Retro Video Games are Cool

Video games was originally made up of only simple graphics and is only available to university students and staffs as a research tool. But now, video game is a very broad academic subject, covering from game design, game engineering to even video game psychology and video game business.

Even though the video game industry can't be considered as very old, it does have an interesting history. If you are interested in reading about the history of portable game device in particular, I recommend you reading up on "Character Design for Mobile Devices" by NFGMan. It is a little out of context as it was published in 2006 but it is still worth reading, especially if you want to know more about portable game devices before the gameboy era.

Some game concepts are better than others and as with other media, when a concept is good, people will "copy" (the degree of copying is different for every game) that idea and make it into their own. Neopets earlier games are good example of this. But that is not to say copying is totally bad, especially you are just a game development student.

One must have a limit on copying though, as some game company loves throwing lawsuit as if those were paper airplanes. I suspect the popular Facebook Pac-man clone, Waka Waka, was redesigned because of copyright issues.

Perhaps one of the most important aspect of why people like video games created in the past is because of their attachment to it. I still remembers playing Lufia when I was a kid. I simply loved it, and this love for adventure and awesome (not to today's standard anyway) graphics is why I enjoy role-playing games the most. Looking at Lufia II upcoming remake, Estpolis: The Lands Cursed by the Gods, I don't think I will enjoy the remake as much as the original.

Another game I played when I was in primary school was Runescape. I loved it as you don't have to install anything and all you need was an internet connect to play. This was also one of my first Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), the other being Neopets. Seeing the game now, it is totally different from what I played before. The graphics and sound have improved, but thankfully the gameplay remained the same, as I believe the gameplay is what make Runescape so special.

Because video game is such as broad topic, I will continue with this in another report.

All Things Video Games:

1. Retro Video Games are Cool

2. Know Your Video Game History (Part 1)

3. Know Your Video Game History (Part 2)

4. From Isolation to Social Interaction
5. Budget Retro Games for iPhone/iPod Touch
6. 2010 Arcade Craze

All games screen shot are used for case study purposes only and are copyrighted to their respective copyright holder.