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When it comes to games, you don't really consider 'reycling' to have anything to do with them. Ok, the plastic coating the metal disks may be recycled, the paper the manuals are printed on may be recycled, but that's not what I'm talking about. Neither is trading in your games for new ones, getting your discounts from your old games for new, and allowing others to buy them and get some enjoyment out of them. Sure, that's a way of recycling, but again, that's not what I'm talking about. What I am talking about is how some games companies recycle parts of other games, to be used in new games, to save them taking the time to create something new altogether. All the companies do it, ranging from Electronic Arts to SEGA, from Activision to Nintendo, recycling has become a major part of the videogames industry!
So you haven't quite noticed this yet? Well, despite it being so obvious in many major games by the above companies, I only first noticed it in Super Monkey Ball. I was playing Monkey Billiards and the computer player made a foul (potted the white monkey). When the ball jumped out of the pocket and "foul" appeared on screen, a music effect played. I instantly recognised that from shooter Confidential Mission on the Dreamcast. That's what started me thinking - how many other games have elements recycled from previous games?
If you want to go back to the early cartridge based systems, you will see that sound effects and characters were re-used many a time over and over again. There's Sonic The Hedgehog, whose jumping noises and rings have been in games starting from the Master System all the way to the GameCube. Similarly there's Super Mario, who's been in more games than you can count with an abacas, who's sound effects and sometimes even the whole character design has stayed the same in many a game.
One of the most recent games full of recycling is Super Smash Bros Melee. Level designs, music and all of the characters are from games that have been on Nintendo systems in the past. Sure, that's the point in the game, allowing you to go into battle with your favourite games characters, but why the Ice Climbers or even Marth, who for the first time, has jumped overseas to America and UK? My theory for this is that Nintendo are planning on seeing how popular these characters become so as to make a decision whether or not to make any English Langauge games starring these characters, thus not having to think up something new to make money out of.
There is a reason why all this takes place in the gaming industry. These characters, music tracks and even sometimes sound effects become popular trademarks of the companies that make the games. People play a good game including these elements - Sonic & Knuckles on the MegaDrive for example, and think of future titles including the same elements at some stage of the games as brilliant because of the mental association with the previous titles, in this case Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on the GameCube and Dreamcast.
This can also be a good way of keeping previous game series' alive. SEGA, who's games I've already mentioned, did this in Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast with Nights, the game used instead of a Sonic title as a release game for the Saturn. Sure, there's only one part of a level that has Nights in it, but it's a part of the level SEGA made quite easy, though time consuming, in the form of a Pinball Machine. You can't help but see the characters and notice the Nights logo scattered all around the place, it's made blatently obvious, and makes you remember the game, if you've played it before, or gets you looking into it just to see what it was, if like me, you haven't played it.
This can backfire though. If elements are recycled from games which were obviously crap, then you may start associating the future titles with them sub-conciously, and it could make a good game seem bad. You slowly end up not playing the game at all, and even though you once found it fun, because your sub-concious relates it to a game which you thought of as rubbish, you start thinking this one as rubbish and wont play it.
I bet some of you are thinking of the blatently obvious now. The direct ports of old games to new consoles. This has happened a lot and has recieved a lot of criticism when it comes to the Game Boy Advance. What have we had re-released so far? ID Software's Doom, Nintendo's Super Mario Bros 2 and Super Mario World, even Rayman Advance is a re-release of a Playstation game! I personally don't see the problem with this as many gamers of today haven't had the chance to play the games of yesterday, and I'm sure they still enjoy them. It's only the older gamers who seem to have a major problem seeing as they've played them all before.
It's basically a way of keeping franchises alive, advertising and saving a bit of money in not having to pay people to create totally new ideas. I'm sure you've heard the sound effects for an explosion in Command & Conquer Red Alert used on TV programs before, or the sound effects for opening doors in Duke Nukem 3D and Doom used in some cheaply made sci-fi programs. They are pre-recorded sound effects which anyone can use and find if they look hard enough. why invent new when you can use old? If everything was the same as before, the games would be boring. But it's a fact that when sequels and new games in the same series are released, people like what they're familiar with. They like it improved, but basically the same as before. Why do you think Resident Evil games have done so well, or even the Tomb Raider series?
