7 arcade games that have already become classics, but still can teach something
Contra, Dungeons & Dragons, Double Dragon, Q * Bert - these classic arcade games most of us remember and love, because an entire generation grew up on them. But what can they teach modern game design?
Today in the blog of the “Gaming Internet Projects Management” program, in our translation heading, we have prepared and translated a new article for you in which the author answers this question. And also personally this article causes the sweet nostalgia that I hope you will experience as well. By the way, at the end of the survey on your favorite of these arcades.
Many of us have fond memories of the games of our childhood and youth. Hours spent behind your favorite Pac-Man, Street Fighter and Frogger are the defining experience that has shaped our passion for video games for life.
')
Since the arcade dominated among the rest of the genres, the industry has sprung up, and now many of the classic games may seem strange or too simple. But if you look deeper, not dwelling on their age, you will see that many of them had complicated controls, multilayered mechanics, understandable but difficult to learn, a soundtrack that can inspire until now, and a spectacular storyline.
Old arcades today can teach a lot. Therefore, the authors of the article decided to ask the luminaries of the gaming industry what games, in their opinion, could become an example in solving problems in game design.
Q * Bert is an arcade game, published in 1982 by Gottlieb. The game has become an icon for pop culture, thanks to catchy graphics, simple mechanics, etc. The game field consists of 28 cubes made up of a pyramid. Using one joystick, you start from the top and change the color of the cubes, jumping from one to another. In the game, several enemies gradually appear that impede your progress. Anticipating the movement of opponents and using workarounds, you need to change the color of the entire pyramid to go to the next level.
Chris Johnson, Senior Producer at Adult Swim Games: “It’s beautiful in its simplicity and how its complexity grows with the advent of additional conditions. And, of course, it is impossible not to note an absolute hit in the player's emotions, when after the next death the message appears: “@! #? @!” ”.
Conclusion: one simple concept, refined to perfection, provides a fun gaming experience and is quite addictive.
Richard Rose, creator of the upcoming game The Church in the Darkness, explains what you can learn from Centipede and its interconnected environment.
The classic Atari game in the genre of shoot-'em-up, in which every creature somehow interacts with mushrooms that appear randomly on the screen. The player moves the character along the bottom of the screen with the trackball and shoots the centipede lasers, which attack him from the top of the screen down the mushroom field. Hitting any part of the centipede creates a mushroom. Spiders periodically eat the mushrooms they encounter, and fleas create new mushrooms in their path. Finally, scorpions poison the mushrooms they touch, allowing the centipede to throw bombs on the player.
“This interaction of various types of enemies with the environment is perfectly balanced. Here, each element has a meaning and can affect the behavior of other elements. And when a player begins to understand these interactions, he significantly improves his skills. ”
Conclusion: Centipede uses synergy between enemies and the environment, which allows it to add depth and a strategy element to its lightning-fast gameplay.
According to Mike Lee, director of game design at Smash + Grab at United Front Games, the game released by Capcom in 1993 is a good example of an extensive narrative. Based on the Dungeons & Dragons board role-playing games and featured in the Mystara décor, it represents 4 main archetypal fantasy classes: priest, warrior, gnome and elf, beating monsters in the D & D universe.
The bosses in the game: troll, beholder, arlich and, of course, the dragon. Throughout the history of Tower of Doom, the player makes a choice about how he would like to progress. He can choose, for example, between doors A or B, or he can cut the road and go through the forest, instead of taking the proposed path.
“Each choice is reflected in the plot and experience that you get by exploring the game world, which makes you want to play the game again ,” says Lee.
Conclusion: An extensive narrative is a good way to increase the number of repetitions of the game.
Contra, released in 1987 by Konami, is a game in the genre of run and shoot - a prime example of how power-ups can be used to fundamentally change the user's movements and attacks.
The player starts with a rifle and an unlimited supply of ammo. 4 more types of weapons are available as power-ups. This is a machine gun, a laser gun, a gun with fireballs moving in a spiral and a gun firing in 5 different directions. If a player leaves the default weapon, he gets 2 additional power-ups: high-speed shooting and a force field.
