**3.1 Evolution of the videogame industry**

It is know that Egyptians were playing games since around 3000 BC when an expedition in 1920s by Sir Leonard Wooley found two board games in tombs. Thus the Royal Game of Ur gets its name from the two game boards which are associated with first dynasty of Ur (before 2600 BC). Each of the game boards contains a set of twelve squares and a set of six cases which were linked by a bridge of two cases (for review consult "Histoire des jeux de société by Jean Marie Lhéte, 1994). The rules of the game are very similar to backgammon, the goal is to introduce seven pawns and move them along to designated path and be the first to have them also out of the game. At this point it is possible to state that games have existed along the existence of humanity. Thus many games have remained as they were designed but the way to play them has changed radically. The sole relationship between human societies with games can fill entire books.

The video game industry itself could be dated from the late 19th century, more precisely in 1889 when Fusajiro Yamauchi established a company called Marufuku to distribute and manufacture a Japanese playing card game-Hanafuda. In the 1950s Marufuku company became Nintendo which means 'leave luck to heaven". Meanwhile in the USA, Martin Bromley buys slot machines and creates a game rooms concept named Service Games(SEGA) (Kent, 2001).

Later on, David Rosen opens a business in Japan and he starts shipping photo booths. Then Rosen imports coin-operated electron mechanical games machines to launch this industry in Japan. At the beginning of 60s, a student from Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT), Steve Russell developed an interactive game computer called Spacewar.

At the time Rosen Enterprises merges with Services Games to become Sega Enterprises. Then, in mid sixty's Ralph Baer starts interactive television games at Sander Associates meanwhile Sega in Japan was charging \$0.25 cents per play arcade games to overcome with the high shipping costs, which then eventually become the standard price for playing arcade

220 Haptics Rendering and Applications

in processing speed and memory size. With the commercial availability of haptic interfaces, software toolkits, and haptics-enabled applications, the field of human-haptics interaction is

Haptic research in the realm of home entertainment and computer games has blossomed during the past few years. The game experience comprises four aspects: physical, mental, social, and emotional. In particular, force feedback technology enhances the physical aspects of the game experience by creating a deeper physical feeling of playing a game, improving the physical skills of the players, and imitating the use of physical artefacts. Plenty of games available in the market take advantage of the haptic effects offered by mainstream haptic interfaces. Car racing games can be enhanced when players drive over a rough section of road by receiving vibrations in their joysticks or steering wheels. However, how did we come to realize such novel interfaces that enhance our gaming experience? In this section we present a roadmap to past and present work, which can give a picture of how haptic

It is know that Egyptians were playing games since around 3000 BC when an expedition in 1920s by Sir Leonard Wooley found two board games in tombs. Thus the Royal Game of Ur gets its name from the two game boards which are associated with first dynasty of Ur (before 2600 BC). Each of the game boards contains a set of twelve squares and a set of six cases which were linked by a bridge of two cases (for review consult "Histoire des jeux de société by Jean Marie Lhéte, 1994). The rules of the game are very similar to backgammon, the goal is to introduce seven pawns and move them along to designated path and be the first to have them also out of the game. At this point it is possible to state that games have existed along the existence of humanity. Thus many games have remained as they were designed but the way to play them has changed radically. The sole relationship between

The video game industry itself could be dated from the late 19th century, more precisely in 1889 when Fusajiro Yamauchi established a company called Marufuku to distribute and manufacture a Japanese playing card game-Hanafuda. In the 1950s Marufuku company became Nintendo which means 'leave luck to heaven". Meanwhile in the USA, Martin Bromley buys slot machines and creates a game rooms concept named Service

Later on, David Rosen opens a business in Japan and he starts shipping photo booths. Then Rosen imports coin-operated electron mechanical games machines to launch this industry in Japan. At the beginning of 60s, a student from Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT),

At the time Rosen Enterprises merges with Services Games to become Sega Enterprises. Then, in mid sixty's Ralph Baer starts interactive television games at Sander Associates meanwhile Sega in Japan was charging \$0.25 cents per play arcade games to overcome with the high shipping costs, which then eventually become the standard price for playing arcade

Steve Russell developed an interactive game computer called Spacewar.

experiencing an exciting exponential growth.

interfaces came to be what they are today.

**3.1 Evolution of the videogame industry** 

human societies with games can fill entire books.

Games(SEGA) (Kent, 2001).

**3. A roadmap to haptic interfaces in games** 

games. In 1970 Magnavox licenses Rapl Baer's television game from Sander Associates and a year later released as Odyssey based on Ping-Pong Baer's game. In the mid 1970's Atari designed a prototypical Home Pong unit and Namco starts creating video games.

In the late 70's Atari released the video game computer system known as 2600 and Mattel introduced a line of LED-based handled video games, also Nintendo released its first home video game in Japan. In 1979 Atari releases Asteroids, which became an all time bestselling game and Mattel Electronics introduces the Intellivision game console. In addition Milton Bradley released Microvision, the first handled programmable game system. In the 80's the practice of selling home versions of arcade machines hits the business. The same year Pac-Mac was released which is the most popular game by Namco (Kent, 2001).

