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This is my huge guide from the pixelated past to the wire-free future. Enjoy!
THE PAST - Best Before 1995?
Before videogames, kids had to play with strange plastic objects called toys, normally based on Saturday morning cartoons like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and He-Man. Also massive was Dungeons & Dragons, which was a bit like boring PC RPGs, only you had to do the maths yourself.
Pre-1993, people didn't see in 3D, they saw in parallax. Think pantomine scenery. Streets Of Rage 2 has multiple parallax, meaning there's a fence in the foreground and some houses in the distance. Into-the-screen action (normally Mickey Mouse being chased by a moose) was scary as incoming objects expanded into blocks of colour. While rotation looked great until you noticed everything was as flat as a pancake.
Sega Mega Drive and the SNES were the heavyweight rivals of the early '90s. Flashy SNES had Mode 7 rotation, showing it off by spinning every game's title screen. Hardcore Mega Drive Mortal Kombat featured red blood, while the SNES only bled green. But really there was no contest - Mega Drive Street Fighter 2 had six elephants, while the SNES only had four. Parp!
Computers (1982-1990) required a telly and had no mouse, since everything was done by typing 'code'. Kids could make 'I am skill' scroll up the screen. Those who did it in different colours are now games industry millionaires. In computer club, your machine ranked you. Commodore 64 owners had the best games. Spectrum owners had the wrong machine. Beeb owners had the 'school computer' and Amstrad owners weren't allowed in. Later, the Amiga and Atari ST invented pixelated porn and dance music!
Tapes and Floppy Disks were used. They couldn't play music or movies, but could fit your 'I am skill' program on a pack of three. Before that, games were stored on tapes. Code crackers (highest pimps at computer club) traded iffy compilations which never loaded unless you manually rubbed the tape against the reading head. Those people are also now games industry millionaires.
The original Game Boy was a console that fits right in your pocket! If you were a clown. The screen was green-on-green and blurred if anything moved. But it beat colour rivals - Sega's liver-shaped Game Gear and Atari's Lynx - because of Tetris, a game so addictive even your gran played it. Like that was a benchmark of quality...
THE PRESENT - Welcome to the real world
We now join the DVD revolution. With awesome extra features and multi-camera angles, we're finally seeing what it's capable off. But as you scan around the Oasis Live stadium, is it interactive film or will Final Fantasy XI be movie-quality gaming? One thing is certain: when DVD recorders take off, picture menus mean there's no way of hiding Channel 5's smut at the end of your recordings.
The last relic of old toys has finally vanished. Thanks to Nintendo's E-Card Reader, even trading cards now contain games and animation. Guaranteed to be THE craze of 2002 thanks to Pokemon and Harry Potter. But don't underestimate those cranky old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. With a John Woo-directed movie in the works, they're coming back...
"The Hard Drive", a name once uttered only by the computer club regulars. But thanks to the new PS2 add-on and built-in Xbox one, console gamers are about to change for the better. Store characters and skins, download extra levels, customised your loading wallpaper, even play 'organic' games that save over themselves. Imagine breeding a forest of rare Mews unique to your copy of Pokemon. Soon you may even be able to download Special Edition movie take-outs and add them to your DVDs.
Some people say PCs are losing popularity. I say, check out the new desktop Sony VAIOs or the new Apple iBook. Digital technology means all machines, cameras, Walkmans, phones and consoles can share information. Take a photo of a baboon's backside, turn it green on your PC, record a fart and make a green, butt-headed Solid Snake with butt-breath. The technology is there!
The battle of the consoles. Never has the rivalry been so heated, but over the next year YOU decide who wins! Xbox has raw power, PS2 has the mass popularity, and GameCube has creative genius and GBA compatibility. But as Dreamcast proved, there probably isn't room for all three!
Finally the Game Boy Advance. Still playing games in 3D? Get with the programme! SNES-style parallax, sprite-scaling and rotation are all de rigueur again, thanks to Nintendo's new baby. But with it comes all these old gaffers claiming this proves old-skool games are best. I'll let you in on a secret: they never looked this good.
This is how games evolved!
Cheers
THE PAST - Best Before 1995?
Before videogames, kids had to play with strange plastic objects called toys, normally based on Saturday morning cartoons like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and He-Man. Also massive was Dungeons & Dragons, which was a bit like boring PC RPGs, only you had to do the maths yourself.
