Clockwise from the top -Magnavoz game console, a light gun, game cartridges, SIMON

The Father of Video Games

In 2006 Ralph H. Baer was awarded the National Medal of Technology by the President of the United States for his “groundbreaking and pioneering creation, development and commercialisation of interactive video games”.  In fact many believe he invented the gaming industry.  Quite an accomplishment.  Would it surprise you to learn that Ralph is 88 years old?

Born in Germany into a Jewish family and the son of a shoe factory worker life could not have been too easy.  At the age of eleven Ralph was expelled from school for being Jewish and in 1938 the his whole family left Germany for America just in time to avoid the anti jewish purge of Kristallnacht.  Once in America Ralph took a job in a factory on minimal wage, self educated himself and two years later graduated from the National Radio Institute in Chicago.  In 1943 with the world at war he was assigned to work for US military intelligence.  After the war ended Ralph went back to studying and chose the American Television Institute of Technology from which he graduated from in 1949 with a degree in Television engineering.  His future as the father of video gaming was beginning to take shape.

In 1949 he worked as chief engineer at a small electronic medical equipment firm responsible for making electrical surgical equipment.  Two years later he went to work as a senior engineer at a company that made equipment for the computer company IBM.  By the age of 30 he had changed jobs and moved up again and was the vice president for a company that made semi conductors.  Finally, four years later, he went to work for a US defense contractor that made aircraft electronic systems and he stayed there for the next 31 years until he retired.  It was while he was working here that he established his name in the video gaming history books.

In August 1972 the release of the ‘Brown Box’, or the Magnavox Odyssey, heralded the birth of the first home video game console.  Designed by Ralph Baer the Magnavox Odyssey predated the next video game console by 3 years.  Ralph saw his invention build up 24 game titles, he pushed for the development of sound but his idea was rejected.  So too was his idea to make an add on cartridge that you could use to ‘load’ games on to the console with.  However, some ideas were accepted and the first add on peripheral is credited to the magnavox - the light gun.  This was a plastic moulded gun that when pointed at the screen registered the light emitted from a television set.

Quite an impressive story but it was not over.  Ralph’s story of inventions goes on.  One of these was the single-chip micro-processor controlled handheld game called SIMON that became a cult hit in the 80s.  This game had four large coloured buttons that lit up in a random sequence starting with one colour and then adding one more each round.  The object of the game was for players to repeat the sequence by pressing the correct buttons and the game ended when a mistake was made.  Other inventions included a recordable talking doormat called the ‘chat mat’ and a talking speedometer for a bike.

Ralph has retired now and has donated all the original game units he owned to the Smithsonian Institution  This government run educational and research institute owns  just under twenty public access museums and if you want to see some of Ralph Baer’s inventions then you can go and visit them there.  Alternatively you can play any one of the half dozen home video consoles and appreciate the legacy that he has left.

Classroom activities

Download a worksheet focusing on the pronunciation of -ed in regular verbs.

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An EVOKE is defined as an urgent call to innovative solutions to real life problems.  In the same way that EVOKE is calling for gamers to solve in-game problems which could then be applied to real world strategies.   Think of the gamers as parts of a huge organic computer brain being set the task of solving problems facing Africa within the context of an online ARG.

The game targets Africa and aims to look into using playfulness and gaming as a tool for solving the bigger issues facing the world today, such as “hunger, poverty, disease, war and oppression, water access, education, climate change”.

Could this game as a languguage learning tool?  Such a game could not only have great potential within the TEFL context for motivating language learners but ARGs have had a fair share of success stories already.  The European Union ran an Education Project called ‘Babel Tower’ aimed at Secondary school language learners from around the world.  This was part of their ARGuing for Multilingual Multivation Project and was rated as a huge success.

ARGs run prior to Evoke have included Superstruct and World without oil and Superstruct which reached ‘Game Over’ status in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

To learn more about the EVOKE Alternate Reality Game project then visit the official website, Watch the trailer, or read up on the game story so far by checking out the graphic novel storyline.

So why not Make Life a Game and Change The World?

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photo by Preoccupations

Event: More Details are here
Date: Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 1am GMT (next day) (check your time here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In the Elluminate Virtual Classroom. Log in at. The room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event for those who want to come in early. If you have never used Elluminate, go to http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page (here).

James Paul Gee is perhaps at the forefront of those academics calling for others to take the use of video games in education seriously.

He states in his book Situated Language and Learning that he is a linguist ‘whose interests have changed over the years.’ This is probably the understatement of the decade – he has moved from being a theoretical linguist to being the author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, which “argues that good video games are designed to enhance learning through effective learning principles supported by research in the Learning Sciences“.

