No Time for Retro-Gaming?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 25, 2012

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend about how I recently re-played Ultima III to completion.  I explained to him that it started out mainly as a research-thing, but after about an hour (all I was really planning on putting into it, to get the feel for it again), I was really in the rhythm and enjoying myself.

Was it crude by today’s standards? Big-time. Was it as wonderful as I remembered? Well, no, not really. Still fun, I discovered, but definitely not the mind-blowing experience I remembered. I guess nostalgia and the fact that it was so state-of-the-art at the time figured heavily into it. A lot of it probably had to do with my state of mind as a kid, too. Those random combats in the dungeon were all part of a story I’d invested into it as a kid, which I didn’t have so much of as an adult.

I had no problem with looking up hints and maps online this time around to shorten the game. And shorten it I did – I remember it taking me weeks to play through it the first time, many decades ago. I think I beat it in less than eight hours this time around. It was a good several hours – little of the drudgery or “getting lost,” and lots of challenging fights and good ol’ hunting down “marks,” clues, and exotics throughout the world.

I told my friend about my fun experience re-playing the game in spite of its antiquity. He was an old Ultima fan from way back as well.  But then he told me he’d never do anything like that, because he had no time to play old games.

I guess I kinda don’t either, but that hadn’t stopped me. But his comment made me think.

I retro-game a lot. I do it a lot for “research,” but, as in Ultima III, I frequently find that once I get past the crude graphics and opaque, antique UI, I find an enjoyable game behind it. Oh, not always – most old games, like most new games, aren’t that great, and the passage of time has done them no favors.  But older graphics can still be quite pretty, and interfaces for certain kinds of games – especially older console and arcade games – can be even simpler and (IMO) better than today’s counterparts.  I find that playing these older games provides me with a lot of benefits as a gamer, a designer, and as a whatever-it-is-I-do-writing-about-games:

#1 – It helps me remove the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia when talking about the old classics. No game is perfect, and the ones we remember as classics often succeeded in spite of (or perhaps even because of) their flaws. It’s good to confront the reality of the game rather than just emotional memories.

#2 – It gives me a better perspective on new games. I love new games, too, but comparing them to their spiritual ancestors helps provide me with a foundation. What some journalists with a perspective dating back no more than five years in the hobby might see as new and innovative, I may see as simply an evolution (or even recycling) of common, older ideas. And when we gripe about newer games are simply ‘dumbed down’ rehashings of old concepts, I may have enough of a perspective to admit that there really are some things that are being done today that are an improvement (besides prettier graphics and better UIs) over their predecessors, and feel comfortable enough to characterize those differences.

#3 – As a designer, these older games are often a wellspring of inspiration. Whether its ideas that were fresh at the time which have since been forgotten or mutated into a different species, or its simply an emotional reaction to revisiting old friends or a time when gaming was a little more hobby-oriented, or simply seeing how a game seems filled with unfulfilled promise and potential and envisioning how modern technology could now make that possible, playing these older games often work wonders for me to recharge my creativity and motivation.

#4 – What was fun twenty years ago is frequently still a lot of fun today. Yeah, we may be a lot more jaded and used to being spoon-fed our entertainment more than we were then (yes, even me — I have a tough time reading the manuals anymore, and that was always a big deal and part of the entertainment value for me).  It takes a conscious effort to overlook the chunky, pixellated graphics and the counter-intuitive UIs, or to accept the other limitations of the era. But after paying that ‘price’ few are willing to pay today, I find myself getting sucked back into these worlds just as much as I was when they were new.  And that’s what it’s all about, really… having fun.

I guess I kinda understand my friends’ perspective. There are so many great games coming out now – especially if you follow indie games – that there’s no time to play them all, let alone go back and revisit past classics.  And it takes a certain amount of discipline to immerse yourself in these older titles – particularly when it’s not always worth the trip. But for me, I have no problem enjoying these games side-by-side with their more contemporary brethren.

 

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