Pre-1993, people didn't see in 3D, they saw in parallax. Think pantomine scenery. Streets Of Rage 2 has multiple parallax, meaning there's a fence in the foreground and some houses in the distance. Into-the-screen action (normally Mickey Mouse being chased by a moose) was scary as incoming objects expanded into blocks of colour. While rotation looked great until you noticed everything was as flat as a pancake.
Sega Mega Drive and the SNES were the heavyweight rivals of the early '90s. Flashy SNES had Mode 7 rotation, showing it off by spinning every game's title screen. Hardcore Mega Drive Mortal Kombat featured red blood, while the SNES only bled green. But really there was no contest - Mega Drive Street Fighter 2 had six elephants, while the SNES only had four. Parp!
Computers (1982-1990) required a telly and had no mouse, since everything was done by typing 'code'. Kids could make 'I am skill' scroll up the screen. Those who did it in different colours are now games industry millionaires. In computer club, your machine ranked you. Commodore 64 owners had the best games. Spectrum owners had the wrong machine. Beeb owners had the 'school computer' and Amstrad owners weren't allowed in. Later, the Amiga and Atari ST invented pixelated porn and dance music!
Tapes and Floppy Disks were used. They couldn't play music or movies, but could fit your 'I am skill' program on a pack of three. Before that, games were stored on tapes. Code crackers (highest pimps at computer club) traded iffy compilations which never loaded unless you manually rubbed the tape against the reading head. Those people are also now games industry millionaires.
The original Game Boy was a console that fits right in your pocket! If you were a clown. The screen was green-on-green and blurred if anything moved. But it beat colour rivals - Sega's liver-shaped Game Gear and Atari's Lynx - because of Tetris, a game so addictive even your gran played it. Like that was a benchmark of quality...
THE PRESENT - Welcome to the real world
We now join the DVD revolution. With awesome extra features and multi-camera angles, we're finally seeing what it's capable off. But as you scan around the Oasis Live stadium, is it interactive film or will Final Fantasy XI be movie-quality gaming? One thing is certain: when DVD recorders take off, picture menus mean there's no way of hiding Channel 5's smut at the end of your recordings.
The last relic of old toys has finally vanished. Thanks to Nintendo's E-Card Reader, even trading cards now contain games and animation. Guaranteed to be THE craze of 2002 thanks to Pokemon and Harry Potter. But don't underestimate those cranky old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. With a John Woo-directed movie in the works, they're coming back...
"The Hard Drive", a name once uttered only by the computer club regulars. But thanks to the new PS2 add-on and built-in Xbox one, console gamers are about to change for the better. Store characters and skins, download extra levels, customised your loading wallpaper, even play 'organic' games that save over themselves. Imagine breeding a forest of rare Mews unique to your copy of Pokemon. Soon you may even be able to download Special Edition movie take-outs and add them to your DVDs.
Some people say PCs are losing popularity. I say, check out the new desktop Sony VAIOs or the new Apple iBook. Digital technology means all machines, cameras, Walkmans, phones and consoles can share information. Take a photo of a baboon's backside, turn it green on your PC, record a fart and make a green, butt-headed Solid Snake with butt-breath. The technology is there!
The battle of the consoles. Never has the rivalry been so heated, but over the next year YOU decide who wins! Xbox has raw power, PS2 has the mass popularity, and GameCube has creative genius and GBA compatibility. But as Dreamcast proved, there probably isn't room for all three!
Finally the Game Boy Advance. Still playing games in 3D? Get with the programme! SNES-style parallax, sprite-scaling and rotation are all de rigueur again, thanks to Nintendo's new baby. But with it comes all these old gaffers claiming this proves old-skool games are best. I'll let you in on a secret: they never looked this good.
This is how games evolved!
Cheers
This is my huge guide from the pixelated past to the wire-free future. Enjoy!
THE PAST - Best Before 1995?
Before videogames, kids had to play with strange plastic objects called toys, normally based on Saturday morning cartoons like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and He-Man. Also massive was Dungeons & Dragons, which was a bit like boring PC RPGs, only you had to do the maths yourself.
