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Addictive aren’t they? The old games from the likes of the Nes, Snes and even the Mega drive. Those were the days when gaming was....gaming and loads of fun was given to us from these games. There was none of this roaming around to find a key card to access part of the building to progress, or finish the game with little saves and all party members alive to get the true ending. Nope, it was all simple, all you had to do was collect stars and complete levels to finish the game. It was all very simple, but addictive, and this is what made these early computer games very fun to play.
The first console I ever owned was a Nes, In its day it was the most powerful console you could buy with the whole power of an 8-bit graphics processor. These games had the best graphics at the time, and everyone thought they were great, as they do for the new console right now. By today’s standards they are pitiful, what they lack for in visuals, they certainly make up for in game play. The vast amount of games that were made all follow the same concept, they were mainly side scrolling plat formers, or top down view adventure games. The main aim was to reach the end of a stage under a certain amount of time, often there were many stages to play through to get to the end of the game, increasing in difficulty as you go on. Usually there was something to collect to gain extra lives, such as stars or boxes, these also increased your total score. The aspect that made these games so good were the simplicity of them. The games were not burdened with controls that resembled a fighter plane, there was the d-pad for directions and 2 other buttons for jump and run faster. And that’s what made the games so easy to play. A new gamer could come and be able to get familiar with the controls right away. Being simple though left them with a lack of a true story line, this was mainly down to the fact that not a lot of information could be stored on the cartridge, still, in the games Mario and Zelda ect all had a little story line that was shown by small cut scenes with text to show you what is happening. It was nothing compared to what we see today, but they certainly did the job. The games themselves had many levels, but you could not save your progress on many of them, Zelda was one of the first games that had a ‘battery’ inside to save you game on, but apart from this, many games either had passwords or nothing. This was annoying at times as you could not continue where you left off, and have to start at the beginning next time. But nothing can be done about that.
The Nes was not just for platform games, there were sport games on there too. I have fond memories of a game called Rad Racer, again this was a simple racer where you followed a long circuit to the end. You had to pass many checkpoints under a set time to keep going on. There was none of this realism that is needed today, just pure fun, simple and fun! And this was the case for many other racing games alike. There were also some of the most addictive soccer games ever. Kick Off was possible one of the most famous ones on the Nes, like many other games, it was the simple-ness of the game that made it so good. The game was just so playable and you could spend hours on it. ISS also made an appearance on here, and this was not far off being excellent too, but unlike Kick Off, this went for a more realistic play, not as advanced as today’s game, not by a long way, but was still very good.
The thing that made Nes so successful, as you can see, was that the games were just so simple to play. The controls are just so easy to pick up and play. The graphics were good at the time, and most of all it was cheap. And this is why I still play the machine today. Pure fun!
The next console I ever owned was the Snes. This was a very large improvement over the Nes. The new machine was double the power of the Nes with a 16-bit processor. This of course meant that games could and were vastly improved in all areas. On the Nes the graphics were a little plain and un-detailed, but the Snes vastly improved this with games looking better than ever. Some of the later games began to used 3D models for there characters which really did look great. Games began to look more believable, especially sport games such as, the first ISS that was true to real life football looked great, and this started a new era for the game. With the console now able to hold much more information, this is where story lines really started to become more used on games. Games such as Zelda really started to take off with there more in depth stories. Again though, it was brought to us by text and small animations, but these were more in depth than anything before them. The games themselves were also a lot bigger in size, they had many more levels which were in turn bigger also. This meant that the games lasted longer than ever before. The Zelda games were not the only adventure games to make a name for themselves here, the masterful Final Fantasy series took of on this platform, and offered a great gaming experience. Sport games too became more realistic with room for better AI to be introduced, and that it was, racing games became more realistic with many more cars on the track, this meant that the possible boring scenario of checkpoint racing was not as often put into games, and true racing in the games was born. The ISS game was also very good, with 3D players and excellent AI. In all, all the games were vastly improved on the new machine.
However, with all the improvements, something was lost from the Nes, the simplicity. Games now became more dependant on doing things in certain ways to get through them, follow the plot carefully to get clues on what to do, and AI became harder, sometimes too hard. Games were often very long to complete too, and people often got bored of them. Things just were not as fun. Still, it had some of the classic from Nes put on there, Mario was back and spawned off many games, and his other friends: Yoshi, Luigi, Toad and all the rest. With all the more harder games out, it still had its fair share of simple games. But none the less, it was still a good machine.
