Games that changed the industry.

[oddguy]

What game do you think was the most influential game to the video-gaming biz? Also, what are some of your classic faves from back in the day.

Well...after getting Super Mario 64 off ebay, I'd have to say that game really was a groundbreaking title. I'd beaten it before after borrowing it from a friend, but having it back in my arms...err, 64 was a good feeling. Like an old friend you haven't seen in a while. Notice how that even current titles are still trying to copy the lava and snowy worlds that mario took us to. Sure, they may be better, but for the time(1996) Mario was amazing. 64 was the first home-console to give us 3D gaming freedom like that. And remember all those moves you could pull of with that nifty controller that had a built-in joystick! Before it was just jump jump jump. I could go on, but here's my point:

Don't you wish games like these could be preserved forever in time? To move with the consoles that keep changing? I'd sure love to have a cleaned up version of Mario 64 in my current console. These are our gaming roots, and they need to be remembered. Same thing goes for Oddworld.

OWI totally needs to release a "Quintology: Part One" collectors set with DVD extras and the whole works.

Here's the problem...would this sell? Gamers are so bent on having NEW NEW NEW, that they forget our roots and what brought us to where we are. I still enjoy the first side-scrolling Mario, but do others?

I'm doing a survey and would like to genuinely know what your opinion on this is. I'll start it here and if things go well, I'm going to start up a web-poll.

Your opinion is important.

-oddguy

[Havoc]

Im still hoping oddworld will do that someday. And maybe after the finnish the quintoligy they will bring out the first 2 games completely revised. Like more clear FMV's and a bunch of extra's
And im also a hundred procent sure they will make a gamepack of the oddworld games after the quintoligy is done, maybe they even give out AO and AE on X box :P.

The game that has made a good turning in gameing industries would divinatly Command and Conquer of your talking about war games. They where the first to think of the concept of building basaes and created and engine for it that was way before its time. Their concept is still being used in games.

And on Nintendo, Donkey Kong was one of the greates serie's ever IMO. I enjoyd all three of them and especialy part 2 .

[DarkHoodness]

I think it's very important for old games to be preserved in time. . . And on another note I've also often wondered why game producers don't tend to re-use old ideas. Maybe because it isn't profitable?

Then again, look at Half-Life. 6 years old and still being played by thousands of people. And I suppose you could also look at Return to Castle Wolfenstien, a re-make of a popular game, and also a good example of a re-used idea.
Also, maybe we shouldn't forget the series of games (Such as Sonic and Mario) that started being made back when computer gaming really began to get off the ground, of which titles are still being made for them today. . .
Another two things that need to be remembered is that the PS2 still takes the old PSX games, and the SNES games are still kept alive by SNES emulators on the PC, so it's not like old games are completely dead.

However, I just wish they'd remake games more often, or if they can't be bothered, develop software that will emulate older systems. DOS games for example, aren't properly compatable with Windoze XP. And even if they do work, they don't work properly.

Oddguy is right, though. More console systems should follow Sony's example, and make consoles either backwards compatable, or re-make old games so that they can be played on newer systems.

Some of the old games were really, really great, and it's just a shame to see them get lost in the rift of time. . .
[/end of mismatched ramble]
- DH

[Codek]

Games that changed the industry:

Half Life.
Diablo II.
Operation Flashpoint.
Freelancer.
Eve Online.

Games that are thought to've changed the industry, but really didn't:

Sonic.
Pac Man.
Quake.
Doom.
Counter Strike.
HALO.
Battlefield 1942.
Oddworld.
Starcraft.

Very few games (as you can see) set any kind of standards for future games. Some of them weren't even the first of their kind, they were just so revolutionary that they changed the direction of that genre. But most other games didn't revolutionise anything, they merely made certain platforms and genres more popular.

[oddguy]

Another two things that need to be remembered is that the PS2 still takes the old PSX games, and the SNES games are still kept alive by SNES emulators on the PC, so it's not like old games are completely dead.

