The history of simulations begins at the same time as the history of video games. In 1947, an electronic game based on a cathode ray tube, the Rocket Simulator, was created. However, the device itself did not have a digital processor to process information, but used analog circuits to control the cathode ray tube and form an image on the screen. It looked like a World War II radar, and screen overlays were used for aiming. Over time, chess simulators were developed, mostly in the 1950s. Sports simulators grew in number. In 1958, Tennis for Two was released.
The peak of popularity: 1958-1972
In 1962, the space simulator Spacewar! was released. Its basic gameplay has two armed spaceships trying to shoot at each other while maneuvering in zero gravity between the stars. The ships were fired by missiles that moved under the influence of gravity. Each ship had a limited number of missiles and a limited supply of fuel. The hyperspace function could be used as a last resort to bypass enemy missiles, but the appearance of hyperspace occurred in a random place and there was a chance that the ship would explode when used.
In 1972, a video game for arcade slot machines, Pong, was released, developed by the Japanese company Taito Corporation and published by Atari. Pong quickly became popular, and it was the first commercially successful arcade slot machine, which stood at the origins of the gaming industry along with the first game console Magnavox Odyssey. Shortly after its release, several companies began producing games that copied Pong, but ended up producing new types of games.
Development: 1972-2000
In 1974, Atari released Gran Trak 10, the first car simulator. In 1981, President Elect, the first official political simulator, was released. Bullfrog Productions released the game Populous, which became one of the first successful god simulators. Wes Cherry created the game “Headscarf” – an implementation of the solitaire game “Headscarf”, and Robert Donner wrote Minesweeper, which shipped with every version of Microsoft Windows, starting with the third.
In 1994, The Need for Speed, a car racing simulator, was released. The original The Need for Speed was released for the 3DO in 1994, followed shortly thereafter by versions for PC-DOS (1995), PlayStation and Sega Saturn (1996). A special edition of The Need for Speed was released only for the DOS system. In subsequent versions on PC, only for Windows.
Most of the cars and tracks are available at the beginning of the game, and the goal is to unlock the rest by winning all the tournaments. The first version is a chase with police cars, which remain a popular theme throughout the series – the so-called Hot Pursuit editions (Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, Need for Speed: High Stakes, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Need for Speed: Carbon, Need for Speed: Undercover, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)) and sell better on the market than the intermediate versions.