A history of computer games, part one: 1950s - 1970s

So it seems video games have actually been around since the 1950's! I know, crazy isn't it? You'd think video games are a pretty new thing but it turns out that the first ever video game was produced in the 1950's! This game was a computerised version of Tic Tac Toe titled 'XOX' (Source 1) and was created by Douglas in 1952. Although this was the first ever 'computer game' can it really be called that? It was impossible to play unless on a computer with a lot of memory and was incredibly simple but I think it would be considered the first ever computer game as it allows a user to interact with a graphical interface. Isn't that what a game is, no matter the advancement of the programme?

Tic Tac Toe, a game that was incorporated into a computer game (Source 2)

So what was the next computer game? It was called 'Tennis for Two' and was created by William Higinbotham in 1958. Again, it could only be played on a computer with an extreme amount of memory and was only ever played on the Brookhaven National Laboratory Oscilloscope. Hm, doesn't sound much like a game if people could only play it on one machine.

Tennis for Two, a game to be played on an oscilloscope (Source 3)

So what was the first 'real' game? In 1962, Steve Russel invented 'Spacewar!' which could be played on a variety of different computers and was the first game to introduce two player mode! (Source 4) This was quite possibly the first big step towards industrialising video games. The game was a very simple pixel black and white game which allowed two players to control a spaceship each and the aim of the game was to shoot the opposing player before being shot themselves. Isn't this the main aim of a video game? To beat an opponent without being beaten yourself? This is why Spacewar! is normally considered to be the first real game.

An image of 'Space War!' (Source 5)

The first game played on a television was a game called 'Chase' and was created by Ralph Baer in 1967. This game was very simple and only consisted of a dot being chased by another dot. The aim of the game was to catch the other dot without being caught yourself, again implementing the main basic idea of what to do in a video game. Yeah, being chased by a dot. My how far we've come since then.

Ralph Baer, the creater of 'Chase' (Source 6)

The first ever arcade game, and revolution to the gaming industry, so iconic even to this day was created in 1971 by Nolan Bushell. What was this amazingly iconic game? Pong. This game revolutionised the gaming industry and Bushnell went on to create the company Atari, a massive video game producer even to this day. Pong is incredibly well-known among the video game industry. The game consisted of having a white block and having to bounce a ball off it either towards another block (ie ping-pong) and at later dates, up towards more blocks that you had to hit with the ball in order to break. Breaking all of the blocks would clear the stage. This game is so iconic, especially to me as I remember playing it as a kid, not the original but a more advanced version that included colours. It could keep me entertained for hours and I'm sure it could even to this day!

Nolan Bushell with his 'Pong' game (Source 7)

So, those are the basics behind the first visual video games. There's others? Ok, lets talk about non-visual video games. Yep, once there was a time where video games didn't need flashy (or not so flashy) graphics of incredibly handsome hunky men and equally handsome hunky aliens. Nope, once there was such a thing as text-based adventure games. Perhaps the first role playing games, or RPGs, this is most likely where they spawned from anyway. Text based games consisted of users having to type their actions into a text driven machine and text replies would come back explaining what happened upon the actions you chose. Sounds a bit like Dungeons and Dragons actually. The first text based adventure game was titled 'Adventure' and came around in 1977. Probably the most iconic thing about text based adventures is that it isn't about how fast you can react to things, if you're not typing then you aren't playing, the game is paused and nothing will happen unless you initiate an action yourself. This was a breather in a way for players who couldn't stand the fact that the ball wouldn't stop bouncing back in Pong. Text based games eventually began to become slightly visual by adding some images when something important happened in a game. Yeah, they were pretty awful MS paint drawings, probably would have been better if they'd been left out if you ask me actually.

A text based game (Source 8)

So in the recent years actually text based adventure games have made a comeback, expect now they have visual images (although 5 billion times better than the one above) but the main idea behind them (typing your commands and seeing what happens) is still there. Myst is probably the most popular recent game like this as it explains exactly how the player landed in the world they have their adventure in and explains various other things throughout the game.

