Dungeon and Dragons

Dungeon and Dragons

Dungeon and Dragon is a role playing game, first released was in 1974. This box contains a fantasy system with a medieval European flavour. The introduction of this concepts has abilities ( such as strength, intelligence, and dexterity) character classes ( elf, human,dwarf,halfing); armor classes. This set includes a brief guideline on using monster as player character. The small box set contains three booklets, volume 1: men & magic, volume 2 : monsters & treasure, volume 3: underworld & wildness adventures, rule of fantastic medieval wargames campaigns playable with pen and paper and miniature figures.

This set can features only a handful of the elements for which game  the game is now made today; there are three classes (celric, fighting-man, magic user) ; four races (human,dwarf,elf,hobbit); and only three alignments (lawful, netural, and chaotic). The rules only applies that playuer have owned and have played miniature wargame chainmail and they have used measurement and combat systems. Combat system is an optional which is included withing the rules and later that it can be developed into sole combat later version.

Stonkers 1983 and Wargame

Stonkers 1983, Imagine Sofware, Wargame ColecoVision

Stonkers was one of the first strategy games that they made in 1983 by Imagine Software.  Interface was really simple and basic controls. There are status information on the screen, depends what the player does, there is a mini keyboard which is designed ZX spectrum, that allows to use a input key in order to  make action, they want to attack, receiving orders, resupplies or taking territory etc.  this has inspired to other developers, because nowadays it’s all about improvement such as visual and mechanics. After one year later  in 1983 another game was released which Wargame that was developed by Coleco, and later it was ported to 8 bit Atari family system. This game  has an outstanding and consirdred  one of  the best game video game ever  to be designed by ColecVision. The beginning of gameplay has nice welcome “ Greeting Professer Falken” appears on the screen. The next scene it allows for the player to choose a challenge level from 1 to 8^th global thermonuclear war. Once the player has been decided the skill level the player choose, then game screen will appear. “The contintental United States is divided into six sectors, each with its own bases and major cities. ICBMs and bombers rain over the North Pole, while submarines inch toward coasts. Defenses consist of ABMs, interceptor jets, submarines and an experimental particle beam satellite that trumps everything else but weaves in and out of sectors on a fixed orbit. US units are individually far superior, but vulnerable to the destruction of interceptor and missile bases. Events proceed in real time in all sectors as defenses gradually crumble.

Enemy presence and the destruction of bases and cities lower a sector's Defense Condition (DEFCON) status. The DEFCON level for each sector is factored into the total DEFCON status. If it stays at 1 for 60 successive seconds, or if at any time all cities and bases have been destroyed, an automated counterstrike triggers global thermonuclear war and loses the game. The game is won by preventing a counterstrike long enough for a cease-fire to be reached. With eight difficulty levels, one game takes approximately four to eight minutes.

The game is visually stark and technical by 1984 standards. As in the original movie, the manual hints that the attack is an imagined result of a computer glitch; the counterstrike is not.”

In 1998 another game Wargame Defcon 1 was developed by bliz interactive studios for the first time in it was in three-dimensional allowing player rotate in180 full turn. It’s another real-time strategy, with almost same mechanics but this time it uses 3D visual gameplay.  Well the main mission of this game is for player to take control of a vehicle in order to take control of  Norad’s conventional as player plunge into battle against the WOPR mechanical troops.

Warhammer

Warhammer

The name of ‘Warhammer’ is gameboard that was designed by Bryan Ansell and it was published by Games Workshop in 1983. The number of players can be set from 2 to 4 players in order to play this game. The visual of this board game contains a fantasy, miniature and war-game, it also comes along with components with dice rolling, modular board and variable player powers. The player can play set of range scale games involving 30 different models, huge battles against other players. Each of the class has its own strength and weaknesses; let’s take example on Wood Elves, they are the most powerful archers in this game, they have good set of range attacks but they have poor defence.

Warhammer has been constantly expanding with updated and re-released ever since the first the game they released in 1983. There are other editions that have been expanded to this game;

Warhammer Second Edition 1993

"The Old World. A dark and grim place filled with peril and riven by war. From the teeming cities of the Empire to the Elf haunted forests to the lofty crags of the Worlds' Edge mountains where Dwarfs battle with Goblins and their vile kin, a shadow hangs over the world, cast by the dark corrupting hand of Chaos. All along its borders, the Old World's greatest nation, the Empire, seeks to hold back the dark tide. But even within the Empire there are enemies. Twisted cultists seek to bring about the Empire's fall, cold-hearted Beastmen stalk the forests, and loathsome Skaven ratmen spread plague and sickness from their suburban lairs.

"In Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, you are unlikely heroes in a grim world of perilous adventure. You venture into the dark corners of the Empire and deal with the threats that others cannot or will not face. You'll probably die alone in some festering hellhole, but maybe, just maybe, you'll survive foul Mutants, horrible diseases, insidious plots, and sanity-blasting rituals to reap Fate's rewards.

"Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is a complete game. All you need to play is this book, some 

Spacewar

Spacewar! Is one of the earliest known digital computer game was developed Steve Ruessell. Steve Russell is an American programmer and computer scientist, most famous for creating Spacewar!. This game can be played up to two players, one of the player gets to control ship called “the needle and “ the wedge” attempting to shoot one another.  The control mechanics include clockwise and counter clockwise rotation, thrust fire, and hyper space. Basically these were controlled using the front-panel switches ( controller input) is intergrated with the monitor. Over the years, a lot of people were insipired by Spacewar!, the game was all about having fun and strategy skills. That core has led to developers and transcend into better visual, not only visual but improve the mechanics. There are so many spaceship games are out there, because of  spacewar! has good influence of war style,  war means battle, and it can be anything as long there is a confliction or collide against each other. Slowly over the years the developers have adapted their own style of games such as Air Buster a shoot em up arcade develop by kaneko and it was published in 1990. Rather having war 

War History timeline

top view explains how the war have started and how it evolved in it's impact.


Bottom view explains how the games were made by taking some history notes and adapting them into their own style.