What Makes A Game A Classic Game?

Brentradio

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 15, 2004
Messages
15,800
Reaction score
2,004
I used to see the license plates on cars that would say Classic Vehicle, and it would always be on some bad ass car.

Now, any car that is 25 years old is considered a classic car so I see pieces of junk driving around with the Classic Vehicle plates.

Just because it's old does not mean it's a classic.

Just because it's rare does not mean it's a classic.

The same can be said for arcade games.

So what does make an arcade game a classic?
 
I used to see the license plates on cars that would say Classic Vehicle, and it would always be on some bad ass car.

Now, any car that is 25 years old is considered a classic car so I see pieces of junk driving around with the Classic Vehicle plates.

Just because it's old does not mean it's a classic.

Just because it's rare does not mean it's a classic.

The same can be said for arcade games.

So what does make an arcade game a classic?

Popularity, replay value and nostalgia.

Just because a game is rare, doesn't mean its playable, it just means its likely going to be overpriced. Old doesn't necessarily play a role here either, there are tons of B&W games that are dogs.
 
It is rare to see those collector plates on nice vehicles anymore. It has become the free smog pass for piece of shit vehicles.

I would say a classic is any game, or car, that a majority of people wanted to play, or drive, when they were first released. I think they classics are usually created when something is released that hasn't been seen before. The late 60's muscle cars, and early 80s arcade games. 10 years later, only few examples are considered classics. Everyone has a favorite fighter that is a classic to them, but other fighters are usually discarded. There was just a lot of variety in the early 80s. Once the genres were defined, they were too watered down to remain classics.
 
You get the classic plate because with it your plates never need to be renewed, your car never needs to be inspected again and in most places your property tax on it goes down to almost nothing as well.

As for classic games. That is really hard to say. We have games that were big hits in their time that people pretty much ignore now (such as Space Invaders and almost every sports title ever made). We have games that were not popular in their time that people lose their mind over now (I,Robot, Major Havoc). Do either one of those categories count as classics?
 
You get the classic plate because with it your plates never need to be renewed, your car never needs to be inspected again and in most places your property tax on it goes down to almost nothing as well.

Maryland is changing that, and I'm sure other states will follow suit. I can't really say I blame them, simply because it's something that's been abused.

As far as arcade games go, there are a few that will always be referred to as "classics"; Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Galaga, to name a few. Star Wars may fit into that category, simply because the franchise is alive and growing. The same goes with pretty much any Mario game. The character is highly recognizable, and even some of the "newer" games will end up being in the "classic" category simply because they will be a gamer's first Mario game. Because of that exposure, they will end up tracing Mario all the way back to Donkey Kong, even though he was simply named "Jumpman" at the time.
 
classic arcade games are ONLY those that fit in the 1978-1984ish era... period.

ie: pacman, ms pacman, donkey kong, space invaders, qbert, donkey kong, galaga, centipede, millipede, galaxian, asteroids, tempest, dig dug, robotron, frogger, tetris, star wars, spy hunter, joust, pole position, burgertime, moon patrol, dragons lair, tron, dk jr, elevator action, crazy climber, berzerk, wizard of wor, battlezone, missile command, mr do, defender, etc...

games that are NOT classic are 1985+ like: mortal kombat, gauntlet, super mario bros, double dragon, out run, nba jam, contra, rampage, golden axe, arkanoid, simpsons, tmnt, bubble bobble, smash tv, ghosts and goblins, street fighter, etc...

pre-era artifacts include games from 1971-1977: computer space, pong, and all that b&w junk
 
games that are NOT classic are 1985+ like: mortal kombat, gauntlet, super mario bros, double dragon, out run, nba jam, contra, rampage, golden axe, arkanoid, simpsons, tmnt, bubble bobble, smash tv, ghosts and goblins, street fighter, etc...

I have to politely disagree with this statement. They may not be classic to you, but they are classic to someone. I think Guru-420 stated it perfectly: "Popularity, replay value and nostalgia". What makes a game a classic is how popular was it at the time it was released, how much replay value the game has, and what nostalgia someone has tied to it.

While for many they consider the classic age to have ended before the late 80's and early 90's, for others, when they hear "arcade" they think of the huge crowds lining up to play Street Fighter 2, or Mortal Kombat, or Rampage, or X-Men, etc. For those people (me included) they are considered classics.

If we want to go into the comparison with cars again, even though not all cars from the 1980's are considered "classic cars", there are still makes and models from that era which are considered to be classic. Same with arcades. Not every game out there from the 1990's is considered a "classic" (Cough, War Gods, cough), but there are various games that are indeed classics. (Street Fighter 2).

Just my most humble opinion.
 
