What kind of experience do you have with “classic games”? Has that experience changed the way you play now or how you think about games in general?
What is your favorite “classic game”?
Mine is Tetris!
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My classic game experience is a love/hate one. First for the love. I started off with the N64, and fell in love with games that define the kind of games I love today. Super Mario 64 brought Mario to 3D video games, and brought me to the Mario games, which are a lot of the games I look forward too. I looked forward to Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, and now I can’t wait to get a hold of Super Mario 3D World. It has also intrigued me into backtracking into the older games, like Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario World. And if the classic game is one that starts its legacy, like Super Smash Bros., it builds up what I anticipate.
It also can frusterates me. When a lot of people think of Megaman, they think of Megaman Classic (clearly a classic) or Megaman X. I always liked the Legends Series, particularly Megaman 64 (the port of the first Legends on N64, not better, just my first experience). It makes sense why. From what I understand, Megaman games before were very challenge oriented, with tricky platforms. For me, Megaman 64 was my first “Zelda Experience”. What I mean by that is, The Legend of Zelda is largely associated with going out and exploring on your own, granted, some of the later games loose this. For me, that first came from Megaman 64. Yes there was tasks and challenges, but I had ruins I could explore out of desire rather than task. I could also find artifacts, and use them for various purposes, such as building weapons or side mission I could take on under my free will, such as donating to the museum, providing medical finances for a girl, joining a club, etc. That sense of adventure, both in my experiences with place I could never be or people I could never meet meant a lot more to me than what Classic and X could give. But because that is not what Megaman is typically recognized for, I know less people with the common interest, and while the more popular Classic and X have a ton of games, I got two MML games with a cliff hanger and a cancelled 3rd game. That being said, while classics can unite people in passion, for many other do love them some Mario, it can also become isolating.
The full experience has helped me think about games with ambivalence. I recognize that classic games can have a massive effect on people and thus can have reason to be esteemed so highly. I do not think Mario’s impact on media should be ignored. From artistic, cultural, historical, and various other perspectives this must be considered. And when it comes to progressive forms of media, I celebrate mainstream success and acclaim. But at the same time, a lot of significant games, as our reading has pointed out, can be over looked, and thus the term classic games can seem frustratingly isolating and classist, in all senses of the word given. Just because MML did reach MMC or MMX’s standard of excellence did not mean it was without its own. And it certainly aged well for me. While I think words like classic and canon touch on games that are certainly significant, I ponder if terms such as “mainstream games” would be a more appropriate for discussing games of a particularly clear impact.
That being said, my favorite classic game (for my case, I mean a game that i liked, had mainstream status, and aged well) is Poke’mon Red. It was a part of the series that started an entire genre, and set the basic formula for all the games to follow and build upon. Start with a pokemon, catch more, evolve them, customize their abilities beat your rivals, become a Pokemon master, etc. While I personally enjoyed Silver the most, I am not sure how I could place it over the others based simply on my personal preference for its additional Poke’mon, world building, and added mechanics (cell phone!) over the others. It also is not just for the playing, but the cultural impact. Creepypasta’s like Lavender Town Theory and White Hand give this game an interesting life outside its game play, and such well known creepypastas serve to reflect its impact on gaming.
I agree that the term “mainstream” would be a better term to use. There are a lot of different genres of games now, from indie to shooter, etc. Some are well known, like COD, and some aren’t, but still have significance to that genre. Classic games nowadays will probably be sorted into genres, because they still had an impact on gaming even though the games might be completely different from one another.
There does seem to be a tension between the classics of a discipline and works that emerge out of a discipline’s maturity. Some may feel that the classics are revered only because of their “arbitrary” position at the beginning rather than later. But then again, without the earlier yet less-sophisticated efforts of earlier games, newer games that are much better objectively but receive less attention would not even exist or be as good without the benefit of the classics.
This brings up a good time to discuss discourse theory and the act of canonization. What is unique about video games is that it is users not academics who have determined the canon. If we were going by the same standards today, a modern classic would be Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code
I would also like to add Megaman Legends allowed me to explore Megaman’s identity in away that made me feel like a “good person”. I wasn’t just in it for the action. I wanetd to get that girl the proper medical treatment, I wanted to share my findings with the art museum. I wanted to explore Megaman’s identity as a philanthropist. I could also have been a wicked Megaman that would have blown up a blimp. These events weren’t obvious either, I had to explore by asking around. Aside from exploration of space, the game let me explore my version of Megaman’s identity. It also, in other cases including my own, opened me up to being a hero outside of the power fantasy (granted, again, you could also become a wicked Megaman).