Although each of these bonuses is tempting enough to take it on appearance, not all of them are suitable for different situations.
“If you take a gun that shoots in different directions, when you need to focus the fire on one point, the game becomes much more difficult. You need to really dodge well and dodge while you are shooting the main boss, and it can go on forever, ”explains Lee from United Front Games. “If you take a laser (which shoots at a single point and has a very narrow damage zone) against a large group of dispersed enemies, you will very quickly lose.”
Conclusion: Contra power-ups are an integral part of the gameplay. They force the player to make decisions and plan, choosing the right type of weapon suitable for the current situation.
“A good story is an action story ,” says Greg Kasavin of Supergiant Games. Released in 1987, the game in the genre of beating them all (Beat 'em up) is an example of a good storyline.
At the start of the game, Black Warriors gang members kidnap Marian, the beloved martial arts master Billy Lee. A few seconds later, Billy and his twin brother, Jimmy, are already making their way through the territory controlled by the gang to return the girl. This short episode serves as an excellent basis for the plot of the game, without the use of voice-over text or dialogues.
“Some classic arcade games could represent conflict, the characters and atmosphere of the game in seconds, without resorting to words,” says Kasavin. “Perhaps this was due to some factors that then had to be reckoned with, such as technical limitations and the format that required to limit game sessions in time. But it would be useful for modern developers to take this experience into account in order to learn to introduce the player to the context of their game as quickly and deeply as possible. ”
Conclusion: Creating a story for your game, start the plot as early as possible.
Classic arcades can introduce a player almost to the state of trance due to their gameplay and design , says Greg Kasavin of Supergiant Games.
A good example is Gyruss, a game in the genre of shooting them all, released by Konami in 1983. The player controlling the spacecraft moves around the screen and shoots at enemy ships. Enemies move in a spiral, they can attack the player’s ship and destroy it in the event of a collision. When all enemies are destroyed, the player moves to a new level. The running field of the game shifts from the center of the screen beyond its borders, creating the illusion of flying in space.
Despite the fairly common gameplay, similar, for example, with Galaga, Gyruss is notable for its soundtrack. The game uses an accelerated electronic version of Toccata and Fugue Bach in D minor, which continues to play in the background as the player progresses.
“If in most games the music usually changes from level to level, in Gyruss it just continues to play and develop, which makes transitions between levels almost imperceptible. In the absence of the usual intervals between levels, attenuation, pauses, the saturation of the game increases, the player becomes more focused. He begins to perceive the game much more completely and more clearly. ”
Conclusion: Like a shark, Gyruss is constantly moving forward, using its continuous music and constant background movement in the game, in order to make the gaming experience continuous.
As in the Gyruss, the 1985 Sega rail shooter uses a pseudo-3D background and constant movement, creating a sense of flow. Space Harrier is one of the earliest third-person shooters in the scenery of a surrealistic sci-fi world filled with dragons, cyclops mammoths and flying robots. The hero flies around the screen and uses a laser gun to blow up enemies and go to the next level.
“Levels pass one into the other almost continuously, giving the player only a few moments to take a breath. This creates a sense of continuous action-adventure travel , ”says Kasavin.
However, the way the Space Harrier turned out is very different from its original concept. Initially, this was supposed to be a player controlled fighter jet that was in realistic combat conditions, but this idea was discarded due to technical limitations. Then the game designer Sega Yu Suzuki came up with the idea to make a game of psychedelic science fiction. Today Space Harrier is considered one of the best works of Suzuki.
Conclusion: If the idea does not work, do not be afraid to give it up and try something completely insane.
So, the second article came to an end, in the translation heading from the blog of the “Management of online gaming projects” program, we hope the material was interesting and useful. Come and meet us personally on the open day of our program on November 23. We, in turn, are preparing for you new articles and new translations.
