Perhaps I'm just getting old but I remember I used to get a real kick out of playing video games back in the day. The idea of racing for what felt like hours only to be knocked off the track on the final corner, spinning into the grass and losing the race followed by throwing the controller on the floor outraged. And all this with 8 bit graphics! Skip forward 20 something years and while my Forza Motorsport has hours of customization options and a shed load of tracks and variations of tracks, they seem to have missed out on adding the magic to the game.
The idea of being able to rewind a race if you make a mistake is outrageous. Yes I know it can be turned off but having it there in the first place is robbing so many people of the emotions you used to feel playing racing games.
Playing through a few hours of Alien Syndicate knowing that if you die, there is no save game. It really is game over man. It added intensity and the game really did feel like it was life or death.
Maybe I'm just being nostalgic but when I see kids playing Fruit Ninjas or Clash Of Clans or whatever I shed a tear for the most of them that will grow up having a completely different notion to what video games are.
In my day you won a game with hard work and learning the damn thing. Now you just pay real money to buy some virtual gems to upgrade your whatever. Games have lots their magic. Thanks for reading my rant :D
You clearly haven't played Dark Souls or Super Meat Boy.
Quote from: The Cosh on 26 January, 2016, 12:56:25 PM
You clearly haven't played Dark Souls or Super Meat Boy.
Or Just Cause, or Undertale, or Super Mario Maker, or Smash Bros. or etcetcetc
I'm not sure games have lost their magic entirely, more that you've grown up and games have—for better or worse—become more sophisticated. As a kid, whatever generation of consoles/computers they begin with, the games are like magic. Something infuses itself in you at that point. But go back now and play many of those titles and they are awful. Racers especially have dated very badly for me, and I'll only go near a scant few, such as the still excellent Stunt Car Racer.
That all said, mainstream gaming appears increasingly devoid of innovation, and too hellbent on movie-style production models that forces budgets that make risks a very bad thing. To some extent, that's what drew me to mobile around the time of the GBA. The console's underpowered nature forced developers to be more innovative, and you got that spark of the best bits of the 1980s combined with a modern gaming system. That kind of thinking kept me engaged with the DS and then the iPhone.
I still think there's a lot of great stuff out there, but you just have to hunt around a bit for it. On iOS alone, I've hugely enjoyed Device 6, Year Walk, Forget Me Not, Hitman GO, Space Invaders Infinity Gene, Threes!, Osmos, Prune, Her Story, World of Goo, Drop Wizard, ALONE..., Blek, and dozens of other titles that have kept the fires of fun burning. Similar gems are peppered about Android and Steam/PC indie.
Papers, Please is a IOS title i'm currently enjoying but it's also on steam for those who are interested. Excellent cold war thriller with a very simple premise.
My initial response was specifically about games not being hard enough any more rather than less fun. Although the ones I cited are both.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 26 January, 2016, 01:05:04 PM
I still think there's a lot of great stuff out there, but you just have to hunt around a bit for it. On iOS alone, I've hugely enjoyed Device 6, Year Walk, Forget Me Not, Hitman GO, Space Invaders Infinity Gene, Threes!, Osmos, Prune, Her Story, World of Goo, Drop Wizard, ALONE..., Blek, and dozens of other titles that have kept the fires of fun burning. Similar gems are peppered about Android and Steam/PC indie.
Yeah, it definitely seems to be the case that iOS and XBLA are the place to find interesting games these days. I've played a few of those and will have a look at some of the others.
Ah, the 'not hard enough' thing. I suspect a lot of confusion there from people who argue that is in games offering many more—often limitless—chances to continue. But with the way mobile in particular works, I don't mind that. Imagine Badland or its sequel, or Limbo, with three lives. Those games would be hell. Instead, they become memory-test puzzlers, enabling you to chip away at them until you're done. It's an interesting twist on Rick Dangerous level design. I abhorred that game back in 1989, but it suddenly made sense when you had an infinite lives cheat.
Then on top of that, you have the Super Meat Boys, Super Hexagons and Alones of this world, which are anything but easy in any sense of the word!
I used to think this too, but have come around on it.
While I'd argue that some games are 'too easy' these days (in my opinion the core Super Mario games definitely lose a certain something by not being as fiendishly tricky as they used to be), ultimately you have to accept that the world has changed. The audience has changed.
In the 80s and 90s, we were comparatively starved of entertainment. I remember all the godawful TV I used to watch simply because that was the only thing I had access to. A game could potentially have cost you six months worth of saved-up pocket money, so they had to last.
