Old Games Vs. New whats wrong with this picture ?

How come old games that were like 2 mb could be played for weeks on end and games these days that are mutiple CD's can be completed in a day ? It seems like games these days are all flash no substance. Look at how crappy old 8bit games looked but when I think back to how long some of them kept me playing, no games today can compare. Given the vast memory storage games should last much longer then they do.

Old games are overrated, and they weren't really long.

well back then we were all dumb kids who only had one game
now we can (if we so choose) got out and buy and play 10 defferent games in one day.

A lot of people think old games were longer, but what's really happening is that the longer you play video games, the better you get, and the faster you can beat them. When I was little, I spent weeks on Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but I still never beat it. Now ten years later, I just downloaded it and beat it in four hours.

It's sorta like this.

Old games are overrated, and they weren't really long.

Dark4ever01

This entire 'shooter/Hollywood' generation is overrated.

Todays games are much longer then what they used to be before...

I think it's the transition from 2d to 3d is a factor. I checked out some screens from a couple shooters I played (shmups) a lot and the first thing I noticed was how different they look from everything I see daily. I spent some time reviewing the details. On the other hand, 3d games are a lot closer to our sense of reality, so it makes sense that they become familiar faster. Realistic looking games like Call of Duty are easier to gather information from. That's why I like Gears of War's overall look. Then again, the reason why I spend so much time gathering visual information is probably because I haven't been in any war-torn towns or cities.

The reason games are gigabytes in size is mainly because of the improved quality of modern game assets. Nothing to do with a game's length.

A piece of sequenced music which uses an onboard soundchip, the kind of music found in old games, takes up about 10-20kb of disk space. Compared to a professionally recorded orchestra in a typical modern game at 16-bit/44kHz MP3, which is about 5 to 10MB.

Video files at 720p take up several hundred megabytes each. In old games, all cutscenes were scripted affairs, and these programmed scripts take a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the space. We're talking kilobytes.

Textures in modern games can be anywhere between 512x512 pixels and 2048x2048 pixels, and use thousands of colours. Sprites in old games were about 32x32 pixels, and used as few colours as possible.

It's sorta like this.

m25105

thats awesome :P

Older games were about substance and newer games are all about flash. There are some newer games that are excpetions but there are too few. It's a good reason to wait until they drop in price.

This is my take on the whole situation. (to all of you retrogamers who hate new games or systems, I salute ye noble men.)

(Just as a disclaimer, the main fight between retros and newbies is the basic argument over whether it is quality or content that makes a game truly great. Retro's believe in the defining characteristic of addicting gameplay, well made controls, and thought poured into the tiniest crevaces of each game. Super Mario Bros has been proven to be able to be beaten in less than 5 minutes, yet the same people are still trying to beat their own records 25 years later. Newbies believe it is just a game filled to the overflow with DLC and explorable areas that make a game great. This has it's points, like with Fallout 3. I love this game just for the sheer amount of crap there is to do. You could wate half your life just wandering the deserts and towns without even finishing the first quest. But this has it's limits, and it seems to desensitize younger gamers to the work put in to different games made nowadays. When COD4 released, many people thought it was amazing, but as soon as MW2 released, NO ONE CARED FOR IT ANYMORE!!! Gamer today are just mindless drones who will shovel out 60 to 70 dollars for the same crap they bough only a few months earlier because it has "new maps, guns, and perks'" (I swear I heard someone say that about FF XIII).
All I am trying to get at is that Retrogamers want to hang on to the pst, to relive the fun days of our youth just sitting in front of a TV trying to make it to that next level on Contra, or get that new difficulty on Goldeneye. Newer gamers just seem to ave less respect for the games and companies that make them. They take the privelege they have now for granted without realizing the agonizing steps that gaming as a culture had to make to reach the point where we are now.

