Is anyone working on original games for the 7800?

[Gorf]

FYI, actually no...... 64k is 2^6. You also skipped 1k, 4k, and 16k all of which are

standard legitimate chip sizes since the stone age.

I said "normally". I never said other sizes didn't exist, but for whatever reason, the standard commonly-found sizes (in bytes) are odd powers of two. 6116 = 2k x 8, 6164 = 8k x 8, 62256 = 32k x 8.

 

I know what you said, but I am telling you, 64k as well as 2k, 4k and 16k are not

uncommon either. Maybe in your neck of the woods but I've seen these all over the

place around here. Have tons of most of them too. Gotta know where to look for

them.

 

Even still, a 32k would be fine too. Not like there will be much use for much

above 32k anyway.

Edited December 29, 2009 by Gorf

[carmel_andrews]

Would I not be right in thinking that there are very few 'original' games been made for any gaming system (retro or modern) as most games borrow ideas/concepts/techniques etc from what has gone before

[Ransom]

Would I not be right in thinking that there are very few 'original' games been made for any gaming system (retro or modern) as most games borrow ideas/concepts/techniques etc from what has gone before

 

In the sense that there are no 'original' stories in movies or books, since every possible subject was covered in plays and stories hundreds or even thousands of years ago?

Edited December 29, 2009 by Ransom

[Gorf]

Would I not be right in thinking that there are very few 'original' games been made for any gaming system (retro or modern) as most games borrow ideas/concepts/techniques etc from what has gone before

 

In the sense that there are no 'original' stories in movies or books, since every possible subject was covered in plays and stories hundreds or even thousands of years ago?

 

From my favorite book ever....

 

Ecclesiastes 1

 

1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?

4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.

5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.

6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.

7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.

8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

 

Never have more true words been spoken.

[Ransom]

Yup. The details may change a little, but it's always the same.

[Ransom]

I think every system should have an action/adventure game on it. I'd love to see one for the 7800 as well as for the Colecovision. I hope to some day have time to come up to speed on programming one or the other, so I can make that a reality. That's sort of on my "if I lose my job" list of things to do.

[Gorf]

I think every system should have an action/adventure game on it. I'd love to see one for the 7800 as well as for the Colecovision. I hope to some day have time to come up to speed on programming one or the other, so I can make that a reality. That's sort of on my "if I lose my job" list of things to do.

 

Well hopefully you wont lose your job. I for one will stick to the shooters in space and a few maze shooter types as well.

I'leave all the other genre to the rest of you lads and lasses.

[PacManPlus]

Thinking along those lines, I would *love* to make 'Dark Tower' for the 7800, complete with the little pictures from the tower. Need to figure out the logistics of it. (Do I just emulate the 'tower' or do I try to go for the whole 'environment' thing like the Vectrex did?)

 

Unfortunately, that's another 'port'.

I saw a post in another thread taking a 'dig' at making ports again for the 7800 as someone said (in reference to beginning to program for the 7800) "I will be making all original games". People need to understand that not all of us were born with this remarkable creativity that we can come up with something entirely new. GroovyBee has it. I don't. I do what I can to keep this system going, and I do it because I enjoy seeing 'what could have been' in '84/'86 had this system had more support, and make some of the people here (at least) happy. I may not be the best programmer here (or even close, actually) but I like seeing what I can do.

 

... Sorry, didn't originally intend to go there.

 

@Gorf - BTW, I *just yesterday* saw your post from November on my Profile... I don't actually go there very often, sorry, man - I hope you didn't think I was ignoring you.

[Ransom]

Exactly. Game design and programming are separate skills. I'm glad people create new cartridges for the old platforms, be they ports, hacks, bug fixes, or something that could pass for a new idea ( ). The purpose of this thread was just to try to track down who is working on what, because I was having trouble finding that out using the search engine.

[Gorf]

@Gorf - BTW, I *just yesterday* saw your post from November on my Profile... I don't actually go there very often, sorry, man - I hope you didn't think I was ignoring you.

 

First of all you are too much of a gentleman and a scholar to ever offend me and I know you are

probably quite busy so no, I did not think you were ignoring me. Also dont feel bad about the

originallity thing....there is nothing new under the sun.

 

 

BTW, which post were you refering to? See I already forgot.

Edited December 30, 2009 by Gorf

[The_Laird]

There are still plenty of original ideas out there its just that modern gaming has stifled them.

[Gorf]

There are still plenty of original ideas out there its just that modern gaming has stifled them.

