Gaming : Kingdom Hearts (Seventh Gen)

Kingdom Hearts

Box Cover

Game Details 

Genres Action role-playing

Developers :  Square Enix 1st Production Department, Jupiter, h.a.n.d.
Publisher : Square Enix
Creators : Tetsuya Nomura (gameplay & story), Shinji Hashimoto (original concept)

Series : Kingdom Hearts
Platforms : PlayStation 2

First release : March 28, 2002
Official website : Kingdom Hearts Portal

Mode: Single Player

Distribution DVD-

Game Information

Kingdom hearts is the first in the Kingdom hearts series. It was a collaboration between square enix and Disney Interactive studios. The crossover saw many well known Disney characters and also new ones which where created by Square Enix.

Plot

From right to left. Kairi, Sora, Riku

Shadow Creature

It all starts with a dream. Sora(the main character) is dreaming about an event that is going to happen in the near future. Sora lives in Destiny islands along with his friends Riku and Kairi. The three of them want to leave the islands and venture forth to seek new worlds. They built a raft and planned to sail away but on the night they where going to leave they where attacked by shadow creatures. Sora not knowing what is happening sets out to find his friends, he finds Riku first only to watch him be engulfed by darkness, curious about what it holds. He then starts to look for Kairi and along his way he finds a strange weapon called the key blade which he uses to defend himself. He finds Kairi in a cave next to a door,As she called out his name to door bursts open and throws them both out of the cave. When he awakes he is adrift, the islands are destroyed and his friends are nowhere to be found. This is where the real story begins. 

Sora then ends up in traverse town where he finds and befriends Goofy and Donald duck. These 3 learn that the darkness is consuming worlds and the Key blade is the "key" to stopping all of this. The Trio need to travel to different worlds and push back the darkness to its source before finally destroying it.

Goofy, Sora, Donald (In-Game)

These three are the most iconic characters of kingdom hearts

Characters

There are a host of characters, some from Disney others from SquareEnix and some specially created for this story line.

Disney characters in Kingdom Hearts

These are the Disney Created characters which are found in the game, each holding their own stroy line and world which is artistically and lore friendly.

Characters From Final Fantasy found in Kingdom Hearts 

Gameplay

In Game HUD

The game is played in third person view. The bottom right holds stats for your character (Sora) The green bar represents health and the blue Mana. These can be upgraded providing more sustain. The left holds commands that can be used in game: Attack, Magic, Items, Summon.

The attack only appears in battle and triggers a basic attack, when not in battle it is change to other commands such as talk and pick up. Magic allows the player to use magic skills, each magic skill is effective against a different type of enemy or heal allies. Items allows you to enter your inventory and use/ equip items. Summon allows you to summon members that you unlocked throughout your quests by completing their missions.

Summoning Simba from the Lion King

The Top Right holds the stats for goofy and Donald showing their hp and mp. They are AI controlled which is quite good,using their abilities to their full extent, you can tweak their AI to provide more custom tactics. You also have the option to lock on to targets to make the camera follow Sora's perspective on the enemy. 

To travel from one world to another one needs to use the gummi ships. The players can use schismatics which are found throughout the the game to get a base model. The player is also able to modify their ship to their liking. They can get new parts by buying them in shop or find them when traveling through worlds. When you travel through worlds a sort of mini game appears where you have to fight other gummi ships to get to the end.

Gummi Ship Mini Game

Play Through Part 1 

Commercial 

References

Wikipedia. 2015. Kingdom Hearts. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_Hearts. [Accessed 30 April 15].

KingdomHeartsWiki. 2003. Kingdom Hearts (game). [ONLINE] Available at: http://kingdomhearts.wikia.com/wiki/Kingdom_Hearts_(game). [Accessed 30 April 15].

DualShockers. 2006. Review: Kingdom Hearts. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/10/07/review-kingdom-hearts-hd-1-5-remix-the-magic-of-this-timeless-classic-is-alive-and-very-well/. [Accessed 30 April 15].

