The Gamer's Quarter

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

So in keeping up with TGQ's mandate for subjective video game interpretation (i.e. an excuse to talk about games in my favorite context of me, me, me)

Mentioning that obscure-ish "Alien" license tie-in for the Atari 2600 in that other thread made me realize how to a large extent New Games Journalism (heheh) seems to start with the NES-era, with a few exceptions (the biggest and most iconographic names, Pong, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man -- all arcade and not of the consoles of the time.)

I can think of 3 reasons for that:
1. Just plain demographics. A lot of the people doing interesting stuff in modern game criticism are 20-somethings and might not have a lot of hands on experience with pre-"Crash" stuff.

2. The NES era really was a quantum leap forward in graphical complexity; the difference between largely monochrome characters and one with just a few shades is tremendous, in terms of pixel-art options.

3. In a similar way, the NES era really marked the rise of console gaming. The generation before that was really driven by the arcade, and (as my 2-hour GloriousTrainwreck entries show) it tends to be easier to do games that just loop / get progressively harder / "play for score". The NES with games like Zelda and Metroid really opened up a new era of exploration and "long form" games.

So I don't know how most people feel about "classic" games here, especially the consoles like Atari 2600, Intellivision, and Colecovision. To be frank, I don't play 'em that much myself, but I wonder if people who didn't grow up with it feel that it's an interesting age (with some surprising complexities) but a different style, or whether the stuff is so primitive that it's more "like video games, but blockier".

(Just a bit of my history: I grew up under largely frugal circumstances, but thanks to the crash managed to hit a motherload of Atari 2600 games all in one fell swoop. This 100-odd cartridge collection, much larger than most folks', saw me through 'til I got an NES only a few years after it was The Thing to have. Then in college, I connected with the community on Usenet, rec.games.video.classic (ahh, the arguments about whether the "classic" in the forum name referred to "anything old but good" or a specific era of early-80s video games-- and the dumb, comic-influenced Era-based naming schemes people who thought the latter would come up ) and later migrated to AtariAge.com , a very vibrant community that really has a wide view of all the eras of gaming . Also a few years ago I reach my Classic Games Geek Zenith by writing and getting published an original homebrew game for the Atari 2600...)
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dhex · Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:10 am Post subject:

i grew up with a 2600 (and a gemini when that died)

i sold my collection in '97 for a buttload of money, comparatively.

i still like yar's revenge, but outside of airlock the rest i can take or leave.
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kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

Redeye · . Joined: 02 Oct 2006 Posts: 986 Location: filth

Yar's Revenge?

Why did they call that thing a "Quotile"?

Dragonstomper for the Supercharger cassette-tape 2600 interface was pretty cool, as was Phaser Patrol.

My fave for the 2600 will probably always be the Combat cartridge.

I also had a Colecovision, and for that War Games ruled, especially the endgame readout.
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dhex · Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:20 pm Post subject:

i always presumed they misspelled quintile.
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Lackey · . Joined: 11 Jul 2005 Posts: 1107 Location: Canada

I read some trivia once that it was from someone's name...I can't seem to turn that up in my half-hearted internet search though.
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Redeye · . Joined: 02 Oct 2006 Posts: 986 Location: filth

Searching for Quotile/etc. I stumbled on [url=http://wonkette.com/politics/dept'-of-phasers-on-stun/protesting-hippies-to-be-forced-to-taste-awful-vegan-meals-twice-286800.php]this[/url].

I want a big searchlight version.

Even more fun would be

mirrors
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I felt sheer anarchic joy when I ran over my first pedestrian.

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

dessgeega · Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:47 pm Post subject:

yar's revenge was ray kassar's revenge against the atari employees who abandoned the company to start third-party development houses.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

Oh, my cousin had a 2600 and we played it all the time.

I just, you know, don't really have anything interesting to say about it.
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Cossix · . Joined: 14 Nov 2007 Posts: 87

Basically because most of those games weren't really worth a damn. Console gaming from back then was mostly just a fad, and most of the titles were basically just rip-offs from each other. A lot more interesting work back then was done in the Mac area, really. If it was an arcade game it seemed like there was more thought put into it because they were a lot more expensive to manufacture, thus you've got some classics that have stuck around today. The consoles themselves were by and large pretty useless though.