The next console I had, was the first Sega product I ever owned, and at this point, last. The Mega Drive, another 16-bit console, but in my mind, better than the Snes. Graphics wise the too can not really be told apart, except that Sega's colours seemed to be a little duller. This may have been down to the fact that Sega’s system went for more realism, and many more of the games were based upon real life. On the master system, Sonic had been a big hit, so it was obvious that he would turn up on the MD, and he was a big hit too. Sonic was released and was loved, the game had everything, a cool character, excellent but simple game play similar to Mario, good sharp graphics and the speed at which the game could reach was phenomenal. The game was built up of many levels all that were fairly large in size, with bosses at the end of each stage. Such to the was the success of this game, it was inevitable that Sonic 2 would come out, and when it did it was even better. Not only did it have a new character, Miles (tails), the game was a lot bigger, better lucking, faster and a damn lot more fun than any other game, even James Pond, which again was another great plat former, and could not go without a mention.
However, these were not the only games that made the MD what it was. This is where I feel Fifa made its mark as the main football title to own on here. It again had all you could want. The graphics and animation were the best that had ever been seen on a game, the players moved and looked like there were playing on the pitch as you could see there body move. The ball, while not the most realistic thing on the pitch, could be passed up and down with real fluidity, and the game ran at a good speed. It had a huge database of players and teams on it, there was something for everyone.
Another game that made the MD so popular was the great Road Rash series. This was one of the first truly great motorbike games on a console after excite bike on the Nes. There were loads of bikes to pick from, in all classes and you could buy them all by winning races. This was also how you got through the game, the more you win the more tracks opened to the bigger longer courses. Again, the game was so good that 2 more Road Rashes followed, this was one of the series that sold MD.
Many games from the Arcade ended up on this machine, Out Run possible one of the most well known, many spin offs from the Spy Hunter game too appeared on here. Sega’s games have always been more to the arcade side than anything else, and this showed on the MD, many games resembled this, and that’s what made the console another big hit. The games were all very fun to play, and although there were lots to do in them, with story lines being used more as on Snes, there were still simple to pick up and play, and that’s what made them fun.
These were the last, all 2D consoles that had 16-bit graphics. The next consoles, Playstation and Saturn moved up to 32-bit. While Sega stuck to there arcade gaming with the Saturn, they still used the new 3D technology. There were some good games on this console, but the Playstation proved too much for it and it never really took off. There next outing was the Dreamcast which has made a good name for its self. Playstation was Sonys first attempt at the market, and they proved what they could do. The console did very well for its self and Playstation has became a household name like so many of the other consoles. Nintendo also brought out a new console, N64. this console stuck with there previous characters and made many new ones, but Nintendo kept the fun, simple play with many of the titles it released, and was possible one of the more fun consoles to play on, but still, there were many larger and more ‘complicated’ games on this console, and the rest, and that’s what they all have in common.
As the power of the consoles improved, it was inevitable that games would become bigger and more involving, this is no bad thing, and in many ways makes the games lots better with story lines to follow, good graphics ect. But the pure fun of the early simple games has been lost, those games were easy, simple and fun to play, and more than anything, they were very addictive, more so than many of the games that are out today. I have spent more hours on Mario on the Nes than nearly any other game apart from ISS, and that game is 12 years old. That is a great achievement from Nintendo, and one they should be proud of. Today’s games with there big story lines, and harder AI, while great to play at first, can often end up boring very quickly, especially the Final Fantasy, or Resident Evil games when they get too hard for some, or just last too long. When you finish them too, you are hardly likely to go back to them much, and they just start to clutter up space. I have never had this problem with the old games on Nes, Snes or MD. I have finished many games many times, but still go back to them as they are so addictive. And this is what gaming should be about, addictiveness.
With the PS2 out and GC and X-box on the horizon, the power of the machines are going to be out of this world. But apart from new excellent graphics, what is it going to give us? More, even longer games that take even longer to complete? While this maybe good, people may bore of them sooner than ever before. Developers need to start to think how they can keep us interested in the game all way through it. Will we ever see the fun and addictiveness of the old games ever be reproduced into a quality title again?
