The Compact Disc- The future of gaming?

A look at the technological advancements in gaming from the 90s to now

No, you haven't stumbled across some ancient blog in the depths of cyberspace. I am writing this on the 30th January 2012. Whilst rummaging through my collection of games last night, a friend and I happened to stumble upon the dusty ghosts of two brilliant titles. The first was Flicky (from the glory days of SEGA) and the second was Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. Being the age that I am, Flicky is a good example of the starting point of games for me. It didn't take days to complete a game and there was no such thing as a save file. You might get a game with passwords now and again but the majority of games could be passed around and shared, despite being 1 player games. You could have a five minute go on a game and then go about your day- something that seems ridiculous when you think about how ridiculously short an hour on Skyrim feels. Games were pixellated, 2D, simple, colourful and -above all- addictive.

With that as a backdrop, consider the next ten years in the world of games. 1994 gives us the first peek at the very ominous 'Project Reality' and come '97 it reveals itself as the Nintendo 64. With this comes the spread  of the 64BIT cartridge which means that we can play games with 3D characters in a 3D world! We can run around in circles and rotate a camera angle 360 degrees. This was a big jump and considering the fact that it coincided with the growth of the Pokemon franchise, Nintendo 64s were very popular with kids like me, hungry to get their mitts on Pokemon Snap and Pokemon Coliseum.We see the introduction of a console so futuristic and advanced that its games do not come on cartridges, but these new fangled 'Compact Discs'... Consoles the world over quake in fear as the most intimidating bit of kit bursts onto the scene and the era of the Playstation begins. During Sony's reign of terror, the SEGA Dreamcast is born and presents a lot of exciting ideas such as the first hint at online gaming. Unfortunately the world was not ready for the Dreamcast and so it didn't sell well and just kind of dissolved into the gaming fade. All in all, my childhood saw the making, breaking and advancement of many different technologies such as the Gameboy, GameGear, SEGA Dreamcast, Playstation 1&2, Nintendo 64 and XBox. What a childhood it was.

























So why all the rambling about the past? I just wanted to give a general feel of just how fast paced the market was in the nineties and early noughties. Naughty Dog released three Crash Bandicoot titles in under four years. Just think about that for a second. Three of the most popular games of the nineties were all developed  insanely quickly and in succession. If a game takes a year to develop now then it's a sure-fire bugfest and general letdown (cough cough- Dragon Age 2.) Skyrim- wonderful and complex as it is- took FIVE years to develop and it's still not flawless. That is the nature of gaming nowadays, true, but what a jump we've seen in the last fifteen years. People didn't wait five years for a game because in the time it took to make it, new technology would make the game obsolete. Imagine if Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped had been held in development until 2004. It might have looked a bit nicer and it would be bug free, but it would be on the shelves next to San Andreas on PS2!

Crash Bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

The evolution of Final Fantasy

I don't want to go on about this for much longer, because I want you to read to the end and participate with your opinions, so I'll wrap it up. The trend, in my opinion, has shifted in the build up to, and since the introduction of the seventh generation consoles (PS3, 360, Wii). In the past there has always been a limit to what you could potentially do when making a game, so progress was usually in the form of pushing the machine to its limits. This could be in terms of versatility such as the varied level designs and play styles in the Crash Bandicoot series. It could be in terms of sheer amount of content and visual quality as shown in the Final Fantasy series. The point I'm making is that the emphasis was always on getting the most out of the machine and then making a better machine to keep up with your ideas. Now we have a set of machines that are equipped to deal with more than ever before and the fact that the seventh generation isn't going anywhere fast means that developers don't have to worry about being left behind. Rather than having a framework of levels and worlds and loading screens in which you have to contain your ideas, developers can now attempt to do away with limitations and divides between what you can see and do. There doesn't have to be a distinction between the playable area and the background any more, because as we see in Skyrim, it is possible now to make the 'background' playable if you walk far enough.

In an attempt to wrap this up again, I would just like to point out that this is not an essay and is incomplete without the ideas of others. I would really like for people that read this to post a response with their opinions because that makes it so much more fun for me! Please contradict me, challenge me or improve on what I've said. I need a third party to bounce ideas off, because my ideas aren't as inspired as they once were when I had people to discuss them with- I'm looking at you Jyggalag.

DannyDarko x

Nintendo Wii:

I have been in two minds about the intellectual property of Nintendo for quite some time. I hate the way that they sell and resell anything with a moustache and dungarees stuck on it. Mario, Zelda, Pikachu, Kirby, Donkey Kong. Nintendo have more mascots than they know what to do with. This might make you think that there are more original ideas coming out of Nintendo than I let on, but actually the only reason they become famous enough to be mascot potential is because they are used again and again and again and again and again and again. Yes, that was an annoying and badly structured sentence, but that was supposed to represent the annoying and badly structured hierarchy of the Nintendo cast.



