Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure

technicshistory.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 78 posts

Re: The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure

#31

Post by 01HNNWZ0MV43FF »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #25
egypturnash wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been into Doom clones (to use the term from back in the day) and yet I have enjoyed playing countless video games from about 1984 through to the present. Very few of them are first-person games, whether they're head-clickers or other forms of first-person gaming.

To be sure, all games are not FPS. But you know, what are the so-called "AAA" game companies constantly grinding out…

It might be that they're targeting the 8 - 18 year old boy demographic, and that's always a huge cash cow, whereas older gamers have refined taste but don't spend that much money on games because they don't spend that many hours on gaming

Re: The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure

#32

Post by [deleted] »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #25
egypturnash wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been into Doom clones (to use the term from back in the day) and yet I have enjoyed playing countless video games from about 1984 through to the present. Very few of them are first-person games, whether they're head-clickers or other forms of first-person gaming.

To be sure, all games are not FPS. But you know, what are the so-called "AAA" game companies constantly grinding out…

[deleted]

Re: The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure

#33

Post by Apocryphon »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #16
shevy-java wrote: post #13

I guess nowadays nobody would want to play e. g. King's Quest and what not, but in the 1980s or so that was novel and creative. Today the games tend to have powerful 3D engines, but the creativity was lost for the most part. Sometimes there is still innovation (Little Nightmares brought something new to the table, for instance) and of course the graphics and sounds are great, but something is gone now. In part this m…

When the first-person shooter arrived, somehow we collectively decided that's what all games should now be. I think we've learned that creativity comes from constraints. Early computing platforms certainly were replete with that.

Adventure games became FPS as early as 1992 (only one year before DOOM, so maybe I'm not making much of a point here) with the coming of Ultima Underworld.

Re: The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure

#34

Post by Apocryphon »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #25
egypturnash wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been into Doom clones (to use the term from back in the day) and yet I have enjoyed playing countless video games from about 1984 through to the present. Very few of them are first-person games, whether they're head-clickers or other forms of first-person gaming.

To be sure, all games are not FPS. But you know, what are the so-called "AAA" game companies constantly grinding out…

AAA companies might pump out a lot of FPS- though it's arguable that they also grind out all sorts of other reliable and less-than-groundbreaking genres, from flavor of the decade trends (MMORPGs/MOBAs/live service battle royales/extraction shooters) to annual sports titles to Assassin's Creed sequels. The Call of Duty machine aside, I'm not sure if FPS is as much of a cash cow as it used to be.

And if you look at this best-selling video games list, there's only a single FPS in the top ten (PUBG, which is technically also third-person):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_gam...

Re: The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure

#35

Post by thom »

glimshe wrote: post #4

One of my dream games is a truly open world text adventure. I got a glimpse of it by having ChatGPT run this game, but it started hallucinating and misremembering after a few rounds. It has to be perfect to avoid breaking the immersion, but I'd pay $100 for such a game even without graphics.

Would D&D not work for you?

Re: The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure

#36

Post by ido »

Apocryphon wrote: post #33
JKCalhoun wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the first-person shooter arrived, somehow we collectively decided that's what all games should now be. I think we've learned that creativity comes from constraints. Early computing platforms certainly were replete with that.

Adventure games became FPS as early as 1992 (only one year before DOOM, so maybe I'm not making much of a point here) with the coming of Ultima Underworld.

Wasn't UU an RPG rather than an adventure game?

Re: The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure

#37

Post by finaard »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #16
shevy-java wrote: post #13

I guess nowadays nobody would want to play e. g. King's Quest and what not, but in the 1980s or so that was novel and creative. Today the games tend to have powerful 3D engines, but the creativity was lost for the most part. Sometimes there is still innovation (Little Nightmares brought something new to the table, for instance) and of course the graphics and sounds are great, but something is gone now. In part this m…

When the first-person shooter arrived, somehow we collectively decided that's what all games should now be. I think we've learned that creativity comes from constraints. Early computing platforms certainly were replete with that.

Almost none of the FPS shooters try to to something creative, though. Duke Nukem 3D is still unbeaten for fun in multiplayer (and we still get it out now and then for that) with simple gimmicks like the holo duke, pipe bombs and laser mines.

Even just looking at "game uses 3D engine" we don't really have many great things. There's portal, and while some of the other stuff have promising ideas (like infinifactory), for all of them the controls tend to get in the way of fun.

For ease of use and fun pretty much all simulations - even as far back as the 90s - just using isometric projection are still unbeaten by attempts to go full 3D.

Re: The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure

#38

Post by Tuna-Fish »

ido wrote: post #29
shevy-java wrote: post #13

I guess nowadays nobody would want to play e. g. King's Quest and what not, but in the 1980s or so that was novel and creative. Today the games tend to have powerful 3D engines, but the creativity was lost for the most part. Sometimes there is still innovation (Little Nightmares brought something new to the table, for instance) and of course the graphics and sounds are great, but something is gone now. In part this m…

I think it's mostly that you're no longer interested in computer games and as such aren't aware of what's currently available. IMO there has never been a bigger and more varied supply of good games as there are today, in pretty much every genre (my personal taste is mostly for small indie games, not AAA). I started playing computer games in the late 1980s myself and have never stopped.

100% agreed. The golden age of gaming is right now, Kickstarter and Steam have opened up the field to smaller studios in a way that has never happened before.

The biggest, most advertised titles are often very good-looking and very "bubblegum", for the exact same reason that the most popular genres of pop are like they are. To appeal to the widest audience, you have to file off all the sharp corners, and if that's the market you see then modern games can seem soulless.

But that's not all of the market! No matter what genre you are interested in, there's probably more work ongoing in it and better games coming out right now that there ever has been in history. Most of them are less refined and sell a lot less than the mainstream games, but occasionally one succeeds well enough to expand past the small niche audience, which inevitably brings a lot more people into the niche, followed by imitators which grow the niche.

Re: The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure

#39

Post by anthk »

For Spanish speakers there, there's "Aventura.z5" at IFDB, you can play it with a Frotz interpreter. It's 99% close to the original modulo some odd wordplay. The backstory and all it's the same, with the Mammoth Cave descriptions with the slaves and the like.

Re: The Rise of Computer Games, Part I: Adventure

#40

Post by anthk »

Apocryphon wrote: post #33
JKCalhoun wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the first-person shooter arrived, somehow we collectively decided that's what all games should now be. I think we've learned that creativity comes from constraints. Early computing platforms certainly were replete with that.

Adventure games became FPS as early as 1992 (only one year before DOOM, so maybe I'm not making much of a point here) with the coming of Ultima Underworld.

UU was an RPG. What adventure games became were either full hybrid 3D mechanics (Tomb Raider) and niche point and click ones.
Post reply on HN