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Atari Co-Founder: Mobile Games Make Me Want To Throw My Phone (theguardian.com)
Will Freeman, reporting for The Guardian (condensed): One industry veteran sees arcades and mobile gaming as almost indistinct. He is Nolan Bushnell, co-founder of Atari. Often referred to as the godfather of video games (a phrase he dislikes), he is just about to make his debut in mobile game development, having established a partnership with Dutch publisher Spil, where he will help deliver at least three as-yet-unnamed titles. "When you look at mobile and arcade gaming, they're identical," Bushnell says. "Mobile has some of the same game constraints for the player, and that 'easy to learn, and difficult to master' metric." [...] "Generally, a tremendous number of mobile games are poorly designed," he says. "They can be so focused on graphics that they forget they have to get the timing right, and they have to have proper scoring constructs. I have been so pissed off with some mobile games I've wanted to throw my phone, even if I'm only going to hurt my phone there, and not the game."
Modern app appers ONLY app apps like App App Saga and Appy Apps. LUDDITE Nolan Bushnell is just mad that no one plays his LUDDITE games like LUDDITE Pong or LUDDITE Breakout anymore.
Apps!
I've wanted to throw my phone
Then I would recommend the game Send Me to Heaven
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
> phone games esigned poorly
(sshwuff shwuff shuf sha doingi doingy doingy fwah fwah) "We think you need a better weapon. Only $2.99! Bonus 500 Vapor Coins!"
Sounds we-designed to me.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
The only mobile games I play are tower defense or RPG, where you usually don't have be perfect with your timing, in large part because of this:
>> "They can be so focused on graphics that they forget they have to get the timing right
My kids mostly play PvP games involving decks and armies (rather than "punch" buttons, etc.) on their phones. The home console or PC emulators are what we all use for action/arcade games.
Gen Z is missing out and going backwards. Soon they'll be back in the Black and White era, trust me it'll be the next big thing for them.
The irony of a game developer pissed at a platform designed and intended for communications.
Anytime people want to stop calling it a fucking phone, I'm ready. It's not like we actually talk on the damn things anymore, and voice is about the last priority with smartphone development these days, as evidenced by the mood of a game developer driving next-gen phone software.
I would also recommend Get Off My Lawn.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Firstly, arcade games have a physical joystick and buttons which allows for high skill games, while mobile games have to do with imprecise touch screens with laggy input, which limits how challenging you can make the game (which is why most mobile games are dumbed down crap).
Secondly, arcade games allowed for other novel forms of input, such as light gun games, dancing games, and racing games where're physically on a jet ski or motorcycle and are leaning to steer. Mobile games don't offer anything like that.
Thirdly, arcades were as much about the social experience as they were about the gameplay. You'd be playing a fighting game and someone would come along and challenge you to a match. You'd get to know them and you'd meet the same people on a regular basis. I'm extremely unsociable but I always enjoyed the social site of the arcade.
The only comparison between mobile and arcade is that both can burn through your money at an alarming rate, but at least in the arcade you were having fun while most mobile games try to exploit human psychology to get you addicted to doing boring and repetitive tasks in exchange for a false sense of achievement.
Comparing mobile games to arcades is frankly an insult.
I've actually been doing much more mobile gaming than anything else. My "gaming time" is very limited. I might have 10 minutes here or 20 minutes there. I can load up a game on my phone where ever I am, play a few rounds, and then close it out. I'll agree that many games are pure junk, but there are so many mobile games out there that it's inevitable that many wouldn't be good. There are some gems out there, though.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
He should try Roller Coaster Tycoon World.
Other than Square games, which tend to be worth the cash, I've found that after Apple introduced IAP, it entirely destroyed game quality on iOS, with Android quickly following when Google introduced their IAP API. Tower defense games went from decent to impossibly hard, expecting people to pay a few bucks for powerups every game. Virtually every game out there changed to F2P/P2W.
Sorry, I'm not buying $100 in smurfberries/brains to actually play a game to its conclusion. I'd rather just not bother playing a game on my mobile device, and just buy a game from GOG or Steam, which will be well worth the price of admission with gameplay.
...anybody in technology can go to work looking like shit.
... Back in the day I punched and kicked many an arcade cabinet in frustrated rage, so I don't think the problem is a new one.
Mobile games that are good (timing correct, scoring "hard enough" but not impossible, game immersive and creative, no annoying advertising, etc) cost money. It seems that if you're willing to part with $5 to $10, you get great games on mobile. If you're playing the free games, you're not the customer, you're the product for an advertising company. I think mobile games are great, especially for the price paid. Remember, Super Mario Bros. 3 was like 50 bucks. And that was thirty years ago. With inflation, that's over $100 today.
Just because I can hook a shark from a boat, I do no offer to wrestle it in the water.
...But only because Noland and I are such old geezers.
I grew up with Pong and Atari VCS 2600 (the original 6 button version) and eventually I programmed my own video games on Commodore 64 when I was 12 years old, unfortunately I had NO clue one could make a living out of it - I just thought it was fun so I gave my games away to friends.
