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Making video games fun does not require anywhere near as much hardware as we typically use in modern systems. I look forward to an eventual return to fun video
by resters 2y ago
Making video games fun does not require anywhere near as much hardware as we typically use in modern systems. I look forward to an eventual return to fun video games.
- whalesalad 2y agoNintendo has been doing this ... forever? The switch is ancient tech, and was outdated the moment it was released.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 2y agoSwitch could definitely have used more oomph. Many frame rate drops in the Zelda games. Many emulators claim to have the superior experience with those games.
- ThatMedicIsASpy 2y agoWhich is correct. Plus a Wii game with 4k texture packs will look better than any HD remake
- klodolph 2y agoI am deeply unimpressed with most of the 4K texture packs out there. I see a lot of this: https://twitter.com/letofski/status/982947652072488962 https://twitter.com/letofski/status/982947652072488962
- andrepd 2y agoSame. Just rendering at 1080p / 4k is good enough to give most titles a nicer shine though :)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- segasaturn 2y agoActually Nintendo consoles used to be powerhouses until recently. The NES, SNES, N64 and GameCube were all considered state-of-the-art in terms of performance. It wasn't until the Wii when they began cutting down on performance in favor of fun features like they had been doing in the handheld space.
- Keyframe 2y agoEspecially N64 - SGI indy in a small box. They did change the narrative after they couldn't or wouldn't compete on those numbers (rightfully so it turned out), however, they were always experimenting with controls and were highly influential in doing so. appropriate username, btw, but that console is for another topic!
- Frenchgeek 2y agoPretty sure the NES was designed to a price point first and foremost. Especially after the video game crash. Hence the dirt-cheap 6502 derivative in it.
- einr 2y agoThe NES -- as far as its basic hardware architecture -- was not designed for a market where the video game crash had even occurred. It was designed for release in Japan in 1983 as the Famicom, undoubtedly the most powerful console in the market at the time -- a time where by the way I'm not sure what else you would even put in a console other than a 6502 or Z80. If you wanted cheap above all, you could have gone for a plain 6502 or a cut-down variant (like the 6507 in the Atari VCS), but they also didn't do that -- the Ricoh 2A03 is a custom part that includes custom sound hardware.
- monocasa 2y ago> If you wanted cheap above all, you could have gone for a plain 6502 or a cut-down variant (like the 6507 in the Atari VCS), but they also didn't do that -- the Ricoh 2A03 is a custom part that includes custom sound hardware. The higher integration on a single chip for the 2A03 was absolutely a cost saving move.
- alliao 2y agoswitch was ancient tech, but still predates usb-c enough that they're rolling their own power protocols.. hence deluge of broken switch on ebay with fried usb-c ports...
- Andrex 2y agoSwitch in no way predated USB-C, even talking widespread support... Nintendo rolled their own protocol because they could and USB allows for it.
- agumonkey 2y agoWell said. Some ingredients that were in old games has vanished due to the post 2000 culture, but we can go back.
- mcphage 2y ago> Some ingredients that were in old games has vanished due to the post 2000 culture Hmm, like what?
- agumonkey 2y agoOne factor (surprisingly I've seen this mentioned by a video game guy on youtube few years ago) is the disbelief made by non game visual art. Game boxes, booklets, they bootstraped the imagination. Handmade art was 100x more detailed than 8bit games yet we didn't care having a low res 8bit characters because we were already mentally in the world displayed on paper. I do sincerly miss the limited rendering aspect of old titles. The limitations gave ways to a distinct style, and kept the game a game, in a strange world. It also provided you with some surprises.. how did they manage to pull off some effect on a tiny 8 or 16bit machine. Hardware of today removes that wonder. There's less contrast.
- kchr 2y agoThe limitations of old game platforms didn't vanish, they are still used (and being re-discovered by new generations). One of my favorite games on this side of the new millennium is Celeste, for example. Some indie studios are even producing new games for GBA, GB, NES and other platforms from the 90s, sometimes including booklet and packaging!
- agumonkey 2y agoAh fine, I lost track of the indie space. I shall resume.
- roywiggins 2y agoThere's been a bit of a "PS1 aesthetic" enthusiasm recently too.
- conradev 2y ago"Yokoi said 'The Nintendo way of adapting technology is not to look for the state of the art but to utilize mature technology that can be mass-produced cheaply.' He articulated his philosophy of 'Lateral Thinking of Withered Technology' (枯れた技術の水平思考, Kareta Gijutsu no Suihei Shikō) (also translated as 'Lateral Thinking with Seasoned Technology'), in the book Yokoi Gunpei Game House." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpei_Yokoi#Design_philosophy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpei_Yokoi#Design_philosophy
- pbj1968 2y ago[flagged]
- sanj 2y agoThis is in poor taste.
- astrange 2y agoThat's the road design's fault, not his. Japan had a very very high rate of pedestrian accidents back then, they fixed it, and they didn't do it by drinking any less or losing pedestrian right of way.
- thrdbndndn 2y agoNot that matters, but according to Wikipedia he was killed by a passing car when inspecting an previous incident, presumably on road. Saying it was "road design's fault" or even implying he was a "pedestrian" in this context is kinda weird without any further explanation.