Is that what the new generation of gamers want? Is that what you want?
The first console I ever owned was a Nes, In its day it was the most powerful console you could buy with the whole power of an 8-bit graphics processor. These games had the best graphics at the time, and everyone thought they were great, as they do for the new console right now. By today’s standards they are pitiful, what they lack for in visuals, they certainly make up for in game play. The vast amount of games that were made all follow the same concept, they were mainly side scrolling plat formers, or top down view adventure games. The main aim was to reach the end of a stage under a certain amount of time, often there were many stages to play through to get to the end of the game, increasing in difficulty as you go on. Usually there was something to collect to gain extra lives, such as stars or boxes, these also increased your total score. The aspect that made these games so good were the simplicity of them. The games were not burdened with controls that resembled a fighter plane, there was the d-pad for directions and 2 other buttons for jump and run faster. And that’s what made the games so easy to play. A new gamer could come and be able to get familiar with the controls right away. Being simple though left them with a lack of a true story line, this was mainly down to the fact that not a lot of information could be stored on the cartridge, still, in the games Mario and Zelda ect all had a little story line that was shown by small cut scenes with text to show you what is happening. It was nothing compared to what we see today, but they certainly did the job. The games themselves had many levels, but you could not save your progress on many of them, Zelda was one of the first games that had a ‘battery’ inside to save you game on, but apart from this, many games either had passwords or nothing. This was annoying at times as you could not continue where you left off, and have to start at the beginning next time. But nothing can be done about that.
The Nes was not just for platform games, there were sport games on there too. I have fond memories of a game called Rad Racer, again this was a simple racer where you followed a long circuit to the end. You had to pass many checkpoints under a set time to keep going on. There was none of this realism that is needed today, just pure fun, simple and fun! And this was the case for many other racing games alike. There were also some of the most addictive soccer games ever. Kick Off was possible one of the most famous ones on the Nes, like many other games, it was the simple-ness of the game that made it so good. The game was just so playable and you could spend hours on it. ISS also made an appearance on here, and this was not far off being excellent too, but unlike Kick Off, this went for a more realistic play, not as advanced as today’s game, not by a long way, but was still very good.
The thing that made Nes so successful, as you can see, was that the games were just so simple to play. The controls are just so easy to pick up and play. The graphics were good at the time, and most of all it was cheap. And this is why I still play the machine today. Pure fun!
The next console I ever owned was the Snes. This was a very large improvement over the Nes. The new machine was double the power of the Nes with a 16-bit processor. This of course meant that games could and were vastly improved in all areas. On the Nes the graphics were a little plain and un-detailed, but the Snes vastly improved this with games looking better than ever. Some of the later games began to used 3D models for there characters which really did look great. Games began to look more believable, especially sport games such as, the first ISS that was true to real life football looked great, and this started a new era for the game. With the console now able to hold much more information, this is where story lines really started to become more used on games. Games such as Zelda really started to take off with there more in depth stories. Again though, it was brought to us by text and small animations, but these were more in depth than anything before them. The games themselves were also a lot bigger in size, they had many more levels which were in turn bigger also. This meant that the games lasted longer than ever before. The Zelda games were not the only adventure games to make a name for themselves here, the masterful Final Fantasy series took of on this platform, and offered a great gaming experience. Sport games too became more realistic with room for better AI to be introduced, and that it was, racing games became more realistic with many more cars on the track, this meant that the possible boring scenario of checkpoint racing was not as often put into games, and true racing in the games was born. The ISS game was also very good, with 3D players and excellent AI. In all, all the games were vastly improved on the new machine.
However, with all the improvements, something was lost from the Nes, the simplicity. Games now became more dependant on doing things in certain ways to get through them, follow the plot carefully to get clues on what to do, and AI became harder, sometimes too hard. Games were often very long to complete too, and people often got bored of them. Things just were not as fun. Still, it had some of the classic from Nes put on there, Mario was back and spawned off many games, and his other friends: Yoshi, Luigi, Toad and all the rest. With all the more harder games out, it still had its fair share of simple games. But none the less, it was still a good machine.
