Space for Rent: Retro-New Games

Tweet of the Day:  Experience-A New Beginning

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This space is an open space where I talk about almost anything that comes to mind, and a subject that is often on my mind is video games.  And why not? Video games have been at the forefront of the Information Age. More than anything else, outside of the internet/world wide web, they have defined the last forty years. In forty years we gone from barely recognizable squares and circles to near-photorealistic characters and backdrops. With the rise of complexity has come a rise in the cost of creating video games which has led many a company to cut corners, slice off core content and push for pre-order of products months before release.

This has led to the creation of the Patching Culture, the idea that you can release a game now and fix it sometime later.

It also has led older players like myself to reminisce about the good old says of Atari, Nintendo, Commodore and early PC gaming.  Back when games came in physical media, often hard wired media like cartridges, with no after sale patches, online gameplay or voice acting.

Those were the days.

Okay, they weren’t but boy do they feel better than today.

And an entire industry of indie developers have risen to the challenge and given us a taste of those days with games life Luftrausers, Shovel Knight, and Shadowrun Returns. Of course for every Retro-New game there a dozens if not hundreds of titles than never make it, or are just shovel-ware (the B-movies/Straight to Cable versions of games). But the fact is that these games succeed were many costlier (and over hyped) games fail. They provide good content at good prices. They succeed by following the first axiom of video game design: gameplay is the thing! Without good, solid, enjoyable gameplay, you do not have a worthy game. Many are known to be ‘hard by fair’ that is, challenging but at the same time still playable.

Occam’s Razor for the gaming world.

Of course, these games are not for everybody, specially a modern audience infatuated with the latest graphics, long storylines, and complex gaming mechanics. But they are a welcomed addition to the roster none the less and prove that sometimes there is something to be learned from the past.

And a perfect foil for hackers trying to spoil your online holiday fun. 😉

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