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Matth3w
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 Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 1:17 pm Post subject: Why 8 bit kicked ass! |
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Hey guys, I was browsing another forum, particularly the gaming section, and found this little tidbit from a poster that I thought was worth posting:
| Quote: | 5. Patience is a virtue
The modern gamer has it all, take the famed COD series. Black Ops was released world wide on 9th November 2010 selling something crazy like 5million in a day. Woo I got the game the same day as my American counterparts, that's pretty sweet. It wasn't always like that, Super Mario Bros. was release in 1985, Europe got it in 1987 (TWO YEARS!) and it wasn't until 1991 that was got Super Mario Bros. 3, just a point out in 1991 we got the graphically superior Sonic the Hedgehog some two months before we got Super Mario Bros. 3. Can you imagine that happening now? Super Mario galaxy 2 released in June of last year is one of my favourite games but it was released in May in Japan and NA, that was two months...can you imagine waiting until Summer 2012 for this game? Exactly.
4. I was a gaming God because I was forced to be.
Lets pick a game from the 8 bit era...say Super Mario Bros. 1 (again), now I know a lot of people who would class themselves as hardcore gamers who have never completed this game. It's a hard game that no matter how many times I complete it I still have trouble with specific bits in world 8. In the 8 bit era there was no internet so I couldn't find out any tips or strategies, I had to explore every single brick and wall in the hope of finding a warp pipe or a fire flower or a one up. That exploration element as well as the timing on jumps and knowing when you can rush through a level is still pretty apt in most games today, aside from now I can save and check on the net. Mario didn't save back in the day, if I got a game over it was back to square one and a huge grind out that gave great results at the end.
3. I wasn't spoilt
I have had a Wii for the third incarnation since July of last year in that time period I have amassed around about 20 games (barely in a year) yet when I was a kid we would get two or three games in that period, one for my birthday, one for my sisters and one for Christmas. Games were a lot more expensive then (anyone remember £70 for a Megadrive game?) and by goodness would a game get its use. I hazard to guess how many time my Mario carts (as in game carts not driving round!) have been played through all these years. I wonder if in a time when you could get upwards of 20 games easily in a year that kids in twenty five years time will remember the magic of playing a game to death and not getting bored. Exactly.
2. Imagination was key
“The land of Hyrule is in chaos oh no As Link you'll that's me wooop be sent on a treacherous journey to return six precious Crystals to their origins in ...†That's from the Adventure of Link...what about Mario 1? “You'll have to think fast†see the focus is on me here, me the player. This is my realm where now it's Mario this Link that, there it was about me, they need my help. Look at Hyrule in OOT:
Not much to be left to the imagination, but look at Hyrule in Legend of Zelda:
That could be anywhere, your imagination runs wild as you picture yourself on the adventure in a forest near your home, enveloping you further into the game making the 8 bit more like a book than the current generations movie like qualities.
1. It was built to last
Jack Tretton stated that the PS3 was "a machine that we firmly believe is future proof and is going to carry us for the next 10 years." yet already the original PS3 is out of production, the original Xbox was why? Because they broke down all the time. The NES and Master System would occasionally have a break down due to dust (blowing in cartridge anyone?!) but a simple clean up fixed that. Both my NES and master system (both released 1987 in the UK) still work with no problems.
The NES I thought I'd broken when I kicked it across the room accidentally drunk one day and it came with a huge crack on the casing. The fudger still works fine would you believe it?
There's just something magic about plugging in your 8bit machine again and playing a familiar game bringing so many memories back to life. |
It not only applies to the 8 bit days, but also N64/PS1 games back in the day.
Anyway, to stay on topic, I can't agree more than with #5 and #4 - it just makes you appreciate it so much more when you wait, and spending all that time on that 'difficult' boss, feeling a sense of self satisfaction when you finally defeat a boss/level etc.
Online modes, internet, technology - although has improved games these days, it's a shame this generation of gamers entering the gaming world can and will not appreciate these days. It annoys me when my brother comes in and sees me play Crash Bandicoot 3 on PS1, or SMB3 on Wii and says "oh wow, great graphics [/sarcasm]" before walking off to play his online Black Ops; little does he know what he's missing out on.
