What Did You Think The "Future" Of Gaming Would Be

Post by **racketboy** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:33 pm

I don't know about all of you, but back in the first half of the 1990's, I always daydreamed about what the future of video games would be like.
3D technology was starting to emerge, but back then I truly thought that the graphics would mainly be used in games that would really benefit from them like racing, sports, and FPS games.

I was a huge Sonic fan with my Genesis and Sega CD and thought games like Sonic CD were the beginning of the future. I thought the 2D perspective was here to stay for games like platformers but would be enhanced with CD audio and eventually have 2D gameplay that was essentially like a cartoon that you controlled.

Maybe I was naive and a bit unimaginative, but I like to think that even back then I realized that games like Sonic were better off in 2D.
Many of these ideas were obviously carried onto this post:
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/2006/12/ ... -back.html

I think the closest thing to my dreams of future games are cell-shaded games. Maybe why that's why I was drawn to Jet Grind Radio so much.

So what did you think future video games would be like when you were a kid?

Post by **grittykitty** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 5:28 pm

i remember nintendo power magazine had a contest around 96-97 to draw some type of future gaming device or a future game (my memory fades out). i remember drawing an n64 controller with a small screen embedded into the center and stating this was to be the future of portable gaming. 10 years later and things are much more convenient than shoving a thick controller in your pocket for portable gaming. i'm really glad i didn't win that contest!

Sat Jan 20, 2007 5:52 pm

It is weird back in the day, I kinda predicted the future. I was thinking that someday Nintendo will combine SNES and NES in one system, 14 years later Nintendo released the Wii with a Virtual Console that includes NES and SNES and more. Then the unthinkable happens, Nintendo announced that the Genesis/Mega Drive included in the VC. When they announced it, I smiled and I said to myself "who called it!".

Post by **metaleggman** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 8:19 pm

That's how I think it should be. They could make games look like handdrawn cartoons and have them be played at 1080p. That would be amazing. As far as I can tell, the Sonic game for the wii is taking sonic back to his roots and has the same spirit as the originals. I remember a couple of you guys bitching about me saying this, but it's the best Sonic's got to last in the new realm of gaming.
http://wii.ign.com/articles/757/757110p1.html

Post by **Jubal** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 9:20 pm

I really believed that VR would be the future of gaming
by VR I mean you strap on a helmet and gloves or a suit with sensors, full immersion gaming
a cyberpunk book "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson is a good example of where I thought gaming would go.
back when I was a kid everybody was making attempts and progress towards VR like

Vectrex
SMS VR headset
Virtual boy
Powerglove
Sega Genesis had a prototype
the atari jaguar had a prototype

i remember thinking about how it would work one day.... would you rent out a helmet and suit, and an empty padded warehouse to be 'virtual' in, or would be stuck in the little enclosures like those arcade VR sets. Would Holodecks eventually be real and so on heh

these days VR is the brunt of credit card commercial jokes, and has a modern interpretation in the Wii nunchaks. for me once upon a time, it was the Future of gaming.

-Jubal-

Post by **metaleggman** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:01 pm

How again was the vectrex VR? It was just supposed to be a home arcade kindof thing, considering it had vector graphics.

Post by **Jubal** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 4:02 am

clipped from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vectrex#3D_Imager

------------------------------------------
3D Imager

The 3-D imager spins a disk which is 1/2 black and 1/2 colored bands that radiate from the centre (Usually red, green and blue) between your eyes and the vectrex screen. The Vectrex is synchronized to the rotation of the disk (or vice versa) and draws vectors corresponding to a particular color and/or a particular eye. Therefore only one eye will see the vectrex screen and its associated images (or color) at any one time while the other will see nothing.

A single object that does not lie on the plane of the monitor (i.e. in front of or into the monitor) is drawn at least twice to provide information for each eye. The distance between the duplicate images and whether the right eye image or the left eye image is drawn first will determine where the object will appear to "be" in 3-D space. The 3-D illusion is also enhanced by adjusting the brightness of the object (dimming objects in the background). Spinning the disk at a high enough speed will fool your eyes/brain into thinking that the multiple images it is seeing are two different views of the same object. This creates the impression of 3-D and color.

Supported Games

* 3D Pole Position (not released)
* 3D Crazy Coaster
* 3D Minestorm
* 3D Narrow Escape
* 3D Lord of the Robots (homebrew)
------------------------------------------

great info in the origonal 3d Imager
http://vgdb.vectrex.com/vgdb/3dimager.html

homebrew reproduction vectrex 3D imager
http://www.madtronix.com/html/3d_imager.html

I am a proud owner of a Vectrex myself, just got it last week.... otherwise I wouldnt have known about this thing either =)

-Jubal-

Post by **metaleggman** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:43 pm

hm, that's pretty cool. Lol, I thought you meant the vectrex console itself. I guess you forgot about the Famicom 3D Glasses as well.

Post by **lordofduct** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:52 pm

When it came to gameplay I thought the same thing that Racketboy did. I though 3D would only stay in the games that utilized it (FPS, racers, maybe fighters as well), I was heart broken when we lost 2D gameplay en mass.

As for platform/hardware. I remember the LD player thing with SEGA-CD and Turbo-CD adapters for it. When I saw that I thought this was the way things were gonna head hardware wise. A more integrated system that could be utilized for more then just gaming. This is actually why I picked up the VIS when I saw it years ago (by Tandy)... but that flopped. It wasn't until the 21st century that we got these fully integrated media center style systems.

One of the big things I was happy with was the XBOX360 letting you play music off the HDD or an iPod while playing a game. I remember being disillusioned to the idea that the Sega-CD was gonna let you play CDs while playing Cartridge games so you could customize your own BG music. It actually one of the ways I convinced my father to let me buy one with my money. I was wrong...

Post by **Jubal** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 8:44 pm

metaleggman wrote:I guess you forgot about the Famicom 3D Glasses as well. :D

I did space it, and i even own a copy of 3-D WorldRunner. wikipedia only list it on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ni ... ccessories but no entry of its own and no pic, I know i haven't seen one myself.

at what point did the VR thing die down? I dont remember any VR items for the N64 or PSX, tho i don't know much about what was going on in japan with them.

does anybody know if the saturn had any VR prototypes?

-Jubal-