Cash-cows beware- Nintendo will milk you dry





Ok... so I didn't start this just to rant about Nintendo. I actually meant to point out a little thing about the Nintendo Wii that I always forget until I actually play it again. It's really fun! It's the only console I have been able to play with my girlfriend, mum, sisters, brothers, in-laws, gaming and non-gaming friends. The point is, the horrible words that seem to occur far too much these days are necessary terms: 'casual gaming'. Although the design behind these games is often unimaginitive and unoriginal, they do sell well and that's part of the reason they continue to be made. Why not make them if its what people want? Why not play them for a few hours with your friends now and again? You can't play Final Fantasy, Uncharted, Heavy Rain, Bioshock or Dragon Age with your friends. They're all single player and although I can sit and play them in the company of certain friends, there is no way it could be replicated with my little brothers, in-laws, or my girlfriend. It just would not be fun. I'm not going to go on about this any longer because I only wrote this to make one point....

Sociable, family, novelty games may not be the most soul-shaking, emotive and in depth experiences, but they certainly do their job. They entertain almost anyone for a good hour at least. I almost fell into a hardcore gamer snobbery, but thankfully I was brought back from the edge by last night's encounter with Wii Party. Thanks guys. Sorry about the step game...

DannyDarko

As a side note I'd like to add that the encounter with Wii Party was not in fact, last night. It was over a week ago, but because my laptop decided to play silly buggers with my image uploading, I've had to wait and go to the library to post!

The Evolution of Pokemon: 1996-2011

Pokemon appeared on the scene in the 90s and became a global phenomenon. There was a T.V series, a trading card game, a bunch of toys and teddies and about four hundred thousand movies (Who gives a film the subtitle "The First Movie"?!) I'm sure every 90s kid must remember the Pokemon card ban at schools, the illegal trading in the playground and the ultimate confiscation of your shiny Gyrados. Bad times... Anyways... Moving on. You could get just about anything with a Pokemon theme, but it all began with a game- well, two games actually: Pokemon Red and Pokemon Green on the original Gameboy.

Told you you could get a Pokemon
 version of just about anything...

Released in 1996 in Japan, the games were very successful and a third version, Pokemon Blue was released. In Japan, these three versions sold a total of 10.23million copies. Since the release of these three games, they have been sold across the world as well as the following versions: Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald, Fire Red, Leaf Green, Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, SoulSilver, with Black and White due for release this March. There have also been a series of spin off games, but I will stick to the main series for the purposes of this post. Put simply... There are a tonne of Pokemon games and their popularity doesn't seem to be shrinking!

 There were originally 151 Pokemon and I often hear people say how they wish no more had been created because it just got silly or too complicated. There are 649 Pokemon now which means that for an avid player such as me there are almost limitless possibilities in terms of squad combinations and replayability. This is the big selling point- the fact that you can restart these games so many times and experience them in a different way depending on the Pokemon you choose and the way you raise them. BUT... every version so far has had the same storyline and driving plot: a simple country boy happens to obtain a Pokemon via someone's generosity and decided he/she wants to fight and win the 8 Gym badges required and challenge the Pokemon League. Along the way you always somehow become an inspiration to others and general legend. So if I've paid £25-35 every few years to play basically a newer-looking version of the same story, why I am ok with it? Am I even ok with it? I'm not really sure. 

Pokemon SoulSilver



Pokemon Silver



There has to be a reason that there have been two sets of remakes in this series. People obviously want to play these games again and again. This would be a brilliant business boost for any company, but the fact that Nintendo sells these games means it's just another day at the office- slap some better graphics on it and send it out the door, they'll lap it up!

Too cynical?... Ok..

While the basic story stays the same, certain elements are changed with each new offering. New features have included: a visible Exp. bar, improved sprites and animations, new stats, new moves, new types, new pokemon, new evolutions, new items, new environments, double and triple battles and obviously better graphics. It's a difficult thing to actually name what feels wrong about this series and its returning story, but if the basic premise of the game did change, would it even be the same game? As one of the GameFreak team said in an interview with Nintendo Magazine, you wouldn't remove dribbling and allow travelling in basketball in order to make it more fun, because that would suck.


The different sprites of the player. They look different, but they all share
 a love of hats- except number three. He's rocking an 80s headband thing...


There are plenty of opportunities to experience the Pokemon world from a different angle with a different gameplay mechanic and story; Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Pinball, Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Snap!, Pokemon Ranger. So with so many choices and such an in depth development of each of these branches, what could anyone have to possibly complain about? You know what you are buying if you purchase one of these games, so obviously people aren't rushing out to buy Black and White hoping for a totally new game that they don't recognise. By the look of things this time, however, that might be just what they get. This change seems to me to be the biggest so far, with 156 new Pokemon and no inclusion of the familiar ones until the Elite Four is beaten.

Easy now...

In the end it seems that the Pokemon games have evolved much like creatures in the natural world have- very subtle but crucial changes that creep towards the perfect construct. There always seems to be a way to improve them, but you never know it without hindsight and you never feel like it was missing in the first place, until it was there.

DannyDarko