Mechanics That Changed Gameplay Forever 143
grammar fascist writes "A feature at 1up.com explores the various gameplay devices that revolutionized videogaming, and you might not believe how simple they are: life bars, power-ups, bosses, and combos make the list. From the article: 'As good as these ideas may sound on paper, they don't always work in execution. Sometimes they don't even make sense. But every once in a while, a game designer comes up with a fantastic concept that engages the player -- and influences the work of other designers.'"
Hmm (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hmm (Score:2)
They're a little different.
They missed a biggie (Score:4, Informative)
Re:They missed a biggie (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:They missed a biggie (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, I wonder how they'd do motion capture for this sort of thing? "Here, wear these patches and bounce"? Who gets the privlege of helping the motion capture subject with her equipment?
Re:They missed a biggie (Score:1)
Inverse nippomatics would be if a big breasted character that stopped running would be thrown off-balance by the inertia of her huge breasts.
Re:They missed a biggie (Score:2)
oh wait, I forgot about the eXtreme beach vollyball.
Re:They missed a biggie (Score:2, Funny)
Re:They missed a biggie (Score:3, Funny)
I know it moved my package.
Re:They missed a biggie People Mover. (Score:1, Offtopic)
Saving beats all of that.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Lets face it, nobody would have ever finished the original Zelda if you had to start from the beginning everytime. Saving is what made games evolve from 3-6 hours of maximum gameplay to the massive sprawling indepth masterpieces we know today. Playing a game over and over and over so that you're perfectly adept at every nook and cranny is for the kids who have hours to spend on it, and is frustrating as hell (Ninja Gaiden I through III, I'm looking in your direction). The older crowd doesn't have the patience or the time for that kind of thing. Saving has made replayability an option, rather than a requirement.
The same argument also applies the natural extension of saving, which is unlimited continues.
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:1)
On the contrary! Nethack has save feature, yet I tend to think people who finished Nethack as As Leet Gamers As Anyone Can Get...
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not saving typically meant either A) you spent alot of quarters in the arcade or B) you learned to make the most of your lives/continues/whatever. It didn't really make you "uber".
Nowadays, games have more depth and skill involved. They're longer and typically harder to finish. Yes, you can reload save games to keep your progress, but the tradeoff is that reloading is neccesary. Beating an old side scroller without saving was difficult, but not impossible, for an average player; beating a modern FPS of any respectable length without saving is damn near impossible for even an expert player. There are no extra lives, no continues, and no slot to put in more quarters - you either save or start over all the way from the beginning. And the time it takes to get to the end is so much longer as well.
And the games that do let you respawn are often the ones in which dying is taken for granted, and thus the game is corrospandingly more frustrating. MMOs like WoW are a good example of this - you might die a dozen times in a dungeon instance, but actually beating the fights is hard. Multiplayer FPS games are another example - you spawn, you're fragged, you respawn, you hope to god you'll get a kill - nope, fragged again. This is somehow easier than falling into a spike pit in Sonic the Hedgehog?
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:2)
C) You left the game console on while you slept, went to work, etc... and hoped nobody messed with it because you just spent several hrs a day for the last week getting where you are.
Unfortunately C) only works if there's only a single gamer/console. Once you have a kid who also wants to play, or two kids
So for me "Saves" are essential.
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:2)
I'm referring to totally unmarked traps (with no way of detection via thrown stuff, etc), leaps of faith (Super Mario!) or other things that would be guaranteed to kill someone who didn't happen to
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Generally speaking I'm in favor of saving, and when not available, emulator state saving and loading. Of course, I do feel like kind of a hack when arbitrary saving and loading allows me to essentially have infinite lives and ammo, since I can ensure, with scientific accuracy, that each encounter goes perfectly.
It sort of makes me wonder when the innovation of multiplying the actual length of the game by several times came about. You know, like when you get to the end of one of those really hard, old-school platformers and it tells you, "Actually, you need to play the whole game again - except now you have to finish the whole thing without getting hit once, and in this certain amount of time." This is frequently in those games on the other end of the spectrum - you know, the ones with no saving at all. I prefer a middle-ground myself. I mean, sure, I love RPGs and those rare platform-style games that allow you to save your progress, but back when I was younger, I was really freaking good at Mario.