A more modern text based game with images now (Source 9)

So what were the first actual video game consoles? Remember Baer, the one who made 'Chase'? Well the first console was made by him. The first prototype of it called 'Brown Box' was released in 1968. The actual final console released in 1972 was called the Magnavox Odyssey. Yeah, I've never heard of it either. But it did allow people to play several games on the same system by switching cartridges. Yeah I do remember the cartridge days, all those Pokemon Gameboy cartridges where you had to blow into them to get them to work. Except the Magnavox's cartridges were actually all inside the console and certain ones would be switched off when one game was played, so basically it was a massive block with several games inside of it that could be played individually. Despite this 100,000 of these consoles were sold within its first year of release. Well I guess they didn't know what a PS3 was back then did they?

People playing the Magnavox Odyssey (Source 10)

Next came the mainframe computers developed in the early 1970's. People who wrote these were actually mainly students, the two most popular ones being the PLATO System and the DECUS. Many small games were released on these computers such as a Star Trek game with the same name as the series, a baseball game and Maze War, a maze game. These games don't sound very interesting to be honest. And the technology behind them was very minisucle. Can we even consider the mainframe computers consoles or were they merely just more computers?

The PLATO System (Source 11)

So what happened after this? The video game crash of 1977, talk about dramatic! (Source 12) Yeah so a lot of consoles weren't being sold so the manufacturers sold them at a loss to get rid of them. Most developers died out, Atari and Magnavox being the only two that survived (although they also suffered from losses but still managed to keep on their toes.) So what caused the crash? Clones of the Pong game. These came in so fast that there was little hope for selling your Pong game as there was such a wide variety of them, people were spoiled for choice. The crash came to an end in 1978 when Space Invaders was released, but that's for a later blog entry.

So now that we've had a look at how video games progressed throughout the first glory days of video games, who actually decided to use a computer to have fun? Well the 'father of video games' is normally seen as Baer. (Source 13) Yeah, you'd think the guy who created Pong would be considered this but nope, people consider Baer to be the one. He was assigned to create a television set but instead created video games and consoles. Seems legit. Well he did create the Magnavox Odyssey too. Wait, what are those? They didn't last that long clearly but they managed to make it through the video game crash so they must have been at least decent, especially for their time. Unfortunately Baer passed away before he could see the true potential video games have today (and the ones of the future) but he could die knowing that he made this possible. So yes, a man who was originally meant to be making a TV invented video games. And that's how it all started. This man deserves some serious credit I think. Thank you Baer.

Ralph Baer, the father of video games (Source 14)

So yes, these were the first video games. Awful in comparison to today's but the ground breakers for them too, if it weren't for these then we probably wouldn't have the technology we have for our games today. Everything has to start somewhere, in this case it was with chasing dots and blocks hitting balls. Like I said, we had to start somewhere.

So what happened next? We'll have a look at that in another blog entry, for now we have the base of what we know today, and that we should be grateful for.