The next console I had, was the first Sega product I ever owned, and at this point, last. The Mega Drive, another 16-bit console, but in my mind, better than the Snes. Graphics wise the too can not really be told apart, except that Sega's colours seemed to be a little duller. This may have been down to the fact that Sega’s system went for more realism, and many more of the games were based upon real life. On the master system, Sonic had been a big hit, so it was obvious that he would turn up on the MD, and he was a big hit too. Sonic was released and was loved, the game had everything, a cool character, excellent but simple game play similar to Mario, good sharp graphics and the speed at which the game could reach was phenomenal. The game was built up of many levels all that were fairly large in size, with bosses at the end of each stage. Such to the was the success of this game, it was inevitable that Sonic 2 would come out, and when it did it was even better. Not only did it have a new character, Miles (tails), the game was a lot bigger, better lucking, faster and a damn lot more fun than any other game, even James Pond, which again was another great plat former, and could not go without a mention.
However, these were not the only games that made the MD what it was. This is where I feel Fifa made its mark as the main football title to own on here. It again had all you could want. The graphics and animation were the best that had ever been seen on a game, the players moved and looked like there were playing on the pitch as you could see there body move. The ball, while not the most realistic thing on the pitch, could be passed up and down with real fluidity, and the game ran at a good speed. It had a huge database of players and teams on it, there was something for everyone.
Another game that made the MD so popular was the great Road Rash series. This was one of the first truly great motorbike games on a console after excite bike on the Nes. There were loads of bikes to pick from, in all classes and you could buy them all by winning races. This was also how you got through the game, the more you win the more tracks opened to the bigger longer courses. Again, the game was so good that 2 more Road Rashes followed, this was one of the series that sold MD.
Many games from the Arcade ended up on this machine, Out Run possible one of the most well known, many spin offs from the Spy Hunter game too appeared on here. Sega’s games have always been more to the arcade side than anything else, and this showed on the MD, many games resembled this, and that’s what made the console another big hit. The games were all very fun to play, and although there were lots to do in them, with story lines being used more as on Snes, there were still simple to pick up and play, and that’s what made them fun.
These were the last, all 2D consoles that had 16-bit graphics. The next consoles, Playstation and Saturn moved up to 32-bit. While Sega stuck to there arcade gaming with the Saturn, they still used the new 3D technology. There were some good games on this console, but the Playstation proved too much for it and it never really took off. There next outing was the Dreamcast which has made a good name for its self. Playstation was Sonys first attempt at the market, and they proved what they could do. The console did very well for its self and Playstation has became a household name like so many of the other consoles. Nintendo also brought out a new console, N64. this console stuck with there previous characters and made many new ones, but Nintendo kept the fun, simple play with many of the titles it released, and was possible one of the more fun consoles to play on, but still, there were many larger and more ‘complicated’ games on this console, and the rest, and that’s what they all have in common.
As the power of the consoles improved, it was inevitable that games would become bigger and more involving, this is no bad thing, and in many ways makes the games lots better with story lines to follow, good graphics ect. But the pure fun of the early simple games has been lost, those games were easy, simple and fun to play, and more than anything, they were very addictive, more so than many of the games that are out today. I have spent more hours on Mario on the Nes than nearly any other game apart from ISS, and that game is 12 years old. That is a great achievement from Nintendo, and one they should be proud of. Today’s games with there big story lines, and harder AI, while great to play at first, can often end up boring very quickly, especially the Final Fantasy, or Resident Evil games when they get too hard for some, or just last too long. When you finish them too, you are hardly likely to go back to them much, and they just start to clutter up space. I have never had this problem with the old games on Nes, Snes or MD. I have finished many games many times, but still go back to them as they are so addictive. And this is what gaming should be about, addictiveness.
With the PS2 out and GC and X-box on the horizon, the power of the machines are going to be out of this world. But apart from new excellent graphics, what is it going to give us? More, even longer games that take even longer to complete? While this maybe good, people may bore of them sooner than ever before. Developers need to start to think how they can keep us interested in the game all way through it. Will we ever see the fun and addictiveness of the old games ever be reproduced into a quality title again?
Is that what the new generation of gamers want? Is that what you want?
the first game console i played on was when i was a little tinker on my dads sinclair on paperboy and punch and judy wich i was scared of...lol
awwww the good old days
then i got my master system with sonic.
then the megadrive and then the ps1 and then the game boy.
now ive moved up in the world to yes, the pc well untill i get the ps2 oh i hope i get one for my b-day...lol
:)
awwww the good old days
then i got my master system with sonic.
then the megadrive and then the ps1 and then the game boy.
now ive moved up in the world to yes, the pc well untill i get the ps2 oh i hope i get one for my b-day...lol
:)
Great post Pro Evo, I still play on alot of my old consoles aswell (including my spectrum 16k :D)
Hmm, little longer than i expected.
