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Remember the good old days of gaming? The days where Mario and Luigi looked exactly the same? The days where game saves were non existant? The days when it took hours and hours to get to the last level, only to find you get a 'Game Over' straight away? Those were the days that many a gamer enjoyed the most. They claimed that gamers needed to be more persistant then if they wanted to complete their games.
This meant hours and hours of playing, and for games like Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog, it increased the games longivity. The 'game Over's' were not off-putting at all, though incredibly frustrating, yet the feelings of joy and excitement as you neared the end of an incredibly hard game were much more intense than in todays gaming world. If you weren't persistant, you'd never complete those games and would most likely end up feeling sorry for yoruself for not being able to complete the games that all your friends have.
However, persistance can only be measured by one thing. Willpower. If you don't have the will to persist in your quest to complete that game, you will never complete it. Ofcouse this all depends on your ability to concentrate over long periods of time and whether you enjoy playing the game or not.
Gamers now seem to take all this for granted. There's no need for persistance any more. Just save your game then come back at a later time when you feel like it. The excitement soon went as the ability for 5-minute gaming entered the gaming world. The challenge has altered from being persistant enough to complete your games into being persistant enough to play your games for long enough periods of time to really enjoy them.
Ofcourse I'm not trying to say that save-features are a bad thing. Far from it! Without them we wouldn't have bigger and better games from the likes of Super Mario World to Goldeneye 007! to complete games like these in less than the hours of the day you are awake would be amazing! You'd have to be a super player! It's just that many gamers abuse the save features which gives them less pleasure in the long run.
If I saved every five seconds on a game such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein, I'd complete it in probably five times the speed that I would normally. Afterall, being able to continue just before the point of 'Game Over' makes games very easy and more of a chore to play. If, however, you save at the beginning of each level for example, then you will find that although the game will become that little bit more frustrating, you will find it more exciting and challenging to play - and if you can master the game without saving after every five seconds, then you will most likely turn out to be the better at that game.
That's what I find difficult about gaming in today's day and age. It's too easy to just save and leave the game. Even some of the more exciting games get spoilt by being able to save all the time. The persistance in question becomes an insistance to complete the game at the cost of fun. Some games seem to have got the balance near perfect, like Skies of Arcadia which forces you to continue to certain parts of the game before saving, and Ocarina of Time which saves your progress, but if you haven't completed a certain dungeon or area, forces you to enter from the beginning again.
These games force you to utilise persistance and will power in order to complete them. Those that let you save and continue anytime, anywhere, just test your ability to complete tiny sections of games at a time, especially if abused. Some you don't even have much of a choice with auto-save and auto-load featues!
But that's what's lacking from today's world of gaming. The persistance driven by will power that was rewarded with the adreinaline rush that could only be gained by those drawn deep into games by continuous play. I hope a few more games manage to keep me playing for more than five minutes at a time without wondering if I need a drink or not, but I guess I'll have to adapt...
This meant hours and hours of playing, and for games like Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog, it increased the games longivity. The 'game Over's' were not off-putting at all, though incredibly frustrating, yet the feelings of joy and excitement as you neared the end of an incredibly hard game were much more intense than in todays gaming world. If you weren't persistant, you'd never complete those games and would most likely end up feeling sorry for yoruself for not being able to complete the games that all your friends have.
However, persistance can only be measured by one thing. Willpower. If you don't have the will to persist in your quest to complete that game, you will never complete it. Ofcouse this all depends on your ability to concentrate over long periods of time and whether you enjoy playing the game or not.
Gamers now seem to take all this for granted. There's no need for persistance any more. Just save your game then come back at a later time when you feel like it. The excitement soon went as the ability for 5-minute gaming entered the gaming world. The challenge has altered from being persistant enough to complete your games into being persistant enough to play your games for long enough periods of time to really enjoy them.
Ofcourse I'm not trying to say that save-features are a bad thing. Far from it! Without them we wouldn't have bigger and better games from the likes of Super Mario World to Goldeneye 007! to complete games like these in less than the hours of the day you are awake would be amazing! You'd have to be a super player! It's just that many gamers abuse the save features which gives them less pleasure in the long run.
If I saved every five seconds on a game such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein, I'd complete it in probably five times the speed that I would normally. Afterall, being able to continue just before the point of 'Game Over' makes games very easy and more of a chore to play. If, however, you save at the beginning of each level for example, then you will find that although the game will become that little bit more frustrating, you will find it more exciting and challenging to play - and if you can master the game without saving after every five seconds, then you will most likely turn out to be the better at that game.