These days I actually crave a hard game. When I get my new apartment, I'm planning on buying an Xbox specifically for Ninja Gaiden.
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:2)
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:2)
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:1)
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:2)
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:3, Informative)
Farther is used as a measure of concrete distance. "I rode 5 miles farther than yesterday." You could maybe use it in this case if you're referring to the distance you've traveled in the game.
Further is used as a measure of relative degree. "He took that bad joke further than he should have." It would be more appropriate in this case, in my opinion, since game progression can't really be measured in distance. It's measured relative to pas
Shmups, Shmups, Shmups! (Score:2)
Watch one of the Ikaruga gameplay vids [ikaruga.co.uk] (level 3 to 5 are mad).
Or look at a screeny from a game like Perfect Cherry Blossom here [secret.jp]. The playable char is the girl on the bottom.
In both games, one hit from an enemy or a projectile means death and extra lives aren't easy to come by.
It saddens me aswell that Ninja Gaiden is an XBox exclusive, meaning I will probably never play it (and get raped).
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:2)
Capcom's Ghosts & Goblins sticks out in my mind. "Oh, you beat the next to last boss, but you need item X to reach
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:2)
Even worse was they made it sound like if I had just played on the hard level to begin with, I wouldn't have to go back through on the hard level to get the special weapon you had to have. I was again a little perterbed to find that even then you still had to go through a second time.
But I kept playing it anyway..
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:3, Interesting)
I wish I knew how to make a game that allows you to save&quit, then resume gameplay freely the next day, disallow to "retry" the same part for better outcome (if you screw up, restart from scratch or live with your mistakes) while keeping you immune from crashes, bugs etc. There were some games that kept saves only with purpose of resuming the game, but a crash or a critical bug that killed your character would unfairly force you to restart. OTOH I feel quite guilty if I re
Transcendence has a nice model.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Nethack. (Score:5, Insightful)
You can save and quit, but you can't save without quitting. When you load you can resume your savegame or delete. Outside of these two option, you can't do anything else. This way you arn't stuck playing continuously, but you also can't replay anything before your savegame. Either you're playing and 'live', or you're saved and taking a break.
Of course as a result, the vast majority of the game never gets more than half way through it, but that just makes it worth replaying. Most games today are just stuck on rails trying to tell you a story. Theres no way to fail, only fail to do what they want you to do forcing you to try again. You are not playing the game, the game is playing you.
Re:Nethack. (Score:2)
Re:Nethack. (Score:3, Informative)
Should try it, telnet to nethack.alt.org and play around, you'd be surprised how safe the saves are. I've got one I havnt played in months still waiting for me.
Only time I lost a save there was due to closing right as I did something stupid, in an attempt to cheat it into letting me recover my old save. So basically, I tried to cheat and it didn't let me.
Re:Nethack. (Score:2)
Re:Nethack. (Score:2)
But playing online has its benefit. If you get stuck in a sticky situation, others can spectate your game and help you out, you can spectate others and obviously there's the benefit of bragging rights when you ascend and get into the high scores.
Here's mine
642 4,788,222 Sakura -5/49 322/382 Val Dwa Fem Law ascended 2004-03-11
Re:Nethack savegames (Score:1)
Re:Nethack savegames (Score:2)
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:2)
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:2)
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:2)
I think you've forgotten about the much loathed predecessor to the battery backed save..The massively overly complex password based continue system (context sensitive, using upper and lowercase letters in addition to numer
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroid#Famicom_Disk
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:1)
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:2)
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:2)
Passwords you say? (Score:2)
Re:Saving beats all of that.... (Score:2)
" Aw, MOM!!! I can't save it right now!! "
Mario! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mario! (Score:1)
The Fonz!!! (Score:2)
Disappointing (Score:5, Insightful)
No "sandbox mode" ala Simcity/Grand Theft Auto?
Sniper Shots made it but "target locking?"
This list may all be great mechanics, but many of them are far from the best.
Re:Disappointing (Score:2)
Excuse Me But Nethack (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Excuse Me But Nethack (Score:1)
I once cried when my dog died. He stepped onto a fire trap and was consumed in flames... *whoosh*, half dozen tripe rations down the drain.
