Old Video Games

[deepthought]

Player requirements: Is it fun?

Publisher requirements: Will it sell?

Those are the only questions that need to be answered.  All this frippery about difficulty levels is window dressing.  This is a video game, not the Sistine Chapel.

But requirement #1 is violated when the game becomes impossible. Take serious Sam and I wanna be the guy for example

[gimbal]

Player requirements: Is it fun?

Publisher requirements: Will it sell?

Those are the only questions that need to be answered.  All this frippery about difficulty levels is window dressing.  This is a video game, not the Sistine Chapel.

But requirement #1 is violated when the game becomes impossible. Take serious Sam and I wanna be the guy for example

By impossible I assume you mean "nearly impossible". There are people who find enjoyment in such games too, especially old school gamers. Its not winning that provides the fun, its doing a little bit better than the last time the game kicked your hiney that can provide an equal amount of satisfaction.

[Eli Delventhal]

Oh there are plenty of amazing old games and plenty of shit ones. I have a small portion of my hard drive (and it's able to be small!) devoted to classic OS and console emulators. Then fairly regularly I play through some of my old favorites again.

Recently I got Mega Man X on the iPhone. I f**king love Mega Man X. And the iPhone port is pretty good, they made some good choices to get past not having a controller. But, one thing I noticed: it adds difficulty levels. Mega Man X is one of those games that is super duper hard, but also extremely well balanced. I was not able to beat it as a kid. Later as a more badass gamer I could. Now, playing on iPhone, I find "normal" difficulty means "stupidly easy." Maybe we can give it some allowances because you inevitably make mistakes due to touch screen controls, but... it's so easy. I beat pretty much every single boss in the wrong order with very few powerups. The only times I died were due to control issues. I think they decided that to bring their game to a modern audience (and an iPhone audience) then they'd have to make it stupidly easy. Bummer.

Classic games I still play and are still awesome:
- Dark Castle (Mac OS 7)
- Super Metroid (SNES)
- Sim City 2000 (Mac OS 9)
- Super Mario RPG (SNES)
- Gunstar Heroes (Genesis)
- Oregon Trail (Mac OS 7)
- Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego (Mac OS 7)
- River City Ransom (NES)
- Mega Man X (SNES)
- Castles Siege & Conquest (Mac OS 9)
- Taskmaker (Mac OS 7)
- Power Pete (Mac OS 7)

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[masteryoom]

Hey, are text games old? Or are they not video games?

[Jimmt]

Almost anything can be a videogame with enough work.
....and yes purely text games are old. Obviously.

[deepthought]

hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy? yeah that was text based. i had a lot of fun with the web version.
anyone played king's quest?

[masteryoom]

Almost anything can be a videogame with enough work.
....and yes purely text games are old. Obviously.

I meant, are they too old to be a videogame? 

[Eli Delventhal]

A video game is a game that is conveyed via video.

So a Choose Your Own Adventure book is not a video game, but a text adventure is. But if you put a CYOA on a computer then it would be a video game.

 

[Damocles]

How about an adventure eBook with animations.
Is that a video game?

[ReBirth]

@damocles
I think yes if it interacts with reader's input.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[gimbal]

Classic games I still play and are still awesome:
- Dark Castle (Mac OS 7)

Woohoo, someone who knows his classic games! I prefer Beyond Dark Castle on the Amiga though Such classically comical games, I cry a little when I think that it is more than 20 years ago.

- Super Metroid (SNES)

Absolutely brilliance. If I had to choose between the best side scrolling shoot em up I'd be stuck between choosing Super Metroid or Turrican 2 (Amiga version).

[masteryoom]

A video game is a computer game where you can interact with the story/plot 

[ReBirth]

A video game is a computer game where you can interact with the story/plot 

Not all video games have story/plot. Some just ask you to shoot everything seen.

[Best Username Ever]

A video game is a computer game where you can interact with the story/plot  

Not all video games have story/plot. Some just ask you to shoot everything seen.

Or just eat dots, ghosts, fruit, spaceships, and keys[size=larger].[/size][/i] [/url]

[ReBirth]

Or just eat dots, ghosts, fruit, spaceships, and keys[size=larger].[/size][/i] [/url]

Or just pick some text and see what interesting pictures that you get

If only I didn't quote you, I wont see the link.

[cheatsguy]

I didn't get a chance to play many older games, the oldest I've ever played is the original pitfall, heh. I own, personally, an NES, SNES, N64, and the newer two (GameCube and Wii) I still prefer to go back and play SMW when I just feel like playing a game, since I got my first 'old' console at 8-9. My favorite games are all older than I am, except a handful of newer games, which are sequels to games that are older than I am. Is that wierd at all, for some of the 'younger' (than 20) members?

[luisoft]

H.E.R.O
River Raid
Pitfall

Best ever!

[Cero]

A video game is a computer game where you can interact with the story/plot 

Not all video games have story/plot. Some just ask you to shoot everything seen.

There are "Toy" Games, "Art" Games and "Cinematic" Games

[Sparky83]

I used to have an Amiga when I was six years old. But it didn't survive. Got a new one with age 10. My favourite games were:

Wicked
Personal Nightmare

I played them some Months ago and even tried to rebuild Wicked to learn about game programming.
Playing these games was really fun! Especially Personal Nightmare is one of my most loved games.

At the moment i am mostly playing XCOM: Ufo Defense or XCOM: Terror From The Deep. These are not too old but still classics.

[Best Username Ever]

A few related topics:

Nintendo did a survey asking players about the importance of different aspects of a video game. They found out that the story wasn't nearly as important as they thought and focused more time in their new Paper Mario game on game play with that idea in mind. (There's a also video on the Nintendo website I haven't watched and don't know the URL of.)

A blogger talks about score systems in old video games: why they get ignored in some games and how they form a risk/reward system. (Related to what I said about the Mario series lack of adjustable difficulty settings.) Features Mario and Tetris plus others. 1 2

[ReBirth]

Street Fighter X Mega Man free official games will be released Dec 17th.

[sproingie]

Looking for story in a Mario game is like watching a porno for the plot.

[Oskuro]

Looking for story in a Mario game is like watching a porno for the plot.

It can be equally hilarious too. 

[ReBirth]

Looking for story in a Mario game is like watching a porno for the plot.

Hey! some porn, game or film, have plot too!

[princec]

Yes, consider the painfully poor Flesh Gordon and Flesh Gordon 2 for example. Actually don't. Don't ever consider them.

Cas

[Eli Delventhal]

I just watched the trailer for that and it is perhaps the most amazing thing I have ever seen. 

[deepthought]

Speaking of porno... how did Browser Jr. Come into existance? Browser did have Peach captured in his castle several times...

[ra4king]

Speaking of porno... how did Browser Jr. Come into existance? Browser did have Peach captured in his castle several times...

CHILDHOOD RUINED, YOU BASTARD!

[deepthought]

Speaking of porno... how did Browser Jr. Come into existance? Browser did have Peach captured in his castle several times...

CHILDHOOD RUINED, YOU BASTARD!

I wondered what kind of reaction that would get!

[deepthought]

Peach isn't actually getting captured. That's just a cover story. I mean really, a castle would be more secure than that. She's really having an affair.