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You're not the only one. There are some neat modern games out there that capitalize on this, such as that ultimate incarnation of space invaders, Titan Attacks.

I think the big publishers correctly realize that they need to make games look attractive at a glance - the problem, IMO, with this game (in TFA), is that it's just not something that grabs you immediately. And even if Madden N+1 is not 10-100x better as a game, it has ultimately brought more pleasure (==> utility or wealth) to the world because it properly marketed itself and looked good enough to get anyone that might enjoy it to buy it. I don't think the game in the article has maximized its own potential, and that's a problem...

I'd personally rather see figures for indie games more along the lines of Droid Assault or Robokill (check these out if you haven't - maybe a shameless plug, but I'm not involved with either, just a fan!), both of which have the kind of immediate traction with a player that an RPG with graphics that were getting stale a decade ago just can't pull off.

I'm not saying you can't have quality without graphical flair, but come on - you've got to look like your making an effort if you really want to move product!

What do you do when you want to play a game that isn't on the consoles?

I don't. I'd love to play Little Big Planet, but I'm not going to invest in a PS3 to do it. So I just don't play.

For example, a lot of indie games are PC exclusives because the developer isn't a big enough company for a WiiWare license.

In the past I did purchase a few indie games. Especially the kick-ass Puppy Games titles. That being said, you need something absolutely incredible to overcome my current ambivalence of PC gaming. I simply don't care enough to endure the pain and anguish of PC gaming. Even though AAA games like Halo, Mass Effect, and Spore COULD be played on my PC, I. SIMPLY. DON'T. CARE.

Crazy, isn't it?

What's even better is that if I wait long enough, the great indie games will reach the WiiWare service. Defend Your Castle, World of Goo, Cave Story, Lost Winds, and other incredible titles are at my finger tips. All it takes is a credit/debit card and a bit of Wii Remote clicking.

Even good games from small companies?

Any game that did not reach its target audience is not being pirated, either. There have been good games throughout history that received a cult following ex post facto, but no one paid them any heed when they were released. If there is a healthy pirate market for the game, there is a healthy consumer market for it. Pure and simple.

There's a few games that I quite enjoy that are java applets.
NES Golf
Stuff over at Puppy Games using LWJGL
etc.

So, don't knock it.

Comparing Java to Flash won't win you any friends. Especially since you're assuming that Java == Applets. Why don't you go play some Java games instead?

http://www.puppygames.net/
http://www.wurmonline.com/
http://www.javaunlimited.net/games/db.php?min=0&so rt=5&order=1&screen=0&max=25 -- (Make sure you try Miners, Xero, and fuzetsu. Those are my favorites. Amazing that they fit in a mere 4K, isn't it?)

If I may be so bold...

Titan Attacks ROCKS!

Caspian Prince has spent years perfecting his Game Design skills, and it has finally paid off with Titan Attacks. The control is excellent (though it may take a bit to realize that you're supposed to be slow before you buy upgrades), the graphics are top notch, and the game is just all around fun!

FWIW, it's taken Cas about four major games to reach this point. First it was Alien Flux (a great little game, but complex controls!), then it was Super [Elvis|Dude] (Seems to be defunct these days. :( ), then he finally found his image with UltraTron. After UltraTron, he realized that he'd nailed the game style he wanted, but he really needed to reward the player more. So what did he do? Well, UltraTron was originally a small Applet intended to replace the PuppyInvaders Java game on his front page. So he thought, "Why not make a sequel to PuppyInvaders?" So he did.

You can still see the original PuppyInvaders, plus all his other games at: http://www.puppygames.net

Make sure you download at least Titan Attacks! I guarantee that you'll buy it. :)

One 4K version of tetris on that page uses almost 40 MB of RAM after a few minutes

Did you consider that the memory you're seeing may be JVM overhead combined with pre-allocation? In smaller devices (like Cell Phones), the JVM is built into the device. So there's no real overhead for Java. The pre-allocation is also smaller to compensate for the smaller device. Considering that many of these devices have barely 64K available (never mind 120K), I'd say that Java fits just fine.

and after playing for a while there's occasional, noticeable pauses for garbage collection (yes, I verified it was from garbage collection)

I find it interesting that you singled out such an example without looking at many of the more interesting examples like T4XI, Robotron 4096, and Hunters 4K. Also, you may find Tetris 4K to be a much better version than the first item on the list.

Java's great for some tasks, it's almost like a cross-platform VB. But the language, or more likely the way the language is most commonly used, isn't optimal for some things. Games happen to be one of those things.

You don't know what you're talking about.

At one point I could have pointed to the poor performance and massive memory usage of VegaStrike. Does that mean that C/C++ is a "bad" langauge? NO! It means that it was poorly coded and still needed lots of work done. The developers worked on improving their codebase, and low-and-behold, the game got better. Perhaps it wasn't the language after all?

Note that little item in #4's list of requirements: Java

That's right people, Tribal Trouble was created by a long-time Java programmer. Don't be surprised if more and more Indies are done in Java. Cross-Platform support comes free, and development tends to be easier and faster. Tribal Trouble wasn't the first Indie game done in Java (*cough*heresafew*cough*), and it won't be the last. :-)

I've found this thread "by accident" and i didn't know about Jake2, so there may be other Java games or similar apps to show off what's possible and what's not (which i'm very interested in). What i do know is the stuff from Puppygames, Oddlabs and Paradroidz. And now this one. Is that all there is?

Like what we do at Puppygames ;)

I've tried to convince Cliff about using Java before but he won't take the plunge.

Try some of these. Starscape from MoonPod is one of my favorites. :-)

Oh, and Cas would kill me if I didn't plug his awesome 2D Shooters. :-)

http://www.puppygames.net/ has a few Java games on it. They use LWJGL, which is designed especially to make Java usable as a AAA game platform.

Check it, buddy.
http://www.puppygames.net/downloads/hallucinogenes is/hallucinogenesis.jnlp

Oh, go jump off a (virtual) cliff. Java can handle "soft" realtime just fine, and extensions are being worked on for "hard" realtime support. And yes, some people actually write device drivers in Java. Java isn't slow because it's actually slow, it slow because:

1. C programmers write 10 lines of REALLY LOUSY Java code and decide that proves their point about Java being slow.

2. People like you WANT it to be slow. I'm sorry, comparing Java programming against device driver writing? That's the height of hypocrisy. Just because you're sore that *you* can't write high performance Java code while maintaining the beauty of an OO design, doesn't mean you have to take it out on everyone else.

BTW:

4k games
Amazing OpenGL game
More Java games
JDiskReport
Best BitTorrent client ever

etc, etc, etc.

Uh, have you SEEN Java games that use OpenGL? It's a disgrace. I can't believe people like you bother to defend it.

I have, but apparently you haven't. Let me introduce you:

Wurm Online
Cosmic Trip
Alien Flux

In my experience, C or C++ is faster across the board, regardless how piss-poor the coder is.

You mean, in your bias C or C++ is faster across the board. From your first paragraph, it seems obvious that you've never used any serious Java apps. OTOH, it may very well be the result of a new syndrome that's been forming. People don't know they're using Java! A perfect example of this is the #1 BitTorrent app, Azureus. It looks and works so good that no one questions what is under the hood!

Sure, there's java port of Quake 2, there's Alien Flux, Tribal Trouble. But, as others already mentioned Java is mostly used for programming game logic. It's performance is constantly improving and only recently it gained enough speed to be seriously considered for writing entire game engines.

I believe you meant puppygames.net.