-:sigma.SB
Elite (Score:1)
Re:Elite (Score:2, Informative)
Mechanics That Changed Gameplay Forever (Score:3, Funny)
up down up down left right left right b a start (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:up down up down left right left right b a start (Score:2)
Re:up down up down left right left right b a start (Score:1)
You screwed up the Konami code (Score:2)
spread shot (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:spread shot (Score:1)
Re:spread shot (Score:1)
Re:spread shot (Score:1)
And RTS? (Score:3, Interesting)
The genre has evolved by leaps and bounds in terms of gameplay in the last 5 years (try playing the original command and conquer and you can see the evolution. Ignoring the whole genre is doing a pretty big disservice.
Re:And RTS? (Score:4, Insightful)
In my opinion, most modern RTS games feel just as advanced as C&C. Here's a quick test to show why:
- Select a group of units, and assign them to hotkey 1.
- Have them attack an enemy group. Naturally, they overwhelm them and are victorious.
- Some your units are damaged and need to be sent back to base for repair. Do so without pulling away healthy units. While you can do this on Dark Reign, Red Alert 2, and a few other games... most games on the market do not support Auto-repair or otherwise send damaged units back to base without micromanaging them.
- While you were attacking the enemy forces, you were naturally building up another attack force with your build panel on the right-hand side of the screen. Select those new units and add them to group 1.
- Oh look, the enemy is launching another attack - have group 1 engage and destroy them. (They will do so easily, since the computer AI sucks.)
- Now, since the enemy base is weakly defended, have your reinforced group obliterate the enemy in one large swarm. To do so, wait until your reinforcements join up, and charge (which will be forever in every modern game other then Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 - as units stop in their tracks as soon as their assigned target is destroyed.)
The order of events shown above are highly reasonable in a military assault. However, RTS games have the most basic of flaws in unit AIs that prevent these things from being possible - and these flaws are fixable by anyone who knows what they are doing.
Re:And RTS? (Score:4, Informative)
It is to C&C, Starcraft and other RTSs what chess is to checkers.
Re:And RTS? (Score:2)
It's auto-attack feature is nice... but TA:K demonstrated that it does not handle "melee-range" units. That game needed a patch to add a "Move-fight" command.
It still has some of the flaws I mentioned - you still have to individually select units to pull them back for repair (although there are ways around this), and units still stop in their tracks when their targets are destroyed (and queueing orders doesn't count, because of the neat trick of pulling units bac
Re:And RTS? (Score:1)
A move order before the attack order might take care of that. Of course it's queueing but at least your reinforcements will move in. Otherwise I prefer the attack-move command in most games to denote an attack (and thankfully Earth 2160 binds that to a double right click so you can use it almost permanenty), there's few situations where you
Re:And RTS? (Score:1)
I personally am not convinced that the tactical depth in TA is as high as a game like Starcraft, but your description of TA seems overly simplistic.
For example, two basic units, the AK and the Peewee.
One had a rotating turrent rapid-firing short-ranged plasma rounds. Not too bad for shooting other kbots and can definitely do tricks like circle strafing.
The other had a short ranged missile. Perhaps not so great at tracking a target while moving, but then it
Re:And RTS? (Score:1)
That's because most games tend to rely on micromanagement to make the game "fun" because they saw that it worked for Starcraft. I've seen plenty of games with enough options to make autorepair possible (Warzone 2100, Earth series, etc)
- While you were attacking the enemy forces, you were naturally building up an
Re:And RTS? (Score:2)
never mind C&C, Dune 2 was the origin of the modern RTS wasn't it? I put many hours into that on my Amiga 500. I won as Harkonnen, but never managed it as Atredies or Ordos (the 2 nuke's coming at me, instead of one, was abit too much for my limited abilities).
dave
Rhythm games...? (Score:5, Interesting)
Adman
In today's world... (Score:1)
Imagine all of the royalties that would be due if the inventer of the life bar had gotten a patent on the idea.
LK
Re:In today's world... (Score:2)
Re:In today's world... (Score:2)
Take a look at this page [patentarcade.com] and scroll down to the section on Magnavox vs Atari regarding patents over Pong. Magnavox went on to sue Activision over this patent as well.