But have you actually tried to play an old school game recently? I bet you'd last for five minutes and give up. There are simply more distractions around these days, and a well-crafted game can still be challenging and engaging without being artificially lengthened by being unfair or frustratingly hard. I play a lot of retro games, but to be brutally honest, there's very little that holds up to extended play - even in the 8/16bit era - outside of 1st party Nintendo titles.
Personally, I don't like modern 'cinematic' narrative-driven games. I think games trying to emulate the storytelling conventions of cinema is an evolutionary dead end, and while games can do interesting things with visual storytelling, I'd happily never sit through another game 'cut-scene' or a QTE for the rest of my life. I also don't much care for competitive online gaming - never have, never will.
However, I also realise that we're living in a golden age of gaming. There are abundant alternatives to the mainstream. There has been a huge resurgence of indie gaming in the last ten years, small teams and bedroom coders crafting niche titles that offer 'pure' gaming thrills, experimental concepts and retro-tinged aesthetics. You want ultra-hard games? There are a ton out there to try. There are countless games out there to appeal to any skill-level or age. To say that 'it was better in my day' or write off all modern games as pay-to-win iPhone tat is totally ludicrous.
I see a lot of people writing off iOS as a gaming platform, but then that's happened since it first became popular. Personally, I find it as lazy as people writing off all music as being crap on the basis of the top 40, but understand why it happens — discoverability for games is poor.
As for retro, I've penned something like a hundred articles for various games magazines, and although I love the history of old games, it's quite clear when I have to take screen grabs that most really don't hold up at all. (There are exceptions, of course: Boulder Dash; Defender; Cannon Fodder; SWOS; Robotron; and so on.) Additionally, there's that rose-tinted aspect to some old classics. OutRun is a good example. Yes, it was revolutionary at the time. But it's a bloody awful game when played today. (It's 200x sequel, however, remains my favourite racing game of all time.)
Also, a great many old games were hard purely on the basis that only the people creating them ever tested them, and not always to completion. I interviewed the people behind Cauldron, who admitted they only ensured they could complete each section of the game. The problem is, it had half a dozen or so, all of which were brutally difficult. That just wouldn't fly today. There's too much competition, for a start, but also an understanding that games for the most part won't punch you in the face unless they warn you first.
As far a I'm concerned...games have never become less fun. Yet, right now, realism only highlights how 2 dimensional they still are. I didn't mean that literally, cause I'm about games like The Witcher Three is still pretty awesome on a lot of levels, but not really covering everything....I was still surprised to find that could ride his horse on and on towards the edge of the maps before being told that reached he's reached the absolute edge of the map and can go no further.
The isn't even clever excuse for this, your reminded this is only game and that's it!
Sure if such large game like this can be made this good, they can do this, but no....it's like they the development team take after they're own creation go no further either.
So, it's simpler games that (The ones that we started with rough 30 yrs ago and the ones that still work the same way today!) win in that respect, because they do what they say on they're blog or tin.
I have the same fun with games now like almost 20 years ago when all I wanted to do is play Fallout, Earth 2140 or Star Wars: Dark Forces.
BTW I found piles of old gaming magazines (And other types of magazine9(http://forums.2000adonline.com/Smileys/default/redface.gif) ) under my desk while I clearing sorting out stuff for my big move.
Some of those magazines date back as early as 1985 have been discontinued not long before the end of that gaming era. Some of those are real treasures. Is it me or were they just so much better back then with colourful full page are taken from the front covers of game titles back then that just look anything like their cover art, but I enjoyed reading through/looking at them all the same. Which is really contrary to what said earlier about theses particular games in my last comment above. In this respect, I was really referring to the games textual description.
I gonna love skimming and rereading through all of those after the move.
I also found what seems to be a pile of books I thought were stolen or thrown out or given to the starving in troubled times. These include two out of three of the original Titan published Slaine graphic novels, some old, but well preserved progs, and a scifi special or two including other books as well. (Those must have been missing for over twenty years and the reason for my Ebay/Slaine shennigans back in 2008!) or two.
I also found the latest reprint of Slaine - Lord of Beasts reprinted and collected into a graphic novel underneath a pile of books. I was so paranoid about those books going missing that I blue-tacked wanted posters of them to the door frame of my room. So, all three missing books have be returned or just found.
Sorry, for the thread deviation, but talk of old computer magazines took me there....
Speaking of old games and things I really like.... I still have the old C64 cassette version of the Martech/Slaine game. It's more of a collectors item that wasn't that expensive when I found it on Ebay. In near mint condition and never used by myself.
At the time there was a section of this website that allowed us to downloaded emulated versions of all the 2000AD related games that were made before Dredd Vs Death and Rogue Trooper that were released on all most popular gaming platforms.
