Thursday, February 15, 2007
Games designed pre 1990 are often seen as inferior, due to the limitations of their technology. But is the experience of a game limited by the amount of resources available to its creators? Games design students on the post graduate program at MIT have to create an 8-bit game to help focus their design skills. I spent two nights in the company of games from the 1980s to see what they offered me.
The first few games I tried I found a little disappointing. Alpine Ski and Arabian Magic were games that left me wanting something with more substance. These seemed to be great ideas for games that had been watered down by constraints of time and resource. Space invaders DX kept me going for a while, but I never had much patience for games that were repetitive without reward.
The breakthrough came with Puzzle Bobble 2. This is a game that is fun, challenging and compelling. I played on and off for three hours. None of these games felt addictive to me, but then I remembered I brought Tetris and my first ever gameboy with me to university. I settled in for the evening, not even thinking about Neverwinter Nights 2
The first few games I tried I found a little disappointing. Alpine Ski and Arabian Magic were games that left me wanting something with more substance. These seemed to be great ideas for games that had been watered down by constraints of time and resource. Space invaders DX kept me going for a while, but I never had much patience for games that were repetitive without reward.
The breakthrough came with Puzzle Bobble 2. This is a game that is fun, challenging and compelling. I played on and off for three hours. None of these games felt addictive to me, but then I remembered I brought Tetris and my first ever gameboy with me to university. I settled in for the evening, not even thinking about Neverwinter Nights 2
# posted by Matt @ 6:41 AM 
