[game_preservation] History of "game engine"

[Frank Cifaldi]

It sounds like Henry is specifically interested in knowing when the term
"engine" itself was first used though. I have no answer for that! Does
Romero have a story for how they came to use the word?

On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 2:58 PM, Devin Monnens <dmonnens at gmail.com> wrote:


> 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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