From Pong to Call of Duty

by Papcun, Matthew

• ISBN13: 9781477512050
• ISBN10: 1477512055
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-05-22
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub

Summary

I hear younger gamers, all of the time, asking questions about what people my age call the "Golden Age" of gaming. They want to know about the Atari 2600 and the first Legend of Zelda game.I have had discussions with my friends about how to introduce their kids to gaming; do you start with the classics or go right to the current, more accessible generation?In this book we will examine the history of the video game from its obscure beginnings in the 1950's to its human controllers in 2012.Video games today can be played on a console, on a pc, online, on your phone but the first video game was created using World War II radar technology and took up an entire room!We will look at the history of the big guys: Atari, Magnavox, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft...We will look at the history of the other players: Sega, Emerson, Phillips...We will look at the brilliant game developers and how PONG changed everything; how one baseball game led to the incredibly successful EA Sports of Madden NFL fame today. We will follow the progression that led Sony to the PlayStation and Nintendo to the innovative Wii.We will look at the arcade rooms of the 80's and the Social Media Games of today. The goal is to give young gamers who are interested in gaming's roots an understanding as to how Link went from four colors to millions of polygons.But more importantly, the goal is to help children in need. That is why proceeds from this book will go to charity; More specifically, Child's Play.Child's Play is a game industry charity that improves the lives of children in hospitals. They collect wish lists from children all over the country that include video games, toys, books and other fun stuff for kids. They then distribute the items throughout a network of 70 hospitals using money from donations.This book was created to raise money for Child's Play and to help improve the lives of as many young people as possible. A donation will be given to Child's Play once our goal of 50 thousand sales has been reached. That will mean over $100,000 for children around the country. If you're doing the math, please realize that Amazon automatically takes a fee from every book sold so we can't donate the full dollar amount of the sale.Again, thank you for helping us realize our dream of helping people in need.