Let's Play (007) - Pool: Real-Time Sporting Action!

Release Date: 1954

Platform: MIDSAC

Genre: Sports

Developer(s): William Brown, Ted Lewis

Publisher(s):

Time to enter the sporting realm - for the very first time in video game history! Maybe not with the first game one might expect, either. Pool marks a pretty big shift for early video game development, as this is also the first real-time video game.

Once again, this game is playable thanks to the work of Retrogame Deconstruction Zone. We're still not done with his work yet!

Ol' reliable.

We're not done with the firsts yet! On first look, you might notice that this game uses a joystick! Real-time action, joysticks... we're well and truly in video game territory now.

Pool takes a very barebones approach to the sport - you'll notice that the balls are neither numbered, nor coloured - the game is fully monochrome, but at least the cue ball is white to distinguish it. The standard 15 balls are all present and accounted for as well. My other immediate remark on the visuals is that the cue stick itself looks more like a Q-tip than a cue-stick...

Cue stick or Q-tip??

Rules are of no concern to this game, either. Want to shoot before all the balls have stopped moving? Go nuts. Maybe you want to course-correct the cue ball? Well, you can do that, too. It gives the feel of having a casual round on your backyard Pool table, without a care in the world for rules and regulations. Just go and have fun!

In that spirit, the game also only has one power option for your shots: MAXIMUM POWER. Truly, this is backyard Pool - no care for rules, and the only objective is to hit the cue ball hard enough in the general vicinity of the other balls, and eventually they'll go in. Which honestly isn't that bad here, as accuracy is not the game's strength. I would complain that the joystick's sensitivity is too high to precisely line up your shots... but the position of the cue doesn't even matter! Only the angle matters, which is controlled by a dial. So the joystick's purpose is ultimately moot. That's a shame.

All. The. Damn. Time.

And, true to the real sport, it's a pain in the arse to line up anything precisely. The number of times I'll think I've lined up a shot correctly, only for the ball to bounce around the edges of the hole and depart for the other side of the table is like the sand on the sea shore. Maybe I'm just terrible at judging angles, as I've always had this problem, both with this game and in real life. The last couple of balls also take forever to sink, giving me flashbacks to trying to break the last few bricks in Breakout. It's a bloody nightmare. Most of my playthrough time was spent dealing with the last couple of balls.

Well, that's embarrassing.

Thankfully the game does speed up the further you get in. Because the technology Pool ran on was so antiquated, achieving a stable framerate was a mere pipe dream. According to RDZ's article, the framerate fluctuates between 40 and 8 FPS. On the initial break shot, once all the balls are in motion it feels like you've been hit with a slow spell, as all space and time around you appears to slow down along with the game.

Entering the Matrix.

There's no scoring system present in the game, so you can either keep track of it yourself, or not bother with it. I, however, do have a scoring system, and I will be bothered with it.

Time Played: 15 minutes

Difficulty: 1 (Brain-dead)
There really isn't any challenge, since there is no fail condition.

Gameplay: 2
While I'd say the real-time gameplay here is more compelling than, say, a fixed logic game like OXO, there's not enough for me to increase the score above a 2. This comes from the fact that this game merely simulates Pool - but it doesn't really do anything with it. It's more like a tech demo than a full game. In that spirit, there is also a complete disregard for the rules of the game - you can freely cheat, as you don't have to wait for the cue ball to come to a stop before shooting again.

Controls: 4
While the controls are starting to more resemble something that looks like a video game with the first joystick, it's a bit fiddly. The sensitivity of the joystick in the simulator is quite high (not like it really matters.) Precision is not this game's specialty.

Sound: N/A

Visual: 3
It's more-or-less the best looking game since CRTAD by default, thanks in part to its displaying a dozen objects at once in real time. Even if the frame rate drops to 8 FPS when they're all moving. The afterimages on the balls as they move is probably the nicest touch. The pool cue looks like a Q-tip, which I find amusing.

Story: N/A

Functionality: 5
Unless you want to count the frame rate plummeting when all balls are moving on screen as a functionality issue, there aren't any technical issues here. That's more a limitation of the technology, making it more a feature than a bug.

Accessibility: 4
With a control scheme that looks more video game-y, and from being a easily identifiable sport, I'd say that Pool is a fairly easy game to pick-up-and-play, for 1950s standards.

Fun Factor: 3
Even if the gameplay isn't much to write home about, it's still Pool, and a little, mindless fun can be had with it. Often I find that trying to be precise in such a game is pointless, and going fast and frantic is a much more enjoyable route to take. It's like playing an IRL round of Pool by yourself and just goofing off, especially considering the lack of care for rules.

Overall: 21/80 (26.25 | E Tier)
21 is the same score Bouncing Ball got. Funny that the first two real-time video games end up that way. I think the "tech demo" feel of the game is probably the biggest downside, when it comes to actual game design. Of course, the guys who made this didn't know what game design was at the time, so some grace can be extended there. We're still in the territory of technical experiments and testing of technological limits in the 1950s - games aren't being made purely for entertainment yet.

Here's the video playthrough, for those interested. I added some background music this time, which I thinks makes things more engaging. Let me know what you think!

The next game up, however, was made for entertainment purposes.