 

Modern gaming has bored me to death. We now have 100's of developers using four genre to compete

for our gaming dollars. The last console I bought was the first X-box...I bought like 5 titles

for it and was very disappointed. The JAguar was the last hopeful console for me. Though it lacks

the power of todays machines, the games were a lot closer to what I was hoping for...at least in

concept.

 

T2k, I-War, Cyber/Battle Morph, HoverStrike, BattleSphere and those...very different.

Im glad the Jag did not see racer after racer, fighter after fighter, FPS after FPS.

That is all that any console after it seems to care about with maybe one or two somewhat

original ideas out there. However, I stand by my scripture....there is really and truly

nothing knewthat has not been done before. Only variations of it.....

 

Centipede? A much more enjoyable version of swatting bugs really. Think about it.

Edited December 30, 2009 by Gorf

[The_Laird]

The last new console I bought was a Sega Saturn, go figure!!!

[Gorf]

The last new console I bought was a Sega Saturn, go figure!!!

 

Im not even interested in a used next gen console at any price. It would be

just another door stop.

[The_Laird]

The last new console I bought was a Sega Saturn, go figure!!!

 

Im not even interested in a used next gen console at any price. It would be

just another door stop.

 

Amen brother, I feel exactly the same. You will never catch me putting any of my well earned money in the pockets of Sony or M$

[jaybird3rd]

Amen brother, I feel exactly the same. You will never catch me putting any of my well earned money in the pockets of Sony or M$

Me neither. The Dreamcast is my most recent console (bought directly from Sega in 2002, shortly after it was discontinued), and I haven't missed the new ones. Classic games give me everything I need, and there's still plenty of potential in the 7800 for new game ideas, or at least creative takes on existing ideas.

 

Speaking of game ideas, has anyone here read either of Chris Crawford's books, The Art of Computer Game Design or Chris Crawford on Game Design? I've got some ideas for some games that I think would work well on the 7800, but I've been looking for a more formal treatment of game design, and these books look like good resources for those interested in developing original games in particular.

[KevinMos3]

I stopped with the XBOX (no, not the 360. I drives me nuts how I always have to clarify that). The Dreamcast held the place of my favorite system for a while, but the XBOX has taken the cake. I have ZERO interest in any of the current gen of software, but the XBOX lets me enjoy a taste of it when I take the fancy. However, the main appeal is the excellent emulators that I can store on its 500GB hard drive. My XBOX holds my enormous collection of cartridges for all my systems, yet it's conveniently in one place. XBMC is great as a dashboard and holds my DVD collection (converted to avi's), music (though I'm not really into music), and my favorite XBOX games.

If I'm in a mood to play Far Cry, fine... if I'm in a mood to play 2600, 7800, 5200, Coleco, etc. etc. it's all in one place and right there at the push of a button. Not to mention that the s-video is great without having to mod my classic consoles.

 

I would highly recommend it to anyone for the emulators alone.

[Gorf]

I stopped with the XBOX (no, not the 360. I drives me nuts how I always have to clarify that). The Dreamcast held the place of my favorite system for a while, but the XBOX has taken the cake. I have ZERO interest in any of the current gen of software, but the XBOX lets me enjoy a taste of it when I take the fancy. However, the main appeal is the excellent emulators that I can store on its 500GB hard drive. My XBOX holds my enormous collection of cartridges for all my systems, yet it's conveniently in one place. XBMC is great as a dashboard and holds my DVD collection (converted to avi's), music (though I'm not really into music), and my favorite XBOX games.

If I'm in a mood to play Far Cry, fine... if I'm in a mood to play 2600, 7800, 5200, Coleco, etc. etc. it's all in one place and right there at the push of a button. Not to mention that the s-video is great without having to mod my classic consoles.

 

I would highly recommend it to anyone for the emulators alone.

 

 

I was never blown away(at all) by games like far cry. You see, most of todays games are too realistic...ie..leave

little to the imagination. The old classic games like space shooters and pac man and centipede are things that you

cant do and are sureal. I want games that allow me to imagine. The nice thing about the old pixelated graphic is it

gives you an ability to imagine beyond the blicky graphics what you'd really be doing. That is why I had such high

hopes for the JAguar....powerful enough for 3D yet not enough to be overly realistic.

[KevinMos3]

You see, most of todays games are too realistic...ie..leave little to the imagination.