Today in the blog of the “Gaming Internet Projects Management” program, in our translation heading, we have prepared and translated a new article for you in which the author answers this question. And also personally this article causes the sweet nostalgia that I hope you will experience as well. By the way, at the end of the survey on your favorite of these arcades.
Many of us have fond memories of the games of our childhood and youth. Hours spent behind your favorite Pac-Man, Street Fighter and Frogger are the defining experience that has shaped our passion for video games for life.
')
Since the arcade dominated among the rest of the genres, the industry has sprung up, and now many of the classic games may seem strange or too simple. But if you look deeper, not dwelling on their age, you will see that many of them had complicated controls, multilayered mechanics, understandable but difficult to learn, a soundtrack that can inspire until now, and a spectacular storyline.
Old arcades today can teach a lot. Therefore, the authors of the article decided to ask the luminaries of the gaming industry what games, in their opinion, could become an example in solving problems in game design.
1) Q * Bert: teaches simplicity
Q * Bert is an arcade game, published in 1982 by Gottlieb. The game has become an icon for pop culture, thanks to catchy graphics, simple mechanics, etc. The game field consists of 28 cubes made up of a pyramid. Using one joystick, you start from the top and change the color of the cubes, jumping from one to another. In the game, several enemies gradually appear that impede your progress. Anticipating the movement of opponents and using workarounds, you need to change the color of the entire pyramid to go to the next level.
Chris Johnson, Senior Producer at Adult Swim Games: “It’s beautiful in its simplicity and how its complexity grows with the advent of additional conditions. And, of course, it is impossible not to note an absolute hit in the player's emotions, when after the next death the message appears: “@! #? @!” ”.
Conclusion: one simple concept, refined to perfection, provides a fun gaming experience and is quite addictive.
2) Centipede: The interaction of game elements with each other
Richard Rose, creator of the upcoming game The Church in the Darkness, explains what you can learn from Centipede and its interconnected environment.
The classic Atari game in the genre of shoot-'em-up, in which every creature somehow interacts with mushrooms that appear randomly on the screen. The player moves the character along the bottom of the screen with the trackball and shoots the centipede lasers, which attack him from the top of the screen down the mushroom field. Hitting any part of the centipede creates a mushroom. Spiders periodically eat the mushrooms they encounter, and fleas create new mushrooms in their path. Finally, scorpions poison the mushrooms they touch, allowing the centipede to throw bombs on the player.
“This interaction of various types of enemies with the environment is perfectly balanced. Here, each element has a meaning and can affect the behavior of other elements. And when a player begins to understand these interactions, he significantly improves his skills. ”
Conclusion: Centipede uses synergy between enemies and the environment, which allows it to add depth and a strategy element to its lightning-fast gameplay.
3) Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom - an early example of a branched narrative
According to Mike Lee, director of game design at Smash + Grab at United Front Games, the game released by Capcom in 1993 is a good example of an extensive narrative. Based on the Dungeons & Dragons board role-playing games and featured in the Mystara décor, it represents 4 main archetypal fantasy classes: priest, warrior, gnome and elf, beating monsters in the D & D universe.
The bosses in the game: troll, beholder, arlich and, of course, the dragon. Throughout the history of Tower of Doom, the player makes a choice about how he would like to progress. He can choose, for example, between doors A or B, or he can cut the road and go through the forest, instead of taking the proposed path.
“Each choice is reflected in the plot and experience that you get by exploring the game world, which makes you want to play the game again ,” says Lee.
Conclusion: An extensive narrative is a good way to increase the number of repetitions of the game.
4) Contra: Improved power-ups
Contra, released in 1987 by Konami, is a game in the genre of run and shoot - a prime example of how power-ups can be used to fundamentally change the user's movements and attacks.
The player starts with a rifle and an unlimited supply of ammo. 4 more types of weapons are available as power-ups. This is a machine gun, a laser gun, a gun with fireballs moving in a spiral and a gun firing in 5 different directions. If a player leaves the default weapon, he gets 2 additional power-ups: high-speed shooting and a force field.
