Old School Gamer Chronicles - Flashback Episode #1
Oh no, it's one of those.
When I set out on this grand undertaking I set out to compare the games of yesteryears to the releases of today, and either confirm or debunk the claims of thousands of nostalgic gamers who believe that gaming has in fact gone downhill. Well ten old games later I'm not so sure I'm much closer to coming to a definite conclusion.
How the recaps will work is quite simple; I'm going to give a brief summary of all ten previous titles I looked over in detail and then give a more conclusive summary on whether it's really better than the games of today, or if that's just nostalgia talking. I'm going to try to be as objective as possible, but I don't believe in true objectivity so take that for what you will.
1. Wolfenstein 3-D
Summary: Nazis and Nazi zombies, what every growing boy needs. Wolfenstein 3-D was the first real first person shooter and as such laid the groundwork for the defining title Doom. As B.J. Blazkowicz the player had to traverse nine levels over the course of six episodes while fighting off Adolf Hitler's minions.
Final Verdict: As I pointed out in the full blog entry there isn't really any way that Wolfenstein 3-D can be considered superior to modern releases. It was the original FPS (not counting Catacombs 3-D), but this title can only carry it so far. If you're a modern gamer who hasn't played Wolfenstein 3-D it can be worth a look if you want to see how the genre more or less began, but it's probably not something you'll find yourself enjoying a great deal.
2. Zone 66
Summary: A semi-freeform overhead shooter where the player fought their way through a few episodes taking out primary installations and fighting off endless waves of enemy jet fighters.
Final Verdict: Zone 66 is in a league of its own; the overhead shooter isn't really a genre that receives a lot of attention today so there's nothing to compare it to, and even back then most overhead shooters were on rails. Suffice to say that if you like arcade games then even if you're a gamer of today you might find some enjoyment in Zone 66 if dying a lot doesn't bother you.
3. Alien Carnage
Summary: Attack of the killer space zombies! The player had to navigate Harry through a variety of large levels rescuing hostages, and slaying zombies with limited resources.
Final Verdict: Platformers went full 3-D a long time ago, but very few of them can compare to Alien Carnage from a tactical perspective. Alien Carnage required you to balance the use of your jetpack and weapons as your fuel was limited, and you had to pay for recharges. Most platformers I've played both old and new didn't require much thought beyond "do I want to attack, jump, or just run past this guy?" Alien Carnage definitely deserves kudos for that. On the other hand I personally never found it to be a very enjoyable game. 3D Realms has made this title freeware though, so it can be worth a look if the side scrollers of yesterday pique your interest.
4. King's Quest V: Absence Makes The Heart Go Yonder
Summary: As King Graham the player had to travel through dark forests, cold mountains, Harpy infested isles and foreboding castles in order to rescue his kidnapped family from the evil wizard Mordack. Gameplay came down to solving puzzles, usually with items players attained over the course of the game.
Final Verdict: Sierra's brand of adventure games don't exist anymore in the mainstream gaming market, so there's nothing recent to compare King's Quest V to save for Telltale's episodic Sam & Max and Monkey Island games. Would I say King's Quest is better than those? Sure, there's something about being able to die in fifty different ways that makes finishing King's Quest far more satisfying than finishing a Telltale adventure game. On the other hand some of the Sierra deaths may drive some players nuts, but really that's one of the reasons Sierra's adventure games were so great.
5. Star Wars: Dark Forces
Summary: As mercenary Kyle Katarn players assisted the Rebel Alliance in stealing the plans to the dreaded Death Star, and shutting down the Dark Trooper project in one of the first "Doom clones" that was able to step out of its older brother's shadow.
Final Verdict: While I loved this game back in the day, and while it brought a lot to the table and helped the first person shooter genre evolve Dark Forces pales in comparison to its sequel Jedi Knight which did everything this game did, and more. Dark Forces did have the first FPS engine to feature the capability of building levels on top of levels, though; it was also the first FPS to fully implement jumping and crouching. It's probably not as good as some modern shooters, but it was still a great game, and still is today if you can look past the dated graphics.
6. Sonic The Hedgehog
Summary: Blue streak speeds by; this game was a straight forward side scroller where the player guided the blue hedgehog Sonic through a bunch of loop de loop filled levels.
Final Verdict: Sonic was a great game, but it was surpassed by its immediate successors. I actually haven't played any of the new stuff, but from what I hear it's not that good so this is probably one game that could be considered superior to more recent titles.
7. Fallout
Summary: Greetings from the wasteland! As the legendary Vault Dweller of Fallout lore players had to (initially) navigate treacherous post-apocalyptic California in search of a replacement water chip for their home of Vault 13 while helping, or hindering others along the way with an innovative dialogue tree system, and tactical turn based combat.
Final Verdict: Fallout still is a great game because it was very different from other RPGs out on the market then, and it is definitely unique now in an age where folks don't have any patience for turn based gameplay. This is also the game that introduced the dialogue tree system that BioWare would go on to utilize in Baldur's Gate and many other future titles. It's definitely worth playing today if you have the patience for turn based gameplay.
8. Red Baron
Summary: As a fighter pilot in World War I players had to take on a variety of missions for either the Royal Flying Air Corps, or the German Air Service while rising through the ranks and trying to stay alive.
Final Verdict: Red Baron has been surpassed time and time again; unlike other genres flight sims haven't changed all that much in the time since their introduction. There hasn't been an awful lot of WWI aerial sims in recent years, but there have been enough to label Red Baron as an outdated title that isn't really worth playing unless you just want to play an oldie, and since this game was made freeware by Sierra then it's not a bad choice for just that.