Gaming : PlayStation 2 (Sixth Gen)

Sony PlayStation 2 

Technical Specifications

Emotion Engine

MIPS IV-subset
300 MHz (294.912 MHz)
128-bit integer SIMD
128-bit floating-point SIMD
24KB cache (16KB instruction + 8KB data)
16KB Scratch Pad RAM
Co-processor 1: FPU
Floating Point Multiply Accumulator (FMAC) x 1
Floating Point Divider (FDIV) x 1
8KB cache (4KB instruction + 4KB data)
Co-processor 2: VU0
Floating Point Multiply Accumulator (FMAC) x 4
Floating Point Divider (FDIV) x 1
8KB cache (4KB instruction + 4KB data)
Vector Processing Unit: VU1
Floating Point Multiply Accumulator (FMAC) x 5
Floating Point Divider (FDIV) x 2
32KB cache (16KB instruction + 16KB data)
450 Dhrystone 2.1 MIPS
6.2 GFLOPS

Geometry:

66 million polygons per second (peak)
38 million polygons per second (lighting)
36 million polygons per second (fog)
16 million polygons per second (curved surface generation)
Image Processing Unit (IPU): MPEG2 Compressed Image Decoder
150 million pixels per second
DMA: 10 channels
Graphics Synthesizer (GS)

150 MHz (147.456 MHz)
16 pixel pipelines
2.4 gigapixels per second (no texture)
1.2 gigatexels per second
Point, Bilinear, Trilinear, Anisotropic Mip-Map Filtering
Perspective-Correct Texture Mapping
Bump Mapping
Environment Mapping
32-bit Color (RGBA)
32-bit Z Buffer
4MB Multiported Embedded DRAM
38.4 gigabytes per second eDRAM bandwidth (19.2 GB/s in each direction)
9.6 gigabytes per second eDRAM texture bandwidth
150 million particles per second

Polygon Drawing Rate:

75 million polygons per second (small polygon)
50 million polygons per second (48-pixel quad with Z and Alpha)
30 million polygons per second (50-pixel triangle with Z and Alpha)
25 million polygons per second (48-pixel quad with Z, Alpha, and Texture)
18.75 million sprites per second (8 x 8 pixel sprites)

Emotion Engine to Graphics Synthesizer bus

64 bits wide
150 MHz
1.2 gigabytes per second bandwidth

Main Memory

32 Megabytes RAMBUS DRAM
32 bits wide (dual channel 16-bit)
400 MHz (800 MHz effective)
800 megabits per second per pin
3.2 gigabytes per second bandwidth

I/O Processor

based on PSone CPU
33.8688 MHz or 36.864 MHz (selectable)
2MB memory
USB, IEEE-1394, Sound, DVD-ROM, and PCMCIA controller

Sound Chip

48 voices
2MB memory
Supports Dolby, AC3, and DTS output

Storage

General

4x DVD-ROM
DVD-5 disc format (4.7 gigabytes)
memory cards

Power

Power adapter : External

Design

PS2 Design

Console

The Ps2 boasts a geometric, slick design most commonly seen in black. The console can be placet both horizontal on on its back or standing upright, when it is upright it somewhat resembles a modern skyscraper. Almost all of the ports and buttons are situated on the front panel of the console. On the right side (horizontal) you have the power and eject buttons which are both light when in use. Moving left you have the disc tray which is adorned with the play station logo. The left side holds 4 ports, the top two are for the memory cards ad the bottom two are for the controllers. Under those you will find two usb ports that are used to connect peripherals such as the "Eye Toy" or light guns.  The back panel has a port where you plug in the power adapter and a switch to turn on/off the console. This is rarely used due to the standby button at the front. 

Controller

PS2 Controller

The controller didn't change that much in design but most notable are the two analogue stick situated at the bottom. At the time they provided little to no use as games weren't centered around their mechanics.

Full Button list

History

On march 1st, 1999 Sony had finally announced the PlayStation, this console was the first to be described as the competitor of Sega's Dreamcast which was the first 6th gen console to be released. Sony's announcement had little effect on the Dream cast as 500,000 units where sold within two weeks of the North American launch.

