Name: Crash Course: Games
Uploaded: 2016
Description: Andre Meadows hosts Crash Course Games! In this series we are going to look at the history of games all the way back to ancient Egypt.

Andre Meadows hosts Crash Course Games! In this series we are going to look at the history of games all the way back to ancient Egypt.

Welcome to Crash Course Games! In this series our host, Andre Meadows is going to discuss the history and science of games. We’re going to talk about video games of course, but also board games, role-playing games, card games, even sports!

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What is a Game?: Crash Course Games #1

From the ancient Egyptian game of Senet to the Aztec's Patolli, games have been played since the beginning of civilization. Today, your host Andre Meadows is going to take a look at a few of these games, including some that are actually still played today.

Ancient Games: Crash Course Games #2

Over the next few episodes, we're going to talk about the history of video games. Today, we're going to start with the first re-programmable computers in the 1940s

The Dawn of Video Games: Crash Course Games #3

Today, Andre is going to talk about the rise of Atari and with it the rise of the video game industry. So if you remember from the last episode, we mentioned that the first arcade machine, Galaxy Game, happened to have a coin slot, but this was just the beginning.

Atari and the Business of Video Games: Crash Course Games #4

So last week Andre talked about Atari's role in the rise of the video game industry, but Atari wasn't the only major player in the 1970s. So we're going to step back a few years and first talk about Ralph Baer who designed the first video game console - the Magnavox Odyssey.

The First Home Consoles: Crash Course Games #5

So the 1980s was the golden age of arcade games. Games like Donkey Kong, Pac- Man, Space Invaders, and Centipede had become a cultural phenomenon. These games had expanded the gamer demographic and even encouraged the rise of competitive gaming.

The Video Game Crash of 1983: Crash Course Games #6

So we ended the last episode at the North American Video Game Crash of 1983, and even though the video game market had collapsed in the United States, demand for video games remained strong in Europe and Asia.

Nintendo and a New Standard for Video Games: Crash Course Games #7

So we ended the last episode nearing the close of the 1980s and Nintendo had become the dominant player in the home console market, but Sega, originally a slot machine game company during World War 2, was looking to get its own console into players? homes.

Sega and More Mature Video Games: Crash Course Games #8

So by the mid-90s, the video game industry was once again booming and this attracted the attention of the Japanese electronics giant Sony. In 1994, Sony introduced their Playstation console which successfully coupled cutting-edge technologies with some great games.

Playstation and More Immersive Video Games: Crash Course Games #9

Today, we wrap up our discussion of the console wars by taking a look at Microsoft?s Xbox which was announced in 2001. The early 2000s saw a lot of innovation in hardware and games and we?ll cover some of that.

Microsoft and Connected Consoles: Crash Course Games #10

Today, we?re moving on from game consoles to talk about a bigger shift that was happening in the gaming industry. In the mid-2000s, we saw a proliferation of Internet accessible devices and with them, gaming would expand to a new audience.

Casual Gaming: Crash Course Games #11

So we ended the last episode with casual gaming and a more connected gaming community, but these connected communities started much before smartphones and Facebook. Today, we?re going to talk about MMORPGs - or Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games.

MMORPGs - Crash Course Games #12

Today, we?re going to step away from video games and take a closer look at a game type that has been with us for over a millennium - card games.

Card Games: Crash Course Games #13

Today, we?re going to talk about board games, but instead of trying to trace their histories, which we?ve already covered a bit of in ep2 on ancient games, we?re going to look really closely at just two board games - Monopoly and The Settlers of Catan.

Board Games: Crash Course Games #14

Chess, Number Munchers, The Oregon Trail! Today, we?re going to talk about gaming?s role in education. Now technically all games have an educational component because games are defined by their rules and players have to learn those rules to participate.

Educational Games: Crash Course #15

So we?ve talked a lot about what makes games so great in this series, but we haven?t really addressed the big question: why do we play games anyway?

Psychology of Gaming: Crash Course Games #16

Today, John Green is going to be your substitute teacher as we dive into the world of sports! Now ?sports? is a pretty broad genre of game, we probably couldn?t even cover them in an entire series, but today we?re going to do our best to look at the origins of sports.

The Olympics, FIFA, and why we love sports: Crash Course Games #17

Today, we?re going to explore the world of role-playing games. Role-playing games are different than most, because they?re technically a form of interactive storytelling with one player managing the game as the game master, and all of players assuming the roles of their character.

Role-playing Games: Crash Course Games #18

Good game design is essential for a positive player experience whether it?s a board game, video game, or even dice game. So today, we?re going to take some time to give you an introductory overview of the process of creating a game.

Game Design: Crash Course Games #19

Today, we're FINALLY going to talk about PC Gaming. So the personal computer is the precursor to the console, but it's not quite accurate to say that it just led to the console. PCs and the video games created on them have and continue to influence the rest of the video game industry.

PC Gaming: Crash Course Games #20

Today, we're going to take a look at a seemingly cutting-edge technology that has actually been around for decades - virtual reality. Virtual reality devices have been introduced multiple times in the video game era, but they never seem to stick.

The Future of Virtual Reality: Crash Course Games #21

Today we?re going to talk about open-world games. Open world games are different than most video games because although they often have goals and tasks, they usually encourage what is known as ?emergent stories.

Open World Games: Crash Course Games #22

Today, we?re going to talk about the gaming devices that combine the screen, speakers, controls, and computer into one neat little package - that?s right we?re talking about handheld game consoles.

Handhelds: Crash Course Games #23

Today we?re going to talk about controllers. Controllers are incredibly important in the gaming experience because they are how we communicate actions within a game and often play a significant role in why we like or dislike certain games.

Input Devices: Crash Course Games #24

Today we're going to talk about game shows! Game shows have a long history going all the way back to the 1920s on the radio and then proliferating across media to the massive pop culture icons they are today.

The History of Game Shows: Crash Course Games #25

Today we?re going to talk about LARPs or live-action role-playing games. Larping tends to conjure up the image of a bunch of nerds hitting each other with foam weapons but it?s much more than that.

LARP: Crash Course Games #26

Today we?re going to talk about gambling. Now, gambling is interesting because it could be argued that gambling doesn?t even have anything to do with games.

Gambling: Crash Course Games #27

Today we?re going to do something a little bit different and take everything we?ve learned so far and apply it to a case study on (arguably) the biggest game franchise in the world: Pok?mon.

The Pokemon Phenomenon: Crash Course Games #28

Welcome to the FINAL LEVEL of Crash Course Games! We thought it made the most sense to sign off this series by taking a look towards the future because you know... boss battles are supposed to be tough.