Some of those games seem very unplayable by todays standard and I might even find them unplayable by the standard of games in a time closer to when they being coded in the garage or basements of a solitary programmer. Even the [b[Slaine[/b] one with it's novel system for controlling his actions. I give up every time...it's like he was neither meant to be ever controlled or he ha serious problem with his motor functions.
Would be nice if they could remaster this game, and the other ones, maybe with better or the same graphics. Given that the graphics were based on the art of Glenn Fabry and the charming way it was all framed n comic book styles panels that would pop and disappear like a type of collage and the other games were just badly drawn sprites. Remembering early Rogue Trooper and Strontium Dog games that sampled at that time. They could be re-released cheaply as 2D scrollers they were, but better graphics Yet that old Slaine could just about done the same way, with annoying Reflex (http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/articles/slaine.htm) (Star Wars may find a familiar name if they read the article I just linked!)
Really, playing this game is like being drunk, and I think that Reflex System should be restricted to combat only or when he's had a good dose of ale from the local tavern and rest plays like Zork. I think A person might only think that way in tense situation such as battle or not at all.
Some of those games seem very unplayable by todays standard and I might even find them unplayable by the standard of games in a time closer to when they were being coded in the garage or basements of a solitary programmers.
Would be nice if they could remaster this game, and the other ones, maybe with better or the same graphics. Given that the graphics were based on the art of Glenn Fabry and the charming way it was all framed In comic book styled panels that would pop-up and disappear like a type of collage and the other games were just badly drawn sprites. Remembering early Rogue Trooper and Strontium Dog games that I sampled at that time. They could be re-released cheaply as the 2D scrollers they were, but with better graphics. Yet that old Slaine game could just about done the same way, with annoying Reflex (http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/articles/slaine.htm) (Star Wars fans may find a familiar name if they read the article I just linked!)
Really, playing this game is like being drunk, and I think that Reflex System should be restricted to combat only or when he's had a good dose of ale from the local tavern and rest plays like Zork. I think A person might only think that way in tense situation such as battle or not at all.
Corrections have been written in Italics, so it makes that much more sense!
Difficulty is a function of duration, I think.
Old games relied on rote and memory and trial and error, but once mastered they took no more than a few hours to finish. The fun was in the learning.
Modern games are simply too long and focus more on the story.
"Old games" per se are replicated in downloadable indie games now, and most retail releases are actually a form of interactive video.
To be honest, I think that in some ways old games were more fun - at least more accessible.
For me it's all to do with how well the game suits the hardware. To say the majority of old games are now unplayable is bollocks.
Pong, with 2 players using paddle controllers is still great fun.
There are plenty of platformers, puzzle games and quirky oddities from the 8 bit era that are still fun to play (not just core Nintendo games).
The 16 bit era has loads to offer. Yes there are the Marios and Sonics but this was an era where the Shmup shone and there are still many examples that stand up perfectly well today (actually some of the simpler ones are far more fun, coming from an era when 'bullet hell' wasn't the obsession that it is today).
Once you get to the PS1/Saturn era I think more stuff stands up than doesn't. Old Tekken games are still an absolute blast, Colony Wars is still great and driving games were transformed. You can't expect the old 8/16bit racers, using scaleable sprites, to compete with polygon based racers but once you get to things like WipeOut, TOCA and Colin McCrae Rally I don't think there's anything to complain about. In fact I prefer these to many modern offerings as they get straight down to business and don't have all the online bollocks! Absolutely loads of innovation in the 32 Bit era too.
After that, I don't really consider games to be retro but there have always been the games that are timeless, games that were great for their time, games which were heroic failures (and may not stand the test of time) and games which were complete rubbish.
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 27 January, 2016, 11:34:49 AM
Difficulty is a function of duration, I think.
Old games relied on rote and memory and trial and error, but once mastered they took no more than a few hours to finish. The fun was in the learning.
Modern games are simply too long and focus more on the story.
"Old games" per se are replicated in downloadable indie games now, and most retail releases are actually a form of interactive video.
Interesting points.
My inkling is that a lot of people
think they want games to be as hard as they were in the 'good old days', but there's definitely an element of rose tinted spectacles going on. Seriously, go back and play all those 'classic' games
without cheating or abusing save states. Go back and play a really old game you didn't play at the time and
don't have a load of nostalgia and affection for. I guarantee the lack of things we've become accustomed to - autosaving, reasonable checkpointing, overall 'fairness' etc - will be totally jarring.
I stand by my assertion that really 'timeless' old games are few and far between. Take the NES - a system that is much celebrated and almost universally adored. But if you weren't there at the time (which I wasn't) you'll find that 99.9% of it's games are a joyless exercise in frustration. Very little you'd want to play for more than a quick five minute blast.