The PlayStation 2 was put on display at the Tokyo Game Show in September 1999, it came along with playable demos of upcoming games which wanted to show the capabilities of the consoles power and graphics, the demos included Tekken Tag tournament and Gran turismo 2000 which was later released as Gran Turismo 3: A-spec.

The official launch was in March 2000 in Japan, October in north America and November in Europe. The first day brought in 250$ million selling consoles ,games and accessories. This number the previous record holder of 97$ million by Dreamcast. Manufacturing delays caused severe shortages of the PS2, people started to find other alternatives to acquire this console. People started looking at auction websites such as eBay to get the latest console and some people payed over 1000$ for their console.

The PlayStation 2 was such a success that it Sega started to have problems. Financially and competitively thwarted Sega had announced the discontinue of the Dream-cast only 18 months after its initial release. This bode well for the PS2 as for 6 months it remained the only 6th gen concole. Competition gradually re entered the scene with the introduction of the Xbox and the Game Cube. the PlayStation 3 had the weakest specs out of all 3, the Xbox had the strongest hardware and the Game Cube having the lowest price. Needless to say the PS2 had a huge head start and was the only one to come with a DVD compatible disk drive, The Xbox needed an adapter and the GameCube had no compatibility at all. The PS2 2 1 upped the Xbox by securing exclusive rights to the games Grand Theft Auto and Metal Gear Solid 2 which where both highly wanted games at the time.

In May 2002 Sony cut the prices down from 299$ to 199$ in North America which made it the same price as the Game Cube further shattering its chances of success, It was also cut twice in Japan. These cuts where due to the anticipation of ht the PlayStation 3.

The PS2 went on to become the record holder of the most console to ever be sold in history, selling over 155 million units. 3,874 games where released since its launch and more then 1.5 billion sold.

Evolution of the PlayStation 2 

PlayStation 2 Commercials

The commercials where quite weird for my liking and some make little to no sense to me.

References

CyberPC. 2015. Sony PS2. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.cyberiapc.com/vgg/sony_ps2.htm. [Accessed 30 April 15].

Wikipedia. 2015. PlayStation 2. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2. [Accessed 30 April 15].

Sony . 2000. Sony. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.consolecolors.com/sony.html. [Accessed 30 April 15].

The Video Game Critic. 2000. Sony Playstation 2 (2000-2012). [ONLINE] Available at: http://videogamecritic.com/ps2info.htm. [Accessed 30 April 15].

Gaming : Crash Bash (Fifth Gen)

Crash Bash

Box Cover

Game Details :

Developer : Eurocom Entertainment Software, Cerny Games
Publisher : Sony Computer Entertainment America
Distributor :  Universal Interactive Studios
Composer : Steve Duckworth
Series : Crash Bandicoot
Platform : PlayStation,PlayStation Network

Release date(s) PlayStation
NA November 6, 2000
EU December 1, 2000
JP December 14, 2000 PlayStation Network
JP March 21, 2008

Mode : Single-player, multiplayer
Distribution : CD-ROM

Game Information

Crash Bash was the fifth game of the crash bash series, it was the first game in the series that was not developed by naughty dog as they had led to develop the new Jax and Dexter series and also the first game in the series that had a multiplayer feature.

Plot : 

In a distant part of space two were two beings called Aku Aku and Uka Uka, these two represented the good and the bad of the universe . Aku Aku being the good and Uka Uka being the bad. The debate gets a little heated and Uka Uka decides to end the debate with a fight. Aku Aku reminds hime that that cannot be any fighting between them so they decide to host a competition to decide which is good or not.  Aku Aku summons Crash and Coco whilst Uka Uka summoned Doctoer Neo Cortex, Doctor  Nitrus, Brio, Tiny Tiger, Koala Kong, Dingodile and Rilla Roo. Aku Aku protests of number of players that Uka Uka has much more players than him so he tels himm to give him two playing on Uka Uka's confidence in his power of evil. Aku Aku then chooses Dingodile and Tiny. With that settled the games can finally begin.