Source number	Source	Comments
Source 1	http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcomputer_videogames.htm - Website about the first ever games, including ‘XOX’	Information on the first ever video games which were done in pixels and on computers instead of on systems. XOX was a game that incorporated Tic Tac Toe into an actual video game.
Source 2	http://www.widgit.com/parents/home/games/oandx.jpg - Image of ‘Tic Tac Toe'	An image showing what Tic Tac Toe looks like when it’s played. It is essentially noughts and crosses. A video game was then made off this.
Source 3	http://www.virginmedia.com/images/Tennis_for_Two-tennis-431.jpg - An image of ‘Tennis for Two’	An image of Tennis for Two which was played on an oscilloscope.
Source 4	http://www.jesperjuul.net/thesis/2-historyofthecomputergame.html - Information on video games including Space War!	Information on many games including one of the very first ‘Space War!’
Source 5	http://www.computerspacefan.com/SW.JPG - An image of ‘Space War!’	An image of what ‘Space War!’ looked like when being played.
Source 6	http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RqkZ-3TwUoA/TIHy43VH5-I/AAAAAAAACk8/tvZEXOYv_6E/s1600/ralph_baer_large.jpg - Image of Ralph Baer with his ‘Chase’ game	An image of Ralph Baer standing next to his ‘Chase’ game that he made.
Source 7	http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/nolan-bushnell-plays-pong.jpg - Image of Nolan Bushell with his Pong game	An image of Nolan Bushell standing next to his ‘Pong’ game that he made.
Source 8	http://www.jesperjuul.net/thesis/2-historyofthecomputergame.html - Website where the image of the text based game came from	A website with an image showing a text based game with very poorly drawn images in it at certain stages.
Source 9	http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/Myst-library_and_ship.jpg - Image from the ‘Myst’ game	An image from the ‘Myst’ game which takes idea from text based games but plays out with images.
Source 10	http://www.gameconsolesedu.info/images/MagnavoxOdyssey.jpg - Image of people playing the Magnavox Odyssey	An image of people playing one of the first ever consoles, the Magnavox Odyssey.
Source 11	http://blog.echovar.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/plato_terminal.jpg - Image of the PLATO system	An image of the PLATO System, another one of the first video game consoles.
Source 12	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_and_video_games - Information on video games, specifically the Video Game Crash.	Information on how video games have developed over the years, including the video game crash and how it recovered.
Source 13	http://www.designboom.com/eng/education/pong.html - Information on older video games and on Ralph Baer	A website on Ralph Baer and some of other video games.
Source 14	http://thegamershub.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Gaming-Gods-Ralph-Baer.jpg - An image of Ralph Baer.	An image of Ralph Baer, the father of video games.

Concept art talk from Codemasters

An image of one of the 'cutscenes' from Formula 1 Race Stars (Source 1)

A couple of days ago I attended a talk by Mitch Small and Stephane Stambolouis, two concept artists from Codemasters. It was an incredibly interesting talk and helped me to understand more about what the world of concept art is all about.

First Steph talked to us about the different types of concept arts that go into a game, from environment to clothing design. This was very interesting but looked incredibly difficult, especially the amount of time and designs it takes to get to the final game. We got to have a look at his art and this was incredibly interesting as he had also worked on comics in the past as well as some very interesting concepts for DC and Marvel characters in a Mortal Combat game. This was probably my favourite of his work as I love comics and games and mixing them together is always inspiring.

We then had a talk with Mitch, a former student from the DMU game art design course who was talking about one of the games he recently worked on 'F1 Race Stars'. This was incredibly interesting for me as I have had the honor of trying out this game at the Eurogamer convention this year so I could begin to see how the game I have played was made. Some interesting points were made, especially the ones about how strict they have to be at following exactly what needs to be put into the game, for example Formula 1 stated that they couldn't have any images of cars crashing or being on fire but one of the parts they had to include in the game was the ability to be able to pick up items and throw them at other racers in order to slow them down. Because of this the producers had to come up with a way of being able to throw something to put other racers off the course but it had to be in a friendly way. This was very interesting for me because I hadn't realised how much thought had to be put into a game in this sense and how long it then takes for ideas like this to be seen in the final game.

It was also interesting to see how many concept art pieces are done before the final game and just how quickly they have to create these concept designs which looked very difficult and challenging to produce that amount of quality in such a short amount of time. It was also interesting to find out that the 'screenshots' on the back of game boxes aren't in fact shots from the game but are actually just painted by the art team. This was something I had no idea about.

Finally, I got to see the miniscule things that took a lot of time, effort and designing to produce the final design, such as the pickup pads. This was very interesting as I wouldn't imagine something so tiny in a game would take that much time to produce.