It's a very tricky thing for developers to get right. At the other extreme, one of the grating things about modern games is this palpable sense of fear developers have that you'll get stuck for more than 30 seconds and lose interest, so they add in all this obnoxious sign-posting and hand-holding. But for me, once a game starts to feel too easy, player input starts to feel redundant, and it just becomes a slog. An element of challenge is critical.
That's why I tend to play mostly indie games - Hotline Miami, Shovel Knight, Limbo, Trials, Mark of the Ninja, GunPoint et al. They marry old-school, stripped-down game design philosophy with a modern respect for the player's time (ability to save your game, no arbitrary limit on continues etc etc).
There are plenty of good games on the NES once you get past the vast array of second rate platformers. You just need to know what to look for.
The thing is, back in the 80s and early 90s, many of the most popular games were still heavily influenced (if not direct ports of) coin op games. Coin op games are designed to be hard so that they eat people's money. Take a look at games like Ghouls N Ghosts, or Paperboy. Notoriously hard coin ops which were ported to just about every home computer and console and sold bloody millions.
Modern 'action, adventure' games owe almost as much to the RPG genre and PC point and click adventures as they do to those old arcade action games. The object of most modern games is to progress through the stiory, not to see how far you can get with 3 lives or to try to beat your mate's high score. It's a completely different type of game design.
Actually, I think getting your head around the 'score attack' object of many retro games is probably one of the main stumbling blocks.
If you can get into the right head space, I think there are still loads of old games which can be rewarding.
Playing something like Missile Command with a tracker ball is still a pretty intense experience IMHO and requires lots of skill to be any good at.
That gameplay philosophy is probably more akin to pinball culture than to modern console gaming though.
Don't ever recall games being easier or harder back in the beginning, but they were simpler. I don't think I was ever a good player unless I really stuck at it and got into the game.
The classics from the arcades were always remembered....
Space-Invaders
Pac-Man,
Asteriods,
Centipede,
Moon-Patrol
There was this one where the coin you use to activate the game is also used to play it as you juggle the large flat plate glass cabinent to get it rolling along the right path to it's destination.
One of two fo those games were made into cartoon or live film and yeah, I mean Centipedeas well.
Almost forgot, Q-bert (http://store.steampowered.com/app/285960/) and url=http://store.steampowered.com/app/258970/ ] Gauntlet[/url] which have both been revamped on Steam and think really prefer the older ones.
JamesC: I'm curious to know one thing—how often do you play old games today? Are your opinions coming from someone who still enjoys regularly playing old NES games, or someone who recalls them fondly?
I think it's probably also worth noting that we of course only recall and revere the cream of the crop from old games. Most of them were mediocre at best, which isn't any different today. For every Impossible Mission there was a Street Surfer.
Tempest is as good today as it ever was - Try TxK on the Vita (Jeff Minters latest iteration) as its effin amazing.
Games were mostly harder due to the tech they were on so save states were rare. I reckon its also down to the fact that there's distractions everywhere so they have to reward you every 5 seconds to keep your attention.
I still play retro games (mostly snes) today and so do my kids. The greats are mostly still great and the shit ones have remained shit.
If you want to go back further then I imagine C64 games are very difficult to get into now days but I did go through a phase a few years back of re-playing old text adventures.
In our house recently we have mostly been playin....
Me - Bloodborne - Internet says its super hard but I breezed through it to platinum and am just about to start the DLC.
Eldest son (10) - Just completed Chrono Trigger on SNES and is on his umpteenth playthrough of Dark Souls.
Youngest son (7) - Currently on the final levels of Super Meat Boy.
These are all supposed HARDCORE games.
So there are still difficult games still out there if you want to play them its just for the most part gamers aren't bred like they are in my house :lol: and the market is geared that way.
Yes I play them pretty regularly, I'm quite heavily involved in organising a game festival with a healthy element of retro gaming with my work.
I recently had a pretty good session with Solar Jetman on the NES. I'd say Solar Jetman is a pretty good example of a game that stands up. It doesn't require any more complexity than it has and the control system works a treat.
The retro system that gets most play from me is the Mega Drive (probably just because it's the system I have most games for). I have a few favourites on this system - Super Fantasy Zone, Ranger X, Wonder Boy in Monster World and Micro Machines (the first one).
Micro Machines multiplayer is as good now as it ever was, see also original Mario Kart.
Just add beer and they are perfect.
Read a while back about a parent who was introducing his son to gaming in a chronological fashion - giving him old consoles at a young age and seeing how his gaming interest/skill developed. There's a blog out there somewhere with his findings!