Aku Aku Speaking to Crash and Coco

If the good side wins Uka Uka is confronted about the crystals he wanted to steal, Uka Uka furious thinking that Aku Aku tricked him into loosing, Aku Aku denies this accusation and Uka Uka looses it and takes it out on Cortex and Brio and is then Ejected into space.

If the bad side wins Uka Uka announces his plan of wanting to steal the crystals for himself. Aku Aku is baffeld on how they could lose. Uka Uka becomes very powerful and is unmatched by anyoun. Aku Aku tells Crash and Coco to run away but Uka Uka Says that there is no where to hide from his wroth.

Characters : 

Character Display Pictures
(Top Row Left to right - Crash, Coco, Tiny, Dingodile)
(Bottom Row Left to Right - Neo Cortex, Nitrus, Koala Kong, and  Rilla Roo)

Characters found in Crash Bash. The last two rows hold Enemies and NPC's which are found in the mini games/ Boss fights.

Gameplay 

The player must complete all mini games on each level to advance to the next stage, each game is split into 3 rounds, you win the level when a player reaches a certain number of wins. Each mini game differs in most tactics and game play. You mainly play in adventure mode where the player can earn trophies gems and crystals when beating different challenges of each level. Some levels require a minimum amount of items in order to be able to play it. When a room is completed the player can teleport to the next warp room. When a certain amount of Crystals, Gems and Trophies are aquired a boss level is unlocked . to defeat the boss the player must empty the boss's health bar, when depleated the player can advance to the next level.

Warp Room

Mini Games

Ballistix

Staged in a square arena, each player must use his hover ship to deflect the incomming balls into the other players goal. When a players score becomes 0 they will be ejected from the game. The balls speed up as the stage progresses.

Polar Push 

Each player mounts a baby polar bear and the goal of the game is to knock the player off the ice ring. A device floats above which can give both good effects such as making the player bigger and lightnig which stuns all other players. It can also give bad effects which are instant death on a timer or being made small. The lightning and Anvil can be transmitted between players through touch.

Pogo Pandemonium

The player must jump on squares which covers them in a colour specified for each player. They must cover as much ground as they can before breaking purple crates to score points . Other players can jump on each another players tile to remove their colour. Power ups include : Rockets to stun enemies, arrows which fill a whole line with the players colour and spring boots which make the player move faster.

Crate Crush

In this mode players throw crates at each other inorder to lower opponents health bars . The map also hols TnT crates which hurt the player if they are too close when it explodes. There al also nitro crates which insta kill the player who is cought in its blast. Players can also make a small ammount of damage by kicking other players . You can regain health by picking up fruit which spawns in the arena.

Tank Wars 

Player are now driving tanks and the aim of the game is to shoot missiles (depending on the character) at other players reducing their life to 0.

Commercials

Game Play 

References : 

BANDIPEDIA. NA. Crash Bash. [ONLINE] Available at: http://crashbandicoot.wikia.com/wiki/Crash_Bash. [Accessed 28 April 15].

Gamespot. NA. Crash Bash Review. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/crash-bash-review/1900-2651252/. [Accessed 28 April 15].

wikipedia . NA. List of Crash Bandicoot series characters. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Crash_Bandicoot_series_characters#Rilla_Roo. [Accessed 28 April 15].

wikipedia . NA. List of Crash Bandicoot series characters. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Crash_Bandicoot_series_characters#Rilla_Roo. [Accessed 28 April 15].

wikipedia . NA. Crash Bash. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_Bash. [Accessed 28 April 15].

