Old games: Fun but often rough

[marurun]

On the plus side, games were often less buggy than they are now. Not always, but often.

[MrPopo]

On the plus side, games were often less buggy than they are now. Not always, but often.

The bugs were more hilarious, though. It's amazing how often bounds checking was skipped in the old games. Modern games feel buggier because the code side is exponentially larger than the old games, so there's so many more ways it can fail.

[Sarge]

Wait, a crash bug with the Seahawks in TSB? I don't remember anything like that. Was there some specific instance of running play that triggered it? I pretty much beat the game with every team...

I don't know, I feel like if I explain this it loses its effect...

Ohhh... I get it now. Doh. Yeah, good one.

[BogusMeatFactory]

When we talk about PC games, the difficulty and, "roughness," of the game is really reliant on game design and user interface. There was a lack of streamlining, because, let's be honest, there weren't many games like PC games at the time. You had bulky menus, no shortcuts and a heavy reliance on manuals. There were no tutorials like there are today and the systems may seem archaic at times. Sure some games were ahead of their time and transcend all the difficulties old-school games had at the time, but you can see the natural progression of how developers began to overcome those design obstacles over time.

Play a PC rpg from the early 80's to late 80's to early 90's etc. and you will clearly see how much better things became.

As for console games, it again boils down to design choices. 8-bit consoles and up were intended to be Arcade-Busters. They were to bring the arcade experience to the home. They did so successfully I would think, but at the cost of monotony. The games ramped up the difficulty to increase the longevity of games. Look at NES RPGs, Run N Guns and Beat 'em ups. Most of the games thrived on the idea of insane difficulty and unforgiving precision.

Other games like, Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania and the Megamans are considered true classic, because the game offered challenging gameplay, but forgiving with continues. They know that you will be challenged by the game, but should not be punished to start all over from the beginning if you die near the end of the final stage.

[Tanooki]

The biggest thing you tend to notice is that old PC games liked to use the entire keyboard, whereas console games had to learn the notion of "context sensitive" very early on. Additionally, old PC games tended to be targeted at enthusiasts who would put up with less friendly UI decisions, while console games were for the average consumer.

Well said. Even the best of them from Star Control 2 and Wing commander to various things even like RTS games used all these obtuse button commands. They knew it too, theyd have keyboard overlays and took forever to remember stuff, made worse when they didnt. Console games were no picnic like the list on page one had with the ugly passwords in RCR and Faxanadu that would cause such easy stupid losses.

[fastbilly1]

Well said. Even the best of them from Star Control 2 and Wing commander to various things even like RTS games used all these obtuse button commands. They knew it too, theyd have keyboard overlays and took forever to remember stuff, made worse when they didnt. Console games were no picnic like the list on page one had with the ugly passwords in RCR and Faxanadu that would cause such easy stupid losses.

I dont remember Star Control 2 using more than five buttons per player.

[MrPopo]

Weird control placement, though.

N - special power
M - counter-clockwise
, - clockwise
. - thrust
/ - fire

[Ack]

Weird control placement, though.

N - special power
M - counter-clockwise
, - clockwise
. - thrust
/ - fire

It also uses the arrow keys and space bar for navigating menus.

[fastbilly1]

Weird control placement, though.

N - special power
M - counter-clockwise
, - clockwise
. - thrust
/ - fire

but that was because 12345 was for player 2. It makes more sense when you look at it that way.

[marurun]

Sharing a keyboard really sucked.