I mean yeah there's exceptions to this, but basically it was all garbage and there's a reason why the industry crashed back then.

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Seconded, I can give two shits about the Atari 2600. It was light years away from the interesting work being made in that era.

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Yep, the arcades, and the PC scene, I do believe

The 2600 was long before the NES and the ZX Spectrum, right?

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

5 years.

First release:

Atari 2600 - 1977
ZX Spectrum - 1982
Commodore 64 - 1982
NES - 1983 (JPN), 1985 (USA)

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

The 2600 came out in 1977?? NO WAY

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

dessgeega · Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 11:28 am Post subject:

dhex · Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 11:54 am Post subject:

the 2600 was my primary gaming system growing up, into the 90s, and then a 7800 which was clearly unloved by its former owner. i would scour garage sales around northern new jersey (walking to them, no less, having neither car nor bike) and pick up a bunch for free, often, because people didn't want to bother counting dimes. and since i got ten cents an hour at home for doing various kinds of yardwork and whatnot (demo work, decks, sinking posts, digging beds for vegetables, etc) it worked out pretty well.

so there were definitely some gems. haunted house comes to mind, and airlock (again) was fabu, and i even enjoyed ET. it's all i had, since i didn't know anyone else with a nes or anything else, so it was all i knew.
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dessgeega · Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:25 pm Post subject:

i admire haunted house a lot. my first console was a 7800 with ms. pac-man and missile command, and you know how that turned out.
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kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

dessgeega · Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:59 pm Post subject:

i admire haunted house for evoking a sense of fear and anxiety which such minimal elements. i'm actually soon to be releasing a game that's an homage to it in many ways.
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dhex · Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 1:01 pm Post subject:

i never actually played adventure.

i never ever understood the sword quest game as a kid. it completely confused me.
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kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

Speaking of E.T, I wish I could rip stuff from DVDs so I could upload this video I have about it being a HOT NEW GAME.
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dhex · Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:21 pm Post subject:

handbrake?

yeah, handbrake!
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

I could never get that to work.
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dessgeega · Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 5:00 pm Post subject:

those videos would go great with this thread. they're an excellent snapshot of the era.
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Ketch · . Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 420

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3133872

adventure

dhex · Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 9:27 am Post subject:

handbrake no worky?

hmmm...i got nothing, then.
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kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

Intentionally Wrong · Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:12 pm Post subject:

http://brasslantern.org/community/history/timeline-c.html

I guess the first copy of Zork wasn't sold until 1980, and HHGG didn't come about until 1983. There might have been a little competition, there.

dhex · Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:48 pm Post subject:

kirk - handbrake is a mac dvd ripping software that's pretty good at what it does.

http://handbrake.fr/

the new versions are only for 10.5.
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

For me this era of "classic" always connects to me with early computer games. Basically they were a step above home consoles, and a step behind the NES for a while when it did come out. I was just a bit too young to appreciate the Atari, and as a result can't stand most of the games for it. Most games for the atari feel like those 100-in-1 NES carts where there's like ten versions of Contra all with slightly different names and color schemes. I still have an atari and something like 30+ games, but those are actually my wife's and she has more a connection to that era than I do.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

dhex · Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 1:02 pm Post subject:

fucking macs!
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

I'm using Vista!
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dhex · Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 5:59 pm Post subject:

then use dvd decrypter, broseidon.

(i just presumed from your nick, etc)
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

Well, that program did a great job of uh, moving files from the DVD to my computer. Doesn't really do anything else, it seems!
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

Ok, I got an idea and it WORKED.

I present to you, one of the most amazing gaming artifacts of the 80s.

Well, a small portion of it.

THE HOT NEW GAMES: E.T

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVhEZCIYHLg

EDIT: LOLLERSAUCE, some guy already uploaded most of the stuff from these videos. My E.T one is better, because I include the badass intro, but if you're interested in the other stuff on the videos, check this guy out (he has some other cool RETRO videos too):

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?p=r&user=tr0d&page=2
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dhex · Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 10:48 pm Post subject:

three cheers for sticktuitiveness.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

what has that got to do with the video

also i used a different program

what a coincedence, E.T is on the telly right now!

EDIT: oh its the 20th anniversary remix Sad

cg makes everything better!!
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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

ApM · Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:35 am Post subject:

Woah, they stole the Space Quest theme from a "How To Beat E.T." video!