Let The Games Begin

Let the Games Begin!

How video games and coding have developed over time

By Luke Tindall

Pong being played on a TV. Back in the 70s, video games and coding as we know themdidn’texist.Theyhave changed so much in such a small amount of time that they are hardly recognizable to what they once were. The journey that has led to these developments is an interesting story, changes big and small have changed the industry from nothing to something.

It began in the 70s to 80s, when video games started to be recognized as fun pastimes. Before this time, there weren’t many video games to choose from, so no one played any and they were not very popular. This all changed in the 70s and 80s. At this time, technology wasadvancingextremely fast, and video games were evolving quickly right alongside it. We went from games as simple as Pong,oneofthefirstever video games, to massively popular arcade classics in just 8 years. Around this time, arcades also became popularized among the youth, this is a big reason why video games had a massive boom. During the 2000s, things started to boom for a second time. With Mario, Madden, GTA, Minecraft, and several other massive games releasing around this time, it should come as no surprise that the 90s and 2000s were the biggest decades of all time for gaming. It was during this time that consoles became popularized as well, video games you could play at home and not have to pay for each attempt.

“I think the biggest change I noticed was the mid to late 2000s. This is when Minecraft and GTA V were released which are some of the biggest games in history.”

“It has become very popular to play video games, and I think that has some correlation to the fact that they are becoming easier and easier to run,” said Callum Atkinson, a student at Oxford. It is no wonder consoles became popular so fast. With new games and consoles releasing every year, there was no telling how popular video games were going to become.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic that for a long time prevented people from going out with friends or to school, many people turned to video gaming as a way of entertainment and an alternative way to socialize with friends. One game especially that hit it big because of the global pandemic was Nintendo’s Animal Crossing New Horizons (ACNH). ACNH was released March 20, 2020 which was right around the time that the lockdown began. Because of this, a large amount of people were looking for games, and consoles massively spiked. With this the Nintendo Switch console line faced shortages throughout 2020.

Nowadays, video games are hardly recognizable. They have changed in unimaginable ways, from Pong to Fortnite in just a few decades. The amount of technological developments humans have accomplished is astounding and the scale at which it has affected video gaming is astronomical. Interests of children and adults all over the world have been altered due to the presence of video games in their life, and video games do not show any signs of ending their reign over industries any time soon. “I have noticed games changing not only in genre, to fit the popular demand, but also in their communities, graphics, and to an extent coding,” said Nora Müller, a university student.

“Python has become much more popular throughout the world recently. Before it was mainly Java and Javascript that were popular for a while.”

Alongside all of these incredible changes, coding has had its fair share of changes. Many of these changes have had a massive impact on the astounding evolution of video games. During the dawn of video games, not many coding languages were used. Over time, more languages were developed, and more people learned how to code, making the field much more diverse. Every programmer has their own preferred languages, but recently, python is becoming more and more popular thanks to its versatility. “Python has become much more popular throughout the world recently. Before it was mainly Java and Javascript that were popular for a while,” said Callum.

Coding for video games is different, coding languages that may not be very popular in coding websites, automating tasks, data analysis etc. may actually be very useful when developing gaming software. “My preferred coding language is C++, the coding language that dominates the video games industry,” said Nora. Video games aren’t going anywhere. That much is obvious, but the question is how are they going to change?

Will they even be recognizable in a few years? Will they be played from the same devices or will there be entirely new technology? The answer? No one knows. The video game industry is very unpredictable for now, and all that we know is that it is booming and doesn’t show signs of stopping. Video games will continue to be prevalent in the lives of people of all ages. Companies are determined to do whatever it takes to keep consumers entertained across the world whether that means creating crazy new technologies or keeping them as similar as possible.