Just like recycling paper or drinking cans, recycling parts of games is moneysaving. It doesn't help stop global warming like the recycling of physical objects, but it does help more games to be released slightly quicker than if they were being made from new.
So you haven't quite noticed this yet? Well, despite it being so obvious in many major games by the above companies, I only first noticed it in Super Monkey Ball. I was playing Monkey Billiards and the computer player made a foul (potted the white monkey). When the ball jumped out of the pocket and "foul" appeared on screen, a music effect played. I instantly recognised that from shooter Confidential Mission on the Dreamcast. That's what started me thinking - how many other games have elements recycled from previous games?
If you want to go back to the early cartridge based systems, you will see that sound effects and characters were re-used many a time over and over again. There's Sonic The Hedgehog, whose jumping noises and rings have been in games starting from the Master System all the way to the GameCube. Similarly there's Super Mario, who's been in more games than you can count with an abacas, who's sound effects and sometimes even the whole character design has stayed the same in many a game.
One of the most recent games full of recycling is Super Smash Bros Melee. Level designs, music and all of the characters are from games that have been on Nintendo systems in the past. Sure, that's the point in the game, allowing you to go into battle with your favourite games characters, but why the Ice Climbers or even Marth, who for the first time, has jumped overseas to America and UK? My theory for this is that Nintendo are planning on seeing how popular these characters become so as to make a decision whether or not to make any English Langauge games starring these characters, thus not having to think up something new to make money out of.
There is a reason why all this takes place in the gaming industry. These characters, music tracks and even sometimes sound effects become popular trademarks of the companies that make the games. People play a good game including these elements - Sonic & Knuckles on the MegaDrive for example, and think of future titles including the same elements at some stage of the games as brilliant because of the mental association with the previous titles, in this case Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on the GameCube and Dreamcast.
This can also be a good way of keeping previous game series' alive. SEGA, who's games I've already mentioned, did this in Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast with Nights, the game used instead of a Sonic title as a release game for the Saturn. Sure, there's only one part of a level that has Nights in it, but it's a part of the level SEGA made quite easy, though time consuming, in the form of a Pinball Machine. You can't help but see the characters and notice the Nights logo scattered all around the place, it's made blatently obvious, and makes you remember the game, if you've played it before, or gets you looking into it just to see what it was, if like me, you haven't played it.
This can backfire though. If elements are recycled from games which were obviously crap, then you may start associating the future titles with them sub-conciously, and it could make a good game seem bad. You slowly end up not playing the game at all, and even though you once found it fun, because your sub-concious relates it to a game which you thought of as rubbish, you start thinking this one as rubbish and wont play it.
I bet some of you are thinking of the blatently obvious now. The direct ports of old games to new consoles. This has happened a lot and has recieved a lot of criticism when it comes to the Game Boy Advance. What have we had re-released so far? ID Software's Doom, Nintendo's Super Mario Bros 2 and Super Mario World, even Rayman Advance is a re-release of a Playstation game! I personally don't see the problem with this as many gamers of today haven't had the chance to play the games of yesterday, and I'm sure they still enjoy them. It's only the older gamers who seem to have a major problem seeing as they've played them all before.
It's basically a way of keeping franchises alive, advertising and saving a bit of money in not having to pay people to create totally new ideas. I'm sure you've heard the sound effects for an explosion in Command & Conquer Red Alert used on TV programs before, or the sound effects for opening doors in Duke Nukem 3D and Doom used in some cheaply made sci-fi programs. They are pre-recorded sound effects which anyone can use and find if they look hard enough. why invent new when you can use old? If everything was the same as before, the games would be boring. But it's a fact that when sequels and new games in the same series are released, people like what they're familiar with. They like it improved, but basically the same as before. Why do you think Resident Evil games have done so well, or even the
Just like recycling paper or drinking cans, recycling parts of games is moneysaving. It doesn't help stop global warming like the recycling of physical objects, but it does help more games to be released slightly quicker than if they were being made from new.
I forgot about that. I should've remembered seeing as one of my favourite FPSs on the PC uses the Quake 3 engine - Elite Force.
The new form of recycling seems to be the use of middleware in which the same graphics engines, AI routines and physics engines are bought by developers and used again and again and again.