In 1983 Cinematronics released Dragon's Lair, the first arcade game to feature laser-disc technology. One year later Nintendo released the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan and then become in the USA the Nintendo Entertainment System(NES). In the mid 80s Tetris was created by Alex Pajinov and also Atari released the 7800 game console. Later on NEC released the 16 -bit/8 -bit hybrid PC-Engine game console in Japan and Sega unveils 16-bit Meha Drive game console. Early 90s Sega ships SEGA CD peripheral for Genesis game console. In 1993 Atari launches the 64-bit Jaguar and Id software publish Doom for PCs. One year later Sega releases 32X, a peripheral device that increases the power of the Genesis. In mid 90s Sony releases PlayStation in the United States and Nintendo Virtual Boy and also unveils the 64-bit Nintendo game console in Japan. At the late 90s Sega releases Dreamcast game console in the USA. In 2000 Sony released PlaStation 2 and Micorosft unveils plans for XBOX. in 2001 Nintendo release GameCube and Microsoft Xbox worldwide (Kent, 2001).

Development of video games industry has also been based on a close relationship with the well established amusement industry (Kent, 2001). To extend such criteria, Kent has stated that pinball games had made a huge impact in the development of videogame and computer industry in general. In his book he assumes the position that the creator of *Baffle Ball* game David Gottlieb was a great influence in the development that we know today as video game. In the first stage of development the *Baffle Ball* game was used with no electricity and it was built in a countertop (worktop) cabinet and had only one moving part the plunger. Players could enjoy the game by spending a penny1 and get seven balls to try into scoring holes. *Baffle ball* was successful at the time that Gottlien created a company to deal with a shipping load of 400 cabinets per day.

Later on, competition was in place, thus this industry in the 70s had five game manufactured companies to place and distribute equipment in restaurants, bar, bowling and stores. On the other hand the development of computers was growing fast from the 60s when the computers occupied the whole room to the introduction of transistor which replaced the vacuum valves and later on the silicon chips which replace the transistors making computers more robust and fast. Thus more academic society and students were involved in the development of computer languages and interaction. The first game was created by engineers at Sander Associate a contractor company. The game was created from idea of which a hard-wired logic circuit projected a spot flying across the screen. The original idea was for players to catch the spot with manually controlled dots. Over time, the

**<sup>1</sup>** A penny is a coin or a type of currency used in several English-speaking countries. It is often the smallest denomination within a currency system source: Wikipedia 2011

The Role of Haptics in Games 223

environment. This can result in a rich environment, which provides players or users with a higher sense of immersion, as well as new and interesting ways to interact with the game environment (Andrews et al. 2006). In addition, this simulated world can be used to do research on applications such as physical rehabilitation, driver training simulations, and more. There is also a haptic device called HandJive designed for interpersonal entertainment (Fogg et al.1998). The concept is described as a handheld object that fits in one hand and allows remote play through haptic input and output. It communicates wirelessly with similar devices, and provides haptic stimuli. In fact, haptic devices are becoming more accessible to the average computer and console user and will play an important role in providing innovative forms of entertainment. As further evidence, in 2008, Novint Technologies introduced the Novint Falcon device, which is affordable, even for mainstream consumers

(Novint 2010). This device is now integrated with several popular video games.

corresponds to force and velocity (Mohellebi et al, 2001).

design and technology proprietary of IMMERSION Technologies.

more realistic playing environments.

Although drivers obtain a substantial amount of information from driving from vision, information from other sensory modalities may also provide relevant information about the state of the car or even the surrounding environment (Liu & Chang, 1995). Force feedback steering racing wheels provides mainly realistic resistance to the wheel rotation and providing precise throttle response. This is achieved by emulating the real steering system through a mechanism that also provides vibration feedback. From a tele-operatiing system perspective, the energy which flows between the driver and the vehicle front wheel through the mechanical linkage can be considered to be mainly effort and flux exchange which

In addition driving-simulators fidelity is usually defined by the quality of its visual and motion cueing system (Katzourakis et al. 2011). Katzourakis experimented that the quality of driving-simulator's haptic cues are very important and rely on the hardware and control properties of the system design. Despite the hardware characteristics there is also important to consider the model of vehicle dynamics. An experimental work was carried out by Toffin et al in order to answer questions such as how do drivers use the force appearing on the steering wheel when driving in curves?. Well, they have found that a wide range of adaptation results that occurs mainly at the haptic level rather than in the internal model of the vehicle dynamics. Many features provided by commercial force feedback steering wheels is based on exclusive

In 1992 Thrustmaster Enzo Ferrari Force Feedback Racing wheels was released which did not provide a satisfactory sense of precise force feedback for some users. In 1998 Logitech the leading company of gaming controllers for PCs and consoles released the Logitech Formula™ Force GP racing wheel with more than one million sales worldwide and actually it was the first force feedback wheel found in any game console. The force feedback in racing wheels attracted a more sophisticated method for racing aficionados immersed in

In 2002 Logitech introduces a Speed Force Feedback wheel for GameCube. In 2005 the R440 Force Feedback Wheel from Saitek has busted open the doors to affordable racing fun. In

**4. Haptic controllers** 

**4.1 Force feedback wheels** 

player's dots evolved into paddles and the game became "ping-pong". One the main developers of this concept was Baer who sold the idea to Magnavox but they first of outrageously priced and poorly advertised at the time that this game had gone almost unnoticed until Magnavox released later on as Odyssey which change dramatically the way to play games (Kent, 2001).