That's what I find difficult about gaming in today's day and age. It's too easy to just save and leave the game. Even some of the more exciting games get spoilt by being able to save all the time. The persistance in question becomes an insistance to complete the game at the cost of fun. Some games seem to have got the balance near perfect, like Skies of Arcadia which forces you to continue to certain parts of the game before saving, and Ocarina of Time which saves your progress, but if you haven't completed a certain dungeon or area, forces you to enter from the beginning again.
These games force you to utilise persistance and will power in order to complete them. Those that let you save and continue anytime, anywhere, just test your ability to complete tiny sections of games at a time, especially if abused. Some you don't even have much of a choice with auto-save and auto-load featues!
But that's what's lacking from today's world of gaming. The persistance driven by will power that was rewarded with the adreinaline rush that could only be gained by those drawn deep into games by continuous play. I hope a few more games manage to keep me playing for more than five minutes at a time without wondering if I need a drink or not, but I guess I'll have to adapt...
A very true point you've raised there, Edgy. If I remember correctly, in Sonic 2 on the Mega Drive, you couldn't actually save at all throughout the game, but instead would have a certain number of continues.
Oh, I remember it like it was yesterday...I got on to the final level (that sort of factory level, I think) before the final battle with Robotnik. I had no continues left and literally on the edge of my seat, with my sister sat beside me, egging me on (neither of us had got this far before).
And then, it happened...my dad called us to the tea table. I begged him to let me carry on playing. He wouldn't have any of it. I them tried to reason with him to let me leave the console on while I had my tea. "Oh no James, can't go wasting the electricity now can we?"
I never did complete that stupid game.
Oh, I remember it like it was yesterday...I got on to the final level (that sort of factory level, I think) before the final battle with Robotnik. I had no continues left and literally on the edge of my seat, with my sister sat beside me, egging me on (neither of us had got this far before).
And then, it happened...my dad called us to the tea table. I begged him to let me carry on playing. He wouldn't have any of it. I them tried to reason with him to let me leave the console on while I had my tea. "Oh no James, can't go wasting the electricity now can we?"
I never did complete that stupid game.
Remember the Owls in Majora's Mask?
The way they worked, you'd save by them and it would stay saved until the next time you opened that file.
Once you opened the file, the save was deleted and you could only save by going back to the Owl and quitting again (or playing the song of time, but lets forget that for the moment).
This system meant that you couldn't save a "safe spot" and go back to it whenever things went wrong. It just meant that if you needed to take a break - you could save your progress and continue where you left off.
Pokemon stadium used a simlar idea for going through cups.
Saving was just so that you could leave it and come back to it later.
You couldn't save a "safe point" and come back to it whenever it looked like you were going to lose.
Problem is, if someone used a system like that now, you could copy that save (with the "safe point") onto another memory card (now memory cards are used instead of the cartrige save) and abuse the system.
It would probably still work on the Xbox though - with it's hardrive and everything.
The way they worked, you'd save by them and it would stay saved until the next time you opened that file.
Once you opened the file, the save was deleted and you could only save by going back to the Owl and quitting again (or playing the song of time, but lets forget that for the moment).
This system meant that you couldn't save a "safe spot" and go back to it whenever things went wrong. It just meant that if you needed to take a break - you could save your progress and continue where you left off.
Pokemon stadium used a simlar idea for going through cups.
Saving was just so that you could leave it and come back to it later.
You couldn't save a "safe point" and come back to it whenever it looked like you were going to lose.
Problem is, if someone used a system like that now, you could copy that save (with the "safe point") onto another memory card (now memory cards are used instead of the cartrige save) and abuse the system.
It would probably still work on the Xbox though - with it's hardrive and everything.
Remember the good old days of gaming? The days where Mario and Luigi looked exactly the same? The days where game saves were non existant? The days when it took hours and hours to get to the last level, only to find you get a 'Game Over' straight away? Those were the days that many a gamer enjoyed the most. They claimed that gamers needed to be more persistant then if they wanted to complete their games.
This meant hours and hours of playing, and for games like Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog, it increased the games longivity. The 'game Over's' were not off-putting at all, though incredibly frustrating, yet the feelings of joy and excitement as you neared the end of an incredibly hard game were much more intense than in todays gaming world. If you weren't persistant, you'd never complete those games and would most likely end up feeling sorry for yoruself for not being able to complete the games that all your friends have.
However, persistance can only be measured by one thing. Willpower. If you don't have the will to persist in your quest to complete that game, you will never complete it. Ofcouse this all depends on your ability to concentrate over long periods of time and whether you enjoy playing the game or not.
