The Past, Present, and Future of the Gaming Industry

The game industry has been making leaps and bounds over the past two decades. I personally have had the opportunity to watch it grow from the late 70’s, when I talked my mother into purchasing an Apple computer (the original 6502 CPU based system), to the present day. There was something about browsing the small 5’x8’ section of games that were nothing more than typically a thick piece of paper with black print (and sometimes art), a 5.25” floppy disk, and a rectangular plastic bag with a “zip lock” at the top. Back then I was around 10 years old, and my mother had made me promise to go with her to the Apple training classes as “part of the deal” in buying such an expensive electronic device. As part of signing up, we were given a book that was going to be used throughout the 2-month course. I believe we signed up on a Friday and we would attend twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays). Of course, over the weekend I had read the entire book and was already playing “Brick Out” on the Apple computer by Sunday. So, needless to say, the remaining two months I would (as I called it then) “grow board” with the courses and that left me to roam the Apple shop every Tuesday and Thursday.

As time moved forward, I had become a “computer junky” wanting to learn everything I could when I could. At times I think my passion for computers conflicted with my regular school classes, and I can still remember my first essay that I turned in to my junior high school English teacher I had printed up via a Macintosh (we had upgraded since then). The next day I remember my English teacher had subtracted 10 points from my paper because “I wasn’t supposed to get the help from my parents” on writing the paper. Of course I did try to explain to her that I had done the whole thing by myself, but it took a visit from my mother to explain that she nor my father had anything to do with the paper and I had been “doing computer stuff” since I was 10. Video games have always been a big part of my “computer stuff” journey, and they became even more of a part of my life as I ventured out into the “real world” to get a job.

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting my journey into the video game industry from setting up coaxial cable ARC-NET networks to play “Doom” with my friends to the present day where one can make their own video game with a modern computer, some patience, and time.

#Gaming #Past #Present #Future