4 ms·

> Go for it - you won't regret it :) I have to agree with you - maybe it's because I grew up during the time of those consoles and with absolutely-not-realisti

by kahawe 14y ago

> Go for it - you won't regret it :) I have to agree with you - maybe it's because I grew up during the time of those consoles and with absolutely-not-realistic graphics but I actually miss that good-old-days video games look since nowadays most games are trying to look realistic like Unreal or Doom or FarCry wow-ing user when they were released. Maybe my taste is strange but if the game is trying to be very realistic then it's already small things that can annoy me and throw me off, while a totally unrealistic 80s/90s videogame look is perfectly acceptable. I actually prefer it probably for exactly that reason. I don't want all my video games to look super-realistic; while that might be a selling-point for the FPS crowd I think other games should NOT buy into that race and instead focus on the gameplay and on showing me pretty colors.

joeguilmette 14y ago
this phenomenon is called the 'uncanny valley'. it's quite fascinating.
- vidarh 14y ago
  I'm not so sure that applies to most of it. There's a large gap between games that appeals to me and games that are approaching uncanny valley territory. For my part, I'd date the "end of interesting games" to approximately the rise of Doom. These games are nowhere near realistic enough to enter the uncanny valley, but to me that's when enough games lost their appeal to me that I stopped playing much. There's nothing objective about that timing, of course. Just to me, Doom never appealed, and indeed most FPS's don't appeal, and Doom heralded an age where most games changed in a way that made them less interesting to me. It is conveniently also a way of indicate roughly the timing of the fall of the Amiga and other not-so-3D-capable computers and game consoles, and the styles of games popular on them. There's definitively exceptions - I bought Sim City 3000 and Alpha Centauri and Terminus long after Doom (those specific games because I've never owned a console nor a Windows PC, and they were amongst a small set of commercial Linux ports available after my last Amiga gave up the ghost). I'm actually contemplating making my own "retro style" game (only thing stopping me is lack of time to devote to it at the moment) exactly because I keep seeking something that evoke the type of fun for me that the games I grew up with did (what I'd like to do is some sort of mix between International Karate + and Chambers of Shao Lin - never martial arts games don't interest me much). Of course a lot of this is down to pure nostalgia, and a lot of people would get disappointed if they actually went back and played these games again (with exceptions - I have a Minimig, an Amiga FPGA reimplementation, - and there are certainly games that survive even being blown up on a crystal clear 42" LED TV despite the fact I last saw them on a grainy 26" CRT 20+ years ago). But there's also a stylistic difference, whether in graphics (cartoon-ish pixel art with lots of metallic gradients vs. "realistic" art that often try to look real), music (80's chip-tune electronica with lots of inspiration from a strange mix of Jarre, heavy metal and others), as well as big changes in gameplay (e.g. 80's games were usually far less forgiving in terms of losing lives and ending the game), and 2D vs. 3D (even for games which today are nominally 2D the graphics is still often in a 3D style).
  - btilly 14y ago
    Well, I never was much of a gamer. But Doom was the first game realistic enough to trigger motion sickness for me. I have been unable to play any FPS since. (I can't even watch many of them.)
  - kahawe 14y ago
    I think a big part for me is I want it to be a video game and NOT reality. That's also what ruined playing EVE for me; it is such an amazing game and CCP cannot be praised enough for working hard to stay innovative but for me EVE got way too real and one has to be quite masochistic I think to enjoy playing it. Playing alone is like you are constantly missing out and playing in a corp becomes more like a job with responsibilities than anything, there is not much you can do if you just want to log in and spend some time playing and NOT having to worry or check corp and alliance news or follow fitting rules or having to justify yourself after getting ridiculed on killboards, attend corp meetings or report to your "officer" and what-have-you. Despite being awesome, it stopped being FUN. It's dead-serious to the point people try to interfere with your gameplay in real life. Same with the ultra-realistic games, they try hard to be very realistic so I judge them on that level whereas trashy video games make it clear they are trashy and from there on I can accept it as just that and can appreciate it when they excel at being trashy. The same goes for movies for me.
crististm 14y ago
I think the limited graphics helped in the same way a book makes your imagination do all the work. Recent games with super-graphics have to work harder - either they hit your sweet-spot or disappoint (true that limited graphics was sometimes too limited...)
DanBC 14y ago
Multiplayer bomberman on SNES (or maybe Genesis / Megadrive) is an amazing experience. The rise of smartphone gaming has meant that many more games are being made where "shiny graphics" are not important. I'm really pleased about that. There are many more people experimenting with interesting and fun gameplay ideas. Now all I want is for people to experiment with ideas that have been forgotten about in current titles. An example would be, in real time strategy, to have "supply routes" - maybe drones build roads to supplies which they mine, and roads make quicker and easier production, but are attackable. (http://lunar.lostgarden.com/game_HardVacuum.htm http://lunar.lostgarden.com/game_HardVacuum.htm)

by kahawe 14y ago

joeguilmette 14y ago

this phenomenon is called the 'uncanny valley'. it's quite fascinating.