Gamers now seem to take all this for granted. There's no need for persistance any more. Just save your game then come back at a later time when you feel like it. The excitement soon went as the ability for 5-minute gaming entered the gaming world. The challenge has altered from being persistant enough to complete your games into being persistant enough to play your games for long enough periods of time to really enjoy them.
Ofcourse I'm not trying to say that save-features are a bad thing. Far from it! Without them we wouldn't have bigger and better games from the likes of Super Mario World to Goldeneye 007! to complete games like these in less than the hours of the day you are awake would be amazing! You'd have to be a super player! It's just that many gamers abuse the save features which gives them less pleasure in the long run.
If I saved every five seconds on a game such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein, I'd complete it in probably five times the speed that I would normally. Afterall, being able to continue just before the point of 'Game Over' makes games very easy and more of a chore to play. If, however, you save at the beginning of each level for example, then you will find that although the game will become that little bit more frustrating, you will find it more exciting and challenging to play - and if you can master the game without saving after every five seconds, then you will most likely turn out to be the better at that game.
That's what I find difficult about gaming in today's day and age. It's too easy to just save and leave the game. Even some of the more exciting games get spoilt by being able to save all the time. The persistance in question becomes an insistance to complete the game at the cost of fun. Some games seem to have got the balance near perfect, like Skies of Arcadia which forces you to continue to certain parts of the game before saving, and Ocarina of Time which saves your progress, but if you haven't completed a certain dungeon or area, forces you to enter from the beginning again.
These games force you to utilise persistance and will power in order to complete them. Those that let you save and continue anytime, anywhere, just test your ability to complete tiny sections of games at a time, especially if abused. Some you don't even have much of a choice with auto-save and auto-load featues!
But that's what's lacking from today's world of gaming. The persistance driven by will power that was rewarded with the adreinaline rush that could only be gained by those drawn deep into games by continuous play. I hope a few more games manage to keep me playing for more than five minutes at a time without wondering if I need a drink or not, but I guess I'll have to adapt...
This meant hours and hours of playing, and for games like Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog, it increased the games longivity. The 'game Over's' were not off-putting at all, though incredibly frustrating, yet the feelings of joy and excitement as you neared the end of an incredibly hard game were much more intense than in todays gaming world. If you weren't persistant, you'd never complete those games and would most likely end up feeling sorry for yoruself for not being able to complete the games that all your friends have.
However, persistance can only be measured by one thing. Willpower. If you don't have the will to persist in your quest to complete that game, you will never complete it. Ofcouse this all depends on your ability to concentrate over long periods of time and whether you enjoy playing the game or not.
Gamers now seem to take all this for granted. There's no need for persistance any more. Just save your game then come back at a later time when you feel like it. The excitement soon went as the ability for 5-minute gaming entered the gaming world. The challenge has altered from being persistant enough to complete your games into being persistant enough to play your games for long enough periods of time to really enjoy them.
Ofcourse I'm not trying to say that save-features are a bad thing. Far from it! Without them we wouldn't have bigger and better games from the likes of Super Mario World to Goldeneye 007! to complete games like these in less than the hours of the day you are awake would be amazing! You'd have to be a super player! It's just that many gamers abuse the save features which gives them less pleasure in the long run.
If I saved every five seconds on a game such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein, I'd complete it in probably five times the speed that I would normally. Afterall, being able to continue just before the point of 'Game Over' makes games very easy and more of a chore to play. If, however, you save at the beginning of each level for example, then you will find that although the game will become that little bit more frustrating, you will find it more exciting and challenging to play - and if you can master the game without saving after every five seconds, then you will most likely turn out to be the better at that game.
That's what I find difficult about gaming in today's day and age. It's too easy to just save and leave the game. Even some of the more exciting games get spoilt by being able to save all the time. The persistance in question becomes an insistance to complete the game at the cost of fun. Some games seem to have got the balance near perfect, like Skies of Arcadia which forces you to continue to certain parts of the game before saving, and Ocarina of Time which saves your progress, but if you haven't completed a certain dungeon or area, forces you to enter from the beginning again.
These games force you to utilise persistance and will power in order to complete them. Those that let you save and continue anytime, anywhere, just test your ability to complete tiny sections of games at a time, especially if abused. Some you don't even have much of a choice with auto-save and auto-load featues!
But that's what's lacking from today's world of gaming. The persistance driven by will power that was rewarded with the adreinaline rush that could only be gained by those drawn deep into games by continuous play. I hope a few more games manage to keep me playing for more than five minutes at a time without wondering if I need a drink or not, but I guess I'll have to adapt...