I personally am a fan of classic gaming. My mother worked for Bally , which eventually switched over to Namco, so our house is basically covered in Pac Man ( my favorite classic game). I guess one can say I grew up surrounded by classic gaming. I never really was introduced into “modern” gaming until I got my first game cube when I was 9. Looking back on classic games and comparing it to the modern games of today, we have gone a long way. We were not so technologically advanced back when the classic games came out, so seeing how far we have come gives me a new appreciation for gaming.
If from this chapter “classic games” are supposed to be the ones that may have made it to the “golden era” I would have to say I personally have had some limited experience. I am aware of some of them but have not had the chance to fully play them. Anyways my experience with them has been through the classic arcade and what I know of is Pac-Man, Rampage, and Space Invaders and I have been one of the people who has managed to find some of older games that have made it to the Internet such as Tetris and Rampage and those games did provide a different experience. One was that since there were unlimited free tries since it was on the computer there was not as much pressure to make sure to stay alive. Another was it did not have the same feeling such as the level of sound and use of controls, something like that did make me somewhat miss the feeling of button mashing and the joystick of an arcade box. I personally think that my favorite classic game would be Space Invaders
Rampage with the giant monsters destroying the side-scrolling cityscape? That was the greatest stress relief ever. Except when your friends beat up more skyscrapers than you did, that made me even more stressed.
I honestly haven’t really played any games from the “golden era” because I really never played many video games. I did however play arcade games once in a while as a child and I remember really liking Pac Man and Tetris. One thing I really liked about playing arcade games is that you didn’t have and unlimited amount of times to play. With computer games and video games you can essentially play as many times or as often as you want. The pressure to stay alive in order to play isn’t there which was the most exciting and personally my favorite part of playing arcade/video games.
Also the competition with other people (in the form of a high scores list) is taken away with console games. I think that was the most fun part for me when it came to playing at the arcade because there was always a thrill when you got to put your initials on the board. Not only was it a high pressure way to play games due to the fact you could only have one try, but it also brought people together in friendly competition, and I think that was a wonderful trait of arcade games.
The only real classic games that I can remember playing were Donkey Kong, Pac-Man and Paper Boy. I didn’t really begin to play games till the Super Nintendo. My favorites were Zelda, Mario, and Star Fox. Though I do primarily play modern games, I generally get excited and feel very nostalgic about how fun some of those old games are to me, and then I play them. I still get great enjoyment out of those games, but I find them way more frustrating. I know when I used to play it was all about getting to the end, using all the secret tunnels or cheat codes to skip me ahead. Now I like to sit back and play, I like to take my time and play my way through the levels. Which I guess is just something I picked up with maturity. My favorite classic game is Paper Boy. My favorite part of the arcade games was always the unquestionable surrealism of the game. You never question the plumber jumping barrels to get to the princess, or what a Pac-Man is. Though I never understood why The Paper Boy would always have to go through the obstacle course after each route. You just played the game.
Classic games ARE my childhood. I think us early 90’s kids came at just the right time for gaming, where all the greats from the 80’s were still around and we had N64 and gameboy games to look forward too. Everything Nintendo releases nowadays (and it breaks my heart to say) is a reiteration of one of their classic games. They haven’t had a new, huge property since Pikmin in 2003 i think. Everything they are today, they owe to their first wave of innovative video games. And we were born right in the thick of it! My first gaming experiences were on the original gameboy, that big gray brick of a machine, with nary a backlight so i can view my favorite games during my favorite time to play: the car ride home. My first games were Tetris and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, which was a shite movie but had a killer video game. I realize now it was quite bad, but hey, i was young. The world was green then, then we were thrust with a wave of color!
Everytime we’d go on vacation i’d have my lime green gameboy color in tote, always with a pokemon cartridge in it. I’d beg my folks to pay for and play the N64 consoles that came with the hotel room, AND THEY SAID YES ONCE. I loved going to the arcades and playing skating and shooting games. These were probably on the verge of what people would consider classic games, but N64 and back to me is classic.
Even now I love when I find those machines at the dentist office or in a bar that has classic Pacman, Dig-Dug, Galaga, or Donkey Kong ( i finally beat level one and two, but I’m having the worst time with the third level). The oldies maintain a great sense of nostalgia, but don’t really hold up on replayability and engaging gameplay. But they’re fun for a few run-throughs I think, and to remember where we came from and admire where we’re going.
Ah! and I still play them all to this day, I have Dig-Dug, Mega man 2, Sonic, and Pac-Man. I wish Donkey Kong would make it’s debut SO MUCH on iOS, and I hear that nintendo finally agreed to release apps with apple! I also think that classic 8-bit video games are still influencing games today, such as with the aesthetics of Minecraft, FEZ, etc.
