Obsessive Compulsive Gaming: Recent Episodes

Devin McConnell

A podcast series that tells a narrative history of the video game industry.

View Details

In the fifth episode we stop to take a look at the technology that made video games possible.

Special thanks to Jimmy Bogardus for creating the show's artwork.

Check out his work at @JimmyCertified

===== Sources =====

Tyler DeWitt - The Cathode Ray Tube Experiment

eHow - How Does a Cathode Ray Tube Work?

US Navy - The Cathode Ray Tube "How It Works"

Science Encyclopedia - CRT Phosphors

Circuits Today - CRT Assembly

Evil Mad Scientist - Resurrecting Tennis for Two

GamePayne - Tennis For Two

EDSAC Replica Project - The VDU Screens

Wikipedia - Types of Oscilloscopes

Dana Lee - How Analog Video Works

Technology Connections - How Analog Television Works

Technology Connections - How Analog Color TV Works

Wikipedia - Shadow Mask

Wikipedia - Horizontal Blanking Interval

Wikipedia - Vertical Blanking Interval

Wikipedia - NTSC Standard

Benj Edwards - Inside the Magnavox Odyssey

Pong-Story - The Odyssey Modules

Smithsonian - Heathkit IG-62 Alignment Generator

Dr PhysicsA - Introduction to Logic Gates

element14 - How Flip Flops Work

Simply Electronics - Potentiometers

Wikipedia - Photodiode

Boojakascha - Light Gun Review

Wikipedia - Flip Flop Circuit

Wikipedia - Diode Transistor Logic

Wikipedia - Logic Gate

View Details

In the fourth episode of the OCG History series follows Atari and Magnavox as they chart the waters of new markets and spawn the first generation of home and arcade video games.

Special thanks to Jimmy Bogardus for creating the show's artwork.

Check out his work at @JimmyCertified

===== Sources =====

--> Magnavox Odyssey

They Create Worlds - A Magnavox Odyssey

LifeWire - The Magnavox Odyssey

Wikipedia - Magnavox Odyssey

DigitalSpy - Look Back at the Odyssey

Kotaku - Worlds First Shooting Game

YouTube - Magnavox Odyssey Promotional Video

--> The Pong Clones

Arcade Museum - Games of 1973

Arcade Museum - Games of 1974

Arcade Museum - Games of 1975

Franklin Institute - Transistors to Microprocessors

Wikipedia - Gun Fight

Armchair Empire - Atari: The Lost Years

Arcade Historian - First Ten Coin-Op Games

Arcade Historian - Year By Year 1973-1975

Arcade Historian - Etymology of "Video Game"

Game Studies - The Foundation of "Geemu"

8-Bit Central - Atari's "Gotcha" Controversy

IEEE - Atari Alum Talk Tall Tales

--> Home Pong

Atari Museum - Home Pong

Pong-Story - Pong in a Chip

Wikipedia - Epoch TV Tennis

Pong-Story - Make It Yourself Pong

Pong-Story - Videmaster Home TV Game

Pong-Story - Odyssey 100 & 200

Pong-Story - Video 2000

Pong-Story - Tele-Spiel

Pong-Story - Coleco Telstar

Geekiverse - Interview with Gilbert Harrower

Wikipedia - AY-3-8500

View Details

The third episode in the OCG History series takes a look at how video games went from the side projects of engineers to a fledgling consumer industry thanks largely to the work of two pioneers.

Special thanks to Jimmy Bogardus for creating the shows artwork

Check out his work at @JimmyCertified

===== Sources =====

--> Baer

Ralph Baer - Timeline

Ralph Baer - How Video Game Industry Began

Wikipedia - Ralph Baer

They Create Worlds - The Baer Essentials

Smithsonian - The Brown Box

Smithsonian - Brown Box Prototypes

HowStuffWorks - Who Invented Video Games?

The Brown Box

They Create Worlds - A Magnavox Odyssey

YouTube - Baer and Harrison Play

YouTube - Meet Ralph Baer

--> Bushnell

They Create Worlds - The Book of Nolan

Slate - The Invention of Pong

PBS - Nolan Bushnell Profile

PinRepair - Computer Space

They Create Worlds - A Nutty Idea

Technologizer - The Dawn of Arcades

They Create Worlds - The Stars are Right

They Create Worlds - Plans in Motion

Arcade Historian - Galaxy Game

Vintage Computing - Ted Dabney

Wired - Inside Story of Pong and Atari

Gamasutra - History of Pong

Michael Currant - History of Syzygy

Pong-Story - History of Pong

Arcade Historian - Overflowing Pong Myth

YouTube - Computer Space

YouTube - Atari Pong

View Details

The second episode of the OCG History series seeks to answer a very simple question that most people should be able to answer, but can't. What was the first video game?

Special thanks to Jimmy Bogardus for creating the show's artwork.

Check out his work at @JimmyCertified

===== Sources =====

Video Game Timeline - National Museum of Play

What Was the First Video Game?

Nimatron

Nim Machine

NIMROD

CRT Amusement Device

Bertie the Brain

Tennis For Two

Noughts and Crosses

Profiles of Early Games

Turing's Chess Program

Kasparov vs Turbochamp

Shannon's Chess Program

1950s Computer Games

Checkers and Chess

Background on MIT

The MIT Computer Club

Blackjack on IBM 700

Spacewar!

Cultural Impact of Spacewar!

Profile of Spacewar!

Video - The Bouncing Ball Demo

Video - Tennis For Two

Video - The First Video Game

View Details

The first episode of the OCG History series begins by examining the two industries that were the direct precursors to video games, the arcade industry and the computer industry.

Special thanks to Jimmy Bogardus for creating the show's artwork.

Check out his work at @JimmyCertified

===== Sources =====

--> Computers:

Programmed Puppet Show

Heron of Alexandria

Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace

19th Century Computing

The Analytical Engine

Jacquard's Loom

Herman Hollerith

Tabulation Machines

The Cathode Ray Tube

Claude Shannon's Thesis

Turing & Shannon

"Turing Complete"

The Z3

The Colossus

ENIAC

Eckert-Mauchly

Apollo Guidance Computer

AGC: How It Worked

--> Arcades:

Midway Plaisance

Penny Arcades

Founding of Kasco

Sega's Periscope

Sega's Killer Shark

Sega's Duck Hunt

Nintendo's Wild Gunman