He is currently the Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University, and is an engaging speaker who always has something thought-provoking to say.

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Manyparents complain that their children waste too much time playing video games and not enough time on their schoolwork.  Maybe it’s because they are worried that their children won’t study hard at school.  If they don’t get good exam results they won’t grow up and get a good job when they leave.  Well, this is not a problem for Victor De Leon III, AKA ‘Lil Poison , who first took up playing video games when he was two years old.  His parents have been so supportive of his video game playing that he is now, as his website says, the world’s youngest professional video gamer.

‘Lil Poison first started playing games such as basketball and Star Wars: Episode I on the Sega Dreamcast when he was just two years old.  Two years later, he signed up for a HALO tournament in New York.  By the time he turned nine he was competing in championships against thousands of other competitors and coming third.  In one to one challenges he was unbeatable.  He is now in the Guinness book of records and there is a film being made about him.   He even earns a living by charging $25 an hour for personal online tuition to people who want to learn how to play Halo better.  He also earns money from gaming tournaments, licensing deals and having his very own clothing company.  That’s not even where the big money is.  Prize money at one of the gaming tournaments he attends can be as much as $200,000.  Not bad for a video gamer.

What do his parents think of all this?  His father is very proud of his son’s achievements and he calls him “Superkid . . . He just needs a cape.”  It was ‘lil Poison’s dad, also called Victor De Leon, AKA Vic, who first noticed his son’s gaming talent.  One day Vic was playing a game when his two year old son joined in. By playing together they completed the whole game and it was at that moment that he realised how talented his son was.  His mother hopes that ‘lil Poison will make enough money to pay for his university education, which in America can be more than $30,000 (about 20,000 Euros).

His parents do have some worries though.  Some of the more violent games, such as Grand Theft Auto, are games that they want to keep away from ‘lil Poison.  The strong language content, both in these types of game and that used by gamers at conferences, is something they frown at.  They are even careful about how much time he spends playing on his games.  His father says “He comes home from school, does homework first, takes a little break – eats, of course – and then plays two games, just two.  Then he goes in the pool, plays basketball . . . Then 8 o’clock comes and he plays with the team from 8 to 10 pm.”

‘Lil Poison himself says that he has got a lot of interests outside of playing video games.  He likes to swim and play basketball.  He likes to draw, play with his toys and watch TV.  He also has 3 pets he like to play with and look after.  Their names are Rocky, Scruffy and little Cortana.  Those are the names of his two dogs and hamster.  As for school work, he always does his homework because his mum and dad won’t let him play if he doesn’t.  His school work always comes first.

Both his father and uncle are avid gamers and give him advice on the ‘dos and don’ts’ at tournaments and how best to deal with all the female groupies that ‘lil Poison has been known to be pursued by.   He is still a little too young for that kind of attention though and prefers to play with his hamster than spend time with girls.  He’s a long way off being eighteen.  But what does the future hold for Victor De Leon III?  ‘Lil poison himself is uncertain whether he’ll still be playing games, at least professionally, but reckons if there are still cool games out there then he’ll be playing them.

Download a copy of “‘lil Poison plays video games – parents are ‘oh so happy!‘with a reading activity.

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The Digital Educational Revolution

The explosion of technology that is taking place in schools has led to a number of ideas being put forward related to the death of the book in education. More and more, laptops are being introduced in schools all over the world. In some cases, buying a laptop for a child is actually cheaper than a typical year’s spending on text-books. The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project is the driving force behind this in developing countries, such as Rwanda. Elsewhere, such as in Spain, current trials are underway in schools to evaluate how the use of laptops could replace much of the content now delivered through coursebooks. It also seems to make sense in order to appeal to the new generation of digital natives.

Death of the Book

That books are a dying species is a popular subject for debate on the Web and in the press. It seems clear that we are reading less, and this has been happening for some time now . Of course, books won’t totally die out, but they will probably become what they were to earlier generations – for a minority audience only. But should we really be lamenting this?

School didn’t teach me to read – I learned from my games

- a student (Prensky, 2005)

Replacing the Book with Games

Games offer so many benefits when you compare them to books:

• Playing video games burns more calories than reading a book
• Reading books chronically under-stimulates the senses
• Games are more interactive and involve players in complex decision-making
• Games are better than books at providing a context for situated meaning

Finally, the last words go to a researcher of the Institute of Educational Research, University of Oslo:

“A reader has no say in what happens to the protagonist of a book…while we may feel empathy, emotions run higher for videogames. By controlling the protagonist in a videogame, we become an active participant in the story. We are no longer passively being taken for a ride, but have to process information actively, make decisions and respond to stimuli from the game. Thus videogames are the stronger medium playing to a broader register of the human mind.”

