|
Post by brianc on Feb 19, 2010 19:53:12 GMT -5
I'm not sure I've EVER seen or heard of ANY games that have attempted quite what these did. These were true multimedia experiences, well before franchises such as .hack tried to do that again. It's really amazing to hear that such things existed back then - and sad that I didn't even know about it! -Tom Personally, I'm glad not many retail games are designed around a contest. It's a flawed concept that often makes for poor games.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2010 20:22:49 GMT -5
Wasn't there an NES game which had a similar sales pitch back in the early 90s? Treasure Master, I believe. - HC I found out a couple years ago that an old friend of mine from college won his Super Nintendo from that contest.
|
|
|
Post by wyrdwad on Feb 19, 2010 23:33:15 GMT -5
See, and everyone I knew as a kid who owned the Atari 2600 version of Pac Man loved it - myself and my brother included - because even though it was ugly, it played just like the arcade version, and that was all that really mattered!
And we also all loved Activision games. (:
-Tom
|
|
|
Post by brianc on Feb 20, 2010 2:27:23 GMT -5
See, and everyone I knew as a kid who owned the Atari 2600 version of Pac Man loved it - myself and my brother included - because even though it was ugly, it played just like the arcade version, and that was all that really mattered! And we also all loved Activision games. (: -Tom Well, I liked it as a kid too, but it wasn't well received by those more familiar with the arcade game. Arcade purists certainly won't agree that it plays just like the arcade game. The other Pac-Man games on 2600 play much better, especially Jr. Pac-Man (though I like Ms. Pac-Man 2600 too). I think you misunderstood. I loved Activision (don't like them as much now, though the current Activision is technically a different company anyway) and meant nothing negative towards them. My point was the developers left Atari to form Activision because they didn't like the cost cutting decisions made at Atari (which negatively affected the gameplay of some of Atari's games). In other words, Atari was keeping the developers from realizing their full potential and they were able to realize it by making games for their own company. I intended to put Atari (well, their management) in the negative light, not Activision. Many Activision games are among my favorites for the system, BTW. My point was that not every game was accepted back then just because it was playable (and I was saying that the developers probably wouldn't have left Atari for Activision if making only "playable" games without using their full potential was acceptable). I also know that many were less than impressed with some of Coleco's ports for Intellivision and 2600 because of the CV versions (though many aren't as bad as they are made out to be, and some are pretty good, the CV ports are usually the best of Coleco's ports).
|
|
|
Post by wyrdwad on Feb 20, 2010 6:51:38 GMT -5
OK, I get what you're saying. Admittedly, I'm going more with personal opinion, and the opinions of other people I know, than with POPULAR opinion. But you do have to remember, back then, we couldn't afford to be so picky. If we bought a game, it was probably the only game we'd play for a long time, so unless it was ABSOLUTELY UNPLAYABLE, we generally learned to enjoy it. I think just about everyone I knew enjoyed just about every game on the system, and the expectations for a new game were generally pretty low (except when plopping down money for an Activision title, as those were typically the cream of the crop!).
So from that perspective, SwordQuest actually wasn't half-bad. I mean, it certainly wasn't the BEST game on the system... but in the early 80s, it was still good enough to be enjoyable, and I don't recall a single person ever really complaining about the boring gameplay or anything back then. At that point in time, the gameplay was still above average.
-Tom
|
|
|
Post by derboo on Feb 20, 2010 8:26:01 GMT -5
Didn't like Pacman too much, but River Raid was the shit.
|
|
xain
Full Member
Posts: 107
|
Post by xain on Feb 20, 2010 9:18:41 GMT -5
Personally, I'm glad not many retail games are designed around a contest. It's a flawed concept that often makes for poor games. *cough*AdventRising*cough*
|
|
|
Post by jongoo on Feb 20, 2010 15:02:51 GMT -5
They can be pretty cool tho. My cousin won the high score contest for Gradius V. Konami sent him a model Vic Viper for his troubles. If anyone wants to see pics, I'll try to get some next time I'm at his pad (provided he hasn't sold it on ebay or something).
|
|
|
Post by brianc on Feb 20, 2010 15:50:15 GMT -5
They can be pretty cool tho. My cousin won the high score contest for Gradius V. Konami sent him a model Vic Viper for his troubles. If anyone wants to see pics, I'll try to get some next time I'm at his pad (provided he hasn't sold it on ebay or something). I wasn't taking about just any game with a contest. I meant games that are designed around a contest rather than actual gameplay. I didn't like the idea of the Swordquest games being designed around the use of the comic book with them either. As for games with media, Swordquest is a bit different from some of those others, because part of the gameplay involved solving puzzles to find clues in the comic as well as playing the game itself. Edit: I found the deal with Advent Rising, and it doesn't seem to fit what I meant (though it does come close). It seems to have been poorly received in general and sounds like it was designed around different forms of media rather than a contest. It did have a contest with it, but it didn't sound like the game was designed solely around it.