I have always loved classic games. When I was younger I had an all in one game system that you could plug into the television and play a variety of classic arcade games such as Centipede, Tempest, Frogger, and Pac-Man. I would play these games more than I would play my other consoles because I have always gravitated towards simpler games that may not be as flashy or complicated as other, more modern games.
Having played classic games, it makes me miss the days when games had a very simple purpose and goal and there was not any high tech graphics or sound effects to distract you from just enjoying the simple goal of the game. I get nostalgic when I play games like the ones I mentioned above because you don’t find games like that. Even when you stumble upon an arcade these days the games are more complicated or have the singular goal of winning a prize in mind. No longer are people content with going to the arcade and spending their money to try and beat a high score, now they must win something in return. I just liked the simplicity and the competition that classic games provided.
I would have to say that my favorite classic game would probably be Centipede. I used to love to see how big my centipede could get and always get super anxious as it grew. I always had a hoot playing that game. But honestly, I love all of the classic arcade games, they’re a great escape game to play when you want a break from something complicated.
I have a little bit of experience with “classic” games. My mom and dad had a Nintendo and a Super Nintendo when I was little, and not long after that, purchased a Playstation that had a lot of classic games on it. I grew up with watching my brothers play Super Mario World and Mario Bros. When my cousin came over, we would play Space Invaders on the Playstaton. My mom loved playing Tetris, but that was one I couldn’t, and still can’t, get into playing.
It doesn’t really change the way I play, but I might be more interested in playing a game that has been a classic. For example, playing Super Smash Bros. is always fun, especially with classic characters like Mario, Kirby, Link, etc.
My favorite classic game would have to be either Frogger or Space Invaders.
My first experience with “classic games” was the day my dad borrowed the home version of Pong from a friend and brought it home for a few nights. From then on, my video game playing evolution consisted of Atari 2600 (Pac-Man, Pole Position, Asteroids, Centipede, Frogger, and Miner 2049er), Nintendo Entertainment System (Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, and Metroid) and Playstation (Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon). I currently do not own a console for two reasons: none of the new games nowadays appeal to me much, and if I did find a game that I liked, I doubt I would get anything constructive done.
My family didn’t buy a console until the NES was released, so until then I played Atari games either in arcades or at my friend’s house. I remember being so awestruck at the technology, graphics and sounds. The idea of controlling something on the television screen blew my mind. I also enjoyed the fun, simple storylines (if there even were any) and how uncomplicated everything was. As I got older and played more sophisticated games, the magic disappeared and I would grow bored very quickly (unless it was a game I really grew to love). It seems like every game nowadays features cut scenes and lengthy introductions and complicated storylines. When I was a kid, the most complicated it got for me was Legend of Zelda.
When I think about it, I really do like classic games more than the newer games. I like their modesty and their simple formulas. It seemed like back then, video games weren’t trying to make any sort of statement (except what they could do next in terms of technology). There are some video games now that even dabble in politics, and I want no part of it. I play games to have fun and forget about the world and its problems. There are games that have been released within the past fifteen or twenty years that I do enjoy playing, but they are very similar to those classic games I played. They feature pretty simple storylines and endearing characters that are mostly animals. Maybe I like these games because they remind me of my youth and the games I played in my youth.
My favorite classic game is Legend of Zelda. I loved the characters and the different weapons you could collect, and I even loved the variety of enemies. Even though I was pretty young, I remember feeling like the game was so epic, and it truly was. Before Legend of Zelda, I had never played a video game that was set in such an expansive world, and I never played a game that you could actually save.
I grew up playing Frogger, Pac-man, and Galaga at Cape Girardeau’s Pagliai’s restaurant. They also had a Metal Slug cabinet that we played plenty of times. I also went to our mall’s arcade when it was still a real arcade when my parents would take me.
In high school a friend of mine donated two multicades to our school and all the boys who hung around kept official high score sheet where two people had to sign off for the record to be official. I had the Dig Dug high score as well as the Pengo, Centipede and New Rally X. All but the Centipede score was beaten. I also played Crush Roller and Arcanoid a lot. Every once in a while I would venture out and play other games.
My favorite is Dig Dug… and Pengo is slightly below.
FF- In my senior year I was in a male pageant we put on as a fundraiser. When asked what I would wish for if I had one wish I answered rid the world of Fygars (the dragon things in Dig Dug)… I am a nerd.
