The Nintendo University

The Nintendo University
Est. 2009

Greetings, students,thank you for attending orientation. I am Prof. Ruairi, Founder, Head of Studies and Chief Lecturer here at The Nintendo University.

The Nintendo University was set up for the fine people of WiiUsers.net. Clearly, you all have a passion for video games and they are important to you. But you may not be fully aware of the long, colourful history of video games and Nintendo, or the complex process of game development and production. Here at The Nintendo University, we will educate you to expand your knowledge and potentially help you see the video game industry in a different light, as you begin to understand that it's not just people tapping away on computers all day.

The Nintendo University will provide lectures in the following courses

Core Video Game History

• Birth & the Early Years
• Development & Problems of the 1970s
• The Great Video Game Crash of 1983
• Revival

The History of Nintendo

• Ancient History (1889-1956)
• Pre-NESazoic period
• NESazoic period
• Supernintendorassic period
• Nintendosixtyfouracious period
• Gamecubassic period
• Wiiazoic/Modern period

Video Game Production & Development

• Concept
• Proposition
• Design
• Alpha development
• Primary testing
• Beta development
• Secondary Testing
• Final Development & Debugging
• Tertiary Development
• Rating & Approval
• Publication

More courses will be added in the future. If students wish to suggest courses, we will review proposals and may offer the course if we believe it will be popular and appropriate.

Information on applying to be a Lecturer will be submitted in due course.

Good luck with your studies,
Prof. Ruairi.

[GuruSharky]

O,O *raises hand* Me?!?!

[Mazumia]

Haha. Clever idea Ruairi. I like it .

[Mr. Green]

Sweetness! I will be following this thread!!

[Frosty the Froman]

Nice terminology with the various periods. I really want to see how this turns out.

[shipguy55]

Cool idea.

[LuigiFreak]

Love the idea, now only if it existed in real life...

[ShinraCorp]

Originally Posted by Ruairi

The Nintendo University Est. 2009 Greetings, students,thank you for attending orientation. I am Prof. Ruairi, Founder, Head of Studies and Chief Lecturer here at The Nintendo University. The Nintendo University was set up for the fine people of WiiUsers.net. Clearly, you all have a passion for video games and they are important to you. But you may not be fully aware of the long, colourful history of video games and Nintendo, or the complex process of game development and production. Here at The Nintendo University, we will educate you to expand your knowledge and potentially help you see the video game industry in a different light, as you begin to understand that it's not just people tapping away on computers all day. The Nintendo University will provide lectures in the following courses Core Video Game History Birth & the Early Years Development & Problems of the 1970s The Great Video Game Crash of 1983 Revival The History of Nintendo Ancient History (1889-1956) Pre-NESazoic period NESazoic period Supernintendorassic period Nintendosixtyfouracious period Gamecubassic period Wiiazoic/Modern period Video Game Production & Development Concept Proposition Design Alpha development Primary testing Beta development Secondary Testing Final Development & Debugging Tertiary Development Rating & Approval Publication More courses will be added in the future. If students wish to suggest courses, we will review proposals and may offer the course if we believe it will be popular and appropriate. Information on applying to be a Lecturer will be submitted in due course. Good luck with your studies, Prof. Ruairi.

Interesting, would of been funny if there really was a University, it's a interested thing topic, but shouldn't you call yourself Professor and not Prof. for more professionalism?

Video Game Core History
Module 1 - Birth & Early Years

Before you read this lesson, give yourself a simple history question. What was the first video game created? The uninitiated might hazard a guess at something like Super Mario Bros. or Pacman. Don't worry, it's wrong, but that's why you're here. Besides, the supposéd alpha gamers who scoff at your answer will probably claim it was PONG, in all their dorkish confidence. Well, kindly get down off your high horse, because you're two decades ahead of the actual answer (just remember, this is the time between the NES and the Wii - a hell of a lot of time). The answer is the catchily titled Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device, all the way back in 1947.* No, I'm not joking.

The CRTAD was a very basic lightgun game designed by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, which used said Cathode Ray Tube to 'shoot' at an oscilloscope with a transparent screen overlay with a target printed onto it. To call it basic would be somewhat of an understatement, given the vast quantum leap that has occurred in the past sixty years, but at the time, it represented a new chapter in technology; computers being used for fun.

Three years later, Claude Shannon hopped on the small, but hopeful bandwagon, developing a simple program which played chess. While it did nothing for the graphical side of video games (the program simply told you where to move the piece to on a real chess board), it was the first appearance of what is arguably the very lifeblood of video games: artificial intelligence, better known as AI.

Over the next twenty years, a number of programmers tried their hand at writing games, giving us NIM, OXO, Tennis for Two, Mouse in the Maze, Spacewar!, Odyssey, Galaxy Game, Computer Space, and finally, PONG. All these games didn't elaborate much on their predecessors, only nudging the small industry forward each time. But the foundations had been built for the next thirty odd years; games were now played on screens of a reasonable size, control methods had developed, the raw computer technology had progressed and, perhaps most important of all, people were starting to sit up and take notice of the damn things. It was a shaky start to a long and pixelly journey.

End of lecture.



*If you said Gears of War, you desparately need these lessons.

[GuruSharky]

Yay! 100% win sundae Ruairi! You've taught me something today that I didn't know, so I'm remarkably surprised. Did you write this all yourself?

Oh and if anyone actually said Gears of War, please leave this website, now, before I hurt you.

I on the otherhanf may have said SSBB, lol jk.