Arcade games where my inspiration for purchasing and coding games in the first place, I loved those big awesome sounding machines for the entertainment they provided, all the arcade machines at the time were ahead of their time and FAR past any console or personal computer capacity graphics or soundwise. I often enjoyed going to the local arcade hall and hang out at night with the Arcade-Repair man that was servicing machines all night, just so I could get a sneak peak inside the machines, he took great pleasure in telling me about the latest Yamaha Sound Chips, Texas Instruments Speech Processors (TMS 5220 anyone?) etc. back then. I sometimes even got PCB's from the smashed up arcade games with me home so I hooked them up on my RGB compatible TV set, and made a wooden box with a real arcade stick in it.
Today it's all about mobile and apps, the buzz and excitement (such as I see it) has gone out of the games, surely simple games like Flappy Bird etc. can be super addictive just because we're such competitive spirits - and any idiot can understand it right away...these are the simple appeal of simple games.
?
But arcade games are fantastic and set the way for new technology, it has always been that way - I have a feeling it could return with the now finally about to be ready VR-Gaming technology. Still...3000 bucks is a hefty price to pay for the average consumers, and you'll need even more money than that if you want a super smooth experience with all the details (arcade comeback anyone?).
There's nothing that beats the console / arcade experience IMHO. The graphics is secondary, the gameplay is THE GAME!
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Tower defense games went from decent to impossibly hard, expecting people to pay a few bucks for powerups every game.
Likewise, arcade games used elapsed time or distance (such as number of rounds won) to set difficulty. They temporarily became slightly easier after the player bought a continue.
You're spot on. I've played more video games than most and loved the arcades. These new phone games have annoying input compared to the joystick and buttons!!! I made a game for Android and web (www.ThroneAndCrown.com) and its redeeming quality is that you can plug a keyboard and maybe a joystick in. I'm developing for both mobile and PC, but I prefer the PC because you can make a game allow for an xbox 360 joystick. Mobile has the market, but the limiting constraints of input, latency, screen size, and processing power mean your game will be more limited than a PC or console game.
God spoke to me
Seriously, why are phones and tablets so infuriating to use? I've destroyed two iPads and six Android phones. Hate em!
>> Sorry, I'm not buying $100 in smurfberries/brains to actually play a game to its conclusion
For free (no purchase needed to win) tower defense games on Android, I recommend Castle TD, ToyDefense and (Dragon) Lair Defense. I won all three and have still never spent a penny at the Play store. (I don't even have a credit card hooked up.) A good free RPG is Gurk. (I never play anything online on my phone.)
"When you look at mobile and arcade gaming, they're identical,"
No, they're not. Do I need to explain?
I finally got a tablet a while back and I was looking for just 1 single classic turn-based swords and spells RPG. There are approximately zero that aren't MMOs. I just want an Exile 3: Ruined World or Zelda or Crusaders of Might and Magic or Phantasy Star 3: Generations of Doom but there's just plain nothing. I feel like besides the artwork and sound, I could make a game like that in about a month myself because of the modern IDE's for making android games compared to the 1990's when these games were big. Yet nobody has done it. It's the same mystery as why not 1 single company makes brand new 5.25" floppy disks. There's a demand and a complete hole in the market and they wouldn't be that hard to produce. Where's the offline RPGs, people? It's all just a micro-transaction math equation on rails.
when is E.T. getting released ;)
TILT detected
say call it a "communicator"
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Download for free, then pay through the nose for everything you want to do.
Graphics or gameplay are essentially secondary. It's basically all the same game.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Nolan has this habbit of showing up every year or so, letting out a nasty fart of an opinion on today's games and then vanishes
Who cares what a dude that hasn't been remotely close to video games in damn near 40 years really thinks?
Especially when it's all bile and hate
Most mobile games, hell, most GAMES, are predictable free to play sh*t. I don't care if that's what is ptofitable: take some chances, you tight-fisted cowards.
If he thinks the Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Genesis, or any other platforms that are fondly remembered didn't have libraries loaded down with absolute shit games, then he doesn't remember the era he comes from. We only remember the good games, it's called survivorship-bias. The only difference now is that the market for games is bigger.
Citations.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
All gaming systems, regardless of manufacture (Atari 2600, NES, Coleco, Telestar, and everything newer or older) have made me want to throw the controller at times.
How is wanting to throw your phone any different? It is the controller. Just happens to cost a shit load more than the old controllers of yesteryear.
Further PinBall machines have a tilt mechanism in them for the same reason, we want to throw the machine around to save a ball, of to show the game how pissed off we are when things don't go well.
We as the people playing the games simply don't can't constantly control ourselves when caught up in the moment of being ridiculously frustrated with something that just won't quite work for us.
Or does the mobile game market feel like we stepped back 13 years in gaming development instead of going forward?
I only play games that are playable with keyboard and mouse.
How do you finely change your movement speed and direction with a keyboard? I agree that aiming is more precise with a mouse than with an analog joystick. But for moving, WASD emulates an 8-way joystick, not an analog one.
Nobody I know uses controllers unless they are required to by the lack of options on a console.
With a keyboard and mouse, how do you let players 2, 3, and 4 play a PC game with you? Which games do you play that support Raw Input API for use with more than one keyboard and more than one mouse? Or do you make them wait their turns until you have finished playing? Or do you live alone and never invite friends over?