Anybody recall
Barbarian possibly one the first games to rotor-scope pixels based on the carefully choreographed movements of
Arnold Swartzeneggar and as use buy lot of those computer mags. I would just read up on what they did with this one and a lot of others. I combed the shopping centre's and small business's (With the help of my folks!) of the
Gold Coast in the fortnight after
New Years of 87 or 88 looking for that one and never finding it. Which was the traditional fortnight we would always holiday on the south coast. Now those days are gone.
(http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/images/2011/05/barbarian-zx-spectrum.jpg)
Didn't get to play that one until I had got my hands on the sequel (I found it easily enough
Brisbane cbd some where. Let me see. I recall buying
A Tolkiens Beastiary in book store under
Post-Office Square possibly sometime in 89 from one of the
Electronic Boutique (A unfortunate name for a gaming store franchise start by a man in
Texas. Like come, on what type of male gamer admits he's off to the boutique. It's a bit gender-benderish when it takes all types and sex's!) which wasn't really the same calibre of game and took it to my cousin's house to play on his machine. As it turns out his next door neighbour has it and he lent it to us to look at. Interesting, but short lived was my go on this one and how disappointed was I. I knew I needed more time to get the hang of it.
(http://www.retrogamingroundup.com/images/topten/adultgames/barbarian2.jpg)
Got all the way to last stage where he fights that large red demon who just fires bolts of energy at him while he needs to make his way across the screen to get closer enough to hit him. Never finished this game un-fortunitely, but I did find the old floppy disk of this one while moving stuff out of my old room. Along with all the
Bard's Tale games, and some other except
Classic Elite. If my father ever bothers to dig old
C64 breadbin keyboard, and disk drive and cords (Barring one that got lost and was replaced possibly lost again, after I gave to dad for safe keeping. We had a heated argument over this the other day!) I'll be reliving memories from my later teen years.
(http://www.abandonware-utopia.com/pages/telechargement/capture_id/1244_1.jpg)
It was while I was down south washing the windows of cars and trucks in
Sydney that I started collecting a magazine called
Retro-Gamer... that I was sure was doing a exclusive on the work of
Jeff Minter....you know
Space Lamas or something like that. A lot of his stuff was related to
Lamas. Those were interesting. yet it wasn't until I got back home in
Queensland that found the same magazine covering that
Barbarian game. Most importantly, it came had a emulated copy of it on demo disk. Which also unfortunitely turned out to be utter crap.
Yes, it was just awful, probably because I had to play it on keyboard, but even the translation graphics just wrong.
I can't find a good emulation for it right now, but might still ave that demo disk some where.
They should
KickStart this
one (http://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/barbarian-3/)
(http://www.gamesthatwerent.com/wp-content/uploads/gtw64/b/barbarian-3/scan-barb3-gag-1024x733.gif)(http://www.gamesthatwerent.com/wp-content/uploads/gtw64/b/barbarian-3/scan-barb3-gag2-1024x689.gif)(http://www.gamesthatwerent.com/wp-content/uploads/gtw64/b/barbarian-3/scan-barb3-cover.gif)
You know, maybe even as a mod for
Skyrim or that
Witcher game.
I wrote that article for Retro Gamer. The animations had nothing to do with Arnie, though; they were based on videos of the developers attacking each other with wooden swords.
Aside from its sluggish speed and some AI issues, I always quite rated Barbarian. It tried to do something a bit different from all the karate games that were doing the rounds at the time. I never really got on with the sequel, though, which was a bit limited in terms of the fighting and not all that interesting when it came to adventuring. Barbarian III never got beyond some doodles by Steve Brown, unfortunately.
I loved Barabarian 1 and 2 almost as much as young me loved Maria Whittaker on the covers.
Quote from: Satanist on 28 January, 2016, 04:00:41 PM
I loved Barabarian 1 and 2 almost as much as young me loved Maria Whittaker on the covers.
Old me thinks she's a bit of alright too!
Quote from: richerthanyou on 28 January, 2016, 05:47:54 PM
Quote from: Satanist on 28 January, 2016, 04:00:41 PM
I loved Barabarian 1 and 2 almost as much as young me loved Maria Whittaker on the covers.
Old me thinks she's a bit of alright too!
Game Over.
I dunno about games, but they should definately bring out artbooks or prints of ZX Spectrum/C64 box art.
You might want to take a quick look at Bitmap Books (http://www.bitmapbooks.co.uk). They're also currently Kickstarting (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2146199819/commodore-64-a-visual-commpendium-second-edition) the second half of their C64 tome.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 28 January, 2016, 03:52:37 PM
I wrote that article for Retro Gamer. The animations had nothing to do with Arnie, though; they were based on videos of the developers attacking each other with wooden swords.