The big problem with such a huge expansion in recycling is that we're seeing so many similar games that are exactly the same as the last game in the genre but with a subtle difference. (Kinda like the difference between Fifa 1 and Fifa 2).
Sonic
The big problem with such a huge expansion in recycling is that we're seeing so many similar games that are exactly the same as the last game in the genre but with a subtle difference. (Kinda like the difference between Fifa 1 and Fifa 2).
Sonic
When it comes to games, you don't really consider 'reycling' to have anything to do with them. Ok, the plastic coating the metal disks may be recycled, the paper the manuals are printed on may be recycled, but that's not what I'm talking about. Neither is trading in your games for new ones, getting your discounts from your old games for new, and allowing others to buy them and get some enjoyment out of them. Sure, that's a way of recycling, but again, that's not what I'm talking about. What I am talking about is how some games companies recycle parts of other games, to be used in new games, to save them taking the time to create something new altogether. All the companies do it, ranging from Electronic Arts to SEGA, from Activision to Nintendo, recycling has become a major part of the videogames industry!
So you haven't quite noticed this yet? Well, despite it being so obvious in many major games by the above companies, I only first noticed it in Super Monkey Ball. I was playing Monkey Billiards and the computer player made a foul (potted the white monkey). When the ball jumped out of the pocket and "foul" appeared on screen, a music effect played. I instantly recognised that from shooter Confidential Mission on the Dreamcast. That's what started me thinking - how many other games have elements recycled from previous games?
If you want to go back to the early cartridge based systems, you will see that sound effects and characters were re-used many a time over and over again. There's Sonic The Hedgehog, whose jumping noises and rings have been in games starting from the Master System all the way to the GameCube. Similarly there's Super Mario, who's been in more games than you can count with an abacas, who's sound effects and sometimes even the whole character design has stayed the same in many a game.
One of the most recent games full of recycling is Super Smash Bros Melee. Level designs, music and all of the characters are from games that have been on Nintendo systems in the past. Sure, that's the point in the game, allowing you to go into battle with your favourite games characters, but why the Ice Climbers or even Marth, who for the first time, has jumped overseas to America and UK? My theory for this is that Nintendo are planning on seeing how popular these characters become so as to make a decision whether or not to make any English Langauge games starring these characters, thus not having to think up something new to make money out of.
There is a reason why all this takes place in the gaming industry. These characters, music tracks and even sometimes sound effects become popular trademarks of the companies that make the games. People play a good game including these elements - Sonic & Knuckles on the MegaDrive for example, and think of future titles including the same elements at some stage of the games as brilliant because of the mental association with the previous titles, in this case Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on the GameCube and Dreamcast.
This can also be a good way of keeping previous game series' alive. SEGA, who's games I've already mentioned, did this in Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast with Nights, the game used instead of a Sonic title as a release game for the Saturn. Sure, there's only one part of a level that has Nights in it, but it's a part of the level SEGA made quite easy, though time consuming, in the form of a Pinball Machine. You can't help but see the characters and notice the Nights logo scattered all around the place, it's made blatently obvious, and makes you remember the game, if you've played it before, or gets you looking into it just to see what it was, if like me, you haven't played it.
This can backfire though. If elements are recycled from games which were obviously crap, then you may start associating the future titles with them sub-conciously, and it could make a good game seem bad. You slowly end up not playing the game at all, and even though you once found it fun, because your sub-concious relates it to a game which you thought of as rubbish, you start thinking this one as rubbish and wont play it.
I bet some of you are thinking of the blatently obvious now. The direct ports of old games to new consoles. This has happened a lot and has recieved a lot of criticism when it comes to the Game Boy Advance. What have we had re-released so far? ID Software's Doom, Nintendo's Super Mario Bros 2 and Super Mario World, even Rayman Advance is a re-release of a Playstation game! I personally don't see the problem with this as many gamers of today haven't had the chance to play the games of yesterday, and I'm sure they still enjoy them. It's only the older gamers who seem to have a major problem seeing as they've played them all before.
It's basically a way of keeping franchises alive, advertising and saving a bit of money in not having to pay people to create totally new ideas. I'm sure you've heard the sound effects for an explosion in Command & Conquer Red Alert used on TV programs before, or the sound effects for opening doors in Duke Nukem 3D and Doom used in some cheaply made sci-fi programs. They are pre-recorded sound effects which anyone can use and find if they look hard enough. why invent new when you can use old? If everything was the same as before, the games would be boring. But it's a fact that when sequels and new games in the same series are released, people like what they're familiar with. They like it improved, but basically the same as before. Why do you think Resident Evil games have done so well, or even the Tomb Raider series?