Gaming : PlayStation (Fifth Gen)

Sony PlayStation

Technical Specifications

General

Game format : Optical disc
Disc loading type : Top loading
Disc capacity : 650 MB

Controllers / accessories

Controller type : Wired
Controllers (max) : 2
Direction control : D-pad
Other peripherals : Joystick, Arcade stick, Mouse

Audio / video

Video outputs : Antenna / RF, RCA / composite
Audio outputs : RCA stereo

Media

Audio playback : CD audio

Storage

System storage : Memory card (Proprietary)
Proprietary card location : Console
Proprietary card capacity (max)128 KB

Hardware

Processor : 32-bit R3000A
CPU speed : 33.87 MHz
CPU cores : 1
System RAM : 2 MB
Internal ROM : 512 KB

Graphics

Video RAM : 1 MB
Resolution : 640x480 maximum
Colors : 24-bit (16,777,216) maximum
Maximum sprite size : 256 pixels high x 256 pixels wide
Polygon rendering : 360,000 polygons per second

Power

Power adapter : External

Design 

PlaysStation1

A rectangular shape holding a circular lid which opens and closes.  Three circular buttons, one for power and the other to open the lid, lastly atop the power button is a smaller circular button to restart the console. In the front you will find 4 ports, the bottom 2 for the joysticks and the top 2 for the memory cards. The back holds a port where you can plug in the adapter. A list is also found on the edge of console under the power button indicating if the play station is on or not.

PlayStation 1 Slim

Redesigned to have an even sleeker look, most notably rounding its edges.

Controller Button Functions

PlayStation Controller

History

Pre PlayStation (80's) - Sony was never a major part of the gaming industry.Sony had tried to make a few entries into the computer business, most popular was the MSX chip in the 80's but it had also failed. What really brought Sony into the market was the CD-ROM/XA, it was a joint venture With a German Company Phillips  pushing the capabilities of the conventional CD-ROM allowing both visual and computer data to be accessed at the same time. It started integrating itself into the computer market but Sony was happy with that, they where looking at the bigger picture.

1988 - Sony's first entry into the gaming industry was when it had mad a deal with Nintendo to supply CD-Rom drives for the Super NES which was not going to be released for another 18 months. Using the same technology that was proposed for the SNES Sony began developing a console of their own, Originally named Super disc, it was to be compatible with bot cartridges of the SNES and Sony's CD's. With this Nintendo started to get worried of the "Super Disk's capabilities and Sony's privileges with their tech.

1991 - In 1991 Phillips and Sony parted ways due to major complications over the CD-Rom. During the same year at Chicago CES Sony announced the Play Station. The Play station would be able to play both super disc's and Nintendo cartridges. It would also be able to using other interactive tools which at the time where considered to be quite important. Sony wanted to utilize it's companies to help develope games for its console, the  chief of Sony Electronic company was seen on the set of Peter Pan thought to be discussing how the movie can be turned into the game from the start. He also stated that that " The video game industry will be much more interesting than when it was cartridge based".

The day after Sony's Announcement, Nintendo instead of supporting  the Play Station as everyone had expected but rather announced that it had joined forces with Phillips in creating the new CD-Drive compatible with the SNES. Sony was furious and sought legal action for the breaking of the contract but Nintendo got off scot free as it was reasoned that it was in their mutual interest to stay friends as Sony was still planning to use ports for the SNES and also Nintendo was using Sony's Audio chip.

1994 - in this year the PlayStation was finally officially released in Japan, 1 week after the Sega Saturn. Initially priced at $387, games at launch included King's Field , Crime Crackers and Ridge Racer. What made it kick off was its design, compared to the Saturn at the time which was coloured beige and somewhat stupid looking, the Sony PlayStation on the other hand was sleek in design with a controller which was revolutionary and ahead of its time. Sony sold 300,000 in the first 30 days.

1995 - launched in the USA on September  9th, it received immediate success. Retailed at 299$ 100,000 were presold at launch sporting 17 games with it. In the next months everything was selling out was beginning to be sold out. By 1994 the PlayStation had sold over 17 million consoles 

and in May 1996 they further dropped the price to 199$ which made it even more attractive to buy.

This was console was Embraced as the gateway into the 5th Generation of Consoles.

PlayStation Commercials

Vol.1 

Vol.2 

Vol.3

References 

How it Works . 1998. How PlayStation Works . [ONLINE] Available at:http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/playstation5.htm. [Accessed 27 April 15].

