Pixel Pioneers: A Brief History of Graphics, Part One

They say graphics aren't important - but every
game I've ever played has had them.

Game visuals are the most obvious indicator
of their technology.

From naive origins, to an explosion of arcades
and home consoles, and the emergence and refinement

of three-dimensional games: graphics have
come a long way over the course of video game

history.

So, what are the most important graphical
milestones?

How has available technology shaped the type
of games we play?

And shouldn't it be about the gameplay instead?

In their earliest days, video games amounted
to little more than electronic novelties.

These pixel pioneers broke new ground with
every step - in an era when simply moving

a flicker of light across a television screen
was incredible.

Games like Pong were a space age wonder, tapping
in to a surge in sci-fi interest and becoming

the earliest major success of the video game
industry.

For the first time ever, video games were
cool.

It wouldn't last forever, of course - and
once the novelty wore off, the need for more

advanced hardware - and more impressive visuals
- became clear.

Full-colour graphics were an early threshold
for arcade games: and while colour television

had existed since before the second world
war, most early video games were limited to

a monochrome display.

Some games used coloured overlays to spruce
up their playfields - a translucent plastic

sheet applied on top of a black and white
display.

Obviously quite a limited solution, but it
was at least a cheap one: and while monochrome

games continued to rake in coins, technology
would have a chance to catch up.

The very first arcade game to use a coloured
display is difficult to pin down - some existed

only as prototypes, such as a colour variant
of Gotcha!

Some early multiplayer racing games used colour
to differentiate each player's car: Indy 4

in 1976 is one early example, and Car Polo
in 1977 was the very first colour arcade game

to use a microprocessor.

These early examples are normally glossed
over in favour of the first truly successful

RGB colour game: Galaxian.

Essentially a fancier version of Space Invaders,
each of the brightly-coloured alien ships

could flit freely across the screen: and perhaps
more impressive were the multiple colours

used in each sprite - for its time, the game
was an audiovisual treat.

By 1980, colour graphics were the norm: Pac-Man
just wouldn't be the same without its colourful

ghosts and the familiar yellow protagonist.

Pixels haven't always been the norm.

In the early days of the arcade, there were
two principal paradigms for rendering an image

on the screen: raster and vector.

Raster comes from the latin word 'rastrum'
meaning rake, - and today is the more familiar

method of drawing on-screen.

The electron beam rapidly sweeps every line
of the display in sequence, forming a grid:

and line-by-line, a picture is assembled.

Vector graphics directly manipulate the electron
beam to form their images, in a similar manner

to an oscilloscope: indeed, very early games
like Tennis For Two used an oscilloscope display.

The most famous vector arcade title is Asteroids:
and while its graphics might be sparse, the

perfectly smooth polygons do boast a certain
charm.

Compare the appearance of two similar games
using each of these methods: the smooth vector

lines of Space War! versus the blockier pixels
of Star Cruiser.

Vector graphics are cleaner, but less versatile:
while raster images can't reproduce smooth

lines, their ability to render more complex
scenes and filled shapes helped to secure

the pixel's dominance.

Early arcade games normally had fixed playfields:
a game's arena was sized to fit the screen.

Scrolling the display to slowly reveal a level
required more grunt: it demands the ability

to shift around large chunks of memory.

Early driving titles like Speed Race were
the first to introduce scrolling, although

the hardware limitations did force some concessions:
mirrored tracksides and a rather spartan roadway.

Defender in 1980 was an evolution of the space
shooter, and set the scene for future side-scrolling

shoot-em-ups: despite its simple graphics,
it offered freedom of movement across a planet's

surface - along with a host of aliens to shoot.

Similarly, the top-down view seen in Xevious
is often cited as the origin of the vertically

scrolling shoot-em-up: with the player's ship
at the bottom of the screen shooting upwards

as the scenery slowly unravels below.

SEGA's Zaxxon was the first isometric game,
complete with isometric scrolling: simulating

3 dimensions with a 2:1 dimetric projection.

This technique was employed by many later
games - particularly strategy games of the

early 90s - with a psuedo-3D appearance that
still fits the pixel grid.

Similarly, the use of sprite scaling - resizing
images on the fly - is sometimes seen in games

attempting to lend their otherwise flat graphics
a sense of depth.

Early Nintendo shooter Radar Scope shrank
sprites in the distance to give the impression

that you were gazing across a plane of space:
the goal to repel any invaders.

More impressive was the scenery in 1981's
Turbo: although painted in garish colours,

and with quite some distortion - the effect
is nonetheless outstanding when compared to

other games from a similar time.

The advent of 16-bit arcade hardware brought
about more colours, and the ability to shift

more pixels than ever before: and SEGA's 'Super
Scaler' tech in the mid-1980s blew everything

else out of the water.

Truly, a new era was beginning.

Hang-On combined smooth sprite scaling with
blistering frame rates - and alongside its

impressive lean-to-steer motorbike cabinet,
it certainly made an impact at the arcades.

Running on the same hardware was Space Harrier:
an into-the-screen rail shooter that would

set a benchmark in sound and graphics: as
well as establishing the basis for the Top-Gun

inspired After Burner.

Perhaps the most incredible graphics of the
early 1980s were those seen in Dragon's Lair:

leveraging the huge storage potential of laserdisc
technology, it was a bona-fide interactive

movie.

Too bad it wasn't much fun to play.

The middle of the 1980s saw the end of the
arcade's golden era, and the rise of the home

consoles instead.

Arcades would still rule the roost as far
as graphical power was concerned, but the

ground they broke earlier meant that cost-reduced
home consoles could deliver both colourful

graphics and smooth scrolling.

Join me in part two for the next stage of
video game graphic development: a time when

two-dimensional games reigned supreme; and
sprites were in their prime.

Until then, farewell.