Be Excellent To Each Other

You remember when games were fun. When you used to chat to people about them at school. When you shared experiences. When most games were a simple affair. When games were cheap to buy and had virtually no DRM, so you could swap copies of them with your mates. When games were made by a couple of people in their bedrooms. When games were a a new experience and innovated in their content. When games didn't have a multimillion budget and the expectations to match. When a lot of games were utter shit, but there were enough gems found to keep you wanting more. When games were produced at a frantic rate and new ones on the market pretty much every day.

Is the recent uprise in the indie game bringing all that back? It certainly feels like it to me, we are all going back to the start again...

The circle of life.
Hakuna Matata.

It was a time of games lists typed in Wordsworth and printed on a 9-pin dot matrix printer.

A time of x-copy and "right click for trainer".

It was a time when pocket money day meant a new budget game and Christmas meant a big box full pricer.

It was ace.

Net Yaroze.

Gesundheit.

I think I sadly missed out on some of the whole 'home computer' experience. We had a BBC Micro at home, but I didn't often get any games bought for me. It was quite nice on the odd occasion though - I always remember my dad taking me into Beebug in St Albans and buying me a copy of Empire Strikes Back and an analogue joystick for my birthday.

My most nostalgic memories are going to the Future Entertainment Show in Earl's Court each year and sampling all the incoming console delights. I'd save my pocket money well in advance to make damn sure I'd be able to buy at least one brand new console game whilst there - that was always part of the excitement. A day spent playing games that had just been released or were not even in the shops yet and knowing one of those new games would be coming home with me.

I used to think that about A level results day.

←L "GCS ZAXXON"

I had that but it was via buying pirated copies of the games at "The Barras"

I'd often have completed the game before the magazine reviews came out telling you if it was any good or not !

Home computers and early consoles felt like they were always playing catch up, years behind the real things found in the arcades a half hour tram ride away in Blackpool. That's where my pocket money often went anyway.

I've not done an arcade trip in years, no idea what I'd find there now. I guess they still make new light gun games and stuff do they?

Anyway, indie games, they are the modern day equivalent, aren't they? Is this a new golden age?

Yes they do , and occasionally a new pinball table as well (Stern are the only remaining pinball maker) - however I think youd just find lots of crappy crane games and fruit machines :-(



Indie games often can be and yes i do think we're in a golden age looking at what a single person sitting in their bedroom can come up with although Indie games are just one side of that i think some of the stuff we're seeing on mobiles is more akin to that early exciting time.

I played lots of games when I was a sprat: one a week; maybe for an hour, sometimes less. Who knew what was in the box? There were some memorable games for sure. There was however, more often, some unplayable garbage. My turnover of games was almost as high as the employees at my workplace. There were of course those games that remained memorable thanks to doubling the amount of fun with a friend. Player Two? Yes please! Most games were made more fun when your friends came around and you crammed around a small screen and duelled to the death or gave one another a leg up to battle through the next cave/level/boss.

Gaming was ace.

I've returned to some of these games through the power of emulation but the magic is lost. My friends no longer come round to play games. My spare time is taken up by, of all things, cleaning and shit. My most memorable games are now those games that have left a lasting impression on me like a favourite book or film. I couldn't spend 100+ hours playing Space Harrier. I couldn't spend 20 hours playing Horace Goes Skiing. I have spent over one hundred hours playing Dark Souls. It's incredible. Someone should make a sequel to that. Yeah, that'd be ace. Remember when you met something big and it smashed you to bits in seconds? I doubt I'll forget you Wolf with the sword in your gob. I've spent over 20 hours playing Resident Evil 4. I doubt I'll forget that in a hurry.

Gaming is ace.

Arcade gaming is ace of course but it comes and goes. I've lost count of the number of iPhone arcade games that have been deleted or left rotting on a long lost forgotten page. When the leaderboards stagnate you move on, others move on; you don't return.

But they'll always always always be room for another moment in time when I kissed the forehead of a comatosed lady, jumped onto a horse and went off to slay 12 giant beasties to bring her back to life.

No, I don't think so - they're the same as they always were. Indie games have existed for as long as "normal" games, and 99% of them are rubbish, but 1% are great. We just didn't call them that then - they were 'bedroom games' and then 'public domain' games.