Addictive aren’t they? The old games from the likes of the Nes, Snes and even the Mega drive. Those were the days when gaming was....gaming and loads of fun was given to us from these games. There was none of this roaming around to find a key card to access part of the building to progress, or finish the game with little saves and all party members alive to get the true ending. Nope, it was all simple, all you had to do was collect stars and complete levels to finish the game. It was all very simple, but addictive, and this is what made these early computer games very fun to play.
The first console I ever owned was a Nes, In its day it was the most powerful console you could buy with the whole power of an 8-bit graphics processor. These games had the best graphics at the time, and everyone thought they were great, as they do for the new console right now. By today’s standards they are pitiful, what they lack for in visuals, they certainly make up for in game play. The vast amount of games that were made all follow the same concept, they were mainly side scrolling plat formers, or top down view adventure games. The main aim was to reach the end of a stage under a certain amount of time, often there were many stages to play through to get to the end of the game, increasing in difficulty as you go on. Usually there was something to collect to gain extra lives, such as stars or boxes, these also increased your total score. The aspect that made these games so good were the simplicity of them. The games were not burdened with controls that resembled a fighter plane, there was the d-pad for directions and 2 other buttons for jump and run faster. And that’s what made the games so easy to play. A new gamer could come and be able to get familiar with the controls right away. Being simple though left them with a lack of a true story line, this was mainly down to the fact that not a lot of information could be stored on the cartridge, still, in the games Mario and Zelda ect all had a little story line that was shown by small cut scenes with text to show you what is happening. It was nothing compared to what we see today, but they certainly did the job. The games themselves had many levels, but you could not save your progress on many of them, Zelda was one of the first games that had a ‘battery’ inside to save you game on, but apart from this, many games either had passwords or nothing. This was annoying at times as you could not continue where you left off, and have to start at the beginning next time. But nothing can be done about that.
The Nes was not just for platform games, there were sport games on there too. I have fond memories of a game called Rad Racer, again this was a simple racer where you followed a long circuit to the end. You had to pass many checkpoints under a set time to keep going on. There was none of this realism that is needed today, just pure fun, simple and fun! And this was the case for many other racing games alike. There were also some of the most addictive soccer games ever. Kick Off was possible one of the most famous ones on the Nes, like many other games, it was the simple-ness of the game that made it so good. The game was just so playable and you could spend hours on it. ISS also made an appearance on here, and this was not far off being excellent too, but unlike Kick Off, this went for a more realistic play, not as advanced as today’s game, not by a long way, but was still very good.
The thing that made Nes so successful, as you can see, was that the games were just so simple to play. The controls are just so easy to pick up and play. The graphics were good at the time, and most of all it was cheap. And this is why I still play the machine today. Pure fun!
The next console I ever owned was the Snes. This was a very large improvement over the Nes. The new machine was double the power of the Nes with a 16-bit processor. This of course meant that games could and were vastly improved in all areas. On the Nes the graphics were a little plain and un-detailed, but the Snes vastly improved this with games looking better than ever. Some of the later games began to used 3D models for there characters which really did look great. Games began to look more believable, especially sport games such as, the first ISS that was true to real life football looked great, and this started a new era for the game. With the console now able to hold much more information, this is where story lines really started to become more used on games. Games such as Zelda really started to take off with there more in depth stories. Again though, it was brought to us by text and small animations, but these were more in depth than anything before them. The games themselves were also a lot bigger in size, they had many more levels which were in turn bigger also. This meant that the games lasted longer than ever before. The Zelda games were not the only adventure games to make a name for themselves here, the masterful Final Fantasy series took of on this platform, and offered a great gaming experience. Sport games too became more realistic with room for better AI to be introduced, and that it was, racing games became more realistic with many more cars on the track, this meant that the possible boring scenario of checkpoint racing was not as often put into games, and true racing in the games was born. The ISS game was also very good, with 3D players and excellent AI. In all, all the games were vastly improved on the new machine.
