Will Modern Games Stand the Test of Time? 210
The Multiplayer blog spoke with Tadashi Iguchi, one of the developers for the recent Pac-man and Galaga remakes, about the decision to bring new life to old classics and whether today's games will receive similar treatment twenty years down the road.
"'I think more than half of the games you see today with huge budgets and such a "realistic" focus will be either stale or forgotten in 20 years,' he said. 'On the other hand, the masterpieces of the '80s will definitely be enjoyed far into the future. The reason for this is simple — many of these classic titles have unique and fascinating mechanics that can't be diminished by the advancement of technology.'"
Re:It'll be the same as before.. (Score:3, Informative)
It's also telling that it seems to be the guys who made the "classic games" in the 80s that are praising remakes of their games and saying things like
I think more than half of the games you see today with huge budgets and such a ârealisticâ(TM) focus will be either stale or forgotten in 20 years...On the other hand, the masterpieces of the 80â(TM)s will definitely be enjoyed far into the future. The reason for this is simple â" many of these classic titles have unique and fascinating mechanics that canâ(TM)t be diminished by the advancement of technology.
Yes, just like how those earliest black and white silent movies, with simple concepts like going to the moon on a zepplin, are still being remade wheras more modern movies like "Jurrasic Park," with huge budgets and "realism" are forgotten in a week.
In honesty, Galaga and Pacman I find quite boring. It's ludicrous to imply that high budgets and production values prevent good concepts from seeing the market, only an arrogant old man out of touch with current videogames would suggest that. There are plenty of good simple mechanics that also utilize more modern machinery and higher quality graphics, just as there are movies that are good movies and also have decent special effects. It's a mistake to see that many of the high-budget films made are crap, and look at a filtered library of "classics" distilled from the last 50 years of film and suggest that you can't make a good high budget movie.
The media has really evolved since the 80s as well. The story in pac man is what? Fruit good ghosts bad? If there is a story, it was told in the game packaging, not through the game itself. I would suggest that games are still evolving, the basic mechanisms of gameplay and storytelling are being fleshed out, and those 80s stars are actually dinosaurs who can't recognize that the type of videogames they made are largely obsolete.
Re:Most of the old games were crap too (Score:4, Informative)
Not to mention Civilization, Doom, Dune II, The Secret of Monkey Island, Prince of Persia (89 is close enough). There are tons of games from that era that I will go back and play on occasion.
Re:Most of the old games were crap too (Score:5, Informative)
Anyone who claims that game design somehow peaked in the 1980s is locked in a nostalgic haze.