Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Scrolling Platform Games (was: Loki)

["Igor Izyumin Jr." <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Sunday 03 February 2002 16:15, Michael wrote:
> I've only played that a couple times but I'd imagine SNES's r cheap these
> days so maybe I'll pick one up and play with it. 
Just download snes9x and a couple of roms.  The emulator is nearly perfect.  
It should be playable on pretty much anything above a P-100.

> I wasn't going to
> hardcode any limit to the number of layers of graphics. Just something
> like layer 0 is the background and then your level map decides what layer
> the action is on and puts sprites wherever needed. I even thought it might
> be interesting if different things might be able to move your character to
> different layers so that flipping a switch or whatever would switch your
> layer and then you could access something that may have been behind a wall
> or something before that.
You could do something like this in Mario 3 on the Nintendo.  It was pretty 
cool - if you crouched in one particular spot for long enough, you could run 
to the end of the level behind the scenery bypassing all the enemies.

> > For some reason, today's game companies completely stopped innovating.
> > 90% of the games released in the past two years were standard FPSs
> > which really haven't changed at all since Doom. A couple have some
> > semi-interesting "storyline", although it is mostly very shallow.
> > I'd say that games were much better prior to the introduction of 3D,
> > probably because the technical side was easier and people focused on
> > making the game good instead of making the engine not crash and run
> > faster than 14 fps.
>
> You see some innovation still but not much in the 3D shooters. I guess you
> can only do so much with shooting anything that moves. The problem is
> mostly that video games have become such a big market that it's all based
> on what they think will sale well.
And also the fact that it is very difficult to develop 3D engines.  It 
becomes almost like making movies - lots of money and very talented 
programmers are needed to create just the engine, and the gameplay does not 
receive nearly as much attention.  Games which try to focus on gameplay are 
either released half-baked or become vaporware (like Duke Nukem Forever).

> Games like Black & White that are
> somewhat unique get panned as bad games by many gamers and even critics
> just because they dare to break the mode. Of course other games become
> cult hits such as The Sims (or Barbie's Dreamhouse as I call it) despite
> the fact that they do something different.
Black and White was pretty good, but there are very few games of this kind.

> Really the simularity of 99% of games is what should be able to let Linux
> clobber Windows in the games market though. Create some good engines and
> tools and release them as opensource and make sure all the mod makers find
> the stuff and realize what they can do with them. Mod people almost never
> can sell their work and they do it mostly for reputation so they are a
> perfect match for opensource. They make some of the best games out there
> and they also put out huge numbers of games and game mods. Cater to those
> people and Linux will become a major platform for games. Maybe not
> commercial games but something more like the shareware golden days of id,
> Apogee, Epic, etc where there was something new and cool being released
> every couple months for free. IMO those games were much more interesting
> than most of the commercial crap we see these days.
Yep.  I agree.  I loved the old Epic stuff.  Does anyone else remember 
Captain Comic, by the way?  That was an awesome game.  Also stuff like Prince 
of Persia or the shareware stuff like Commander Keen or the Epic adventures.  
I also liked Jazz Jackrabbit.  Finally, there was an awesome viking game (The 
Lost Vikings, I think), which had really neat gameplay (there are 3 different 
vikings which can do different things, and you take turns controlling them).  
Heck, you want to do a remake of that game?  It had some really neat strategy 
elements that you don't normally find in that type of games.
-- 
-- Igor
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