However, with all the improvements, something was lost from the Nes, the simplicity. Games now became more dependant on doing things in certain ways to get through them, follow the plot carefully to get clues on what to do, and AI became harder, sometimes too hard. Games were often very long to complete too, and people often got bored of them. Things just were not as fun. Still, it had some of the classic from Nes put on there, Mario was back and spawned off many games, and his other friends: Yoshi, Luigi, Toad and all the rest. With all the more harder games out, it still had its fair share of simple games. But none the less, it was still a good machine.
The next console I had, was the first Sega product I ever owned, and at this point, last. The Mega Drive, another 16-bit console, but in my mind, better than the Snes. Graphics wise the too can not really be told apart, except that Sega's colours seemed to be a little duller. This may have been down to the fact that Sega’s system went for more realism, and many more of the games were based upon real life. On the master system, Sonic had been a big hit, so it was obvious that he would turn up on the MD, and he was a big hit too. Sonic was released and was loved, the game had everything, a cool character, excellent but simple game play similar to Mario, good sharp graphics and the speed at which the game could reach was phenomenal. The game was built up of many levels all that were fairly large in size, with bosses at the end of each stage. Such to the was the success of this game, it was inevitable that Sonic 2 would come out, and when it did it was even better. Not only did it have a new character, Miles (tails), the game was a lot bigger, better lucking, faster and a damn lot more fun than any other game, even James Pond, which again was another great plat former, and could not go without a mention.
However, these were not the only games that made the MD what it was. This is where I feel Fifa made its mark as the main football title to own on here. It again had all you could want. The graphics and animation were the best that had ever been seen on a game, the players moved and looked like there were playing on the pitch as you could see there body move. The ball, while not the most realistic thing on the pitch, could be passed up and down with real fluidity, and the game ran at a good speed. It had a huge database of players and teams on it, there was something for everyone.
Another game that made the MD so popular was the great Road Rash series. This was one of the first truly great motorbike games on a console after excite bike on the Nes. There were loads of bikes to pick from, in all classes and you could buy them all by winning races. This was also how you got through the game, the more you win the more tracks opened to the bigger longer courses. Again, the game was so good that 2 more Road Rashes followed, this was one of the series that sold MD.
Many games from the Arcade ended up on this machine, Out Run possible one of the most well known, many spin offs from the Spy Hunter game too appeared on here. Sega’s games have always been more to the arcade side than anything else, and this showed on the MD, many games resembled this, and that’s what made the console another big hit. The games were all very fun to play, and although there were lots to do in them, with story lines being used more as on Snes, there were still simple to pick up and play, and that’s what made them fun.
These were the last, all 2D consoles that had 16-bit graphics. The next consoles, Playstation and Saturn moved up to 32-bit. While Sega stuck to there arcade gaming with the Saturn, they still used the new 3D technology. There were some good games on this console, but the Playstation proved too much for it and it never really took off. There next outing was the Dreamcast which has made a good name for its self. Playstation was Sonys first attempt at the market, and they proved what they could do. The console did very well for its self and Playstation has became a household name like so many of the other consoles. Nintendo also brought out a new console, N64. this console stuck with there previous characters and made many new ones, but Nintendo kept the fun, simple play with many of the titles it released, and was possible one of the more fun consoles to play on, but still, there were many larger and more ‘complicated’ games on this console, and the rest, and that’s what they all have in common.
As the power of the consoles improved, it was inevitable that games would become bigger and more involving, this is no bad thing, and in many ways makes the games lots better with story lines to follow, good graphics ect. But the pure fun of the early simple games has been lost, those games were easy, simple and fun to play, and more than anything, they were very addictive, more so than many of the games that are out today. I have spent more hours on Mario on the Nes than nearly any other game apart from ISS, and that game is 12 years old. That is a great achievement from Nintendo, and one they should be proud of. Today’s games with there big story lines, and harder AI, while great to play at first, can often end up boring very quickly, especially the Final Fantasy, or Resident Evil games when they get too hard for some, or just last too long. When you finish them too, you are hardly likely to go back to them much, and they just start to clutter up space. I have never had this problem with the old games on Nes, Snes or MD. I have finished many games many times, but still go back to them as they are so addictive. And this is what gaming should be about, addictiveness.
