[game_preservation] History of "game engine"

[Devin Monnens]

Yes, I think it should be important to discuss early types of 'engines' -
that is to say, systems that recycled similar blocks of code to make
development easier. For instance, all the Mega Man games would have used
the same 'engine', although how often that 'engine' was used to create
other games...I couldn't tell you. So if you're talking about history of
engines, that's a good place to start.

What I think though is that an 'engine' is a basic set of code that
developers - particularly *other* developers - can use to build games. But
I think game developers will often refer to an 'engine' as a system used to
power their game.

On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 5:32 PM, Alex Handy <alex at themade.org> wrote:


> 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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>



-- 
Devin Monnens
www.deserthat.com

The sleep of Reason produces monsters.
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