There have been lots of these types of patent lawsuits since the beginning of the video game industry.
Weak article (Score:5, Insightful)
How about:
Run and jump?
Scrolling backgrounds? (It changed shooters forever and then changed platform games forever).
Analog controls? Mario 64 introduced "push the stick a little to tip toe", "medium to walk" and "all the way to run". This feature is in 90% of character based 3D games now!
There are plenty more, but this article obviously didn't want to get too technical.
Re:Weak article (Score:2)
So sad. Seems most sites are dropping "printer-friendly" as people are wising up and reading that instead of the click-ad-click-ad-click-ad versions.
seriously... (Score:3, Informative)
Seriously, a whole genere of game (FPS) depends on this mechanic. How could it have gone unremarked?
Errors (Score:5, Informative)
Doesn't mean the article's entirely accurate though:
Power-ups: I'm reasonably sure Pac-Man wasn't the first.
Chain Reactions: Missile Command's "matchbook" explosions far predate those of Bomberman.
Time Manipulation: Ladybug has a freeze-the-enemies item, as does Q*Bert.
Spread Shot: Oh please, Contra was NOT the first game to do this.
Canine Sidekick: What? Stupid.
Co-op play: Eliminator predated Gauntlet.
Re:Errors (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Errors (Score:2)
Re:Errors (Score:2)
Re:Errors (Score:2)
Balance (Score:3, Interesting)
Why aren't drugs listed as a plus to gaming? (Score:1)
omissions (Score:2)
Then they said the canine sidekick premiered in 1990, but what about nethack?
They said that cooperative play premiered in gauntlet in 1987, but gauntlet was release for speccy in 85 (two years earlier).
Re:omissions (Score:2)
Re:omissions (really: Origin of Gauntlet) (Score:2, Interesting)
Atari coin-op loved the game, and shamelessly ripped it. When Jack objected, he settled for a copy of the coin-op Gauntlet (which, being a roommate, I had to help schlep from apartment to apartment fo
Re:omissions (really: Origin of Gauntlet) (Score:2)
They missed a biggie! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:They missed a biggie! (Score:2)
Re:They missed a biggie! (Score:2)
[game] matching. (Score:2)
Yakuza, Mafia
too easy?
yeah, i had to prove i'm a crazy mofo.
Dog Sidekick? (Score:4, Informative)
You want to talk about mechanics that revolutionized gameplay. Here are some HUGE omissions from the list.
Pause Button
Save Feature
Online play
Mod tools
Creating dynamic content in game (like Sim Life or Spore)
Musical Gameplay
Force Feedback
Analog Controls
Alternate Endings
Unlockable Content
But having a dog sidekick beat out all those things.
Some of those reasons are plain silly (Score:2)
Well, it's summer, there's little else to report. I'd call that a filler. On 1up, and on slashdot.
Best "mechanic" (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_look [wikipedia.org]
Some debuts they missed! (Score:2)
Just goes to show, whatever it is, you probably weren't the first person to think of it!
Prince of Persia? (Score:2)
Locational damage in FPS? (Score:2, Insightful)
The popular weaponry was rocket launchers, railguns, freaky energy weaponry and whatnot. Now many games have hit-scan bullet guns instead, and with recoil, stability, and locational damage.
So many FPSes are tossing in headshots and favoring bullet-based guns. I like the crazy fictional guns, too much same-n
from the gotta-love-bosses dept. (Score:4, Insightful)
The very idea that they would have one powerful enemy at the end whose sole purpose is to defeat the one person who had ever managed to cut through all the defenses makes no sense. He should instead be outside to support the other defenses, not held in reserve as a single defensive point.
Now give me a game where whether you're able to get to the end depends on you surviving your own character's fatigue, where your character really doesn't have the time or endurance to "clear the level" (and not by having infinitely regenerating enemies). Maybe dealing with that would get game designers to stop making games where all you have to do is keep mashing the A button.
Smart Bombs (Score:2)
The Dual Joystick controls of Robotron.
Tilt joysticks (Score:2)
Not sure what the first game to come out with this, or the first joystick for that matter... but definately a bit step for control of virtual aircraft/spacecraft.