My experience with “classics” is limited to 1980s Donkey Kong. One part of the classic is nostalgia, sure. But not just with the character itself, but with the animation and color style. A non-video game example from my personal history is the character of Scooby-Doo by Hanna Barbera. The 1960s, 70s, and even 80s era Scooby Doo cartoons all share a je ne sais qua that renders them “classic” to me. The same applies to the ’63 Johnny Quest series. Each reveal characteristics of their decades as representatives of a cultural ethos and era. In the chapter four discussion about porting old games to new technologies and systems “retro-gaming” the author writes “gameplay experience will not be the same…The controls, possible special cabinet, size of screen, quality of audio are all factors that contribute to the total gameplay experience….” (53) The “imported” Scooby Doo cartoons of the 90s and 2000s are not the same feeling as the classics.The Hanna Barbera era cartoons have a candid quality i.e. “Rickshaw Scooby Doo” that is compared to today standards politically incorrect yet endearing. Moreover, the laugh tracks, and poor video quality adds a touch of imperfection that is lost on todays artificially glossed images.
I would say that I enjoy classic games just as much as I do current games. I started off playing on the Nintendo Entertainment System with two of the all time classics Super Mario Brothers 1 and 3. Looking back I find it fascinating that the games both had “secrets” to them, or special areas you wouldn’t necessarily just stumble across. I think that fact changed the way in which I currently play games, because most games since then (I realize these games weren’t the first to have secrets) have followed suit and have “secrets” to them as well. So, I am more through while playing games looking for easter eggs or special areas, because these add another level of enjoyability to the games. I also had a Sega Genesis in which I played Super Street Fighter and the Sonic games, which I consider to be classics as well. All of these games were the foundation to my video gaming beginnings and I think they were all very positive in influencing me playing games, and I still play my NES to this day, and enjoy it just as much as I always have. I think my favorite classic would be Super Mario Brothers 3, because it has an incredibly high replayability and is something you can play either alone or with friends. Although you always know what is going to happen or where enemies are going to be on the levels, it still takes skill to beat and offers a challenge every time.
I found this part very interesting. While I still feel as much enjoyment playing N64 games, there is a nostalgic feeling lost when I can not take the cartrdige and place it in the machine. I also find your connections to Scooby Doo interesting. Also, the very spirit of Scooby-Doo is largely the time it was made, and an attempt to update it makes it feel like a chunk of its soul is missing. When the “updated” is juxtaposed with past Scooby Doo’s it is an awkward experience. While I have not watched any old MLP or Transformers, maybe part of why they can be revived so easily is, even if there are some elements in past shows that are a part of the time, the basic elements that make it standout (magical ponies being friends or alien mechs that can transform and fight) exist regardless of time. What I have seen of the new works has references but can exist without them, or can be entertaining regardless of what you know. It is really hard to imagine Scooby Doo with out its era.
If we are to look for binary shifts between the classic and modern eras of gaming, the most obvious, for me, is the birth of polygonal games. While there have been a steady stream of pixel and otherwise non-polygonal games since the shift, they have all, more and more explicitly as time passes, stopped being simply games and started being non-polygonal; their refusal of the 3D artistic space is an aesthetic statement, in the way that a black and white movie released in 2014 is not a black and white movie, but a non-color movie.
There’s then the more personal definition of classic, whose associations can never be fully separated from the last definition. It’s why I’m uncomfortable with the term classic as a phrase for periodization, in the way that referring to the early days of comic books as “the Golden Age”, in the way that it turns mediocrity into charm in a way that is not offered to more recent works. It plays on a rhetoric that both privileges the older and shows contempt for them: their failures are adorable because of a patronizing relationship with them.
I’m, possibly, exaggerating the cultural impact of a trend that just happens to bother me personally, just like any time I see a trend that leads to what I feel can be called undeserved smugness. In penance, I’ll talk about my favorite game that fits into the classic period: The Day of the Tentacle.
Produced by Tim Schaffer for Lucas Arts, it’s the sequel to one of the earliest adventure games, Maniac Mansion. It is, without a doubt, a stupid game in its comedy. It’s somewhere lower than Monkey Island on the silliness chart, but it does get by, almost entirely, on the absurdity of its puzzle solutions. Possibly my favorite example of a puzzle in adventure game history: The three protagonists are separated by space and time into three different periods: the past, the present, and the future. In the present, a character needs a vacuum, so he sends, to the past character, who is stuck near the Founding Fathers, who have, luckily, put out a suggestions box for the Constitution, a flier for a vacuum. They read it and add to the document a rule that all houses must have vacuums in the basement; voila, in the present, a vacuum is available.
It’s completely silly, but it’s almost reasonable to put together, and it’s imaginative enough that it escapes being obvious, and, most importantly, it’s completely integrated into the story in an organic way. It is, basically, the template for adventure game puzzles, one that is very rarely lived up to. (What I’m saying is, if the makers of the 7th Guest had played The Day of the Tentacle a few more times, we wouldn’t have the Soup Cans puzzle, one of the stupidest things in history.)