Aside from its sluggish speed and some AI issues, I always quite rated Barbarian. It tried to do something a bit different from all the karate games that were doing the rounds at the time. I never really got on with the sequel, though, which was a bit limited in terms of the fighting and not all that interesting when it came to adventuring. Barbarian III never got beyond some doodles by Steve Brown, unfortunately.
Yep, I think found that article/blog (You said you wrote!) amongst two others, but I neglected to put them up here before.....
The Making of Barbarian (http://www.retrogamer.net/retro_games80/the-making-of-barbarian/)
Retro-Barbarian (http://www.retrogamer.net/?s=barbarian&submit=Search)
I thought I had read that stuff about using footage from the
Conan films might have ben written in ne of the original game blogs in older magazine. I might still have that one, but not on me. I already packed those. It seemed like it made more sense to me after seeing how the game character moved. My reasoning is....What would a bunch of programmers know that
Arnold's sword-fight trainer and choreographer wouldn't.
I agree
Maria Whittaker was something to gaze at back then when found that type of woman hard to ignore, but I think the standard page three model has been superseded by those with less ampleness and more muscle or something of atheletic physique to reflect what is needed to survive the type of world enviroment where games like that are set.
Just compare her to
Skyrim's Lydia....
(http://www.pressplaythenanykey.com/megareviews/barbarian_palace/whittaker.png)(http://www.thenology.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/lydia-skyrim.jpg)
Sure,
Lydia might have had a different background to the princes or the wizard's daughter who never looked like she had to set foot outside of the place of dungeon she grew up in.
Maria Whittaker, not that I find any picture of her more recent is only two years older than I and I thought she might be in her 50's or 60's now.
I also find the barbarian model hard to realise beyond being pro-wrestler. That amount of brawn seems excessive for a wanderer. Even with that actor's background in kick-boxing or what ever else he practiced. I Know that fellow went on to became the one known as
Wolf in that
Gladiator show in the
U.K. or
U.S.A..
Now
Conan who spent much of his adolescence on that
Wheel of Life. I don't think every nomadic swords-man gets that. Still there was something more economic, efficient about his physique even at his size. The other guy just looks like pumps a lot of iron. Which might rare for one in his position in that place at that time. Real out landers run a lot. Just think of
Mike MacMahon's Slaine (https://www.google.com.au/search?q=mcmahon+slaine&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjui9L22s3KAhVH4qYKHQnrCv4Q_AUIBygB) who found to be most realistic out of the lot....
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/336.jpg)
More emphasis on leaner frame, rather than bulky encumbering muscle. Just look at his limb to torso ratio. Ever so slightly disproportionately long arms and legs and he because he's warps, he goes from that to some more like other guy when unimaginable brute strength is required.
Did anyone ever complete Jet Set Willy?
Found a flash version of Barbarian (http://www.starehry.eu/flash/play.php) that looks better than the original and emulated version I have played ever briefly and boy you need to be quick. I lost my head three times before I found out how to retreat or duck. I's not that hard, cause I have already one afew so far.
When I said this looks and plays better, that isn't to say something was lost in the transition.
Quote from: shaolin_monkey on 29 January, 2016, 07:55:53 AMDid anyone ever complete Jet Set Willy?
That wasn't even possible, was it? I thought it was bugged. Or was that the sequel? I do recall Chuckie Egg 2 on the C64 was impossible, because you couldn't get the toy into the egg. Probably another case of programmers playing through specific bits rather than the entire thing.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 29 January, 2016, 10:14:08 AM
Quote from: shaolin_monkey on 29 January, 2016, 07:55:53 AMDid anyone ever complete Jet Set Willy?
That wasn't even possible, was it? I thought it was bugged.
There were lots of bugs - the attic bug being the most famous. They issued fixes eventually (or possibly later releases of the game had the bugs removed.)
I still stand by my idea that the internet has killed social gaming. My earliest memory is when the girl next door was looking after me for the evening. I was at her house and she had a Mega Drive with one of the sonic games (possibly sonic and knuckles) and about 6-7 friends doing a pass the controller marathon.
That was a stand out thing with a lot of early games to me, you could die so often that you wouldn't be waiting long for a turn. With a lot of modern games seeming more epic, the chance to die is so low that you might be waiting days for a turn now. I remember the days of the Original Xbox and taking not only an Xbox but also a t.v around to a mates house so we could play multiplayer halo lan games. We would have whole weekends of halo and pizza and so many great laughs.
