game is fun

Super Mario Bros. is the best selling video game franchise of all time, with over 222 million units sold across all genres and platforms.  222 million! Incredible!  But you wouldn’t expect less from one of the most beloved heroes of all time, a hero who at one time helped to single-handedly save a struggling video game industry. Behind those baggy overalls and red cap lie an incredible game design experience, one that has withstood the test of time and established a high bar for the level of fun and enjoyment required for a commercial video game.  What can modern day developers learn by analyzing the Game Design Canvas of the original Super Mario Bros.?  A lot, as it turns out.  The principles that made Super Mario Bros. a hit back then still apply today. In “Game Over”, an excellent account of the history of Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, referred to his experiences as a child.  He discussed the feeling of seeing something, su...

Higinbotham’s Tennis for Two was actually preceded by several other inventions — one in the late 1940s and two in the early 1950s. But it would not be fair or correct to award the title of “the first video game” to any one of these specific inventions. In 1948, ten years before Higinbotham’s Tennis for Two, Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle R. Mann patented the “Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device,” making this currently the earliest-documented video game predecessor. The amusement device, however, required players to overlay pictures or illustrations of targets such as airplanes in front of the screen, dovetailing the game’s action. This was unlike Higinbotham’s Tennis for Two, which entirely displayed the game’s visuals on the screen. Another video game-like device, the Nimrod computer, was built by Ferranti International and first displayed at the Festival of Britain’s Exhibition of Science in 1951. Although the computer was built to play the century-old game of logic and st...

Do you believe in curses? At one time, it may have crossed the minds of those living in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. The Elms Hotel and Spa burned down twice. Thankfully, no one was hurt in either fire. But lets start at the beginning. The Elms didn't become a twinkle in someone's eye until after a local farmer used the healing mineral waters to cure his daughter's incurable tuberculosis in 1880. Word of her miraculous recovery spread about the country and people began to descend on the location in hopes of curing their own ailments. A pastor named John Van Buren Flack and a landowner named Anthony Wyman saw it's business potential, forming Excelsior Springs. Excelsior Springs Company was created to bring the town pavilions, parks and The Elms Hotel. The hotel opened in 1888 and guests enjoyed the mineral water baths, gardens and luxurious parties and balls. Ten years after it open its doors, the first fire burned the wooden structure to the ground on May 9, 18...