All in all the talk was incredibly informative and gave me a better look at what the industry is really like, especially as Mitch was a former student from my course. I hope to attend more talks like this in the future.

Source number	Source	Comments
Source 1	http://media.officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk/files/2012/07/F1-Race-Stars_CorkScrew-AbuDhabi-hi-res.jpg - Image of Formula 1 Race Stars	An image of one of the cutscenes on the back of the game box (which was actually just drawn and not an actual cutscene).

How have cutscenes in games changed over the years and how will they continue to develop

I decided to have a look at the development of cutscenes in video games to try and show the latest way in which pre-rendered video game cutscenes are produced as they are my favourite types of cutscenes and I would like to get into this field of the video game industry when I am older. I believe that the way in which cutscenes have developed over the years is extraordinary and they will only get better in the future with the use of new and improved technologies. I believe that eventually the quality of pre-rendered cutscenes will be able to be used within the gameplay of a game itself with the use of motion capture.

I have decided to look at the question ‘how have cutscenes in games changed over the years and how will they continue to develop?” I think that this is a very important part of today’s world as the video game industry has grown to be so massive in the past few years, it has even taken over the film industry. I want to look at how cutscenes, the animated movie clips that play during specific points of a game to help develop and understand the story for the audience have helped the industry to grow massively. Cutscenes play throughout a game in order to explain the story to the player and are normally done similar to how a movie plays out where the player has to watch to understand what is happening and then after the cutscene they can continue playing a game, however some cutscenes are interactive and allow players to press buttons or commands during them to help determine the cutscene outcome. I believe that the cutscenes are one of the key aspects that really drive the game forward as they allow us to understand what the game is truly about and it turns the game into more of a movie within a game, possibly why the games industry has outgrown the film industry. The quality of cutscenes has vastly changed over the years of video games and new technologies have been incorporated in the creation of them to give a better overall look and effect of the game as a whole. I am going to be looking at the way cutscenes have developed and how different they are compared to when cutscenes were first introduced in the video game industry.

Cutscenes have changed greatly over the years and were first introduced in the hit video game ‘Space Invaders Part II’ in which at the end of each level, the last invader would fly off and send an SOS message. (Source 1) This was the first time anyone had ever seen anything like this in a video game and it was what triggered the video game industry to include these story-driving factors in video games. Despite this being a cutscene, it was very basic and the graphics were far from how amazing they are today. In 1981, ‘Donkey Kong’ really initiated the idea of using cutscenes to drive a story by creating a game with mini movies intertwined within the gameplay to allow the audience to understand exactly what they are playing throughout the game. Donkey Kong included a short pixelated clip at the start of each level that would show Donkey Kong carrying the princess up the level and trapping her at the top, showing the audience the objective they had to reach when they started to play the game themselves. (Source 2).

Cutscene from Space Invaders II (Source 13) and Donkey Kong (Source 14)

Donkey Kong was made with pixels which are individually drawn coloured squares that are grouped together to form an image. This was the first major way of creating video games yet Donkey Kong was the first to use pixels in order to create a cutscene. Other games have followed on from this, for example the Pokemon game series. The first Pokemon games, Red and Blue came out in 1994 and they were created with greyscale pixels that would put the player through a vast environment in order to capture and train monsters, known as Pokemon. Since then, a large amount of Pokemon games have been produced and they have greatly changed since the original Pokemon games. The latest games, Black and White feature the same pixel graphics used in the original Red and Blue games however, they are much more advanced. The pixel sizes have been reduced to allow for more detail to be added to the game and colour is also vastly in use, the Pokemon sprites (pixels of the characters) even move during battle sequences. (Source 3)  Pokemon isn’t very well known for having a great amount of cutscenes but it does have some flashy screens that play upon the player entering a battle.