With the PS2 out and GC and X-box on the horizon, the power of the machines are going to be out of this world. But apart from new excellent graphics, what is it going to give us? More, even longer games that take even longer to complete? While this maybe good, people may bore of them sooner than ever before. Developers need to start to think how they can keep us interested in the game all way through it. Will we ever see the fun and addictiveness of the old games ever be reproduced into a quality title again?
Is that what the new generation of gamers want? Is that what you want?
The first console I ever owned was a Nes, In its day it was the most powerful console you could buy with the whole power of an 8-bit graphics processor. These games had the best graphics at the time, and everyone thought they were great, as they do for the new console right now. By today’s standards they are pitiful, what they lack for in visuals, they certainly make up for in game play. The vast amount of games that were made all follow the same concept, they were mainly side scrolling plat formers, or top down view adventure games. The main aim was to reach the end of a stage under a certain amount of time, often there were many stages to play through to get to the end of the game, increasing in difficulty as you go on. Usually there was something to collect to gain extra lives, such as stars or boxes, these also increased your total score. The aspect that made these games so good were the simplicity of them. The games were not burdened with controls that resembled a fighter plane, there was the d-pad for directions and 2 other buttons for jump and run faster. And that’s what made the games so easy to play. A new gamer could come and be able to get familiar with the controls right away. Being simple though left them with a lack of a true story line, this was mainly down to the fact that not a lot of information could be stored on the cartridge, still, in the games Mario and Zelda ect all had a little story line that was shown by small cut scenes with text to show you what is happening. It was nothing compared to what we see today, but they certainly did the job. The games themselves had many levels, but you could not save your progress on many of them, Zelda was one of the first games that had a ‘battery’ inside to save you game on, but apart from this, many games either had passwords or nothing. This was annoying at times as you could not continue where you left off, and have to start at the beginning next time. But nothing can be done about that.
The Nes was not just for platform games, there were sport games on there too. I have fond memories of a game called Rad Racer, again this was a simple racer where you followed a long circuit to the end. You had to pass many checkpoints under a set time to keep going on. There was none of this realism that is needed today, just pure fun, simple and fun! And this was the case for many other racing games alike. There were also some of the most addictive soccer games ever. Kick Off was possible one of the most famous ones on the Nes, like many other games, it was the simple-ness of the game that made it so good. The game was just so playable and you could spend hours on it. ISS also made an appearance on here, and this was not far off being excellent too, but unlike Kick Off, this went for a more realistic play, not as advanced as today’s game, not by a long way, but was still very good.
The thing that made Nes so successful, as you can see, was that the games were just so simple to play. The controls are just so easy to pick up and play. The graphics were good at the time, and most of all it was cheap. And this is why I still play the machine today. Pure fun!
The next console I ever owned was the Snes. This was a very large improvement over the Nes. The new machine was double the power of the Nes with a 16-bit processor. This of course meant that games could and were vastly improved in all areas. On the Nes the graphics were a little plain and un-detailed, but the Snes vastly improved this with games looking better than ever. Some of the later games began to used 3D models for there characters which really did look great. Games began to look more believable, especially sport games such as, the first ISS that was true to real life football looked great, and this started a new era for the game. With the console now able to hold much more information, this is where story lines really started to become more used on games. Games such as Zelda really started to take off with there more in depth stories. Again though, it was brought to us by text and small animations, but these were more in depth than anything before them. The games themselves were also a lot bigger in size, they had many more levels which were in turn bigger also. This meant that the games lasted longer than ever before. The Zelda games were not the only adventure games to make a name for themselves here, the masterful Final Fantasy series took of on this platform, and offered a great gaming experience. Sport games too became more realistic with room for better AI to be introduced, and that it was, racing games became more realistic with many more cars on the track, this meant that the possible boring scenario of checkpoint racing was not as often put into games, and true racing in the games was born. The ISS game was also very good, with 3D players and excellent AI. In all, all the games were vastly improved on the new machine.
However, with all the improvements, something was lost from the Nes, the simplicity. Games now became more dependant on doing things in certain ways to get through them, follow the plot carefully to get clues on what to do, and AI became harder, sometimes too hard. Games were often very long to complete too, and people often got bored of them. Things just were not as fun. Still, it had some of the classic from Nes put on there, Mario was back and spawned off many games, and his other friends: Yoshi, Luigi, Toad and all the rest. With all the more harder games out, it still had its fair share of simple games. But none the less, it was still a good machine.