9. Doom
Summary: Players took on the role of one lone space marine in an epic battle against the forces of Hell as they made their way through three episodes set in the UAC Phobos base, the lost UAC Deimos base, and in Hell itself. You could also slaughter your friends in online deathmatch, or fight alongside them in coop.
Final Verdict: You won't find Doom's straight forward run and gun gameplay in many modern shooters save for the possibility of Painkiller, and even that's stretching it since Doom didn't seal you in rooms forcing you to fight off waves of enemies until magically opening again (not usually anyway). Doom was the first person shooter that defined the genre, and even today its fast and fluid gameplay is enjoyable. Is it better than modern shooters? I'd have to say no.
10. Command & Conquer
Summary: As a Commander for either the heroic Global Defense Initiative or the sinister Brotherhood of Nod players had to battle their nemesis in lengthy campaigns. Players could also take the battle to their friends with multiplayer support.
Final Verdict: Okay so the villain was a bit too much like Lex Luthor right down to his lack of hair, but the game was still a blast back when the RTS genre was fairly new. Unfortunately Command & Conquer hasn't aged well due to its primitive AI, and lack of a skirmish function. It doesn't help that the Command & Conquer series has in fact improved with sequels (I may or may not be including Tiberium Wars and Red Alert 3 in this tally), and the genre has come a long ways since its debut in Dune II: The Building Of A Dynasty. Still the game has been made freeware by EA, so it may be worth a play through if you want to experience the beginning of the epic conflict between GDI and Nod.
Conclusion: Well I can conclude that these blog entries aren't going to end the old school versus new school debates that's for sure. Honestly as I'm sure you can tell from my final verdicts; I'm finding it extremely difficult to compare the games of yesterday to the games of today. I believe that this is because the games of today don't really resemble the games of yesterday all that much. Is it evolution? De-evolution? Neither? At the moment I honestly couldn't tell you. I'm leaning towards neither at the moment, but that's subject to change.
I will say one thing though; we had greater diversity back in the 1980's and 1990's. Back when games were cheaper and easier to produce taking risks was easier, and less costly. The price of those pretty graphics of today's titles and a more mainstream industry is publishers who are only interested in funding what will sell, and this leads to more of the same. The more unique games out of the ten I've looked over thus far were the hardest to compare to recent titles. How do you compare Zone 66 to anything recent? You can't because there are no overhead shooters let alone freeform overhead shooters.
So far my only conclusion is really this: the cheaper production costs of yesteryears lead to a more diverse selection of titles. The older generations of gaming had bad games just as the newer generations do, but the older generations seemed to offer more. This isn't really a breakthrough as I'm sure many folks have come to this conclusion, but we'll see what this morphs into (if anything at all) after the next ten walks down memory lane which I'm going to start off with the original Final Fantasy for the Nintendo Entertainment System (or Famicon depending on where you're from), so get psyched.
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Good read, and a nice little refresher.
Oh, and Sonic's original 2D iterations are, in my humble opinion, better than the 3D Sonic games that have been released within the last 5 years...
I'd rather call it reinvented. Most games do not really evolve. Evolution implies a slow, smooth, steady change. Games TEND to make significant jumps more so than actually evolve. The obvious evidence being the console transitions. PS1 games were VERY different than PS 2 games. PS1 games were also VERY different than SNES games. I don't really see very much evolution because people complain so much when stuff doesn't grow quickly enough. The standard pattern is rehash after rehash after rehash after rehash, followed by a some "jump." Goldeneye did it for shooters, FF VII did it for RPG's, The total war games do that. Other than the jump games, the other games are nothing more than just cashing in on the success of the jumpers. They may improve the formula, but they still follow the formula. To actually call it evolution/devolution it would have to be slow SMOOTH and steady, when in fact changes are anything but smooth and steady.
Nice blog.
Many old RTS's haven't aged well, either. Mainly due to graphical issues and weak AI, both on the part of your enemy and your own soldiers. The options available for commanding your units today are also vastly superior to those available twelve years (or more) ago.
Sonic was surpassed by Sonic 2, immediately after it.
I'm playing the original Final Fantasy now, actually. I'm still enjoying near every minute of it.
So Star Wars: Jedi Knight was a good game, then? I haven't played it.
Any game has to be looked at in its original context, taking into account the state of gaming at the time, the extant technology, trends, etc. That's hard to do if you weren't there when it happened, which is what I think leads to these debates over new vs. old
I personally think the N64/playstation generation offers the best games yet, from a development standpoint, not a technological standpoint.
Great list.
It'd be cool to see a new Sonic game with a retro feel ala Megaman 9.
The games I enjoyed playing as a kid spanned many different genres. Nowadays it does feel very restrictive in what I get to play never mind enjoy playing.
All great games that i still enjoy.
Demon Soul's has taken the old trial and error gameplay from the 80's and early 90's, combined it with online multiplayer and amazing character customization to create something that the gaming world has never seen before.
It's games like these that the world will remember and come back to over the years because of what they stand for. CoD:MW2 will come and go - but it's the original - it's the feeling you got when you played your first scripted FPS storytelling experience in CoD 1 - that will always stick with you for one simple reason - because you had never experienced anything like that before in your entire life. These old games were like your first kiss - sloppy and awkward - but perfect, nonetheless.
hopefully this new HD 2D arcade game they have in the works will bring sonic back from near oblivion *crosses fingers*