Go Retro!

Now, industry professionals probably have their own thoughts on this stagnation; but it pays to remember a few salient points about gaming. Firstly, it is a reasonably new aspect of consumer life.

That is to say, many video games reviewers, journalists, and other critics, remember the very first time a video game came into being. Which means that every other game becomes rated against what has come before.

The other side of the coin is that those writing, designing, or otherwise making money from games have never seen the games which have provided such unreasonable yardsticks.

Illustration : I remember a time when games were played on machines with 16KB of memory. No, that is not a typographical error; 16 kilobytes. For those who have problems with the technical side of video gaming, that is roughly 0.00625 percent of the memory that a standard PC is fitted with.

The games that were being released at the time each had something spectacular about them in terms of game play. Stunning innovations which meant that it really didn't matter that they were played in black and white vector graphics (Elite; Acornsoft, 1983).

Suppose that a video game is released which uses all the same play mechanics as a game from yesteryear, but updated to take account of all the technological advances in graphics, sound and speed that have occurred over the last 20 years - what would be the reaction of reviewers?

One reviewer, having never played the original game, might be bowled over by the originality. Another, having played their way through the last 20 years, might be impressed, but point out that the mechanics were nothing new; it has been done before.

Stagnation is perhaps too strong a word, but we are certainly at the point where originality appears to have become a sparse commodity.

This may not be so surprising, we are just waiting for the next game play innovation, the next DOOM, if you will.

In the meantime, magazines are running retro features, where they look at the past and re-analyse the games of yesterday, in an attempt to educate the current crop of aspiring designers and gamers.

Here is, in date order, my own personal list of 'most influential games' of the first ten years of video game history. Just for the record.

1972 : PONG; Bushnell, Atari

'Avoid missing ball for high score.' Important as the first commercially successful arcade game. Persuading people to part with their money in this way was something of a novelty.

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