Any way, that's my rant over. I could comment on the other 3 points, but I can't be bothered; however, I do agree. Thoughts PALGNers?
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Benza
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| Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 1:48 pm Post subject: |
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That list is kind of dumb.
Waiting 2 years to get a game is a good thing? Crappy graphics are a plus? Only having a couple of games has nothing to do with the era the games were made it has to do with being young and not having much money.
Hard games still exist, games comming out sooner is a good thing, better graphics are a good thing.
This entire thing reads like a bitter old man
| Quote: | | "Kids these days! They don't know how good they have it! I had to wait two years for my games to come out and even then, we had no easy way to do it we made it through with grit and sweat! Damm kids with there 'realistic graphics!' back in my day we had 8 pixels and 10 colours and we loved it! And then we'd get a clip around the ears and walk up hill in the snow to school both ways!" |
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Fetidchimp
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| Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 2:07 pm Post subject: |
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i remember trying to design what i would like games to be back in like 84..... similar ideas to what we have now (my game basically came out as tomb raider many moons later)....so i lived it, and i appreciate what games have become and the whole evolution of it.
I would still play live and let die on c64 
Also when i was a kid in the dark ages, i didn't even notice how long it took for games to arrive, when it appeared at k mart was basically when it was out....but that wasn't far past when they got reviewed in commodore user and zzap....so really it was only a 3 month wait and it would be reviewed in the latest issue, which took 3 months to arrive here anyway. You didn't feel like you were missing anything because obviously there was no internet to speak of.
it all evened out in the end.
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UWSguy
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| Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 2:18 pm Post subject: |
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Thought these things happened in the 8-bit era, I don't think they are the reason it was good.
For me 8-bit was good because it was stress based gaming and pattern memorization and that came because everything was Japanese developed.
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Fetidchimp
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| Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 2:19 pm Post subject: |
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except for everything ever made on c64
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Benza
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| Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 2:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Fetidchimp wrote: | | except for everything ever made on c64 |
And MS Dos (Do they count as 8bit?)
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Fetidchimp
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| Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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i believe you would call that 8 bit
yes you could really turn it around to be why 8 bit gaming sucked ass
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grim-one
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 2:19 am Post subject: |
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MSDOS (1.0 in '82) wasn't around in the 70s when 8-bit CPUs were in vogue. The 16-bit Intel 8086 and successors are where the IBM PC took off along with MSDOS.
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Sin Ogaris
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 7:47 am Post subject: |
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I was playing games in EGA and CGA back in the day, that was the shizz.
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phenomenon9999
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 10:31 am Post subject: Re: Why 8 bit kicked ass! |
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I don't believe that list for a second as it can be applied to current gaming standards as well depending on how one sees it. So... I don't agree with any of it.
5. Patience is a virtue
Games do come quicker now and it has nothing to do with waiting. We have greater options theses days so people who are waiting are doing it by choice. The power of importing, digital distribution and generalized marketing windows have made games more accessible rather than the olden days. Can people wait for games? Yes and no, it is how they decide to deal with it.
4. I was a gaming God because I was forced to be.
Old games were shorter than they are now. With no save spot, it was not necessary as games could be finished in one sitting. Many of them were cheap and crappy to begin with so they were tough from the get go. Also, you can speed run old games as well as new games. I think there was a Mario 3 speed run which completed the game in under 5 minutes? MGS4 still takes 2 1/2 hours if you try to speed run it.
I want to rant about all the points but Im not going to try as people wont read it anyways.
It is all how people interpret things. But those points are rubbish. People live in the past and wont move forward... should just stick to playing old games. It isn't like they go away anyways. Nintendo recycle everything every generation. PC has emulation and classics on sale legit too. All system has some retro compilation so theses olden day games never go away anyways. But playing a vast majority of them now... it is honestly rubbish. I reckon people have some major emotional attachment to the old games are because it was a big part of their life at the time.