Quote from: richerthanyou on 29 January, 2016, 06:01:27 PM
I still stand by my idea that the internet has killed social gaming. My earliest memory is when the girl next door was looking after me for the evening. I was at her house and she had a Mega Drive with one of the sonic games (possibly sonic and knuckles) and about 6-7 friends doing a pass the controller marathon.
That was a stand out thing with a lot of early games to me, you could die so often that you wouldn't be waiting long for a turn. With a lot of modern games seeming more epic, the chance to die is so low that you might be waiting days for a turn now. I remember the days of the Original Xbox and taking not only an Xbox but also a t.v around to a mates house so we could play multiplayer halo lan games. We would have whole weekends of halo and pizza and so many great laughs.
Wish there was internet nearly twenty five year ago when I was living with people I wen to school with in house. Not sure if there might have been a computer or two in that equation, but if what ever is available on the web today was available back then our table top role playing games would be more computer assisted. I guess! I'd be downloading more and more game manuals, like I am now. Talking to girls in internet chat rooms, like I am now. But I would doing that in a more social enviroment of close friends.
As it was, we did play a lot of role playing games, around table as well as board games and there was something like that
Sega-Mega-Drive playing
Asterix, Sonic, Wonderboy and my father's
C64 playing
Classic Elite and the earlier
S.S.I. AD&D games I owned. (Actually, I really was the only one who used that machine even though I set it up down stairs in lounger room. Like there was a few occasion I catch one or two of them in my room after getting home from work and that was why it got moved. We also fought amongst ourselves lot, spent of time not talking to one another and just keeping to our selves, or at least to myself and now we're not so close friends.
Sure, it's good to play online games with buddies, but I think I would prefer the
L.A.N. set up where communication isn't restricted to chat or even just head phones. I still find that nightmarishly awkward after I had tried playing that
Werewolf the Apocalypse game that way back in the late 90's and again a few year ago, when the set up was improved. Still awkward, it was. I prefer playing any type of game like that just around a table or one of those online MMO's on local area network. Otherwsie, communication is really choked up.
As for female neighbours, we noticed there were a small group of them living on the corner and I was never introduced or did so myself. We should have got to know them or at least I should tried, but I was really shy back then and they even called the police on me when I threw a brick through the window to get into the house one afternoon after I had misplaced my keys. (No one else was home, you see!) I did this with enough force to leave a brick shaped impression on the fridge as the window was facing it directly. The owner of the fridge thought it was funny and decided to keep it as momento. Yep, those girls either never got it that I really lived there, or didn't like from the start. We or I never got to them either.
And we never the wild co-ed parties I imagined we would have....as far as I was concerned those years away from my real home this was waste of time regarding my social life.
About your female neighbours game of pass the controller, was there removal of a item of clothing every time somebody lost a life?
I was thinking that the first time I read it, the type of guy I am.
Quote from: ThryllSeekyr on 30 January, 2016, 12:17:35 AM
About your female neighbours game of pass the controller, was there removal of a item of clothing every time somebody lost a life?
I was thinking that the first time I read it, the type of guy I am.
As I was 7 years old at the time, no, not that I recall.
Fun Fact Of The Day - Female gamers are just that. Females who play video games, just like male gamers! Also, all girl sleepovers do not actually involve naked pillow fights. Your whole life is a lie.
Quote from: richerthanyou on 30 January, 2016, 09:44:56 AM
Quote from: ThryllSeekyr on 30 January, 2016, 12:17:35 AM
About your female neighbours game of pass the controller, was there removal of a item of clothing every time somebody lost a life?
I was thinking that the first time I read it, the type of guy I am.
As I was 7 years old at the time, no, not that I recall.
Fun Fact Of The Day - Female gamers are just that. Females who play video games, just like male gamers! Also, all girl sleepovers do not actually involve naked pillow fights. Your whole life is a lie.
One of these day's Mayor will realise women are not intended as objects of desire for his own lust and are humans as well. But then, pigs will fly.
If it's titilation you want, forget Barbarian, you need Sam Fox Strip Poker!
(http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e129/jimmyalpha2008/image.jpg1_2.jpg)
Quote from: richerthanyou on 29 January, 2016, 06:01:27 PMThat was a stand out thing with a lot of early games to me, you could die so often that you wouldn't be waiting long for a turn. With a lot of modern games seeming more epic, the chance to die is so low that you might be waiting days for a turn now.
It depends on the games, though. I could play Boulder Dash, Impossible Mission and the Turrican games for hours at a stretch. Today, games like Badland, Super Meat Boy and Super Hexagon give you mere seconds at the screen.
There is a sense of certain console efforts attempting to be more like movies, but there are plenty of shorter arcade efforts about the place.