Id say anything between 78-89 is classic. In my opinion the time period is defined by the BEST years, or the most successful years of the arcade industry.
 
classic arcade games are ONLY those that fit in the 1978-1984ish era... period.

ie: pacman, ms pacman, donkey kong, space invaders, qbert, donkey kong, galaga, centipede, millipede, galaxian, asteroids, tempest, dig dug, robotron, frogger, tetris, star wars, spy hunter, joust, pole position, burgertime, moon patrol, dragons lair, tron, dk jr, elevator action, crazy climber, berzerk, wizard of wor, battlezone, missile command, mr do, defender, etc...

games that are NOT classic are 1985+ like: mortal kombat, gauntlet, super mario bros, double dragon, out run, nba jam, contra, rampage, golden axe, arkanoid, simpsons, tmnt, bubble bobble, smash tv, ghosts and goblins, street fighter, etc...

pre-era artifacts include games from 1971-1977: computer space, pong, and all that b&w junk

Why 1984 ? While there was a slow down in arcades around that time, they didn't crash like consoles did. Also it's kinda nutty to say that Super Mario Bros. the defining scrolling platformer isn't classic though technically that's a console game which had an arcade version (Vs. Super Mario Bros). Personally I'd say that any reasonably popular game of the 80s (or late 70s) is classic. Now I agree that the 90s games shouldn't be considered classic, particularly the endless parade of stupid vs. fighting games. Heck they're all basically different skins of the same crappy game.
 
Heck they're all basically different skins of the same crappy game.

Now I am not a fighting game fan, but I consider it to be quite funny that we consider things like Pac-Man/Ms. Pac-Man, Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe, Berzerk/Frenzy, Jungle King/Pirate Pete, and "Defender/Stargate" to be separate games, while at the same time calling all those fighting games reskins of the same game.

Fighting games are all the same in the way that schmups are all the same.

Speaking of the same game, compare the original Vector Star Wars with Star Wars trilogy, almost the same exact game with different graphics.
 
Now I am not a fighting game fan, but I consider it to be quite funny that we consider things like Pac-Man/Ms. Pac-Man, Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe, Berzerk/Frenzy, Jungle King/Pirate Pete, and "Defender/Stargate" to be separate games, while at the same time calling all those fighting games reskins of the same game.

Fighting games are all the same in the way that schmups are all the same.

Speaking of the same game, compare the original Vector Star Wars with Star Wars trilogy, almost the same exact game with different graphics.

Except for Jungle King/Pirate Pete which is largely a reskin to completely avoid the Tarzan licensing issue, you listed games and their sequels.

As for shoot-em-ups, that's a very broad class of games with a great deal of variety. For example Asteroids, Centipede, Defender, Galaga and Xevious are all shoot-em-ups but they are very clearly different from one another. Vs. fighting games are all the same (life bar, timer, joystick, six buttons and two characters beating the crap out of each other plus some special moves). Might as well be one game called "Street Combat Tek Edition Minus Zero Point Crap".
 

Like this classic?

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • 51bsLoAMOzL.jpg
    51bsLoAMOzL.jpg
    62.3 KB · Views: 89
Classics= all games that people were most likely to have people waiting to play when they were done playing. I was lucky enough to have been old enough to play the games of early 80's and graduating with the fighting games of the 90's. I can remember going to putt putt in Long Beach, CA summer of 1983 and 10-15 people watching Dragon's Lair with quarters all of over the marquee..
 
Except for Jungle King/Pirate Pete which is largely a reskin to completely avoid the Tarzan licensing issue, you listed games and their sequels.

As for shoot-em-ups, that's a very broad class of games with a great deal of variety. For example Asteroids, Centipede, Defender, Galaga and Xevious are all shoot-em-ups but they are very clearly different from one another. Vs. fighting games are all the same (life bar, timer, joystick, six buttons and two characters beating the crap out of each other plus some special moves). Might as well be one game called "Street Combat Tek Edition Minus Zero Point Crap".

Sorry, I meant the more narrowly defined Schmup category. Where the background is either static or scrolls in one direction at constant speed. While the ship can move it generally can't turn. The ship collects power ups and shoots the crap out of everything it sees.

Games all build on and rip each other off constantly. Notice how the spaceships in most vector games almost all move using a thrust and angle mechanism, like Space War did. Then along came Space Invaders and suddenly spaceships all moved right and left and fired up towards the top of the screen.

I do admit that the Vs. Fighter genre has the absolutely tightest set of rules that the games hold to of any genre, with very few games breaking or even bending the SF2 formula.
 
Sorry, I meant the more narrowly defined Schmup category. Where the background is either static or scrolls in one direction at constant speed. While the ship can move it generally can't turn. The ship collects power ups and shoots the crap out of everything it sees.

Games all build on and rip each other off constantly. Notice how the spaceships in most vector games almost all move using a thrust and angle mechanism, like Space War did. Then along came Space Invaders and suddenly spaceships all moved right and left and fired up towards the top of the screen.

I do admit that the Vs. Fighter genre has the absolutely tightest set of rules that the games hold to of any genre, with very few games breaking or even bending the SF2 formula.

Even by that definition there are significant differences: Galaga is a fixed shooter, Xevious is a vertical shooter, Gradius is a horizontal shooter. Sure games definitely build upon earlier games: Raiden is a much later vertical shooter, R-Type is a later horizontal shooter but you wouldn't confuse them for the earlier game they built upon. Vs. fighting games are all virtually the same dumb game and there are loads of them, no innovation or creativity whatsoever and frankly a crappy idea to begin with. Vs. fighting games were basically the final nail in the coffin for arcades.
 
Back
Top Bottom