First off, as a retrogamer, I can't stand the new generation of gamer. Today, all kids care about is the new shooter or whether or not their "precious" games have the graphics quality to back it up, even when the things it is backing, such as the gameplay, isn't enough to wipe ass with. I. of course, am one of those rare gamers who couldn't give less of a crap about graphics, I care only for the gameplay. Since when does flashy visuals outweigh the replayability of a game? I spent more time trying to perfect my speed run of World 4 in Super Mario Bros. than I spent beating the campaign in Halo: Reach. And to make matters worse, my generation of gamer is practically extinct. I come from that awkward age between 2D and 3D, when the Genesis and SNES were gaining huge followings, and the Playstation and N64 had yet to be thought of. As a result, I grew up on games such a Street Fighter II, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario World, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, and even Mrs. Pac-Man. I remember the first time I laid my eyes on the 64. That sexy beast of a console took me by storm, and I still clock almost 20 hours a week playing those early 3D games. When I speak of near-extinction, I mean everytime I talk to fellow retrogamers, it seems that a few more are lost everyday into that dark realm I call CODZone. Sure, there is nothing wrong with the COD franchise, I play when I have the chance and I will admit it is a very well put together game, but when people begin to believe it is THE defining moment in gaming history, that truly brings my blood to the boil. I have a friend who, up until 6 months ago, couldn't stand the site of 12 years screaming in 1337 speak over their headphones, trying to piss off people they considered to be noobs, though they themselves wouldn't be crap without a little friend known as the noobtube. Then he bought Modern Warfare 2, and all hell broke loose in our conversations on what makes a game truly great. I stick to those old ideals that it isn't the gimmicky content that truly makes a game, it's the hardwork and care put into the final product, made by people who only wished to make a good game, not just crank out crap and gimmicks for a quick buck, while my friend (who USED to be like me) now believes it is online DLC and graphics that truly define a games worth. I ask you people who read this blog, does that truly make a game? Consider Mortal Kombat, Tekken, hell, even Sonic... these games were all ported into the new age, yet even devoted games find them from lackluster to "crap wouldn't bother gracing your putrid surface". What happened to these once noble titles, you may ask? Corporate greed to make money, not just create a game that people will remember. Imiss the days where games were simpler, yet challenging and just fun for years to come. I respected the companies that created gaming and continue to support them today. A good 8 times out of 10, if you ask a young gamer today what he thinks of Nintendo, Sega, Atari, and Namco, you'll probably get answers like "The Wii's for Girls, "Sonic sucks", "What?" and "Who?" (respectively). When I look at gamers today and their games I only see shooters and RPG's. I miss the days of platformers, shooters, Puzzle games, racers, and those dozen or so obscure sub-genres of the games. Their is a definite division between the two forms of gamers, and something has got to be done about it, and I don't see either side willing to make the first move... And that's one thing that pisses me off.

[QUOTE="m25105"]

It's sorta like this.

Skarwolf

thats awesome :P

Haha it's so true

Old games are overrated, and they weren't really long.

Dark4ever01

Todays games are much longer then what they used to be before...

Harisemo

You think you'd play them for weeks right now? Imagine if a new 2d Castlevania released for the SNES, let's see you play it for weeks. Didn't think so. The older games were harder and you played longer because they were a new thing.

The memory storage needs space for the graphics, that's what takes space. Also production costs millions, more content is more cost. More voice acting etc. It's not like before, 8 bit screen, 8 bit sound, a sound recording in today's games is bigger than a whole snes game. Not to forget about an actual story, more writing, another level is more plot holes to fill. Spend more millions for content and then get bad sales, go bankrupt.

These aren't the old days friend, it's way harder to make 'em now and there's more criticism. Maybe you just don't want to play 1 game for weeks because there's a new game every day now, not to forget you've played for 20 years.

Old games are overrated, and they weren't really long.

Dark4ever01

Baldur's Gate II, Planescape Torment, Ocarina of Time, etc., etc. etc.

Hell...aside from maybe the Bethesda games (which build on the foundation put down by their games in the 90's like Daggerfall), the length of most of games that get counted as an "RPG" these days is pitiful compared to 10 - 15 years ago, add in the fact that what passes as an "RPG" these days is increasingly more of a shooter or action game with light RPG elements.

Even top billed action and FPS games used to run for about 15 hours....now, 8 hours is becoming the norm. The last great FPS I played with a lengthy campaign was Half-Life 2...back in 2004.

It's sorta like this.

m25105

This is so true it's sad.

Old games are overrated, and they weren't really long.

Dark4ever01