Just like recycling paper or drinking cans, recycling parts of games is moneysaving. It doesn't help stop global warming like the recycling of physical objects, but it does help more games to be released slightly quicker than if they were being made from new.
So you haven't quite noticed this yet? Well, despite it being so obvious in many major games by the above companies, I only first noticed it in Super Monkey Ball. I was playing Monkey Billiards and the computer player made a foul (potted the white monkey). When the ball jumped out of the pocket and "foul" appeared on screen, a music effect played. I instantly recognised that from shooter Confidential Mission on the Dreamcast. That's what started me thinking - how many other games have elements recycled from previous games?
If you want to go back to the early cartridge based systems, you will see that sound effects and characters were re-used many a time over and over again. There's Sonic The Hedgehog, whose jumping noises and rings have been in games starting from the Master System all the way to the GameCube. Similarly there's Super Mario, who's been in more games than you can count with an abacas, who's sound effects and sometimes even the whole character design has stayed the same in many a game.
One of the most recent games full of recycling is Super Smash Bros Melee. Level designs, music and all of the characters are from games that have been on Nintendo systems in the past. Sure, that's the point in the game, allowing you to go into battle with your favourite games characters, but why the Ice Climbers or even Marth, who for the first time, has jumped overseas to America and UK? My theory for this is that Nintendo are planning on seeing how popular these characters become so as to make a decision whether or not to make any English Langauge games starring these characters, thus not having to think up something new to make money out of.
There is a reason why all this takes place in the gaming industry. These characters, music tracks and even sometimes sound effects become popular trademarks of the companies that make the games. People play a good game including these elements - Sonic & Knuckles on the MegaDrive for example, and think of future titles including the same elements at some stage of the games as brilliant because of the mental association with the previous titles, in this case Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on the GameCube and Dreamcast.
This can also be a good way of keeping previous game series' alive. SEGA, who's games I've already mentioned, did this in Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast with Nights, the game used instead of a Sonic title as a release game for the Saturn. Sure, there's only one part of a level that has Nights in it, but it's a part of the level SEGA made quite easy, though time consuming, in the form of a Pinball Machine. You can't help but see the characters and notice the Nights logo scattered all around the place, it's made blatently obvious, and makes you remember the game, if you've played it before, or gets you looking into it just to see what it was, if like me, you haven't played it.
This can backfire though. If elements are recycled from games which were obviously crap, then you may start associating the future titles with them sub-conciously, and it could make a good game seem bad. You slowly end up not playing the game at all, and even though you once found it fun, because your sub-concious relates it to a game which you thought of as rubbish, you start thinking this one as rubbish and wont play it.
I bet some of you are thinking of the blatently obvious now. The direct ports of old games to new consoles. This has happened a lot and has recieved a lot of criticism when it comes to the Game Boy Advance. What have we had re-released so far? ID Software's Doom, Nintendo's Super Mario Bros 2 and Super Mario World, even Rayman Advance is a re-release of a Playstation game! I personally don't see the problem with this as many gamers of today haven't had the chance to play the games of yesterday, and I'm sure they still enjoy them. It's only the older gamers who seem to have a major problem seeing as they've played them all before.
It's basically a way of keeping franchises alive, advertising and saving a bit of money in not having to pay people to create totally new ideas. I'm sure you've heard the sound effects for an explosion in Command & Conquer Red Alert used on TV programs before, or the sound effects for opening doors in Duke Nukem 3D and Doom used in some cheaply made sci-fi programs. They are pre-recorded sound effects which anyone can use and find if they look hard enough. why invent new when you can use old? If everything was the same as before, the games would be boring. But it's a fact that when sequels and new games in the same series are released, people like what they're familiar with. They like it improved, but basically the same as before. Why do you think Resident Evil games have done so well, or even the
Just like recycling paper or drinking cans, recycling parts of games is moneysaving. It doesn't help stop global warming like the recycling of physical objects, but it does help more games to be released slightly quicker than if they were being made from new.