English Amiga Board - View Single Post - Was the C64 good or bad for the games industry?

Adropac2 · 18 April 2024, 16:15

I think also something to remember as a designer is that it's how you limit yourself within the limits. You can come up with something very uniquely abstract in gameplay design regardless of the conditions and that was likely the case for some working on C64 a lot of the time. I think having better conditions to work with in terms of a faster machine in the case of the BBC, this would have encouraged or better allowed ideas that otherwise might not have even been conceptualized were programmers to have owned a C64. Entirely doable concepts still on C64 despite being slower as later ports show but not something David Braben and Ian Bell will have maybe wanted to try. It was of course Ian Bell's 3d work I think that he'd been working on for example I guess thanks to the somewhat relative ease he got that working on BBC that Elite became a thing, so could that though of happened if all machines of the day were all at the speed of a C64? it's hard to say really but it's certainly a possibility

I think the C64 had a vast diversity of game types of that it can't be argued with a lot of those very different games being largely 2d then or utilising clever design within the confines of that. The imagination was certainly there from those best using the relative confines of the C64 in comparison to the far fewer defining games written by effectively only a few people on faster systems. For the few decidedly different games types on the BBC and Spectrum, there were lots of very innovatively designed games written specifically to what C64 allowed and therefore the argument could be turned on it's head perhaps, that the C64 had just as much imagination and in fact more but largely within the C64's strength at 2d. Spectrum and BBC for example could do 2d games but it was the C64 that largely dominated 2d innovation here

The idea being then that the C64 has only iterations of the same thing though because they were often 2d isn't identifying the truth of what these limitations allowed for and that the increase of power in other machines allowed for vastly more innovation is only so true given the amount of games that emerged compared to those of C64 and 2d games

18 April 2024, 16:15	#68
Adropac2 Zone Friend Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Kent Age: 51 Posts: 1,072	I think also something to remember as a designer is that it's how you limit yourself within the limits. You can come up with something very uniquely abstract in gameplay design regardless of the conditions and that was likely the case for some working on C64 a lot of the time. I think having better conditions to work with in terms of a faster machine in the case of the BBC, this would have encouraged or better allowed ideas that otherwise might not have even been conceptualized were programmers to have owned a C64. Entirely doable concepts still on C64 despite being slower as later ports show but not something David Braben and Ian Bell will have maybe wanted to try. It was of course Ian Bell's 3d work I think that he'd been working on for example I guess thanks to the somewhat relative ease he got that working on BBC that Elite became a thing, so could that though of happened if all machines of the day were all at the speed of a C64? it's hard to say really but it's certainly a possibility I think the C64 had a vast diversity of game types of that it can't be argued with a lot of those very different games being largely 2d then or utilising clever design within the confines of that. The imagination was certainly there from those best using the relative confines of the C64 in comparison to the far fewer defining games written by effectively only a few people on faster systems. For the few decidedly different games types on the BBC and Spectrum, there were lots of very innovatively designed games written specifically to what C64 allowed and therefore the argument could be turned on it's head perhaps, that the C64 had just as much imagination and in fact more but largely within the C64's strength at 2d. Spectrum and BBC for example could do 2d games but it was the C64 that largely dominated 2d innovation here The idea being then that the C64 has only iterations of the same thing though because they were often 2d isn't identifying the truth of what these limitations allowed for and that the increase of power in other machines allowed for vastly more innovation is only so true given the amount of games that emerged compared to those of C64 and 2d games