Interest in video games is changing

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Used to be that games were fun just for the sake of being fun.
then i went through years where i didn't really think about playing arcade games.

lately, i've discovered my adult brain is really enjoying the factor of understanding the game play based on the design intentions of the programmer. Probably like doing crossword puzzles for some folks.

Attending a Eugene Jarvis talk got the curiosity going when he talked about design strategies. Which turned into months of picking apart Robotron gameplay.

then trying to learn berzerk based on Steve W strategy insights.

then running across this pacman design write-up:
http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html

shoot, i always thought pacman was boring until reading through this and realizing just how clever and complex the design strategy is. brilliant stuff.

Really enjoyable playing games when you put the analytical process into the equation....
 
Haha, I know that feeling and once you start, you'll never stop! I actually wrote a small commentary on Robotron's gameplay for my blog tough I don't think it's very good.


Pac Man is a surprisingly deep game!
 
I was surprised to find that the 100,000 was never claimed or attempted proving that level 256 could be completed.
 
This point is really driven home if you play some of the new updates to some games. I played Centipede and Warlords on a plane entertainment system just now and they played like shit...
 
Discovering new to me games is probably my favorite part of the hobby as a whole. Until someone tells me about a game I need to start playing and taking a look at or if I was forced to play it for a tourney or gathering and ended up loving it, that's awesome since I otherwise might not have discovered it. I can think of a bunch of games I never played back in the day that I ended up trying for once reason or another and ended up really enjoying, Ladybug, The Glob, Bosconian, Challenger, Hyper Sports, Eagle, Arabian, just to name a few...

I never played Star Wars much back in the day but am loving learning it right now. Long process though, lol, though very enjoyable.
 
star wars! wish it wasn't such a pricey item and hard to keep running when you have one ( a friend has one that is on the fritz)

totally a game of zen. somehow they really captured the mindlessness of the force in the higher trench levels (is it 6?)

learned the game after one of the record holders visited twin galaxies in the 80s. then it was a game you could just veg out on.

thanks for the suggestions. i'll have to check out those games you mentioned. :)
 
In the last week I played over 300 rounds of Space Dungeon because they were having a high score competition on the mame cab forums (which I won, unless someone else closes a 60,000 point gap in the next few hours). I have learned to love countless classics that I never played in the old days. Being born in 77 I missed the proper classic era and thus my exposure to those games was the Atari 2600 versions and the classic machines still out in the wild in the late 80s.

Discovering new to me games is probably my favorite part of the hobby as a whole. Until someone tells me about a game I need to start playing and taking a look at or if I was forced to play it for a tourney or gathering and ended up loving it, that's awesome since I otherwise might not have discovered it. I can think of a bunch of games I never played back in the day that I ended up trying for once reason or another and ended up really enjoying, Ladybug, The Glob, Bosconian, Challenger, Hyper Sports, Eagle, Arabian, just to name a few...

I never played Star Wars much back in the day but am loving learning it right now. Long process though, lol, though very enjoyable.
 
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