Design Patent. 2010. The Sony PlayStation Design Patent. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.patentadesign.com/gallery/sony-playstation-design-patent.html. [Accessed 27 April 15].

IGN. 1998. HISTORY OF THE PLAYSTATION. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.ign.com/articles/1998/08/28/history-of-the-playstation. [Accessed 27 April 15].

Pixel Art and Vector art

What is pixel art?

Many may think that pixel art is any form of art which involves pixels, however this is not the case. Such an example is photography, a digital photograph consists of pixels (zoomed) but this is not considered pixel art.

Original Image to the left and the Pixels it is built from to the right

People may also think that any form of digital art is pixel art, again this is not the case. Such an example would be digital painting. The image itself is actually built using pixels but each individual pixel does not define the image.

Digital Painting to the left and the Pixels used to create it to the right

Why not all digital art is considered pixel art

Pixel art differs from other art forms due to its precision and control on each individual pixel. The artist has to be fully aware where he/she is placing each pixel, placing a pixel in slight offset can and will result in a noticeable change in the picture.

removing just a line of pixels from the hat has noticeable changes when zoomed out

Progress through history

In 1982 Adele Goldberg and Robert Flegal Coined it Pixel art. In the beginning there wasn't much of an option in the art style of which video games where being produced. Hardware at the time did not allow large amounts of data to be displayed at the same time. In early generations of gaming the limited color palette created a distinct art genre which persisted through the ages and is still being used today. As console hardware gradually became stronger so did its art (graphics) more and more colors where being displayed at the same time as well as the amount of sprites on screen. Characters and Environments began to develop more detail and create a more immersive experience.

Donkey Kong(Second Generation)

Black Onyx (Third Generation)

Pokemon Fire Red(Fourth Generation)

Rayman (Fifth Generation)

 The Progress started to slow down when 3D graphics started to enter the gaming industry and pixel art for a short time was forgotten. due to its nostalgic and distinct visual style pixel art never truly died and is still being used today to great effect, along its way it developed into other types of entertainment such as music and television and it does not appear to be slowing down . Some say it is not the past but the future of game art.

Games

Music

Animation

Television 

Similarities between the old and the new

The same principles are still used when creating this form of art. As it is such a simple art form it was perfected long ago. Today's artists use the same techniques in creating there work. Software changes may have aided today's artist in creating the artwork in shorter time though the visuals themselves haven't changed much post 5th generation.

4th generation sonic the hedghog

16 Bit Arena 2013

How its made

There are countless ways how one ca produce pixel art here i will cover certain aspects that one needs to take in account to produce his work

Creating s palette

Gradually adding colors

Depending on how complex you want your piece to be you will add colours to your colour palette. As you go alon with your piece you can add colours preferably on at a time to built it up slowly and stop before it get's too much.

Colour Count

Low Colour Count

Having less colours in you piece helps the cohesion and the relationship of all the colours in the whole piece. With a smaller colour count any pixel colour change will have a bigger effect to the surrounding pixels.

Saturation

Satration is the intensity of a colur. The less amount of saturation a colour has the closer it is to grey

Saturation/Hue Table

A common mistake when starting pixel art is the brightness of a colour. If left fully saturated it can be a burden on the eyes.

The One on the left is fully saturated

Luminescence

The higher the luminescence of a colour the more closer it is to white. Another mistake ameture make is not having enough contrast in a piece thus making it somewhat dull and boring. 

Little Contrast

High Contrast

Anti-aliasing (AA)

Anti-aliasing makes jagged edges look smooth, alot of this is done automatically in games but in pixel art it has to be done by hand. 

Left is without AA Right with AA

Dithering

Dithering is the transition between two colours using a pattern of pixels. This is done without adding new colours to the piece and still ease one colour into another.

Using these techniques and much more one can create pixel art which is both pleasing to the eye and easy to work with.

References

Pixel joint. 2010. The Pixel Art Tutorial. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299. [Accessed 30 April 15].

Wikipedia. 2015. Pixel Art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_art. [Accessed 30 April 15].

the Verge. 2015. Pixel art games aren't retro, they're the future. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/3/5865849/pixel-art-is-here-to-stay. [Accessed 30 April 15].