Pre-1993, people didn't see in 3D, they saw in parallax. Think pantomine scenery. Streets Of Rage 2 has multiple parallax, meaning there's a fence in the foreground and some houses in the distance. Into-the-screen action (normally Mickey Mouse being chased by a moose) was scary as incoming objects expanded into blocks of colour. While rotation looked great until you noticed everything was as flat as a pancake.
Sega Mega Drive and the SNES were the heavyweight rivals of the early '90s. Flashy SNES had Mode 7 rotation, showing it off by spinning every game's title screen. Hardcore Mega Drive Mortal Kombat featured red blood, while the SNES only bled green. But really there was no contest - Mega Drive Street Fighter 2 had six elephants, while the SNES only had four. Parp!
Computers (1982-1990) required a telly and had no mouse, since everything was done by typing 'code'. Kids could make 'I am skill' scroll up the screen. Those who did it in different colours are now games industry millionaires. In computer club, your machine ranked you. Commodore 64 owners had the best games. Spectrum owners had the wrong machine. Beeb owners had the 'school computer' and Amstrad owners weren't allowed in. Later, the Amiga and Atari ST invented pixelated porn and dance music!
Tapes and Floppy Disks were used. They couldn't play music or movies, but could fit your 'I am skill' program on a pack of three. Before that, games were stored on tapes. Code crackers (highest pimps at computer club) traded iffy compilations which never loaded unless you manually rubbed the tape against the reading head. Those people are also now games industry millionaires.
The original Game Boy was a console that fits right in your pocket! If you were a clown. The screen was green-on-green and blurred if anything moved. But it beat colour rivals - Sega's liver-shaped Game Gear and Atari's Lynx - because of Tetris, a game so addictive even your gran played it. Like that was a benchmark of quality...
THE PRESENT - Welcome to the real world
We now join the DVD revolution. With awesome extra features and multi-camera angles, we're finally seeing what it's capable off. But as you scan around the Oasis Live stadium, is it interactive film or will Final Fantasy XI be movie-quality gaming? One thing is certain: when DVD recorders take off, picture menus mean there's no way of hiding Channel 5's smut at the end of your recordings.
The last relic of old toys has finally vanished. Thanks to Nintendo's E-Card Reader, even trading cards now contain games and animation. Guaranteed to be THE craze of 2002 thanks to Pokemon and Harry Potter. But don't underestimate those cranky old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. With a John Woo-directed movie in the works, they're coming back...
"The Hard Drive", a name once uttered only by the computer club regulars. But thanks to the new PS2 add-on and built-in Xbox one, console gamers are about to change for the better. Store characters and skins, download extra levels, customised your loading wallpaper, even play 'organic' games that save over themselves. Imagine breeding a forest of rare Mews unique to your copy of Pokemon. Soon you may even be able to download Special Edition movie take-outs and add them to your DVDs.
Some people say PCs are losing popularity. I say, check out the new desktop Sony VAIOs or the new Apple iBook. Digital technology means all machines, cameras, Walkmans, phones and consoles can share information. Take a photo of a baboon's backside, turn it green on your PC, record a fart and make a green, butt-headed Solid Snake with butt-breath. The technology is there!
The battle of the consoles. Never has the rivalry been so heated, but over the next year YOU decide who wins! Xbox has raw power, PS2 has the mass popularity, and GameCube has creative genius and GBA compatibility. But as Dreamcast proved, there probably isn't room for all three!
Finally the Game Boy Advance. Still playing games in 3D? Get with the programme! SNES-style parallax, sprite-scaling and rotation are all de rigueur again, thanks to Nintendo's new baby. But with it comes all these old gaffers claiming this proves old-skool games are best. I'll let you in on a secret: they never looked this good.
This is how games evolved!
Cheers
THE PAST - Best Before 1995?
Before videogames, kids had to play with strange plastic objects called toys, normally based on Saturday morning cartoons like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and He-Man. Also massive was Dungeons & Dragons, which was a bit like boring PC RPGs, only you had to do the maths yourself.
Pre-1993, people didn't see in 3D, they saw in parallax. Think pantomine scenery. Streets Of Rage 2 has multiple parallax, meaning there's a fence in the foreground and some houses in the distance. Into-the-screen action (normally Mickey Mouse being chased by a moose) was scary as incoming objects expanded into blocks of colour. While rotation looked great until you noticed everything was as flat as a pancake.