Quote from: Hawkmonger on 30 January, 2016, 09:47:15 AM
Quote from: richerthanyou on 30 January, 2016, 09:44:56 AM
Quote from: ThryllSeekyr on 30 January, 2016, 12:17:35 AM
About your female neighbours game of pass the controller, was there removal of a item of clothing every time somebody lost a life?
I was thinking that the first time I read it, the type of guy I am.
As I was 7 years old at the time, no, not that I recall.
Fun Fact Of The Day - Female gamers are just that. Females who play video games, just like male gamers! Also, all girl sleepovers do not actually involve naked pillow fights. Your whole life is a lie.
One of these day's Mayor will realise women are not intended as objects of desire for his own lust and are humans as well. But then, pigs will fly.
Yeah, I don't think it's wrong unless the girl has something to say about that herself. It's not like anybody has put a gun to their head...
Besides, women do the same bloody thing to men a lot without any of the negative reactions your giving me here.
Lighten up a bit, will yah!
You words aren't going to change my attitude anytime and the female babysitter passing the controller around, I assume there might have been a mixed group there. Both guys and girls just having fun.
Misogyny isn't outwardly obvious to those festering such views.
Take your medication and take another look at reality!
Quote from: richerthanyou on 29 January, 2016, 06:01:27 PM
I still stand by my idea that the internet has killed social gaming.
I disagree for two reasons:
1) my girls and I love playing SW: Battlefront. Winner stays on (not always me!) and the controller gets passed around.
2) When my girls have gone to bed I gather a squad of buddies online and play more SW: Battlefront. People don't have to be in the same room as you for a social gaming experience!
So in summary, both online and off, both experiences above are social, thus I feel your statement is incorrect.
I rest my case, m'lud.
Also: Minecraft.
I can see what RTY is saying though. Same room multiplayer seems to have been ditched entirely in many popular franchises in favour of online, which seems a shame. I mean, seriously, Need for Speed without local split screen multiplayer?
I was going to do a probably not very funny IN MY DAY rant, and then I remembered this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD7rB7FPepA), so... yeah.
After just about completing my house move, before moving the larger stuff via truck. I found the box for Journey (https://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/A_Journey_to_the_Centre_of_the_Earth) Which was never Journey to the Center of the Earth at all!
I never lost the cassette tape for it either, it was right inside the box along with copy of Realms of Impossibility (https://www.google.com.au/search?site=&source=hp&q=realms+of+impossibility&oq=realms+of+impossibility&gs_l=hp.3..0j0i30l3j0i5i30.16325.27777.0.31727.29.26.0.0.0.0.512.3968.0j1j11j2j0j1.15.0....0...1c.1.64.hp..14.11.3056.0.DXU6KcRZKT8)
Of which, I still have the snazzy cardboard envelope it was purchased in with some impressive art work of Indiana Jones type explorer/hero at the top of some ledge somewhere in the depths of below the ground. I think he had to always find the key to open the next level. Described as places you'd find in hell.
Even the programmer/coder/developer is dressed up as MY Jones on the inside cover.
What made this game different for it's time was that it two player co-operative and you could raise them from the dead just by touching them and yeah, I know this is really old news now, but back then, it might have this feature. It also had some of the most ear-splitting music which got really repetative after a while.
Quote from: ThryllSeekyr on 02 February, 2016, 12:21:43 AM
Even the programmer/coder/developer is dressed up as MY Jones on the inside cover.
Mr Jones!
Quote from: ThryllSeekyr on 29 January, 2016, 10:08:25 AM
Found a flash version of Barbarian (http://www.starehry.eu/flash/play.php) that looks better than the original and emulated version I have played ever briefly and boy you need to be quick. I lost my head three times before I found out how to retreat or duck. I's not that hard, cause I have already one afew so far.
When I said this looks and plays better, that isn't to say something was lost in the transition.
In case that link isn't working,
Barbarian - The Ultimate Warrior (http://www.freeonlinegames.com/game/barbarian)
I didn't actually play it but yesterday was the first time I got a buzz from checking out a game.
My local Burger King has Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5 with the little card machine and everything!
While I didn't have time to play it (we were late for the cinema. Because ya know, getting there on time for zoolander 2 was so important) I have made a mental note (and in writing this post an actual one) to go back and play it as soon as I can.
Quote from: richerthanyou on 29 January, 2016, 06:01:27 PM
I still stand by my idea that the internet has killed social gaming.
I would argue that internet revived my social gaming. The group I played with as a boy are now spread throughout the uk but we still manage to catch up now and again online and with the headsets on still get the same banter. Sure you cant nudge them as they aren't on the same couch but its the nearest we could possibly achieve.