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> The question is why a VGA pixel soup that was Half Life (on my underpowered 3dfx-less box) felt so appealing. It wasn't even prettier than other games of this

by Scuds 11y ago

> The question is why a VGA pixel soup that was Half Life (on my underpowered 3dfx-less box) felt so appealing. It wasn't even prettier than other games of this era. Sound and music design was pretty fresh. Can't ignore that. It had a restrained realistic palette instead of the colored lighting everywhere of, say, Quake 2.

agumonkey 11y ago
Very true, Valve crafted a wonderful story, environment. It had a better AI than most too. Goes well with my movie arguments. I can rewatch SW 4 without issues mostly because of John Williams music. The 70s film color spectrum is also at play. So far, things have to be refined in many dimension instead of being all-in on some technical specs. Kinda reminds me of Nintendo way of life. Their hardware was often subpar (slower cpu) yet a better substrate to make games interesting, beautiful visually and musically.
- digi_owl 11y ago
  One interesting bit about early Nintendo was that the recently departed CEO was a self taught programmer on the Commodore 64. At the time Nintendo made card games and such, and he basically brought the C64 over, and demoed various stuff. Give it a few years and the guy is running the company that may well have rebooted the gaming console market. Thing about those early consoles was that there was basically no firmware or OS. Every game had full run of the hardware, much like any software had on the early microcomputers.
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    Even funnier, the 'games' were as much software than hardware extension. The main system was often designed to have an external loop to hook in optional chips in the cartridge.
    - digi_owl 11y ago
      Yep. As i recall this was the case for both NES and SNES, with SNES making a bigger marketing fuss about it (SuperFX mostly). I think they stepped away from direct bundling with the N64 and dropped the concept when moving to discs with the Gamecube.
ethbro 11y ago
To follow up on agumonkey's additions, to me at the time, all the elements combined to give a sense of presence (in the VR sense) that I'd never really felt in a game. Characters talking to you in-game, banal everyday moments and a believable world (ex elements caused by "the accident"), seeing your hands, a reactive environment (remember, for you youngsters, boxes shattering and random items on desks being movable was novel!). All the little details added up to just make the world feel different than other games I'd played.
- digi_owl 11y ago
  Never mind that it was running on a hacked to bits Quake 2 engine, and launched within the same time frame as Quake 3. But Quake 3 became barely a footnote in gaming, while HL made Valve quite famous.
  - ethbro 11y ago
    Because experience > technology. Nobody plays games to count polygons or marvel at shader efficiency.
    - digi_owl 11y ago
      Indeed. And while Q1 and Q2 had something of a story (Q2 more so than Q1) Q3's single player was basically multiplayer against bots.
    - agumonkey 11y ago
      Yet that's what all the reviews are about. Resolution centerfolds. And I get that, I was much into this as a teen, software stack and video cards that would allow for shinier. But it doesn't really last, especially when people spend too much efforts justifying a new game on this rather than making an actual game that is funny, surprising or inspiring.
      - digi_owl 11y ago
        As someone said about cars, everyone talks horsepower and drives torque.
digi_owl 11y ago
Yep, having the extended opening where you are simply some lab assistant on your first day was very fresh. Most often than not the justification for the gameplay was given as a short bit of text, or completely absent before that. Similarly, when i play most MMORPGs i rarely stop to consider the story given by each quest. But i recently picked up Elder Scrolls Online, and there every minor NPC is voiced (most of the lines are read by the same small pool of voice actors). It makes the quests that much more interesting even though most of them are the same old fetch/kill kind. One quest i got particularly fond of began with me picking up a disembodied skull that ask me to assemble his skeleton. And it make various comments throughout the quest.

by Scuds 11y ago

agumonkey 11y ago

Very true, Valve crafted a wonderful story, environment. It had a better AI than most too. Goes well with my movie arguments. I can rewatch SW 4 without issues mostly because of John Williams music. The 70s film color spectrum is also at play. So far, things have to be refined in many dimension instead of being all-in on some technical specs. Kinda reminds me of Nintendo way of life. Their hardware was often subpar (slower cpu) yet a better substrate to make games interesting, beautiful visually and musically.

digi_owl 11y ago
One interesting bit about early Nintendo was that the recently departed CEO was a self taught programmer on the Commodore 64. At the time Nintendo made card games and such, and he basically brought the C64 over, and demoed various stuff. Give it a few years and the guy is running the company that may well have rebooted the gaming console market. Thing about those early consoles was that there was basically no firmware or OS. Every game had full run of the hardware, much like any software had on the early microcomputers.
- agumonkey 11y ago
  Even funnier, the 'games' were as much software than hardware extension. The main system was often designed to have an external loop to hook in optional chips in the cartridge.
  - digi_owl 11y ago
    Yep. As i recall this was the case for both NES and SNES, with SNES making a bigger marketing fuss about it (SuperFX mostly). I think they stepped away from direct bundling with the N64 and dropped the concept when moving to discs with the Gamecube.

ethbro 11y ago

To follow up on agumonkey's additions, to me at the time, all the elements combined to give a sense of presence (in the VR sense) that I'd never really felt in a game. Characters talking to you in-game, banal everyday moments and a believable world (ex elements caused by "the accident"), seeing your hands, a reactive environment (remember, for you youngsters, boxes shattering and random items on desks being movable was novel!). All the little details added up to just make the world feel different than other games I'd played.

digi_owl 11y ago
Never mind that it was running on a hacked to bits Quake 2 engine, and launched within the same time frame as Quake 3. But Quake 3 became barely a footnote in gaming, while HL made Valve quite famous.
- ethbro 11y ago
  Because experience > technology. Nobody plays games to count polygons or marvel at shader efficiency.
  - digi_owl 11y ago
    Indeed. And while Q1 and Q2 had something of a story (Q2 more so than Q1) Q3's single player was basically multiplayer against bots.
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    Yet that's what all the reviews are about. Resolution centerfolds. And I get that, I was much into this as a teen, software stack and video cards that would allow for shinier. But it doesn't really last, especially when people spend too much efforts justifying a new game on this rather than making an actual game that is funny, surprising or inspiring.
    - digi_owl 11y ago
      As someone said about cars, everyone talks horsepower and drives torque.

digi_owl 11y ago

Yep, having the extended opening where you are simply some lab assistant on your first day was very fresh. Most often than not the justification for the gameplay was given as a short bit of text, or completely absent before that. Similarly, when i play most MMORPGs i rarely stop to consider the story given by each quest. But i recently picked up Elder Scrolls Online, and there every minor NPC is voiced (most of the lines are read by the same small pool of voice actors). It makes the quests that much more interesting even though most of them are the same old fetch/kill kind. One quest i got particularly fond of began with me picking up a disembodied skull that ask me to assemble his skeleton. And it make various comments throughout the quest.