Sega Mega Drive and the SNES were the heavyweight rivals of the early '90s. Flashy SNES had Mode 7 rotation, showing it off by spinning every game's title screen. Hardcore Mega Drive Mortal Kombat featured red blood, while the SNES only bled green. But really there was no contest - Mega Drive Street Fighter 2 had six elephants, while the SNES only had four. Parp!
Computers (1982-1990) required a telly and had no mouse, since everything was done by typing 'code'. Kids could make 'I am skill' scroll up the screen. Those who did it in different colours are now games industry millionaires. In computer club, your machine ranked you. Commodore 64 owners had the best games. Spectrum owners had the wrong machine. Beeb owners had the 'school computer' and Amstrad owners weren't allowed in. Later, the Amiga and Atari ST invented pixelated porn and dance music!
Tapes and Floppy Disks were used. They couldn't play music or movies, but could fit your 'I am skill' program on a pack of three. Before that, games were stored on tapes. Code crackers (highest pimps at computer club) traded iffy compilations which never loaded unless you manually rubbed the tape against the reading head. Those people are also now games industry millionaires.
The original Game Boy was a console that fits right in your pocket! If you were a clown. The screen was green-on-green and blurred if anything moved. But it beat colour rivals - Sega's liver-shaped Game Gear and Atari's Lynx - because of Tetris, a game so addictive even your gran played it. Like that was a benchmark of quality...
THE PRESENT - Welcome to the real world
We now join the DVD revolution. With awesome extra features and multi-camera angles, we're finally seeing what it's capable off. But as you scan around the Oasis Live stadium, is it interactive film or will Final Fantasy XI be movie-quality gaming? One thing is certain: when DVD recorders take off, picture menus mean there's no way of hiding Channel 5's smut at the end of your recordings.
The last relic of old toys has finally vanished. Thanks to Nintendo's E-Card Reader, even trading cards now contain games and animation. Guaranteed to be THE craze of 2002 thanks to Pokemon and Harry Potter. But don't underestimate those cranky old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. With a John Woo-directed movie in the works, they're coming back...
"The Hard Drive", a name once uttered only by the computer club regulars. But thanks to the new PS2 add-on and built-in Xbox one, console gamers are about to change for the better. Store characters and skins, download extra levels, customised your loading wallpaper, even play 'organic' games that save over themselves. Imagine breeding a forest of rare Mews unique to your copy of Pokemon. Soon you may even be able to download Special Edition movie take-outs and add them to your DVDs.
Some people say PCs are losing popularity. I say, check out the new desktop Sony VAIOs or the new Apple iBook. Digital technology means all machines, cameras, Walkmans, phones and consoles can share information. Take a photo of a baboon's backside, turn it green on your PC, record a fart and make a green, butt-headed Solid Snake with butt-breath. The technology is there!
The battle of the consoles. Never has the rivalry been so heated, but over the next year YOU decide who wins! Xbox has raw power, PS2 has the mass popularity, and GameCube has creative genius and GBA compatibility. But as Dreamcast proved, there probably isn't room for all three!
Finally the Game Boy Advance. Still playing games in 3D? Get with the programme! SNES-style parallax, sprite-scaling and rotation are all de rigueur again, thanks to Nintendo's new baby. But with it comes all these old gaffers claiming this proves old-skool games are best. I'll let you in on a secret: they never looked this good.
This is how games evolved!
Cheers
I swear we get one of these history of games *cough* blatant gameaday attempt *cough* topics every week, and everytime it's the same story they're just ignored, for good reason.
What makes it worse is that this could actually be copied.....
He admitted (only after we'd prooved it) to copying from a website not long ago, so how can we trust him?
He admitted (only after we'd prooved it) to copying from a website not long ago, so how can we trust him?
THE FUTURE - Joypads? Where we're going we don't need joypads
A genuine Sony invention currently on display at the Explora Science Museum in Beijing. The wall-sized 'perceptual' computer screen reacts to movement and touch. Enjoy Dancing Stage Euromix? Then imagine breakdance battling an on-screen opponent for real. Want to play a Buffy game? Perhaps you'll be able to interact with future episodes of the show. Although the lovely Sarah Michelle Gellar will probably be claiming a pension and sporting bingo wings under her arms by then.
