Talking With Nolan Bushnell 90
Milktoast writes "Joystick101.org has posted their interview with gaming legend Nolan Bushnell. The arcade guru who founded Atari, invented Pong, and started Chuck E. Cheese talks about the decline of the arcade, education, robotics, and gaming as a narrative. "
"It seems that we are out of time" (Score:1, Interesting)
Education Benefitting From Gaming (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Decline of the arcade? Sure... (Score:2, Interesting)
Requires fast reflexes, quick thinking, and the better you are the better you longer you play for (with no upper boundary). What more could you ask for?
Re:Decline of the arcade? Sure... (Score:5, Interesting)
What it really boils down to is a single category of "games which have a physical arcade advantage over home game systems". Fighting games -- two joysticks and a steady stream of opponents. Racing games -- steering wheel, pedals, and (sometimes) movement of the entire game. Shooting games -- dual guns with better performance than home systems (continuous tracking versus tracking when someone shoots).
Now that home systems can generally compete with the big boys as far as graphics go, it's really just about the peripherals.
I wish people would stop worshiping Bushnell (Score:2, Interesting)
I wish the interviewer would ask him about all the failed companies he's been involved with since Atari/Chuck E Cheese. Axlon, Sente, Aristo, Playnet, and the soon-to-be-doomed uWink (aka HoodWink, thanks Steve!). Every single time the scamsters COUGH COUGH I mean visionaries running the company bring Nolan on board as a Director or something, and parade him around the trade shows as the Guy Who's Going To Save The Industry. The company usually folds a year or so later, or gets delisted off the stock market.
Maybe someday someone will bring up names like Higinbotham, Nutting, Jarvis, DeMar, Halley, and Logg as the real fathers of the arcade business.
Arcade of the Future? (Score:2, Interesting)
After witnessing the game in action, I really thought that would be the future of arcades. You could go to an arcade with your buds and crew a starship fighting teams from other arcades around the world. It would be something people could do together, when almost all other arcade games are individual.
Does anyone who was associated with the project know what happened to it?
Re:Decline of the arcade? Sure... (Score:4, Interesting)
The decline for me came when arcades shifted from mostly-unlimited skills-based games to time or resource-limited luck-fests.
I can name a dozen games from "back in the day" that I could play for 30 minutes to a couple of hours on one play. I didn't care if it cost 25 cents or a buck. The point was I could play as long as my skill (and maybe a little luck) held out.
My best example? The original Atari Star Wars sit-down vector unit. I could easily play until I gave up because I had memorized the patterns and as long as I executed my moves and avoided things, I played until my bum fell asleep. My best game was a 5.5 hour marathon which saw me rolling over 99 levels and scoring over 32 mil. I finally walked away because the clots in my legs were breaking free and headed to my brain.
Nowadays, with the exception of pinball, I can't readily name any games where you can play based on skill. It's either timed, lapped, or rounded in such a way that you finish in about 5-10 minutes, regardless. And no free plays, either!
I still like arcades, but at least on my PS2, DreamCast and N64, I can keep at it until I decide it's time to quit.
GTRacer
- DC + Internet + pr0n = Odd...
Lots of new arcade game categories popping up (Score:2, Interesting)
Take another look! In addition to the categories you cite, the latest imports include: (1) dancing games like Dance Dance Revolution (jump around on a big grid of buttons) and Para Para Paradise (wave your arms in the air). (2) Distance motion-capture games like Mocap Boxing and that Police Trainer game where you duck to avoid being shot. (3) Music games like Guitar Freak and Drum Freak where you play simplified instrumentals to impress your friends. (4) simulations of sports such as skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, and beach volleyball.
Most of these games rely on expensive, sophisticated controllers and produce a much better arcade experience than is practical to reproduce at home.
If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, check out the Sunnyvale Golfland Arcade as a preview of good things to come. They are on top of this trend to the point of importing the Korean version of games when the US versions are slow to arrive.
Re:For a different perspective (Score:3, Interesting)
What really finished off the arcades though, was the fact that everyone put their eggs in the fighting game basket. Those things sucked quarters like mad but developed a tournament mentatilty where only the people who memorized the button combos could survive, discouraging the casual player. No longer could you just drop a quarter and see if you could survive on your instincts and hand-eye coordination - some kid would put the super-kill move on you and that would be it for your 75 cents.
When the fighting game fad ended, the arcade owners were stuck with a bunch of huge, expensive machines that had no players. Maybe "Super Excellent Street Warrior IV Deluxe Edition" will get them back! -- Right... At that point nearly all the creativity had been sucked dry from the industry and it pretty much folded. The innercity arcade hole I stop buy occasionally seems to survive on it's pool tables and some well worn classics like Ms Pac Man and Centipede.