Hans Christian Arnseth, quoted in The Book of Games (Volume 2)

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You’ve probably sat on a bus or train and see someone playing ‘braintraining‘ and finding out how old their brain is. You may even have played it yourself. This popular hand held puzzle video game was designed by a prominent neuroscientist who claims that playing the games’ puzzles reduces the chances of dementia in old age. Such a health benefit from a video game may sound incredible but the evidence is mounting that one way to be healthy is to play video games. Similar neurological benefits have also been credited to the game Tetris. Who would have thought fitting different shaped coloured bricks could make your brain better? Neuropsychologist Dr Rex Jung, who works at the Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, is on record as saying practising this puzzle game increases grey matter in the motor areas of the brain. Food for thought. Meanwhile, at the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at University of California Irvine’s, Richard Haier was finding that first time Tetris players’ brains experienced a boost in glucose levels. Could this mean that glucose deficient diseases such as diabetes may one day have a pharmatronic solution? Playing video games, in this case, could be just what the doctor orders.

Nor are video games just for patients it seems. The study “landmarks the arrival of Generation X into medicine”conducted in 2002 found that doctors who played video games for three hours a week were less likely to make mistakes in surgery. A doctor was quoted as saying that both game playing and surgery required the same hand eye co-ordination so, in effect, the gaming improved that skill. Surprisingly, it is the violent games such as Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, HALO or Left 4 Dead that seemed to offer the best opportunity for practising hand eye co-ordination skills. Back to the patient and Daphne Bavelier of the University of Rochester in New York suggests that action video-game training may even be a useful complement to eye-correction techniques because such games train the eye in what eye doctors call contrast sensitivity. Contrast sensitivity allows a person to distinguish objects from other objects and the background. A persons ability to do this is said to diminish dramatically with old age. Know of any games your parents may be interested in?

Being fitter and having regular exercise is what doctors would say is the greatest preventative medicine. Getting fit and healthy is not the sort of thing that playing video games brings to mind though. However, keeping fit with video games does have its proponents and gained early popularity in the late 90s with the release of ‘Dance Dance Revolution‘. This arcade game involved players scoring points for dance moves, which were played out on a dance platform that flashed in time to each of the gamers dance moves. Many players of DDR, as it is called, claimed to have lost weight through the games aerobic work out of dance. This may be the reason why Norway recognises DDR as an official sport and why the game was also adopted by many state schools in the USA as part of their physical education programme.

Perhaps the most well known and popular keep fit video game in recent years has been the wii fit. Its fitness programme is divided into four categories – yoga, strength training, aerobics and balance games – and its popularity placed it as the third best-selling video game in history. However, its popularity wasn’t restricted to the living room at home, health clubs and gyms also invested in this technology. What is surprising is the Finnish army Defence forces decision to buy hundreds of the console to encourage more free time exercising. It proved a very popular choice with the troops. No doubt they enjoyed the need to be fighting fit.

The ancient Greeks believed that healthy in mind was healthy in body. To look at how healthy a nations mind is you should look at the education it receives through its schools and universities. Earlier this year, a study commissioned by a Member of the European Parliament came to the conclusion that playing video games “have a positive contribution to make to the education of minors”. This was an opinion that had already been put into practice in Scotland. It was in Scotland that an education project using the Nintendo DS was introduced into state primary schools. The project took advantage of the fact that short bursts of playing on the Nintendo DS before a class activity actually improved results in classes such as maths. I wish they’d known this when I was at school!

Across the borders to England and in Kent a graphic adventure video game is being used to stimulate creative writing in state schools for juniors. The video in question is called ‘Myst’ and the writing project is the brainchild of Tim Rylands.  Rylands states that the game provides a “shared experience” in the classroom as well as providing a context with which to explore and enhance children’s writing. The project is ongoing but has received positive feedback from both teachers and pupils alike.

The potential for video games in education is now being realised in English language teaching. The International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) holds its International Annual Conference & Exhibition every spring. It’s attended by around 1500 ELT professionals from 70+ countries and was held in 2009 in Cardiff, Wales. One of the plenary speakers at the event was Marc Prensky who is the author of such books as “Digital Game-Based Learning” and “Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning“. In these books he advocates the use of video games as a means in which to help children develop the kind of meta skills that will help them to become successful adults in the 21^st century. Although Prensky doesn’t refer specifically to language learning games it is interesting to note that he excludes the more violent action games from his agenda.