Vector Graphics

What are Vector Graphics ?

Vector Graphics consist of geometric primitives- polygons, lines,points and curves that together build up an image that is displayed on screen. In Vector Graphics everything is based on the use of paths which are all connected using nodes or points. Each node has a specific position on the work space which is defined using the X and y axis. These paths can also be modified to an extent, the artist can change the shape or thickness of the the vector or  apply a certain fill or stroke. Vector Graphics can be increased in size without the potential loss of quality contrary to pixel graphics which lose details the greater the size  increased.

Progress through History

The first computer graphics where all based on vector graphics, one of the earliest examples was the US SAGE air defense system. In 1963 Ivan Sutherland Created the sketch pad software that allowed the use of vector graphics. This program is considered to be the grandfather of the CAD and was also considered to be the breakthrough of computer graphics as well.

Vectrex

Early displays where basically modified oscilloscopes, vector graphics where used in these displays as the tech needed to display raster graphics was quite expensive, In time the tech for raster graphics became cheaper and started to be implemented more and more until it had replaced vector graphics.

The first console to use vector graphics was the Vectrex, Whilst arcade games had also started to integrate vector graphics into their games. Other electronics such as the Tktronmix 4014 could also display vector graphics but to change them you would have to erase the display first. 

Fast forward a few years vector graphics made a comeback as artists started to use it to create graphics that needed to be scaled. How vector graphics is set up,where each shape, curve, colour and line allows one to scale an image down to the size of a post card and also allowing it to be scaled up to the size of a billboard. 

Due to the increasing popularity of vector graphics the World wide web consortium created a new graphics language called "Scalable Vector Graphics" (SVG) Which is a royalty free language that contains vector text and shapes.

Similarities between the old and the new

Vector art has improved drastically over the years though its basic principles are still the same. Old vector graphics used mathematics to define a point in space and that concept is still used today. The only thing that has changed is the amount of things that can be placed on a work space and the effects to them.

Armor Attack (1980)

This game was released on an arcade cabinet and was later licensed to be converted to the Vectrex console

Cosmic Chasm (1983)

This game was originally created for the VEctrex Console though it was first implimented in arcade games by Cinematronics

Kingdom rush (2011)

Vector graphics are implemented in various areas in today's industry and as both software and hardware are getting better vector graphics are improving throughout the year.

Games 

Advertising 

TV 

Music

How its made

There are many software's available to create vector art and countless techniques on how to use and manipulate them. This example is one of those techniques created using illustrator to create a vector pencil

You start off by creating a rectangle using the rectangle tool.

The wooden part can be created using the pen tool, using the grid as a guide you can align the point at the center of your pencil. The tip can be a cpy of the wooden part and scaled down. The metal band you can create by again using the rectangle tool an align its edges to the other rectangle and as for the rubber you can use the rounded rectangle tool and place it at the end underneath the metal layer .

You can now add the colours using the fill tool. The codes displayed on top are the codes for the colours that the software can understand.

Using those colours as a base you can now create a gradient to give it a nice 3d finish

This is an example of the gradient used for the meta ring.

Next you can create a hilight using the pen tool and applying a stroke to it.

You can adjust the thickness, opacity and the tips of the stroke to get your desired effect. 

In the end you caould have something similar to this

Original tutorial : http://designblurb.com/design-a-pencil-icon-illustrator/

References :

designblurb. 2015. Illustrator Tutorial: Designing a Sleek Pencil Icon. [ONLINE] Available at: http://designblurb.com/design-a-pencil-icon-illustrator/. [Accessed 20 May 15].

Wikipedia. 2015. Category:Vector arcade games. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Vector_arcade_games. [Accessed 20 May 15].

Encyclopedia Brittanica. 2015. Vector graphics . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/624354/vector-graphics. [Accessed 20 May 15].

TechTerms. 2015. Vector Graphic. [ONLINE] Available at: http://techterms.com/definition/vectorgraphic. [Accessed 20 May 15].

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