Although each of these bonuses is tempting enough to take it on appearance, not all of them are suitable for different situations.
“If you take a gun that shoots in different directions, when you need to focus the fire on one point, the game becomes much more difficult. You need to really dodge well and dodge while you are shooting the main boss, and it can go on forever, ”explains Lee from United Front Games. “If you take a laser (which shoots at a single point and has a very narrow damage zone) against a large group of dispersed enemies, you will very quickly lose.”
Conclusion: Contra power-ups are an integral part of the gameplay. They force the player to make decisions and plan, choosing the right type of weapon suitable for the current situation.
5) Double Dragon. Master Class on the accuracy of the story
“A good story is an action story ,” says Greg Kasavin of Supergiant Games. Released in 1987, the game in the genre of beating them all (Beat 'em up) is an example of a good storyline.
At the start of the game, Black Warriors gang members kidnap Marian, the beloved martial arts master Billy Lee. A few seconds later, Billy and his twin brother, Jimmy, are already making their way through the territory controlled by the gang to return the girl. This short episode serves as an excellent basis for the plot of the game, without the use of voice-over text or dialogues.
“Some classic arcade games could represent conflict, the characters and atmosphere of the game in seconds, without resorting to words,” says Kasavin. “Perhaps this was due to some factors that then had to be reckoned with, such as technical limitations and the format that required to limit game sessions in time. But it would be useful for modern developers to take this experience into account in order to learn to introduce the player to the context of their game as quickly and deeply as possible. ”
Conclusion: Creating a story for your game, start the plot as early as possible.
6) Gyruss. Continuous experience.
Classic arcades can introduce a player almost to the state of trance due to their gameplay and design , says Greg Kasavin of Supergiant Games.
A good example is Gyruss, a game in the genre of shooting them all, released by Konami in 1983. The player controlling the spacecraft moves around the screen and shoots at enemy ships. Enemies move in a spiral, they can attack the player’s ship and destroy it in the event of a collision. When all enemies are destroyed, the player moves to a new level. The running field of the game shifts from the center of the screen beyond its borders, creating the illusion of flying in space.
Despite the fairly common gameplay, similar, for example, with Galaga, Gyruss is notable for its soundtrack. The game uses an accelerated electronic version of Toccata and Fugue Bach in D minor, which continues to play in the background as the player progresses.
“If in most games the music usually changes from level to level, in Gyruss it just continues to play and develop, which makes transitions between levels almost imperceptible. In the absence of the usual intervals between levels, attenuation, pauses, the saturation of the game increases, the player becomes more focused. He begins to perceive the game much more completely and more clearly. ”
Conclusion: Like a shark, Gyruss is constantly moving forward, using its continuous music and constant background movement in the game, in order to make the gaming experience continuous.
7) Space Harrier: Discard what is dear to you
As in the Gyruss, the 1985 Sega rail shooter uses a pseudo-3D background and constant movement, creating a sense of flow. Space Harrier is one of the earliest third-person shooters in the scenery of a surrealistic sci-fi world filled with dragons, cyclops mammoths and flying robots. The hero flies around the screen and uses a laser gun to blow up enemies and go to the next level.
“Levels pass one into the other almost continuously, giving the player only a few moments to take a breath. This creates a sense of continuous action-adventure travel , ”says Kasavin.
However, the way the Space Harrier turned out is very different from its original concept. Initially, this was supposed to be a player controlled fighter jet that was in realistic combat conditions, but this idea was discarded due to technical limitations. Then the game designer Sega Yu Suzuki came up with the idea to make a game of psychedelic science fiction. Today Space Harrier is considered one of the best works of Suzuki.
Conclusion: If the idea does not work, do not be afraid to give it up and try something completely insane.
So, the second article came to an end, in the translation heading from the blog of the “Management of online gaming projects” program, we hope the material was interesting and useful. Come and meet us personally on the open day of our program on November 23. We, in turn, are preparing for you new articles and new translations.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/315206/
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