How We Got Here - Game Design Theory - page 71

Of course, D&D is far from the only kid on the block in this genre.
After D&D 's creation, tons of such systems began sprouting up. While
early versions of D&D were heavily mechanical and more game-like,
other RPGs coming out had a much greater focus on story and player
interaction. It seemed that D&D wanted to stay on top of the latest craze,
and it tended to absorb qualities of many popular games of the day with
each new edition.
Today, a wider variety of these games are available than ever before
due to the ease with which game materials are created and distributed on
the Internet. Despite this, however, we see very little bleedthrough from
non- D&D systems into mainstream video games (interestingly, many
have claimed that D&D itself, now in its fourth edition, is heavily inspired
by video games). The interesting world of pen and paper RPGs remains
an untapped resource for new video game (and even board game) ideas.
Pinball
During the 20th century, we also saw a rise in various types of mechani-
cal games, the most famous and important of which was pinball. Why is
pinball important? Well, for one thing, we probably wouldn't have had
the modern arcade without it. Many early video-game fans can recall
being pulled into the arcade gaming scene initially by pinball machines.
Pinball has technically been around since the late 1800s, but it be-
came a serious industry in the 1930s. By the 1950s we started to see a
huge assortment of pinball machines with various themes, a trend that
continued until the 1990s. At that time video games started to take over
the spotlight and pinball seemed to collapse. At the time of this writing,
only one manufacturer of pinball machines still exists, and it's extremely
small.
So are pinball machines games? Well, it probably depends on the
individual game to some extent, but I'd say in general the actual mean-
ingful choices you get to make in pinball are extremely limited, if there
are any at all. One thing I can say is that you certainly don't get to make
any interesting decisions, so in terms of the game lens, pinball isn't a very
good game. It looks much better when viewed as a contest. Entire topics
have been written on the subject of pinball alone, however, and I implore
you to continue your research in this area on your own—going into more
detail is beyond the scope (and the point) of this topic.
The Promise of SpaceWar!
In the 1950s, with the invention of the transistor—possibly the most im-
portant invention in the history of electronics—the potential of making