Lynch_MJ@cc.curtin.edu.au (12/10/90)
When will game writing software houses (such as the creators of Beast 1 and 2 Awsome) realize that snappy graphics and sound effects are only fun once and ruin a game with all the disk swapping, unpacking, and loading that they usually have. The best games for the Amiga are the simple ones such as KICKOFF 2 RICK-DANGEROUS and TURRICAN which don't require excessive loading every twenty seconds. When will they start to write games that are fun? I suggest that houses guilty of the above should first write their games with plain graphics and minimal sound effects, then play them and ask themselves, is this game really worth playing? Sick of waiting for it to load!!!
judd@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Stephen Judd) (12/16/90)
This is not intended as a bashing session, nor the whiner hour. If you need a reason to justify an action, consider this a personal psychology project of mine to attempt to understand the mind of the average Amiga game player: (By the way, the Summary: is from the movie "Big.") In article <5086.27635370@cc.curtin.edu.au> Lynch_MJ@cc.curtin.edu.au writes: > >When will game writing software houses (such as the creators of Beast 1 and 2 >Awsome) realize that snappy graphics and sound effects are only fun once and >ruin a game with all the disk swapping, unpacking, and loading that they >usually have. The best games for the Amiga are the simple ones such as KICKOFF 2 >RICK-DANGEROUS and TURRICAN which don't require excessive loading every twenty >seconds. When will they start to write games that are fun? I find your choice of supporting examples quite interesting. Namely, what is fun about Turrican? I've played the demo a couple of times - you run... jump... shoot... wow. The excitement and originality of it ceases to amaze me. Yet, many people have raved about it in csa. I had attributed this to it's smooth scrolling and decent graphics, but your posting seems to imply the opposite. So, in all honesty, I want to know: What is fun about Turrican (and "arcade" games in general, for that matter)? As long as I am on this subject... as luck would have it I seem to have my soapbox handy. For reasons you describe above I have become very turned off of most games, in and out of the arcade. Take a look through the local arcade sometime - the games are all the same. The same thing happens on the computer - I have seen some very enthusiastic reviews of several games around here, so thinking of how great they must be, I go try (or even worse: buy) these games, and it's SOS(*): Good graphics and sound masquerading as good gameplay (there is of course the opposite case, for instance the Ultima series for the Amiga). Consequently the Amiga gets the game machine label, and people treat it as such - all fluff and no substance. Too bad. Before I get a bunch of rabid joystick-jockeys deluging me with email, let me say that I am not saying that games are bad, just that there are far too many bad games. I even enjoy some games. I can spend over forty minutes on a single quarter at Galaga. The Ultima series on my C64 was the waste of many an homework hour, and Dungeon Master was excellent. I also have several very fun games on my C64 that were written at a time when a)games were not very abundant, and consequently they had to be good if they wanted to sell, and b)people weren't so good at graphics and sound yet, so the game depended on the game itself. >[software houses] ... should first write their games with plain graphics >and minimal sound effects, then play them and ask themselves, is this game >really worth playing? Fine. But, how about a more realistic and practical question: Will anybody pay money for this? And my question to you then, is if so, why? My advice to you is then: If you don't like it, don't buy it, tell your friends not to buy it, write a letter to the company telling why you didn't buy it, and tell them what they should have done if they wanted you to buy it. My letter to Origin should be in the Monday mail. * Same Old... "Stuff" -Steve -- judd@tramp.colorado.edu // Warning: Do Not Attempt To Drive With SunShade ...!ncar!boulder!tramp!judd \X/ In Place. (I kid you not, I didn't make it up)
jas@ISI.EDU (Jeff Sullivan) (12/18/90)
In article <1990Dec16.035208.8126@csn.org> judd@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Stephen Judd) writes: >This is not intended as a bashing session, nor the whiner hour. If you need >a reason to justify an action, consider this a personal psychology project >of mine to attempt to understand the mind of the average Amiga game player: > >As long as I am on this subject... as luck would have it I seem to have my >soapbox handy. For reasons you describe above I have become very turned off >of most games, in and out of the arcade. Take a look through the local >arcade sometime - the games are all the same. The same thing happens on the >computer - I have seen some very enthusiastic reviews of several games around >here, so thinking of how great they must be, I go try (or even worse: buy) >these games, and it's SOS(*): Good graphics and sound masquerading as good >gameplay (there is of course the opposite case, for instance the Ultima >series for the Amiga). Consequently the Amiga gets the game machine label, >and people treat it as such - all fluff and no substance. Too bad. > >Before I get a bunch of rabid joystick-jockeys deluging me with email, let me >say that I am not saying that games are bad, just that there are far too many >bad games. I even enjoy some games. I can spend over forty minutes on a >single quarter at Galaga. The Ultima series on my C64 was the waste of many >an homework hour, and Dungeon Master was excellent. I also have several very >fun games on my C64 that were written at a time when a)games were not very >abundant, and consequently they had to be good if they wanted to sell, and >b)people weren't so good at graphics and sound yet, so the game depended on >the game itself. > >* Same Old... "Stuff" > Here here! It is true that good game mecahnics have been confused with good interface/falshy graphics/net sound. I don't think ther'll be much done about it, however, until people start getting tired of the endless parade of arcaders with the same basic paradigm, but different sprites and sound. Maybe then the market will have to diversify. But don't hold your breath. jas -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey A. Sullivan | Senior Systems Programmer jas@venera.isi.edu | Information Sciences Institute jas@isi.edu DELPHI: JSULLIVAN | University of Southern California