This is exactly what I tell people. I think part of the magic of gaming as a child was that we had to use our imagination to see detail in the characters and environments. Everything wasn't spelled out for us. I wonder if today's kids aren't being robbed of some of that magic. Being an adult, I can't say for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if the culture kids are raised in today robs them of some creativity they may otherwise have.

 

That being said, Far Cry was just a quick example off the top of my head, not one of my favorites. Some of the games I REALLY enjoy on the XBOX are Dreamfall, Still Life, Broken Sword, Cold Fear, various racing games, ack... there's a lot of them I like. I've collected almost 400 of them. Anyway, I hardly ever play actual XBOX games. Most of my game time is spent with various Atari emulators and occasionally with 16-bit systems. That's why for me, the XBOX is the all-in-one system.

[Shawn]

You see, most of todays games are too realistic...ie..leave little to the imagination.

This is exactly what I tell people. I think part of the magic of gaming as a child was that we had to use our imagination to see detail in the characters and environments. Everything wasn't spelled out for us. I wonder if today's kids aren't being robbed of some of that magic. Being an adult, I can't say for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if the culture kids are raised in today robs them of some creativity they may otherwise have.

 

That being said, Far Cry was just a quick example off the top of my head, not one of my favorites. Some of the games I REALLY enjoy on the XBOX are Dreamfall, Still Life, Broken Sword, Cold Fear, various racing games, ack... there's a lot of them I like. I've collected almost 400 of them. Anyway, I hardly ever play actual XBOX games. Most of my game time is spent with various Atari emulators and occasionally with 16-bit systems. That's why for me, the XBOX is the all-in-one system.

 

 

Alot of people would make the same statement about Television VS Radio.

[KevinMos3]

Alot of people would make the same statement about Television VS Radio.

You can take it one step further... how about books instead of just listening to radio or watching TV? Actually, I almost never listen to music because I feel much of it is mind-numbing for the most part. Boom tch tch - Boom tch tch. No thanks. I'd rather think while driving, for example. It's a good opportunity to work out issues and explore multiple sides to arguments, or follow logic of various ideas to reach the consequence. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against music whatsoever, (I like to play trumpet and guitar), I'm just not usually in the mood to listen to much of it. In my free time I find games to be more fun and engaging. Whew... now I'm back to talking about gaming.

 

Sorry, I've been WAY off topic.

[Gorf]

That being said, Far Cry was just a quick example off the top of my head, not one of my favorites. Some of the games I REALLY enjoy on the XBOX are Dreamfall, Still Life, Broken Sword, Cold Fear, various racing games, ack... there's a lot of them I like. I've collected almost 400 of them. Anyway, I hardly ever play actual XBOX games. Most of my game time is spent with various Atari emulators and occasionally with 16-bit systems. That's why for me, the XBOX is the all-in-one system.

 

I understand you using Far cry....any one of todays games are an example of little being left to the imagination.

[Gorf]

Alot of people would make the same statement about Television VS Radio.

 

War of the Worlds is a great and probably a perfect example of just how far Radio was able

to stretch one's imagination.

[jaybird3rd]

Alot of people would make the same statement about Television VS Radio.

 

War of the Worlds is a great and probably a perfect example of just how far Radio was able

to stretch one's imagination.

Yes, which demonstrates that this phenomenon isn't unique to video games. Nicholas Meyer once said that all traditional works of art--painting, music, sculpture, and so on--exercise a good deal of their creative impact by virtue of what they leave out (paintings do not move, music has no image, etc), and that the active participation of the imagination is what completes the work of art in the mind of the audience. Movies--and, I would add, television and highly cinematic modern video games--are different in that they have the hideous capacity to do everything for you, and in doing so, they tend to render the audience passive.

 

Classic video games were of necessity severely limited in their audiovisuals, and thus operated at a much higher level of abstraction. One of the consequences of this is that there was more freedom to create scenarios for the player that did not necessarily correspond to anything in the real world: what, for example, is the real-world situation depicted in Breakout? Or Pac-Man? With the transition to 3D graphics, games became much more about modeling real-world situations and actions, or at least something that could take place in a real world. That's all fine, but it's really a different form of entertainment than "video games" in the classic sense; modern "video games" are much more like movies with an element of interactivity. That's one reason why I'm glad that homebrew developers are still interested in exploring the creative possibilities of classic consoles like the 7800.

[legeek]

I enjoy XBLA and WiiWare as much as, if not more than, the disc releases. That said, I am very much looking forward to any and all new 7800 games coming out, it really is a great time to be a 7800 fan.