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In 1958, a New York researcher named William Higinbotham connected
a few modules together and managed to display bouncing balls
on his screen. He thought it would make a good game, so he
created a simple tennis simulation and built in an upside-down
'T' used as the net. Thus the first computer game was born.
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In 1962, Steve Russell, a researcher at the Hingham Institute
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, came up with Spacewar - a two-player
game featuring torpedo-firing spaceships. By 1969, Spacewar
had become a huge hit.
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Nolan Bushnell thought it might be an idea to try and use
a computer in an amusement arcade. He spent his spare time
designing a commercial version of Steve Russell's Spacewar,
which he called Computer Space. Nolan Bushnell's game was
the first coin-operated computer game in the world. The year
was 1971.
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Also in 1971 a games manufacturer called Nutting Associates
bought the rights to Computer Space for $500 and produced
1,500 machines. But Computer Space was a complete flop. Luckily,
Bushnell realised why: even though the technology was there
to produce far more complicated games than his, the average
person had no concept of how to control things on a television
screen. They needed to be eased into it gently.
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Using the $500 he had earned from Computer Space, Bushnell
started his own company called Atari and came up with a game
called Pong. Pong was nothing more than two movable rectangles
on either side of a screen, which two players used to bounce
a little ball back and forth over a central dividing line.
Bushnell's latest game was turned down by every games manufacturer
he went to.
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Undeterred, he put his prototype game in a corner of Andy
Capp's Bar in Sunnyvale, California. Bushnell was phoned at
the end of the first day and was told the game had broken
down. When he went to fix it, he found the problem immediately
- the coin box was overstuffed with quarters.
Computer games had arrived.
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By 1981 Atari had become the fastest growing company in American
history, but Nolan Bushnell had already sold his $500 company
to Warner Communications in 1976. He did make a handsome profit,
though - he sold it for $28 million.
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Get
in touch at
gloucestershire
@bbc.co.uk
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OK,
so you want to solve that great new computer game the right way
- don't you?
But
when you're being driven bog-eyed by maddening challenges, and you
know your best mate's levels ahead of you, there's only one way
out - and that's to cheat.
It's
a competitive world out there, after all, and the good news is that
the major games companies have recognised that when the going gets
tough we're all game for a helping hand - even if it is bending
the rules a bit.
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| Get
ahead of the rest with our top cheat sites. |
Nearly
all programmers build cheat codes and cheats into their games -
for a good reason. It means they can check
their games without having to go back to the beginning every time.
So
to keep Gloucestershire gamers ahead of the game here's our guide
to some of the best game cheats you can find on the web.
UKCheats
is
one of the UKs most popular and best-loved cheat archives. It is
the home of thousands of cheat codes, cheats, action replay codes
plus hints and tips for thousands of top games. All cheats are free
but you do have to enter an e-mail address to gain access to the
site.
UK
Computer Game Cheats
123
Cheats
Games
Domain contains news, reviews, cheats, downloads and loads
of competitions. They have great cheats for PC, Playstation, Gamecube,
Playstation 2 and XBox.
Cheat
Area
Cheating
Dome
According
to the Level 80 website
the 10 most popular game cheats are:
1.
Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2)
2. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (PS2)
3. Pokemon Gold/ Silver (Gameboy)
4. Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2) (page 2)
5. Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (PS2)
6. Medal of Honour: Underground (Playstation)
7. Quake 3: Arena (PC)
8. Dynasty Warriors 3 (Playstation)
9. Halo (X-Box)
10. Half Life (PC)
Do you know a great site that's not listed here? Whether it's full
information or just great fun let us know and we will link to it
from this page.
Happy
cheating, game fans!
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