History of Video Games (RE: "Bally Astrocade")

From: Scott Walde <scott_at_saskatoon.com>
Date: Fri Jul 11 12:58:33 1997

On Fri, 11 Jul 1997, Ward Griffiths and/or Lisa Rogers wrote:

>On Fri, 11 Jul 1997, Kai Kaltenbach wrote:
>
>> Studio II, which were introduced simultaneously in 1976. The first
>> vector graphic arcade game was Lunar Lander in 1979, followed by
>> Asteroids later that year. The first (and only) vector graphic home
>
>I seem to recall spending many many hours (and quarters) with my roommate
>playing a vector graphic arcade version of Space War when we were fresh
>out of the USAF back in 1978 and spending loose hours at the Saint James
>Infirmary in Sunnyvale.

I remember that machine too. (I don't remember the year, though.) It had
a wonderful sub-woofer in the cabinet that you could feel when you hit the
thrust button. It did take a while to get used to the controls though,
five buttons, 'rotate left', 'rotate right', 'thrust', 'fire',
'hyperspace'. The interesting thing was you didn't play against the
machine... only against another person. IIRC, you were given a fixed
amount of time for your money, rather than '10 lives' or one game or
whatever.

ttfn
srw
Received on Fri Jul 11 1997 - 12:58:33 BST