Datatiles is another Sony prototype already in existence. See - through tiles that react to a table-top electronic screen. Throw one down and your email appears on it. Another might have your favourite website, the movie channel or downloadable games. More than PS3, this could be THE Sony entertainment machine of the near future.
Game & Watch pocket watch, Nintendo's cross-console compatibility brings us this; a wafer-thin, multi-functional toy. Personal organiser, mobile phone, Game Boy Supreme, clock and virtual pet all in one. With collectable chains to clip it to your belt for that latest pocket watch fashion.
With Microsoft, bigger is always better. The long-awaited Xbox 2 looks like 1970's super-computer, complete with games on old 8-track tapes. Of course, with no room for the telly, the Immersion Bowl-X headset is required to see the image-rendered, clip-mapped 4D graphics. I didn't make up those terms, honest!
In the future we'll all be totally wire-free. One day your kids will ask, "What were plugs?" And you'll reply, "They were needed to give machines power." And they'll say, "What was wrong with radiated Tesla beams?" Then visiting time at the old folks' home will be up, so they'll leave. Wire-free technology doesn't just mean no more tripping over joypads. Without horrible cables to hide at the back, TVs could be round and sit in the middle of the room, computers could be double-sided and sound systems could be tetrahedrons.
Now here's something that'll definitely be included in near future, Coin-CD and DVD. Of course, everyone will just download MP5s, but for hip DJs, mixing an old-skool CDs can't be beat, even though they'll be coin-sized triple-albums. And why still have DVDs at all? 'Cos the Star Wars Trilogy will only just have come out.
A genuine Sony invention currently on display at the Explora Science Museum in Beijing. The wall-sized 'perceptual' computer screen reacts to movement and touch. Enjoy Dancing Stage Euromix? Then imagine breakdance battling an on-screen opponent for real. Want to play a Buffy game? Perhaps you'll be able to interact with future episodes of the show. Although the lovely Sarah Michelle Gellar will probably be claiming a pension and sporting bingo wings under her arms by then.
Datatiles is another Sony prototype already in existence. See - through tiles that react to a table-top electronic screen. Throw one down and your email appears on it. Another might have your favourite website, the movie channel or downloadable games. More than PS3, this could be THE Sony entertainment machine of the near future.
Game & Watch pocket watch, Nintendo's cross-console compatibility brings us this; a wafer-thin, multi-functional toy. Personal organiser, mobile phone, Game Boy Supreme, clock and virtual pet all in one. With collectable chains to clip it to your belt for that latest pocket watch fashion.
With Microsoft, bigger is always better. The long-awaited Xbox 2 looks like 1970's super-computer, complete with games on old 8-track tapes. Of course, with no room for the telly, the Immersion Bowl-X headset is required to see the image-rendered, clip-mapped 4D graphics. I didn't make up those terms, honest!
In the future we'll all be totally wire-free. One day your kids will ask, "What were plugs?" And you'll reply, "They were needed to give machines power." And they'll say, "What was wrong with radiated Tesla beams?" Then visiting time at the old folks' home will be up, so they'll leave. Wire-free technology doesn't just mean no more tripping over joypads. Without horrible cables to hide at the back, TVs could be round and sit in the middle of the room, computers could be double-sided and sound systems could be tetrahedrons.
Now here's something that'll definitely be included in near future, Coin-CD and DVD. Of course, everyone will just download MP5s, but for hip DJs, mixing an old-skool CDs can't be beat, even though they'll be coin-sized triple-albums. And why still have DVDs at all? 'Cos the Star Wars Trilogy will only just have come out.
.
I'm sick and tired posting things twice! I need help!
Try pressing the "Post this Message" button once instead of twice.......
Dav1d wrote:
> What makes it worse is that this could actually be copied.....
He admitted
> (only after we'd prooved it) to copying from a website not long ago, so how can
> we trust him?
lol... given how comically bad his idea of the past of video games are, he could have only copied it from a humerous article? :)
> What makes it worse is that this could actually be copied.....
He admitted
> (only after we'd prooved it) to copying from a website not long ago, so how can
> we trust him?
lol... given how comically bad his idea of the past of video games are, he could have only copied it from a humerous article? :)