The health bar was not always a bar in the middle of the screen. Throughout the history of video games, it has been represented by all kinds of objects, including numeric values, until it became part of the character itself. Enjoy a video on the evolution of the video game health bar.
When health bars didn't exist
Every video game player knows what a health bar is, also known as an energy meter or life indicator. It is a basic mechanism that shows the state of a character or object, decreasing as it takes damage. This feature was not always present in video games: in the early generations, with titles like Space Invaders or Pac-Man, you knew that touching a ghost or being hit by an alien's laser meant instant death. It wasn't until the 1980s that games began to implement a health counter.
The first health meters
The boxing game Punch-Out!! (1983) from Nintendo was one of the first games to implement this mechanism, and similar games like Street Fighter II: The World Warrior later adopted it. Although it is more of a stamina bar, it works the same way: when it's empty, it's a knockout. There were variations in this mechanic: instead of losing health when hit, the counter could decay continuously, acting more like a timer (Lunar Jetman), or the health bar could be replaced by a numeric value (Gauntlet). Another transition of this style was seen in the classic Super Mario Bros. (1985), where if Mario or Luigi grab a mushroom, they can be hit up to two times before losing a life.
Unusual health meters
Sometimes, health meters mimic an electrocardiogram, as seen in Nodes of Yesod (1985) and Resident Evil (1996); there was also a rather unusual type of health counter known as the roast chicken (chicken meter) in Atic Atac (1983) by Ultimate Play the Game (later known as Rare). Other notable examples include Pyjamarama (1984), which has a glass of milk representing energy; Agent X (1986), where a box shows that each lost life brings the character one step closer to the grave, and the president's brain changes from thinking peace to war immediately; and Knightmare (1987), which has a human face that gradually deteriorates until only the eyes remain.
The health bar becomes part of the character
From the 1990s onward, most games had implemented the health bar we all know... with one exception: Wolfenstein 3D. The character's portrait remained, but this time it was animated, and the face became bloodied as you took damage. The same was seen in Doom and Quake. Today, the health bar has evolved from being a simple bar on the screen to being part of the character, as seen in Dead Space (2008), where Isaac's vitality is displayed on an LED on the spine of the suit. How will this feature evolve in the future? Only time will tell.
