Nintendo Okie

They say you can never go home again.  I don’t really get what that means.  It probably has some deeper meaning than what appears on the surface.  There is a reason I brought this up though.  I always think of that phrase when somebody says they can’t play old video games anymore.  I have heard several stories about players revisiting an older game that is ranked among their favorites, only to be disappointed that the game hasn’t stood the test of time.  There seem to be three main causes to this problem, clunky controls, old graphics or outdated game mechanics. 

I don’t think anyone can argue this (but this is the internet so that is a stupid thing to say) but controls are the most important part of a video game.  Without control you can’t play a game.  Without the interaction between a player and software, a game loses all of the aspects that separate it from other types of entertainment.  Without buttons to shoot guns, jump over walls and open doors, a game would just be a long, boring movie.  Now think about how much game controls have grown over the years.  The Atari 2600 had a joystick and one button.  Controllers from the current generation of systems average around 2 joysticks and 11 buttons.  That makes for a pretty huge difference between Asteroids and The Conduit.  Does this mean that controls are better now than they were in the past?  Not completely.  Sure game can be more complex with a wider range of input options but some of the best game today use simple input commands, like Peggle. 

I think the problem isn’t with older control schemes, but how newer games have shaped our expectations.  A good example of this is the first person shooter.  I have heard several people claim that Goldeneye 007 is unplayable without a second joystick.  I think it is safe to say that Goldeneye isn’t unplayable.  We still play it quite often around here.  All the hours spent playing it in the 90s are even more proof of how playable the game is.  So what is different now?  Well the game hasn’t changed unless Rare added some sort of time sensitive code into the game’s programming.  The difference is what we expect.

The same idea applies to graphics.  Games from a certain time period now look ugly to me.  Oddly enough, this time period falls roughly in the middle of my gaming life.  What I mean by that is while Atari 2600 games are charming and imaginative with their blocky, jagged characters, PlayStation and Nintendo 64 polygonal characters look very unappealing.   I suppose this is the effect of the Uncanny Valley.  As hard as it might be, we have to remember that these we the first 3D models we ever controlled.  They may be ugly now, but at the time they were the most amazing thing we had ever laid eyes on.  I like to think of the 3D models of that era as the historical, deteriorated ruins that led to the graphics of modern gaming. 

Of the three common complaints people have with old games, outdated game mechanics seems to be the hardest to overcome.  Games now-a-days have spoiled us with in game tutorials and hint systems.  More than anything, I have the biggest problem with difficulty curves.  With most games today, you can select from three different difficulty settings.  Back on the NES, games started hard and ended even harder. Most didn’t have a difficulty curve so much as they had a difficulty plateau.  Even with all the game skills I have built over the years, I can’t beat games like Kid Icarus and Life Force.  Both of which I have beaten as a child.  Adventure games like Shadowgate were nothing more than trial and error experiences.  Modern adventure games (as rare as they may be) are much smarter about giving you clues as to what to do and where to go.  Game design has gotten smarter over the years, and it only makes the impossible games of old even more cryptic and difficult to understand. 

There is no doubt that games are evolving, for the better in most cases.  I guess when they say you can’t go home again, they simply mean that “home” is different  merely in the way we perceive it.  The same holds true for everything, gaming included.  The lesson here is just because old games control, look and play differently doesn’t mean they should be tossed out to the curb.  We have to look at games like a snapshot from an old Polaroid camera.  It may seem ludicrous now, but at the time it was the coolest thing ever.  I am going to throw one other old saying at you.  Never be ashamed of something that once made you smile.