A Brief History of... Gomoku

For the next A Brief History Of article, we're actually taking our first real adventure over to Japan. Bet you didn't think the first Japanese game I'd be covering was a board game, eh? It's funny how things play out when tackling gaming chronologically.

Of course, Japan is going to be a massive player - nay, the defining player in the video game industry come the late 1970s-onward, thanks largely in part to Taito, Namco, and Nintendo. But, as of writing this, we're in 1973. Taito and Sega are busy copying Pong, Namco is merely a distributor of Atari games in Japan, and Nintendo is barely on the map. Really, all the action is taking place in the United States.

#042 - Gomoko: Japanese Connect Four (Five)

[Ed. I've spent an awful lot of effort in changing up the style of my videos into something with a bit more production value. Well, as much "production value" as my self-taught video editing skills can provide. This video is more of a "mini-documentary," and mixes produced content with live gameplay. Hence why it's taken so long to complete. Let me know what you think!]

Release Date: July 1973

Platform: Mainframe (BASIC type-in)

Genre: Board Game

Developer(s): Peter Sessions

Publisher(s): Digital Equipment Corporation

Here's a curious game - one from the People's Computer Company, yet is exclusive to DEC and David Ahl's 101 BASIC Computer Games. I scoured the first several years of PCC magazines, and no mention of this game was to be found anywhere.

A Brief History of... Hangman

Going to try something new here. Typically, when the first video game comes out based on a real-world game or concept, I would include a short history of that game/concept within the same article. Here, I'd like to try something different and separate the history of the source from the digital interpretation.

With the Game of Hangman article having just released, the traditional pen-and-paper game of Hangman is a perfectly suitable choice to begin this little foray into the broader world of games. I'll keep the format quite simple on these: origins of the game, the earliest video game attempts, and the state of the game in current day.

Here's one I prepared earlier.

The History of Hand-Drawn Executions

While Hangman is a now-ubiquitous little game played by likely every child who ever attended school over the past 100-120 years, there's no concrete answer on where exactly the game came from. Ah, the historian's worst nightmare: obscure and uncertain origins.

#041: Game of Hangman - Educational Electronic Executions (and A Short Update)

Release Date: July 1973

Platform: Mainframe (BASIC type-in)

Genre: Puzzle

Developer(s): Kenneth Aupperle, David H. Ahl

Publisher(s): Digital Equipment Corporation

Out of the gate, this is a somewhat interesting title, as I originally had Game of Hangman slated as a 1970 game. I had mistaken it for another Hangman game on account of the online information being somewhat unclear in distinguishing between the two games. So this article's been hanging in limbo for something like a year, although I've chosen to completely re-write it anyway.

Update: Blog Return and A New Roadmap

It's finally time.

The blog is ready to return in full. The itch to get writing again is getting too strong for me to put it off any longer. Also, seeing that this past month has been the best ever for the blog in terms of views (somehow, despite my absence) also encourages me significantly. While this is still just a hobby for me, I love doing it and combining my love of history and video games together. Seeing even the smallest bit of growth is both validating and gives me the continued motivation to push on.

I've been doing a fair bit of thinking and planning over the last week or so in preparation for my return, and there's going to be a few changes coming in terms of what my content is going to look like going forward.