Simulation in entertainment

Entertainment simulation is a term that encompasses many large and popular industries such as film, television, video games (including serious games) and rides in theme parks. Although modern simulation is thought to have its roots in training and the military, in the 20th century it also became a conduit for enterprises which were more hedonistic in nature. Advances in technology in the 1980s and 1990s caused simulation to become more widely used and it began to appear in movies such as Jurassic Park (1993) and in computer-based games such as Atari’s Battlezone.

[edit]History

[edit]Early History (1940’s and 50’s)

The first simulation game may have been created as early as 1947 by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. This was a straightforward game that simulated a missile being fired at a target. The curve of the missile and its speed could be adjusted using several knobs. In 1958 a computer game called “Tennis for Two” was created by Willy Higginbotham which simulated a tennis game between two players who could both play at the same time using hand controls and was displayed on an oscilloscope.^[29] This was one of the first electronic video games to use a graphical display.

[edit]Modern Simulation (1980’s-present)

Advances in technology in the 1980s made the computer more affordable and more capable than they were in previous decades ^[30] which facilitated the rise of computer gaming. The first video game consolesreleased in the 1970s and early '80s fell prey to the industry crash in 1983, but in 1985 Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) which became the best selling console in video game history.^[31]In the 1990s computer games became widely popular with the release of such game as The Sims and Command and Conquer and the still increasing power of desktop computers. Today, computer simulation games such as World of Warcraft are played by millions of people around the world.
Computer-generated imagery was used in film to simulate objects as early as 1976, though in 1982 the movie Tron was the first film to use computer-generated imagery for more than a couple of minutes. However, the commercial failure of the movie may have caused the industry to step away from the technology.^[32] In 1993, the movie Jurassic Park became the first popular film to use computer-generated graphics extensively, integrating the simulated dinosaurs almost seamlessly into live action scenes. This event transformed the film industry; in 1995 the movie Toy Story was the first film to use only computer-generated images and by the new millennium computer generated graphics were the leading choice for special effects in movies.^[33]
Simulators have been used for entertainment since the Link Trainer in the 1930s.^[34] The first modern simulator ride to open at a theme park was Disney’s Star Tours in 1987 soon followed by Universal’s The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera in 1990 which was the first ride to be done entirely with computer graphics.^[35]