Changes from Pokemon cutscenes from Red (1994) (Source 15) to Black (2011) (Source 16)

Despite these pixel games being known for their ‘cutscenes’, it wasn’t until newer games came that cutscenes really started to get serious in games. In 1995, the video game ‘Command and Conquer’ was released and this was a major step up in the video games industry as it featured some of the first live-action cutscenes. (source 4) Live-action cutscenes were filmed with real actors placed in sets or on green screens with backgrounds added through the use of a chroma key (manipulating the actors onto a different background by cutting out the green around them). These live-action cutscenes were incredible and new as they allowed the characters in the game to actually interact with the player by talking to them in order to give them mission briefs.

Command and Conquer live-action cutscene (Source 17)

After the use of pixels, 3D graphics took the main stage and this began properly when consoles such as the Playstation were released. Games on the Playstation were all created with the use of 3D rendered graphics and this was a big step up in the gaming industry. Since then mainstream console games have been produced using 3D graphics that have drastically improved over the past years. New technologies have allowed for newer types of cutscenes to envelop that have blown people away in many cases.

The game ‘Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune’ released in 2007 was one of the first major Playstation 3 games and it introduced one of the new types of cutscenes known as interactive cutscenes in which the player would have to press specific buttons during a cutscene to decide how the cutscene would play out. (Source 5) This has since been used in a number of other games and there has since been games that play out entirely like this such as Heavy Rain. Drake’s Fortune also saw the use of major film production technology, motion capture. (Source 6) This was used in films such as ‘The Polar Express’ and it is when actors wear a special suit that pinpoints joints on the body and they act out a scene which is filmed with motion capture cameras and then 3D textures are applied over the film in order to create a cutscene. This was a significant step forward in the video game industry as it showed a cutscene that was rendered with perfect realistic movement. In 2011 the game ‘LA Noire’ took motion capture to the next level and used it to pinpoint facial movement and released the game with perfectly captured faces that replicated the actors exact movements and expressions of faces, even going as far as being able to recreate exactly what the actor’s face looked like. (Source 7)

Facial motion capture in LA Noire (Source 18) and motion capture in Uncharted (Source 19)

Games these days include either one of two cutscenes; pre-rendered or real time. Pre-rendered cutscenes are ones that have been recorded previously and play throughout the game whilst stopping the player from being able to interact with the game and just having to watch what was happening. (Source 9) Real time cutscenes are those in which a recorded sequence plays out that helps to drive the story but the player can still interact with the cutscene such as being able to change camera angles or walk around (however this means that there is limited movement for the player). (Source 10)

Pre-rendered cutscene from Final Fantasy (Source 20) and real-time cutscene from Assassin’s Creed (Source 21)

It has been in debate as to whether interactive cutscenes are good to include in a video game. Some people have stated that they are good as they get the player more involved in the game and games such as Heavy Rain make good use of these as they can determine the game outcome solely by pressing buttons. On the other hand, some people have actually complained about that by stating that if buttons are missed and it changed the outcome of the game then this can be very annoying and can ruin the game for some people. It is also said that sometimes players will anticipate interactive cutscenes so will be constantly watching out for them during a cutscene and may miss a crucial part of it by looking for buttons instead. (Source 8)

An interactive cutscene from Shenmue City (Source 22)

There are many arguments as to whether real time or pre-rendered cutscenes are better and many people have different opinions on this. A lot of people have stated that pre-rendered cutscenes are much better than real-time as they allow for much better graphics which can really stand out in a game and the player won’t have to worry about the frame rate dropping and causing the game to lag as the cutscene is already recorded and doesn’t need time to load. Some people on the other hand though state that real-time is better for cutscenes because, despite the less-defined graphics, the use of pre-rendered cutscenes greatly increases the amount of space a game will take up and the more pre-rendered cutscenes a game has, the larger the game would be, making it difficult for companies to actually produce their games. It is also more expensive and better technology is needed to produce pre-rendered cutscenes so it is better for smaller companies to produce real time cutscenes. (Source 11)

