Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy Solid Geometry, Vector class

Trigger Happy

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SOLID GEOMETRY

Vector class

The world is made of glowing green and red lines. You are seated in a cockpit, grasping a sculpted black lever in each hand, thumbs hovering over the twin red fire buttons on top. You are in a tank. Audio rumblings and sonar-like pings go off around your ears as the other tanks on the battlefield seek to destroy you. It’s kill or be killed. It’s a dream of perfect destruction. You’re playing Battlezone.

This arcade game, released by Atari in 1980, in which the player must shoot other tanks and flying saucers while surviving as long as possible, was a milestone in the history of videogame imagery, and in the construction of videogame space itself. It was the first really successful “first-person” game, where the screen showed the action from a perspectival point of

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