17th April 2010, 11:14 PM
GR, I have to say I still can be floored when I play a game that does way more with a system than I would have expected. Sure they can't compare to today, but considering what they had to work with...
Let me put it this way. When I found out about a little fan made game called Skeleton Plus for the 2600, and then played it when a friend won a copy at some convention, I was shocked to find someone had managed to make an FPS on that dated system.
Technical accomplishments live on in that way, at least for me. Heck, Secret of Mana still surprises me sometimes when I haven't played it in years. Found out they ported it to the cell phone, meaning we'll never see it in America because our cell phones just aren't compatible with the Japanese cell phone standards they have there. That just sucks. I thought the iPad would engage a new era of standardization, but instead we have the Android and Blackberry and all sorts of new hardware completely ignoring any attempt to standardize. It makes it pretty hard to get even the least bit excited about cell phone games in America, and developers certainly aren't very motivated to seriously engage in making some good quality games outside of Peggle and Tetris ports.
Let me put it this way. When I found out about a little fan made game called Skeleton Plus for the 2600, and then played it when a friend won a copy at some convention, I was shocked to find someone had managed to make an FPS on that dated system.
Technical accomplishments live on in that way, at least for me. Heck, Secret of Mana still surprises me sometimes when I haven't played it in years. Found out they ported it to the cell phone, meaning we'll never see it in America because our cell phones just aren't compatible with the Japanese cell phone standards they have there. That just sucks. I thought the iPad would engage a new era of standardization, but instead we have the Android and Blackberry and all sorts of new hardware completely ignoring any attempt to standardize. It makes it pretty hard to get even the least bit excited about cell phone games in America, and developers certainly aren't very motivated to seriously engage in making some good quality games outside of Peggle and Tetris ports.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)