Gaming now is far better than it's ever been - we're just fucking spoiled, is all.

It's not quite the same though, is it? I love Super Hexagon, but I think I'd feel pretty fucked off if I'd spent all my hard-saved pocket money on it, back in the day. Likewise, I can't imagine playing something like Hotline Miami back in a time when Mortal Kombat needed you to key in the title of a Genesis song (on the Sega Genesis version, no less, in case no one else saw what they did there) to get it to show blood.

Talking of old games, as we were, I've had my Megadrive hooked up to the telly for the past fortnight. Mostly this was because I'd suddenly decided to buy an Everdrive cartridge, but myself and the missus have been having a great time with it, playing Golden Axe, Zombies Ate My Neighbours, Rock N' Roll Racing and Streets of Rage 2 together. It made us realise that virtually nothing comes out any more where more than one person can play simultaneously on the same console. It's a genuine shame.

I was going to start playing Chaos Engine with her too, but then The Last Of Us came out. Swings and roundabouts.

I don't think they are the same though, they are getting better and better, and have now hit the mainstream. Sure they have always been around, but not to this extent.

Fixed. We remember these games fondly because of how they made us feel at the time but let's not be under any illusions about the quality of the vast, vast majority of them (which I know is what you were actually saying).

Do you not think that's just down to ease of distribution, though?

...and the ease of creation.

I care not how the golden age has come upon us, I care only that it is here.
And I rejoice.

The Pickfords seem to be proof of this. Magnetic Billiards is a chip off their old "surefire budget smash" block. Yes it's all glossy and modern but it has exactly the same feel as their old games did.

Gaming got a bit shit when it started to be done by huge dev houses by committee.

And the 8 bits still get me excited. When I saw Star Sabre the other week on the CPC I felt exactly the same way as I did back in the day if I had seen a standout title. But sadly I can't go to school and rub all the Speccy owners noses in it!

The "indie" games on Xbox live are, by and large, dreadful, by the way. I think I've purchased two of them ever (Soul and some awesome shooty one) (I really liked Soul though; twaz great).

That's what the true bedroom coders are doing right? Producing endless shit with zombies in-em.

Can we call the likes of, say, Journey, indie?

Try Quantum Ninja. I'll never forget that.

I retch over the term "indie". I fucking hate it. It's got that sheen of hipster (yes, i hate that word too) twattishness about it.

Just checked out the YouTube video for quantum ninja. Fucking incredible.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=txV-KzfSPrw&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DtxV-KzfSPrw

It's got a dinosaur skeleton riding an aircraft carrier!

But seriously, Soul was brilliant for what it was.

Play it. The sound effects make it EVUN BETTAR!

Did you see his Kickstarter. With a met goal.

Yes, really.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arc ... me-creator

By the power of greyskull... just... I.... phhhhh. I wonder which publisher will release that on the Bone.

I'm sure you're gutted his other project didn't meet the $10000 requested.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arc ... zza-driver

I mean - Just look at those graphics.

That's a lot of quotation marks. It would appear that you'd select a destination, pressing X to turn left when prompted, or even B to turn right. When prompted. Going by his previous "games" (or Previous Games, going by his "risks and challenges" section), it'd be Google Maps images of Streetview for the realistic driving part. Sounds riveting. Or the sounds of riveting.

I'm glad you've said this because I think it too, I was just afraid of going against the grain.

They've only just shut down the last proper arcade in Barcelona this week. The newest game they had was Afterburner Climax from 2006. Only gambling machines left here now.

i've just paid 80 moon points for it and played it.

I'm actually quite upset.

It's Indie gaming at its finest!


BLERUGH!

Now get Soul. It'll make you feel better about "indie" gaming.

that does look quite nifty. Is it a spunk simulator?

Sold. To the man in the oily mac.

Solar is gurt bostin.

Alas, I do seem to have deleted my collection of mind bogglingly bad Xbox Indie games, aside from the aforementioned Quantum Ninja, Avatour and Pirate Cubes (Which somehow manages to make dangerous Streets appear to be an amazingly accomplished beat em up)

I do remmeber Avatar High Five being a particular strong point.

Surely it just means 'not made by a major developer'?