Famous film director and avid video gamer Steven Spielberg has actually criticised cutscenes for being “intrusive, and feels making story flow naturally into the gameplay is a challenge for future game developers.” (Source 12)  This shows that in actual fact, not all people agree with cutscenes as they are seen to be more film-themed and the use of them in a video game defeats the point of an interactive game that you can play. This is most likely because of how the game industry is taking over the film industry and a massive film producer such as Spielberg and many other film producers may feel threatened by this. Cutscenes are becoming so important that they are intertwined within some games and span out for as long as an actual movie (Uncharted 2’s cutscenes totaled to two hours, the time of a feature length film) so the fact that a game includes a movie within them is what the real threat to the film industry is as you can watch a movie within playing a game and people tend to find this more entertaining and beneficial.

I enjoy pre-rendered cutscenes the most because of the beauty in which the graphics have been displayed throughout many games I have played with these specific cutscenes and I think it is much more easy to follow a story with the use of pre-rendered cutscenes as opposed to real-time or interactive ones as you have to control your character at the same time as watching the cutscene which could result in missing something of great importance during it. I prefer the use of graphics instead of live-action in cutscenes as I feel live-action is too close to the film industry and I want to differentiate the film and game industry from each other as I believe they are extremely different.

Some people say that pre-rendered cutscenes will be completely phased out as they take up too much money and space on the disk once it is released and that real-time cutscenes are the way of the future but I disagree with this. I believe that if pre-rendered cutscenes cease to exist then the expressions and emotions of characters will be much more difficult to follow as you cannot always get a clear shot of a character’s face in a real-time cutscene as the camera sometimes focuses on the player character instead which would mean that there was less emotion played throughout cutscenes.

I also disagree with Steven Spielberg’s statement that cutscenes ruin games. I believe that this is because he is a film director so he feels that his major industry may be threatened with the use of drastically improved cutscenes. I believe that cutscenes are what actually drive the game and allows the player to understand the story properly and to show a development of character as well as allowing the audience to sympathise and understand characters better throughout the use of more movie-like cutscenes.

I did a lot of research into the production of cutscenes and how they are developed and saw that the later technologies are the better ones such as motion capture as it produced the most realistic and precise movements and therefore is definitely a technology that I think will be used greatly in the future for the better production of more advanced cutscenes.

In conclusion I believe that I now know more about the video game industry as a whole so I have a better interpretation of what may happen to it in the future and I also have a better knowledge of the amounts of different cutscenes and how they have progressed over the years. I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing how they progress further in the future and hope that I will one day be able to help in the making of the next generation of cutscenes.