I realized that PS2 was backward compatible, but never knew SNES emulators were around. However, I think it'd be better if our old games were widely availible on the new format we use.

We can re-release DVD sets of old movies that were great. This should happen with classic video games.

Games that are thought to've changed the industry, but really didn't:

Even if those games didn't change the industry, they do stand out on their own. Sonic is THE hi-speed game that focuses on fast-paced gaming like nobody else. Oddworld's Gamespeak system was first for the puzzle solving genre and makes it stand out. etc...

-oddguy

[Havoc]

Games that changed the industry:

Half Life.
Diablo II.
Operation Flashpoint.
Freelancer.
Eve Online.

Games that are thought to've changed the industry, but really didn't:

Sonic.
Pac Man.
Quake.
Doom.
Counter Strike.
HALO.
Battlefield 1942.
Oddworld.
Starcraft.

Very few games (as you can see) set any kind of standards for future games. Some of them weren't even the first of their kind, they were just so revolutionary that they changed the direction of that genre. But most other games didn't revolutionise anything, they merely made certain platforms and genres more popular.

IMO this list does not make sence at... what did diablo 2 had to make such a turning point? Same goes for operation flashpoint. I had such great expectations of that game and it turned out to be just another war game... yay...
And don't think I say this becouse im and oddworld fan, but I think oddworld should be in the top list. Maybe it hasnt made a turning point in they way of playing, but the quality of the movie's, the music, the backgrounds in AO and AE, the character designs and the story are rare to be now a days in the gameing industry. Along with Oddworld id say FF is also a turning point (and thats just something I see, I hate FF more then anything mostly becouse they just milked that game to the drop and they just keep on making new games... its like twelf games with the same story :S. Non the less the first part was a turning point, the story was good, the characters where nicely discribed and all had their own problems, and the graphics where good quality back then.

[Fez]

I dont remember Freelancer, whats it about.

Half-life, changed FSP's for the better, i love it.

[Codek]

Another game that was thought to've changed the industry but didn't: Final fantasy.

And to answer Havoc, yes, that list does make sense:

Half Life. <- Changed the direction of the FPS
Diablo II. <- Revolutionised the RPG. Was one of the first games where your character was what the game was about, rather than the challenges of the game. Was also one of the first games where what items you were wielding changed the appearance of your character.
Operation Flashpoint. <- Was a WORLD STANDARD in military training, and is still the only game in the world where you can fly aircraft, pilot ships, drive vehicles, and operate them exactly how you would operate the real thing.
Freelancer. <- Is the first realistic mouse-controlled future space sim. Wicked graphics and standard-setting setup. This game holds world records in its genre for having the most mods.
Eve Online. <- The worlds first Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game with a fully persistant universe - everything from politics to the price of asteroid ore depends on the games economy. The outcome of this game is not set, winning is not inevitable. This is also the first game where all the items you can buy are manufacturered by the gamers themselves, and has set a world record for the most gamers in the same multiplayer game at once, clocking up 10000 players!

[Majic]

At least the old Mario games are being remade for Gameboy. C'mon, I DARE someone to say it'd be a crime to let SMB 3 rest in piece That game was glory...

EDIT: And people, you also have to take into account how well-known something is. Some of the most revolutionary games don't necessarily have to be ones that extended boundaries, but also those that set a permanent benchmark forever to be compared against. I think halo might very well fit taht category

[Codek]

The game was popular yes, but it didn't change anything in the industry. Its' toylike aesthetic is fun if you're bored but boring if you're a serious gamer.

Super mario brothers was only a famous game. It had a lot of advertising, friends talked about it, and it was THE game to have on the gameboy, which was THE toy to have as a kid.