vidarh 14y ago
I'm not so sure that applies to most of it. There's a large gap between games that appeals to me and games that are approaching uncanny valley territory. For my part, I'd date the "end of interesting games" to approximately the rise of Doom. These games are nowhere near realistic enough to enter the uncanny valley, but to me that's when enough games lost their appeal to me that I stopped playing much. There's nothing objective about that timing, of course. Just to me, Doom never appealed, and indeed most FPS's don't appeal, and Doom heralded an age where most games changed in a way that made them less interesting to me. It is conveniently also a way of indicate roughly the timing of the fall of the Amiga and other not-so-3D-capable computers and game consoles, and the styles of games popular on them. There's definitively exceptions - I bought Sim City 3000 and Alpha Centauri and Terminus long after Doom (those specific games because I've never owned a console nor a Windows PC, and they were amongst a small set of commercial Linux ports available after my last Amiga gave up the ghost). I'm actually contemplating making my own "retro style" game (only thing stopping me is lack of time to devote to it at the moment) exactly because I keep seeking something that evoke the type of fun for me that the games I grew up with did (what I'd like to do is some sort of mix between International Karate + and Chambers of Shao Lin - never martial arts games don't interest me much). Of course a lot of this is down to pure nostalgia, and a lot of people would get disappointed if they actually went back and played these games again (with exceptions - I have a Minimig, an Amiga FPGA reimplementation, - and there are certainly games that survive even being blown up on a crystal clear 42" LED TV despite the fact I last saw them on a grainy 26" CRT 20+ years ago). But there's also a stylistic difference, whether in graphics (cartoon-ish pixel art with lots of metallic gradients vs. "realistic" art that often try to look real), music (80's chip-tune electronica with lots of inspiration from a strange mix of Jarre, heavy metal and others), as well as big changes in gameplay (e.g. 80's games were usually far less forgiving in terms of losing lives and ending the game), and 2D vs. 3D (even for games which today are nominally 2D the graphics is still often in a 3D style).
- btilly 14y ago
  Well, I never was much of a gamer. But Doom was the first game realistic enough to trigger motion sickness for me. I have been unable to play any FPS since. (I can't even watch many of them.)
- kahawe 14y ago
  I think a big part for me is I want it to be a video game and NOT reality. That's also what ruined playing EVE for me; it is such an amazing game and CCP cannot be praised enough for working hard to stay innovative but for me EVE got way too real and one has to be quite masochistic I think to enjoy playing it. Playing alone is like you are constantly missing out and playing in a corp becomes more like a job with responsibilities than anything, there is not much you can do if you just want to log in and spend some time playing and NOT having to worry or check corp and alliance news or follow fitting rules or having to justify yourself after getting ridiculed on killboards, attend corp meetings or report to your "officer" and what-have-you. Despite being awesome, it stopped being FUN. It's dead-serious to the point people try to interfere with your gameplay in real life. Same with the ultra-realistic games, they try hard to be very realistic so I judge them on that level whereas trashy video games make it clear they are trashy and from there on I can accept it as just that and can appreciate it when they excel at being trashy. The same goes for movies for me.

crististm 14y ago

I think the limited graphics helped in the same way a book makes your imagination do all the work. Recent games with super-graphics have to work harder - either they hit your sweet-spot or disappoint (true that limited graphics was sometimes too limited...)

DanBC 14y ago

Multiplayer bomberman on SNES (or maybe Genesis / Megadrive) is an amazing experience. The rise of smartphone gaming has meant that many more games are being made where "shiny graphics" are not important. I'm really pleased about that. There are many more people experimenting with interesting and fun gameplay ideas. Now all I want is for people to experiment with ideas that have been forgotten about in current titles. An example would be, in real time strategy, to have "supply routes" - maybe drones build roads to supplies which they mine, and roads make quicker and easier production, but are attackable. (http://lunar.lostgarden.com/game_HardVacuum.htm http://lunar.lostgarden.com/game_HardVacuum.htm)