Slashdot Mirror
Mechanics That Changed Gameplay Forever
grammar fascist writes "A feature at 1up.com explores the various gameplay devices that revolutionized videogaming, and you might not believe how simple they are: life bars, power-ups, bosses, and combos make the list. From the article: 'As good as these ideas may sound on paper, they don't always work in execution. Sometimes they don't even make sense. But every once in a while, a game designer comes up with a fantastic concept that engages the player -- and influences the work of other designers.'"
Where does "computer-generated breasts on cover" fall into this list? Hey, I mean, it moves packages...
Then nethack gets the HUP signal and autosaves.
Should try it, telnet to nethack.alt.org and play around, you'd be surprised how safe the saves are. I've got one I havnt played in months still waiting for me.
Only time I lost a save there was due to closing right as I did something stupid, in an attempt to cheat it into letting me recover my old save. So basically, I tried to cheat and it didn't let me.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
I love searching these articles for errors. There are fewer than I expected -- attributing the origin of a health total to a game by *SNK* seemed obviously false at first, but the game offered, Ozma Wars, came out shortly after Space Invaders. (That's real early.) And I respect the writers for remembering Gaplus.
Doesn't mean the article's entirely accurate though:
Power-ups: I'm reasonably sure Pac-Man wasn't the first.
Chain Reactions: Missile Command's "matchbook" explosions far predate those of Bomberman.
Time Manipulation: Ladybug has a freeze-the-enemies item, as does Q*Bert.
Spread Shot: Oh please, Contra was NOT the first game to do this.
Canine Sidekick: What? Stupid.
Co-op play: Eliminator predated Gauntlet.
They were the first to come up with it. A lot of the most interesting features in Elite were squeezed into the game in literally bytes. Initially, where the 3d map was there would have been two columns of numbers that told you where you were. It wasn't very intuitive, and the creators came up with the 3D map in a couple of spare bytes.
Air control during a jump! Thanks SMB 1! That was a HUGE platform-game improvement that was carried forward all future platform games (that didn't suck).
Have you ever heard of Total Annihilation?
It is to C&C, Starcraft and other RTSs what chess is to checkers.
factor 966971: 966971
Having a dog sidekick makes the list but for some reason interactive content doesn't?
You want to talk about mechanics that revolutionized gameplay. Here are some HUGE omissions from the list.
Pause Button
Save Feature
Online play
Mod tools
Creating dynamic content in game (like Sim Life or Spore)
Musical Gameplay
Force Feedback
Analog Controls
Alternate Endings
Unlockable Content
But having a dog sidekick beat out all those things.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
(side note: which is more appropriate for gaming, farther or further?)
Farther is used as a measure of concrete distance. "I rode 5 miles farther than yesterday." You could maybe use it in this case if you're referring to the distance you've traveled in the game.
Further is used as a measure of relative degree. "He took that bad joke further than he should have." It would be more appropriate in this case, in my opinion, since game progression can't really be measured in distance. It's measured relative to past playings.
--
Promoting critical thinking since 1994.
The one I can't believe they skipped is "mouselook."
Seriously, a whole genere of game (FPS) depends on this mechanic. How could it have gone unremarked?