[game_preservation] History of "game engine"

[Alex Handy]

Yeah, the term needs defining. Do we count compilers for DSL's? Just in
time compilers for script-like games? What about games that are just pixel
swaps, or horozontal engines turned verticle. Most old Atari 2600 games use
similar code based on the developer. Cabbage patch for 2600, which I found
12 revisions of, was diff'd against looping, and the first rev of the
cabbage patch game starts as 50% looping code...

On Aug 7, 2012 2:29 PM, "Frank Cifaldi" <fcifaldi at gmail.com> wrote:

>

> Might be wrong but it seems like what we call "engines" today would have

been called "interpreters" before. Sierra's old Adventure Game Interpreter
comes to mind.

>

>

> On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 2:24 PM, Rowan Kaiser <rowankaiser at gmail.com>

wrote:

>>

>> Yeah, although the Gold Box games all came out under the same SSI Gold

Box umbrella, they were farmed around to different people/studios. They're
a pretty fascinating social/business component of game history.

>>

>>

>> Rowan

>>

>>

>> On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 2:20 PM, Alex Handy <alex at themade.org> wrote:

>>>

>>> Text game engines. Infocom probably called it something different, but

that's what it was.

>>>

>>> Gold box dnd games, also.

>>>

>>> On Aug 7, 2012 2:18 PM, "Henry Lowood" <lowood at stanford.edu> wrote:

>>>>

>>>> Hi all,

>>>>

>>>> I'm working on a project having to do with the history of the game

engine (as concept, technology, etc.) and its various impacts on game
design and other things.  So, here is a question for this group.  Does
anybody want to make a claim that there was a relevant use of the term in
game design BEFORE id Software began to use the term.  I've done some
analysis with the Google database (n-grams, etc.) and I find no evidence of
anything like that, plus John Romero believes that id coined the term as we
use it today.   (And I agree.)

>>>>

>>>> Anyway, if you think you have or know of a counter-claim, please let

me know and I'll check on it.  Source references welcome, of course.

>>>>

>>>> Henry

>>>>

>>>> --

>>>> Henry Lowood

>>>> Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;

>>>>   Film & Media Collections

>>>> HSSG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall

>>>> Stanford University Libraries, Stanford CA 94305-6004

>>>> 650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood

>>>>

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>>>

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>>

>>

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>

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