Video Game Graphics

As a child of the 70s/80s the first video was like a 10-minute review of my formative years.

Games I recognized and/or played:

In the introduction:

Asteroids
Street Fighter
Mario Cart
Crash Bandicoot
HALO
Doom
Minecraft

From the main portion of the video:

Pong
Space Invaders
Boot Hill
Indy 4
Galaxian
Pac Man
Dig Dug
Defender
Xevious
Zaxxon
Turbo
Hang-On
Space Harrier
After Burner
Dragon's Lair
Donkey Kong
Super Mario
Outrun
Altered Beast

Overall thoughts: Watching this video, I couldn't help but think about the scene from Wreck-It Ralph when the story of Turbo is told. When the new driving game arrives, the kids exclaim "These graphics are amazing!"

From my own personal experience, I was struck by the discussion of raster vs. vector graphics, and the strengths and weaknesses of each. The early vector graphics (Asteroids, Tempest, Star Wards, Star Castle) lacked the richness that the pixels of raster graphics possessed. However, The early pixel games were frustrating because the boundaries of the pixels and sprites were sometimes hard to fine tune.

I distinctly remember playing Pong and Space Invaders at friends' houses, and the experience has stuck with me. I still game today, and appreciate the depth of play and story that modern games bring to the table, but there is something to be said for the "Easy to learn, Impossible to master" simplicity of the early games. There was always a point at which the game advanced beyond the point of human reflexes. Pushing that boundary was the challenge.

Moving to some of the arcade games, I think that there were other elements of strategic thinking that these brought in. Defender, Pac Man, and Galaxian all offered distinct risk/reward options, like going for the Ghosts in Pac Man, trying to score the double ship in Galaxian (which I will discuss in a different post), and the hostage rescue component of Defender.

After Burner was one of the first sit-in cabinets that I can remember playing, and I look back on this as a precursor to modern immersive VR games. If I had invested the quarters I dropped into Afterburner in General Electric or Coca Cola stocks, I would be retired by now.

Part II Sprite Supreme

Super Mario
1942
Punch Out
Street Fighter II
Moon Patrol
Sonic the Hedgehog
TMNT
Metal Slug
Narc
Pit Fighter
Mortal Kombat
Myst

Part III: Polygon Realm

Battlezone
Star Wars
I, Robot
F/A 18 Interceptor
Grand Prix Circuit
Flight Simulator 3
Wing Commander
Doom
Tomb Raider
Quake
Delta Force
Unreal

Part IV: Voodoo Bloom

Quake
Unreal
Unreal Tournament
Half-Life

Part 5: Future Crisis

Wii Sports
Guitar Hero II
VVVVVV
Minecraft
Halo 4


Reflecting back on some of the things pointed out in the video series, I think that there is a key takeaway in the idea the pure graphical power is less important than having a style and an enjoyable gameplay. A very recent example is the Mr. FancyPants game used in another quest here. The stick figure style is far from technologically advanced. However, the gameplay and the simple style give the game a charm that makes it extremely enjoyable. This is exemplified by the fact that my 10-year old son has voluntarily been playing the game regularly since I showed it to him a few days ago. My son has also recently developed an interest in older game consoles and handhelds, based on his interest in particular games, such as the older versions of Pokemon. He plays them with the same enjoyment as the more modern PC and console games. Enjoyment takes more than graphics, to be sure.