‘Language learning computer games‘ have been around for decades but have never really gained a high rung on the social ladder of video games. Perhaps it is their overt language agenda and a lack of an engaging storyline or an engaging aspect that they lack but best-selling video games have. What is for sure is that the big money companies have been reluctant to invest time and money in developing ‘edutainment‘ games. To this end commercially successful gaming platforms and video games are now being adopted and adapted by education.

If you are a language teacher and want to know where video games meet the classroom then look no further than the internet for information. A very popular blog run by Larry Ferlazzo  provides access to numerous video games for use in the language learning classroom. Youtube has videos on the use of such games as ‘The sims‘ (the best-selling PC game in history) as a language teaching tool. ‘Wii English‘ is a site which looks at the use of wii games, such as animal crossing, and uncovers and reveals their potential as a language learning tool. There are even sites that take online point and click games free on the internet and into the classroom. If video games are being used as engaging and fun group collaborative activities that practice language learning skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking) then the view that video games are an individual and isolated activity for geeks and nerds will soon become outdated. In fact, ask the younger generation and you may discover that this view is already a little old fashioned. Remember though it’s never too late to start playing!

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Video Game characters at the movies

I’m game for the movies

Many films go on to become video games but do you know which films started out as video games? The pictures above show just four of those films, can you name them? You may be surprised to find out that there have been quite a few more. Which do you think was the first video game to make it to the big screen? I asked this question to a friend recently and he came up with Tron. My friend didn’t know that Tron didn’t start off as a video game. First, it was a 1982 science fiction film by Disney and although it was about a video game it was actually the film that spawned the game. The prize for first live action film based on a video game was in fact ‘Super Mario Bros’ in 1993 starring Bob Hoskins as the moustachioed title hero and Dennis Hopper as the bad guy. Though Bob Hoskins received praise for his portrayal of the popular game character, the film itself received very negative reviews and did poorly at the box office.

During the mid nineties there then followed a spate of kung fu and kick boxing video game / film crossovers, the most famous of which were the run of ‘mortal combat’ films and Street Fighter. Such stars as Christopher Lambert, Jean Claude Damme and even Kylie Minogue brought theses video game titles kicking, if not screaming, to the big screens. Initially both titles proved to be commercial hits but unfortunately, the negative reception of each subsequent film meant that the prospect of further releases is minimal.

It was not until Tomb Raider and Lara Croft (played by Angelina Jolie) hit the screens in 2001 that a video game could really lay claim to having successfully made the leap to the movies. In takings it broke the record for a film that featured a female lead and took over $300 million at the box office worldwide. It not only remains the most successful video game adaption to date but also launched Angelina Jolie’s career as a Hollywood actress.

Ironically enough the next video game to successfully make the transition from computer screen to cinema screen also starred a female protagonist. In Resident Evil Mila Jovovich also plays a gun-totting amnesiac heroine and a secret underground genetic research facility called the ‘Umbrella Company’. The trouble starts when the company is responsible for accidentally releasing a virus which causes dead bodies to reanimate as blood thirsty zombies. To date three live action movies under the name of Resident Evil have been released. The fact that the movies took an average of $20 million on their opening weekends and grossed $150 million worldwide means that Alice’s fight against the Umbrella Corporation is sure to continue.

The talk of the computer game town at the moment is the prospect of Peter Jackson’s (director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) involvement in HALO. HALO is a very successful first person shooter video game. It will be interesting to see how a video game that took $300 million in its first week of sales will make it as a movie adaptation. There are many sceptics who simply believe that a successful video game loses its principal appeal once it becomes a movie. You watch a film passively for a couple of hours at the most. A video game requires active participation and it is the choices that you make that decide the story. Also a video game, from start to finish, can provide anywhere in the region of 100 hours or more of play.

So what is the future for computer games at the movies? Rather than seeing movies and video games switching back and forth we may see the two blending together to form a single new media. The technology perfected by James Cameron to film his new movie Avatar may hold the key to this future. As James Cameron himself says, he used “a big, powerful game engine” to capture actors’ motions to let them interact with computer generated characters on a real, live-action set while shooting live action. Perhaps the video gamer of the future will interact with a game environment in a similar way putting the player inside the game in real time. This will bring a whole new meaning to “I’m into video and computer games”.

Download this article (PDF) for your learners (with comprehension questions)

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