters can see every detail as closely as possible, and in those years, the "picture party" was also derived among players in the game circle, such players only pursued extremely high image quality when playing games, for them, they could see that polygons and low-resolution maps were failed performances.
The game's graphics for the next few years are not too much to compare, so let's jump to the first decade of the 21st century.
In 2010, EA's famous studio DICE developed the "Battlefield Rebel Company 2" attracted the attention of a large number of players, because the previous game is exclusive to the console, so it has not set off too much storm in the country, but the second part has a PC version, and the use of the famous Frost engine, the biggest feature of this engine in addition to excellent picture quality, there is a very powerful physical damage effect, a 32VS32 multiplayer game down, basically can not see the complete building.
In 2011, the Polish national treasure game "The Witcher 2" was released, and the character expressions may be a little stiff, but the "The Witcher 2" scene is already a top-notch work in the role-playing game.
In the same year, the third part of the Uncharted series on Sony's PS3 console was released, and as an action-adventure game, the graphics and expression of Uncharted 3 were the top products in the game industry at that time. Cinematic performances and quality effects keep the myth of the series alive.
In 2015, the series trilogy was remade and released on the PS4, and it can be clearly seen that the light and shadow, ground details and the folds of Drake's clothes have been completely upgraded, compared to the style of the PS3, the PS4 remake is obviously more realistic.
In 2013, "The Last Survivor", developed by Naughty Dog Studios, was also the peak of the picture and expression of that year. Of course, the graphics are more expressive on the PC platform, and the progress of game graphics can be said to be a world of difference compared with a few years ago.
Released in 2014, "The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt" is the highest rated game of the year, as the third in the series, Polish studio CDPR because the first two works have accumulated funds and experience, so the development attitude of this work is no longer tied, but take the high freedom of the first part and the graphics and action design of the second part, so that the third part becomes a polygon warrior with freedom + screen + action, the action design of "The Witcher 3" is not good compared to the game of the same period, but as a role-playing game, it is absolutely outstanding.
Compared with the first work in the series in 2007, this picture progress is already a qualitative leap.
2015's Rise of the Tomb Raider is the second work after the reboot of the Tomb Raider series, and as a tomb robbery-themed action-adventure game, the above-mentioned "Uncharted Sea" can only be a descendant.
Although the first work in the 1995 series has been detached from the visual visible pixel level, the "angular" characters and scenes are still unavoidable.
20 years has brought not only a comprehensive visual progress, but also a great transformation.
2016's Far Cry Primitive Killing is the most maverick in the series, as Ubisoft's signature first-person shooter, primitive killing pulls the timeline back to a primitive society 10,000 years ago, and the protagonist is also a wild man with a spear in animal skins.
Because of the always use of materials and gameplay, Ubisoft formula has become a tacit joke among players, but the "Far Cry" series also represents Ubisoft's courage to try, from the sci-fi linear plot of the first part of the series to the exploration of the realistic open world in the second part, and finally to the unique style characterization of the combination of the open world and the occult elements of the third part. Although the series is mainly based on overthrowing the dictator or overthrowing the big drug lord, it will always be mixed with some dreams and illusions, so that the style of the work has always been a bit of magic realism.
Compared with later mature works, the generation is more like a young and ignorant teenager, still exploring his future.
Released in 2018 and 19, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Death Stranding are games that you can stare at the scenery in your spare time.
"Red Dead Redemption 2" accurately recreates the American West 100 years ago, with sinister hearts and crises, but there are also jianghu pride and heroic righteousness.
Death Stranding is Hideo Kojima's first game after he broke away from Konami. The game precisely designs different terrains to consider how to get off the foot, and the courier box behind the slightest carelessness may be hit by a fatal blow and unable to complete the task.
The pioneers of the game industry have been deeply exploring graphics and physical effects, but as the level of hardware has gotten higher and higher, the graphics have become better and better, and today they are infinitely close to realistic photos.
Today's game production team is no longer limited by technical power, so they can use their current expressive power to play the illusions in their minds and turn them into vivid scenes in the game.
Nowadays, these game screens with fake real pictures are already commonplace for players, but pulling the timeline back to a short period of 40 years ago, the simple pictures stacked one by one are the source of happiness for players and support the foundation of the entire game industry.