Up next: Tennis for Two

Let's Play (006) - OXO: The Impossible Game

Release Date: 1952

Platform: EDSAC

Genre: Board Game, Strategy

Developer(s): A. S. "Sandy" Douglas

Publisher(s):

Special milestone today - this is my 100th post! Took a bit longer to raise the bat than I thought - been at this almost three-and-a-half years. But it's pretty special to hit my first century.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled article.

OXO holds a series of unusual firsts in video games. One, it's the first "repeat" game. A Tic-Tac-Toe game has been done before in Bertie the Brain, marking OXO as the first time a game concept has been revisited. Of course, Josef Kates and A. S. Douglas likely knew nothing of each other (that's what I'm assuming, having done no research for this game yet), so this is only mere coincidence.

Before I forget - here's a link to the EDSAC simulator, where you can play OXO.

However, OXO also holds a first that I'd consider somewhat undesirable - it's the first impossible game. You can't beat the computer here - it's programmed to play a perfect game of Tic-Tac-Toe. Best you can manage is a draw, unfortunately. In some way, it's actually a bit disappointing that this is the first unwinnable game. No extravagant programming blunder or monstrously poor piece of game design rendering the game broken and unbeatable. Nope, it's just... you can't win, and that's the way it was always meant to be. How boring. I've got nothing to riff on with that.

I guess you could call this the "title screen."

I guess we'll just have to talk about managing a draw, then. But first, let's talk controls, because OXO is also quite unique here. You control the game via a rotary phone dial. Some of you younger readers might have no idea what a rotary phone is, so I'll provide a picture for reference.

This was state-of-the-art tech in the 1950s.

OXO is well thought out in that you're provided with a visual key of which number represents each position on the game board. The good thing about playing this on a simulator is that you don't have to actually rotate the dial to input a move - a simple click of the mouse will do. Yet another first you will discover while playing OXO is that it has sound! I'm assuming that the sound played when you make a move replicates the sound of rotating the phone dial. That would not make the sound particular to OXO, so on a technical level, it's not built-in sound generated by the game - we'll have to wait a few more years for that yet.

Now, back to the drawing board. It's significantly easier to achieve this going first. Tic-Tac-Toe is technically a game of strategy, so at least a few brain cells are required to know what spots to put your crosses in. 

This was peak strategy gaming in the 1950s...

The first bit of good strategy is going first - if you know how to play, you cannot lose. Starting with the corners is typically the way to go. When I've done so, the computer most often responds by placing its first nought in the centre square. It's a forgone conclusion at that point, with the round devolving into defensive moves until the board is filled.

Even from a sub-optimal position, a draw is possible.

Going second, it's a little trickier to draw, as the computer is now in the advantaged position. Again, sticking to the corners is advisable - but copying the computer and going for a centre move first is probably best practice. A sure fire way to lose is going for any of the cardinal direction squares early. I did try that for the sake of experimentation, but it resulted in a swift defeat- recorded to satisfy your schadenfreude, of course.

This was not peak strategic gameplay.

This was a quick one - we're on to the scores already!

Scores

Time Played: 5 mins

Difficulty: 10* (Impossible)
Only gets a 10 by technicality. Technically, the game is impossible to beat, but it was also designed that way. So it's not a true 10 in my mind, and won't be considered if I do any "hardest game" lists in the future.

Gameplay: 1
Tic-Tac-Toe is as rudimentary a form of gameplay as you can get. Less technical than even something like Nim, and I gave that a 2. Therefore, the only appropriate score here is a 1.

Controls: 6
By way of comparison to previous games, OXO is incredibly easy to control. Sure, the rotary phone dial is strange by today's standards, but it's actually quite intuitive for a game like Tic-Tac-Toe, when used in combination with the reference key provided by the game.

Sound: 3
Gadzooks! There's sound! First time for everything, I suppose. Again, I'm not sure if the simulator is replicating the sound of the rotary phone controls, or if that's the actual noise the computer makes, but I do at least appreciate it as a form of auditory feedback from the game. Not the most pleasant noise, but it's better than not having sound at all, in my opinion.

Visual: 2
Graphically, it's quite similar to Draughts - only a lot more zoomed in. That's not enough to give it an extra point in my mind, seeing as the actual game graphics themselves are nigh-on identical to Draughts.

Story: N/A

Functionality: 5
Nothing's ever gone wrong over the multiple sessions I've played this game, so free points here. Additionally, it's very snappy and responsive, again in comparison with Draughts.

Accessibility: 4
Can't really go wrong with such a simple game. Taking off one point for the antiquity of the technology being a slight barrier.

Fun Factor: 1
About as much fun as an unwinnable game of Tic-Tac-Toe could possibly be. I can't give it a zero because it's actually a functional, playable game. And you can at least try to beat the computer, futile as it may be.

Overall: 22/90 (24.44% | E-tier)
A weighted score of 24.44 puts OXO just below Bouncing Ball on the tier list. Bouncing Ball is certainly the superior game in terms of pure gameplay and replay value - but only marginally. The shallowness and simplicity of these games are going to keep them in the lower tiers for some time to come. Anything E-tier or above is at least worth trying once in my scoring system, so it's worth your while if you want to experience the earliest stages of video game history. Though I'm sure there's one strange soul out there whose all-time favourite video game is, in fact, OXO. If that's you, please leave a comment.

As always, here's the video playthrough.

Up next: MIDSAC Pool