The next console I had, was the first Sega product I ever owned, and at this point, last. The Mega Drive, another 16-bit console, but in my mind, better than the Snes. Graphics wise the too can not really be told apart, except that Sega's colours seemed to be a little duller. This may have been down to the fact that Sega’s system went for more realism, and many more of the games were based upon real life. On the master system, Sonic had been a big hit, so it was obvious that he would turn up on the MD, and he was a big hit too. Sonic was released and was loved, the game had everything, a cool character, excellent but simple game play similar to Mario, good sharp graphics and the speed at which the game could reach was phenomenal. The game was built up of many levels all that were fairly large in size, with bosses at the end of each stage. Such to the was the success of this game, it was inevitable that Sonic 2 would come out, and when it did it was even better. Not only did it have a new character, Miles (tails), the game was a lot bigger, better lucking, faster and a damn lot more fun than any other game, even James Pond, which again was another great plat former, and could not go without a mention.
However, these were not the only games that made the MD what it was. This is where I feel Fifa made its mark as the main football title to own on here. It again had all you could want. The graphics and animation were the best that had ever been seen on a game, the players moved and looked like there were playing on the pitch as you could see there body move. The ball, while not the most realistic thing on the pitch, could be passed up and down with real fluidity, and the game ran at a good speed. It had a huge database of players and teams on it, there was something for everyone.
Another game that made the MD so popular was the great Road Rash series. This was one of the first truly great motorbike games on a console after excite bike on the Nes. There were loads of bikes to pick from, in all classes and you could buy them all by winning races. This was also how you got through the game, the more you win the more tracks opened to the bigger longer courses. Again, the game was so good that 2 more Road Rashes followed, this was one of the series that sold MD.
Many games from the Arcade ended up on this machine, Out Run possible one of the most well known, many spin offs from the Spy Hunter game too appeared on here. Sega’s games have always been more to the arcade side than anything else, and this showed on the MD, many games resembled this, and that’s what made the console another big hit. The games were all very fun to play, and although there were lots to do in them, with story lines being used more as on Snes, there were still simple to pick up and play, and that’s what made them fun.
These were the last, all 2D consoles that had 16-bit graphics. The next consoles, Playstation and Saturn moved up to 32-bit. While Sega stuck to there arcade gaming with the Saturn, they still used the new 3D technology. There were some good games on this console, but the Playstation proved too much for it and it never really took off. There next outing was the Dreamcast which has made a good name for its self. Playstation was Sonys first attempt at the market, and they proved what they could do. The console did very well for its self and Playstation has became a household name like so many of the other consoles. Nintendo also brought out a new console, N64. this console stuck with there previous characters and made many new ones, but Nintendo kept the fun, simple play with many of the titles it released, and was possible one of the more fun consoles to play on, but still, there were many larger and more ‘complicated’ games on this console, and the rest, and that’s what they all have in common.
As the power of the consoles improved, it was inevitable that games would become bigger and more involving, this is no bad thing, and in many ways makes the games lots better with story lines to follow, good graphics ect. But the pure fun of the early simple games has been lost, those games were easy, simple and fun to play, and more than anything, they were very addictive, more so than many of the games that are out today. I have spent more hours on Mario on the Nes than nearly any other game apart from ISS, and that game is 12 years old. That is a great achievement from Nintendo, and one they should be proud of. Today’s games with there big story lines, and harder AI, while great to play at first, can often end up boring very quickly, especially the Final Fantasy, or Resident Evil games when they get too hard for some, or just last too long. When you finish them too, you are hardly likely to go back to them much, and they just start to clutter up space. I have never had this problem with the old games on Nes, Snes or MD. I have finished many games many times, but still go back to them as they are so addictive. And this is what gaming should be about, addictiveness.
With the PS2 out and GC and X-box on the horizon, the power of the machines are going to be out of this world. But apart from new excellent graphics, what is it going to give us? More, even longer games that take even longer to complete? While this maybe good, people may bore of them sooner than ever before. Developers need to start to think how they can keep us interested in the game all way through it. Will we ever see the fun and addictiveness of the old games ever be reproduced into a quality title again?
Is that what the new generation of gamers want? Is that what you want?