- astrange 2y agoNevertheless, what I said still happened. It's part of the reason they have lots of apparently unnecessary crossing guards in places like crosswalks and parking garage exits.
- deleted 2y ago
- solardev 2y agoIt wasn't clear from your post, but have you kept up with the PC indie scene of the last decade or so? There's a lot of great small gems on Steam these days that can run on old hardware (or the Deck). But apparently the golden age is ending, as big publishers this year and last canceled a lot of projects and closed a bunch of studios. Sad, but there's still a huge backlog of great titles to go through.
- ralusek 2y agoInscryption Subnautica Satisfactory Factorio Hollow Knight RE7 Baba is You Baldur's Gate 3 Elden Ring Dead Cells Hades Ori and the Will of the Wisp Disco Elysium Dishonored 1 & 2 Orcs Must Die Planet Coaster Portal 1 & 2 Read Dead Redemption 2 Valheim I dont' know what you mean by "modern," but these were all games I enjoyed recently-ish, and I'm sure I forgot some.
- CuriousCosmic 2y agoOff the top of my head I'd say to throw in Outer Wilds (wilds, not worlds), Tunic, The Riven remake, and The Talos Principle 1 & 2 as well.
- vmladenov 2y agoThe Talos Principle is phenomenal, fantastic effort by Croteam
- CuriousCosmic 2y agoYeah. And tbh while I enjoyed the first game quite a bit I was absolutely blown away by the second game. Visuals, OST, all the vibrant characters were absolutely breathtaking.
- latexr 2y agoFun video games never went away. Look for games by indie developers instead of AAA titles.
- haunter 2y agoThere are many fun AAA titles, more than one can play
- latexr 2y agoThe conversation’s context is fun games without needing the latest hardware.
- Eji1700 2y agoThe majority of my indie titles run on a potato.
- n_plus_1_acc 2y agoMany indie games use Unity and have terrible performance. Source: I have a potato (by which i mean i use the integrated graphics of an i7-56xx) It can run many games well, so it depends how much developers value performance.
- barbecue_sauce 2y agoAs a player, I do not really value performance unless we're talking sub 25fps.
- n_plus_1_acc 2y agoSame. But some titles have like 3fps (Train Valley World for example)
- account42 2y agoPerformance is not just a simple number. 25 FPS with good frame pacing is much more enjoyable than something that averages 60 FPS but with individual frame times all over the place. That said, for first-person action games especially on a non-tiny monitor, anything below ~40 FPS will be noticeably non-smooth. Other game types have more tolerance, e.g. a top down strategy game could still be playable at ~15 FPS.
- haunter 2y agoThe problem is when even Nintendo’s own first party titles are struggling with the hardware. That wasn’t that common with the Wii, 3DS, or previous consoles but very very very noticeable on Switch
- mrguyorama 2y agoSuper Mario 64 had abysmal performance for a title on the N64 that wasn't even that complicated compared to things that would later release on the console. But in the 90s, when you got home with your very first device capable of rendering "real time" 3D graphics for $200, you didn't really care that "real time" meant 12fps at times. We used to have pretty low standards for framerate.
- scns 2y agoOne guy optimized Mario 64 to run at 60FPS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_rzYnXEQlE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_rzYnXEQlE
- anthk 2y agoMario 64 on the N64 was build without -O2 flags. Maybe with -O0 or even -g. After a simple compiler switch, the speed skyrocketed.
- syndeo 2y agoAnd from what I understand, it’s not due to incompetence; rather, it’s due to not yet having confidence that those optimizers wouldn’t introduce bugs. The SDK and toolchain were very new; SM64’s development itself parallels that of the dev toolchain. So, better safe than sorry, especially with a pack-in launch title.
- ThatPlayer 2y agoKaze, who did that 60FPS optimization, has commented on other videos about how the CPU isn't fully utilized anyways, so -O2 doesn't make too much a difference in most scenarios. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_gdOKSTaxM&lc=UgyhTG4Ol46Rr9GOZNB4AaABAg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_gdOKSTaxM&lc=UgyhTG4Ol46Rr... His comment, not the video.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Forgeties79 2y agoA story does not require a bunch of words either but there are a lot of great, long books. There are also great short stories. Same thing goes for games that demand high performance rigs. It’s all about what you want in the end, and there’s no single answer for what makes a game fun. Some people really like beautiful, realistic looking games with high resolutions and frame rates. To them that is fun.
- lawlessone 2y agoGood point. Most of the games I have played in recent years have been indie titles. Sometimes they are CPU intensive but rarely GPU intensive. It feels like graphics in games have reached a sort of plateau now where the most visually realistic games are only marginally more realistic looking than something from nearly 10 years ago.
- rjh29 2y agoRay tracing might be eye candy, but fast streaming of assets from SSD enables experiences not possible before (large scale open world, super fast movement a la Spiderman, instant teleportation). GPU-powered dynamic lighting and LOD is also pretty crazy.
- raytopia 2y agoFor handhelds I'd say the Playdate [0] does this pretty well. Lots of fun and very experimental indie games. For home consoles I hope a single board computer flls this role one day. In fact I've been experimenting with the raspberry pi to try and turn it into a console for new games but just haven't spent enough time on the project yet. [0] https://play.date/ https://play.date/
- roxil 2y ago"I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and I'm not kidding," It's been a meme for a while and I unironically agree.