I should probably go to bed at this point. I typed up a short story of my arduous attempts at defending an outpost in the STALKER modpack GAMMA and how my game crashed when I turned in the quest. Sent off that post and woe-is-me, the entire text didn’t get submitted and I didn’t have it saved in copy-paste. It’s just so ironically fitting.
So ya, what’s something you’d like to ramble a bit about?
I just got back from an arcade bar, where I played a bunch of retro games like Frogger, Q-Bert, Tetris, Street Fighter II, you get the vibe.
It’s so fascinating playing these old cornerstones of the gaming industry and thinking of how much video games have morphed over their history. The first thing that comes to mind is how the way we think of gameplay has completely changed; these old arcade cabinets have very simple but entirely unforgiving mechanics, whereas nowadays I feel like I need two tutorials and a read-through of a manual before I can approach a game, but once you get the hang of a game’s particularities stuff gets easier in a way?
Like, the premise of Frogger is exceedingly simple; cross the street without getting killed. The challenge comes from the mechanics. Stuff gets faster, things are more hectic, you have less time to calculate your next move.
Whereas modern game mechanics are kinda smoothed out. There are less pixel-perfect maneuvers and places where timing is important, there’s a bigger emphasis on exploration, figuring things out, interacting with the game world. Like just think of the differences between the original Super Mario Bros’ gameplay and say Super Mario Odyssey. I’m not saying one style is better than the other, I definitely enjoy both retro and modern games, but the different priorities as preferences and technology evolved over time are immensely fascinating to me.
Another reason why games don’t necessarily have obstacles that require pixel perfect maneuevers, is that you no longer need to throw a coin into the machine every time you die.
That said, yeah, I recently watched a video essay on the first Wing Commander and it must have been so crazy back then because there wasn’t anything quite like it, if I remember correctly.
You brought up a deep memory of watching these two guys playing House Of The Dead in an arcade back in the day. It was a difficult as nails light gun shooter, and these guys were further into the game than I’d ever seen anybody get. There were areas and enemies I’d never even heard of on the screen. I was part of a small crowd that stopped playing our own games to watch the spectacle.
Games designed to eat your money deserve to be gone, but still I can’t deny what a spectacle they could be.