[the brew master]

However, I just wish they'd remake games more often, or if they can't be bothered, develop software that will emulate older systems. DOS games for example, aren't properly compatable with Windoze XP. And even if they do work, they don't work properly.

they do have DOS emulators...i even have one

and i think it would be great to play classics on the new systems...but would it be a wise move...would people but it.....it would probably be a backwards step instead of forwords

[DarkHoodness]

The problem with DOS emulators is that none of them seem to work properly. . .
However I suppose the way around DOS games not working properly is to just buy some old parts and put together an old computer system. Same could be applied to older console games, too - Just buy an old console. Then again the problem with that would be that they're hard to find, and are no longer in production.

I realized that PS2 was backward compatible, but never knew SNES emulators were around.

Try SNES 9x, that's a really good emulator which works well with most, if not all SNES games on Windoze XP. Getting ROMs (games for your emulator) on the other hand is another story, but as the SNES 9x people put it, "Google is your friend".

It can be found here:
http://www.snes9x.com

- DH

[the brew master]

yeah i could download the SNES emulator easy....but the games was a little tricky but i found it....i was playing all the metal slugs for a week...but i had to reformat my harddrive and i lost the games and emulator...and now i just have an emulator cause i cant find any roms

[SeaRex]

The game was popular yes, but it didn't change anything in the industry. Its' toylike aesthetic is fun if you're bored but boring if you're a serious gamer.

Super mario brothers was only a famous game. It had a lot of advertising, friends talked about it, and it was THE game to have on the gameboy, which was THE toy to have as a kid.

I have to disagree. If it were not for the ORIGINAL Mario on the Nintendo Famicom system, the industry would not be what it is today.

After the general crash in the arcade industry and the saturation of Atari-esque games and systems in the market, people simply presumed video games as a fad and lost interest. The industry had essentially ended. Had Shigeru Miyamoto not come along, who knows what would have happened to the video game world.

If Mario never existed, another equally addictive game probably would have come along and taken its place. However, another game didn't come along. Mario did; it revived the video game industry and therefore changed it forever.

EDIT: Oh yeah... and I say that CS changed the industry as well. After all, Half Life did use a CS engine, correct? I could be wrong; but no CS, then probably no HL.

[oddguy]

Well said! Exactly the reason why I think a Mario collectors pack should be released. Having all the classic Marios, super Mario 64 and the original Donkey Kong arcade game where 'jump man' became Mario and thus a legacy born.

-oddguy

[Al the Glukkon]

How about Goldeneye or Metal Gear Solid(They did remake it though)

I remember Alf saying Microsoft might remake the first two Oddworld games though (That doesn't seem possible now though)

[Codek]

How about Goldeneye or Metal Gear Solid(They did remake it though)

Now you're just not thinking.

Did those games change the industry? No. Were they popular? Yes.

This thread is not about games that were popular or mega hits. It's about games that changed the industry. If you want to talk about popular or mega hit games, make a new thread.

[Havoc]

Goldeneye was damn popular indeed, and back in those days it was a pretty good game which you could play for hours with some friends. But it never realy changed the industry.
Although, I do think of all the bond games Goldeneye is the best, same goes for the movie's.

[Cloverfield]

Classic games will only sell if there is a market for them. Like the Mario games, they are "popular", so people would buy them if they were to be re-released. The same with Final Fantasy games. Square-Enix have re-released all of the older titles from FFI-FFVI [with the exception of FFIII ... dammit] that were originally released on the NES/SNES systems. But FF has a very large fan base, so by doing something like that, they aren't exactly going to lose any money on it.

But if many smaller games were to do this [this includes Oddworld], it probably wouldn't go very well. Only some loyal fans and people that are wondering about where the series originated from would purchase the re-releases. This would change if a particular title were to become immensely popular, then the company could re-release the game, but would need to do so not long after the popular title were released in order for the game to still have interest.

Abe Babe...

[Codek]

Oddworld has already been re-released. I own a re-release copy of AO.

[Cloverfield]

True. But that's the Greatest Hits/Platinum editions that many games get re-releases of after they have sold a certain number of units. I was more referring to what Oddguy was saying, a bundle pack/set that might contain some new FMVs or DVD extras, or a re-release on a different system [in Oddworld's case the Xbox].

Abe Babe...