|
|
|
Post by Strider on Feb 20, 2010 15:54:45 GMT -5
I didn't like the idea of the Swordquest games being designed around the use of the comic book with them either. I dunno- it was an Atari 2600 game; I'm not sure how much you can really expect on that front. They didn't exactly have a lot of memory and code to play around with. - HC
|
|
|
Post by brianc on Feb 20, 2010 16:02:25 GMT -5
I didn't like the idea of the Swordquest games being designed around the use of the comic book with them either. I dunno- it was an Atari 2600 game; I'm not sure how much you can really expect on that front. They didn't exactly have a lot of memory and code to play around with. - HC I usually don't expect much on that front, because most games don't need it. I understand full well that the 2600 isn't the most powerful system, but that isn't an excuse for poor game design. I wasn't dissing contests. That's how I got my Kid Kool game for NES. Odd choice, but I ended up liking the game quite a bit.
|
|
|
Post by Mr. Faptastic on Feb 20, 2010 16:35:36 GMT -5
Hey, does anyone remember Cutthroat Island? Holy hell, was that a bad game.
|
|
|
Post by brianc on Feb 20, 2010 16:46:19 GMT -5
Hey, does anyone remember Cutthroat Island? Holy hell, was that a bad game. I used to be slightly interested in it because I liked the idea of playing as a sword fighting woman, but I heard the game sucks, so I never played it. Anyway, maybe I should explain more about the Swordquest games, since there seems to me some confusion. Unlike Pac-Man, which is easy to pick up and play, they are confusing to play when first jumping in to them (which I why I doubt I would have fun with them if I played when I was little). They focus too much on mini games that are not well designed or fun to play. The Swordquest games have a confusing structure that is hard to figure out without the comic and manual. Considering there were plenty of games before Swordquest, like Haunted House or Adventure, with a better structure and easier to pick up and play, gameplay wise the Swordquest games were not impressive.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2010 22:10:41 GMT -5
Hey, does anyone remember Cutthroat Island? Holy hell, was that a bad game. I used to be slightly interested in it because I liked the idea of playing as a sword fighting woman, but I heard the game sucks, so I never played it. Anyway, maybe I should explain more about the Swordquest games, since there seems to me some confusion. Unlike Pac-Man, which is easy to pick up and play, they are confusing to play when first jumping in to them (which I why I doubt I would have fun with them if I played when I was little). They focus too much on mini games that are not well designed or fun to play. The Swordquest games have a confusing structure that is hard to figure out without the comic and manual. Considering there were plenty of games before Swordquest, like Haunted House or Adventure, with a better structure and easier to pick up and play, gameplay wise the Swordquest games were not impressive. The game was interesting in a multimedia sense, but yeah, it wasn't very good at all as a video game. I liked the idea of the hidden messages in the comics, but the problem was that you had to just randomly drop shit in rooms...I'm guessing there was some logic to it, but it was never apparent to my brain damaged mind at least. It's kind of strange because the games got worse looking as they went along, Fireworld especially. The sprites were half decent looking in Earthworld, but in the last two games your character became just a black outline. Fireworld also had the worst minigames, most of which involved a box or a stick, and either avoiding things or ramming into things (which wasn't always apparent). This episode was really strange from the standpoint that he was really, really positive about the series. Did he say anything negative? What I didn't like was how he downplayed how much of a pain in the ass it was to get the clues to show up. Nostalgia poisoning, I guess.
|
|
|
Post by wyrdwad on Feb 20, 2010 22:51:44 GMT -5
You've gotta remember, though, a LOT of Atari 2600 games were virtually impossible to play without the manual. Look at Raiders of the Lost Ark, for example - a game I absolutely *loved* as a kid, but without the manual, there was NO WAY you'd ever have the slightest clue what you were doing!
And SwordQuest is interesting, for me, as when I played it as a kid, I actually didn't ever look at the manual for the game, and didn't even know about the comic book or the contest... but I genuinely enjoyed the game! I actually thought the minigames were kinda fun, and enjoyed the challenge of trying to get through each room.
To each his own, I suppose! But for me, SwordQuest: Earthworld was a pretty cool game, and is a source of many happy gaming memories.
-Tom
|
|