Source number	Source	Comments
Source 1	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Invaders_Part_II#Remakes_and_sequels - information on the Space Invaders II cutscene.	One of the first ever cutscenes was seen in Space Invaders II and was incredibly simple. Despite being from Wikipedia which anyone can edit, this is a reliable source as it shows a clear example of exactly what the cutscene was like,
Source 2	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhFV5-qbbIw - Cutscene from Donkey Kong.	A video showing the actual cutscene from Donkey Kong which was an improvement from the Space Invaders II cutscene but still no where near as advanced as today’s cutscenes.
Source 3	http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pokémon_sprites,_art_evolve_over_the_years - Pokemon sprite changes in Pixels.	A website showing how the Pokemon pixels have changed over the years, from the very first Pokemon pixels in 1994 to today’s pixels, showing the drastic improvements and changes of them.
Source 4	http://www.giantbomb.com/command-conquer/61-4384/ - Command and Conquer, example of Live-Action cutscenes	One of the very first live action cutscenes that show how cutscenes could be created with real actors and still be placed in a game.
Source 5	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roSiT9mObGY - Uncharted boss fight, example of interactive cutscenes.	An example of an interactive cutscene in which the player can actually interact with the cutscene and change its outcome by pressing buttons.
Source 6	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q85oLXXkxmE - making of uncharted and example of motion capture.	Example video of how motion capture is made in which actors wear suits and act out cutscenes and then these are rendered with graphics.
Source 7	(Source 8) http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/17/l-a-noires-amazing-motionscan-facial-capture-system-demonstrat/ - La Noire, example of facial Motion Capture.	An example of how facial motion capture is done, in which actors faces are placed directly onto their characters in the cutscene in order to create very realistic expressions.
Source 8	http://www.amazon.com/forum/action%20game?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx3V2BU0EU5S6TW&cdThread=Tx2ORTMYRTW4V30 - Interactive debate.	Debate as to whether or not interactive cutscenes, in which players can interact with a cutscene by pressing buttons should be included in games.
Source 9	(Source 10) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3f91_5kQE0 - example of a pre-rendered cutscene.	An example of a pre-rendered cutscene in which a cutscene plays out like a movie and the player has no control over what happens.
Source 10	(Source 11) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr-d5lUN9Lk - Example of a real time cutscene.	Example of a real time cutscene in which players can interact with the cutscene such as being able to walk around.
Source 11	(Source 12) http://blenderartists.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-231779.html?s=5fa0b747a94b1e764a265e61f8b73a01 - Pre-rendered vs Real Time debate.	Debate as to whether real-time or pre-rendered cutscenes are the best way forward for future cutscenes.
Source 12	(Source 13) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutscene - Steven Spielberg quote on his idea of no cutscenes.	A quote from Steven Spielberg stating his opinion on cutscenes.
Source 13	(Source 13) http://www.atariage.com/2600/screenshots/s_SpaceInvaders_2.png - Image of a cutscene from Space Invaders	An image showing what the cutscenes were like in Space Invaders. Incredibly pixelated and simple.
Source 14	(Source 14) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhFV5-qbbIw – Video of a cutscene from Donkey Kong	An image showing what cutscenes in Donkey Kong were like. Similar to Space Invaders, they were simple, pixelated and also very short.
Source 15	(Source 15) http://www.itchythumbs.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Pokemon-Battle.jpg - Image of a battle in Pokemon Red	An image showing how the battle cutscenes looked in Pokemon Red. No colours and massive pixels were used.
Source 16	(Source 16) http://tauri33gameblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Pokemon-Black-and-White-screenshot.jpg - Image of a battle in Pokemon Black	An example of a later Pokemon game, Black. A vast improvement from Red with colours, movement and tiny pixels.
Source 17	(Source 17) http://www.ryansgoblog.com/images/kane_command_conquer.jpg - Image of a live action cutscene in Command and Conquer	An image from a live cutscene in Command and Conquer where real people were filmed to make the cutscenes.
Source 18	(Source 18) http://www.theurbanshogun.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/la-noire-tech4.jpg - Image of facial motion capture used in LA Noire	An image of how facial motion capture was done in LA Noire. Very extensive technology that allowed the exact face of the actor to be copied.
Source 19	(Source 19) http://www.mocapclub.com/images/Drake_Mocap_Comp.jpg - Image of motion capture used in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune	An image of how motion capture was used in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune showing how movement was captured exactly from the actors to make it precise and accurate.
Source 20	(Source 20) http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee451/nameisprince2/Dissidia012_screenshot_Lightning_CG.jpg - Image of a pre-rendered cutscene from Final Fantasy	Image of a pre-rendered cutscene from Final Fantasy where the better graphics are used to portray story and emotion.
Source 21	(Source 21) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr-d5lUN9Lk – Video of a real-time cutscene from Assassin’s Creed	A video of a real-time cutscene in Assassin’s Creed where the player can interact with the cutscene but cannot change the story still.
Source 22	(Source 22) http://www.worldofpwnage.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/ShenmueInteractiveCutscenePic1.jpg - Image of an interactive cutscene from Shenmue City	An image of an interactive cutscene from Shenmue City where you have to press buttons to change the outcome of the cutscene.