For example... I had a Master System 2 as my first console. My next console was the PS2. I missed the jump from 2D to 3D phase. But after playing FFX, I went back to see the older FFVII and it was rubbish. But many people were there during the transition and everything was impacted them pretty hard on it. For me... I found the jump to 3d nothing special and "meh" in the end.
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Matth3w
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 1:33 pm Post subject: |
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Mario 3 in under 5 minutes? Are we talking about Super Mario Bros. 3? Cos that's just impossible....
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Esposch
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 1:52 pm Post subject: |
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In summary:
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Matth3w
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Fly
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 3:35 pm Post subject: Re: Why 8 bit kicked ass! |
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| phenomenon9999 wrote: |
5. Patience is a virtue
Games do come quicker now and it has nothing to do with waiting. We have greater options theses days so people who are waiting are doing it by choice. The power of importing, digital distribution and generalized marketing windows have made games more accessible rather than the olden days. Can people wait for games? Yes and no, it is how they decide to deal with it. |
Sorry but this is a fallacy, people have proven time and time again that when they become "consumers" all reasoning and patience go out the window and are replaced by a desire to have before anyone else does / because it's "limited" or otherwise special... a case in point being midnight launches, how many times have you seen the consumers lining up be met with a grinning employee only to watch as the doors open and they stand there trying to force and immediate paniced decrease in the overinflated launch price? Not once, what bout Boxing Day sales to show the sheer stupidity of the people when they become consumers on a missions in large groups?
The point, to me at least, being conveyed with the patience statement is that you wait 2 years for an item you have an interest in you're then going to appreciate it more when you get it and you'r emost likely going to keep it for longer because of the appreciation and take better care of it, as opposed to what seems to be common place in finish it, trade it in and consume something slightly different. The individual can wait, the individual can make reasoned decisions, but the consumer is prone to consuming for no reason other than the consumption itself.
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Qbert
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 3:46 pm Post subject: |
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I don't agree with all of the list, but he does have some good points. But the thing about having 3 games a year is due to age/money rather than 8 bit. I was born in 1989, so I'm a bit younger. But even in the first years of the Game Cube I was only like 14 and had no money. Simpson's Road Rage and Tony Hawk 3 last me a good 12 months.
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metalgear_yoshi
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 5:08 pm Post subject: |
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^
Exactly. If I was 5 years older and 28 rather than 23 I would of been able to amass a large collection of games from the PS1 and Ps2 era's, unfortunately though I was young and had too pick and choose what games I really wanted and wait for my Birthday and Christmas to score some games or a new console, not to mention that I would then trade those games in or sell them at a stupidly low price so I could buy a new game.
It's all about perspective, quiet simply the perspective I had at 12 or 13 is long gone. For instance, I can only imagine the excitement my 12 year old self would of had at the though of the imminent release of the 3DS. I would of been pissing my pants in anticipation for it and driving my parents nuts so I could ensure that I would get one, in fact I probably would of asked to receive one for my birthday in January and wait till march to get it and counted the days till I could get my hands on it. Now that I'm older the most I feel about the 3DS is that it's cool, no great excitement just a interest that rates just above mild. And it's not because I don't want one, on the contrary, I will most definitely get one, and that's the problem. I never even had to think about it, Ninty announces the 3DS and that's it, I'm going to buy it, no breaking open my piggy bank or wondering what games I'll trade in to put towards it, just the knowledge that on it's release I'll go to a store and buy it. I'm looking forward to it and all but really, I think that the ease at which I can feed my "passion" for games has taken the edge off the experience. There's a joy in opening a new console and experiencing all it has to offer of course, and I still have a lot of fun playing games, I just don't get the same buzz that I once got as a kid.
Does anyone else feel the same as I do?
PS, 16BIT 4 LIFE!
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Esposch
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 6:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Matth3w wrote: | | Esposch wrote: | In summary:
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Esposchs' pet (tapir) peeve.  |
Yes it is, but he listed 3 reasons why the 8-bit generation was shit, 1 reason about his personal circumstances, and 1 reason which was a load of shit and blatantly untrue, and then used that to justify why the NES was so great.
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