When you first bought an Amiga, what games were you looking to play?

[d4rk3lf]

Originally Posted by Lilura

I'm big on computer games that educate, not just entertain. Games like Civilization and Frontier are the Kings in my estimation. I can't think of any games that sparked my imagination more than them. Frontier especially, because it is also technically supreme, hiercarchically designed and evokes the galactic scope of Asimov's Foundation.

Yeah, but what's with this David Braben's lack of any campaign moments in his game (even in new Elite)?
Is he so much deep in the programmer side (of the moon), that he lacks any (storytelling) creativity?
Frontier is not even full disk on Amiga (I think it's only like 300-350kb), and he, and his team could easily create campaign of 15-20 missions.. they could be just like combination of regular (bulleting board) missions, just connected, with some twists... mission briefings could be just plain text... and that way all players would feel so much more immersive to the world... and it would take... maybe 10-15 kb more (even that might be too much).

You mention Civilization.
That game have very clear goals.
Survive, or beat everyone, or build Un, or build a spaceship.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

Yeah, but what's with this David Braben's lack of any campaign moments in his game (even in new Elite)?

Wait, do you mean that different people look for different things in games and that some might consider Elite a technical brilliant snore-fest? Interesting

[Lilura]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

Yeah, but what's with this David Braben's lack of any campaign moments in his game (even in new Elite)?
Is he so much deep in the programmer side (of the moon), that he lacks any (storytelling) creativity?
Frontier is not even full disk on Amiga (I think it's only like 300-350kb), and he, and his team could easily create campaign of 15-20 missions.. they could be just like combination of regular (bulleting board) missions, just connected, with some twists... mission briefings could be just plain text... and that way all players would feel so much more immersive to the world... and it would take... maybe 10-15 kb more (even that might be too much).

Yeah, I said in my WC criticism that if Frontier had scribbled in a story and added a few characters, it would have had more success with the masses.

But in space-traders and space combat flight sims, I prefer open-ended and non-linear to story-driven. That way, I can write my own campaign.

You mention Civilization.
That game have very clear goals.
Survive, or beat everyone, or build Un, or build a spaceship.

Different genre, different game. And there are more ways to play Civ due to its vast array of units, advances, wonders, terrain tiles and city improvements.

And most veterans of Civ games don't want their campaign to end... but of course, Civ is subject to the harsh taskmaster known as Time, whereas Frontier is not. In Civ you've got global warming, a space race and looming nuclear warfare.

[d4rk3lf]

Originally Posted by TCD

Wait, do you mean that different people look for different things in games and that some might consider Elite a technical brilliant snore-fest? Interesting

Please translate me this.
I am just a drunk Balkan guy posting here.
"different people that finds different things in different games like Elite, that is snore fest"?
wtf?
You vastly overestimated my intelligence.
I can't figure this out.

Originally Posted by Lilura

Yeah, I said in my WC criticism that if Frontier had scribbled in a story and added a few characters, it would have had more success with the masses.

Yeah, but of course.
I wasn't so much replying (in terms of opposing) what you said, but more of stating what I feel about these games.
Your reply was perfect, and I think I understand why you dislike these games, and I have no objections to any of your statements bro.
You're cool man in my eyes.
Cheers.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

I can't figure this out.

If you like a game that's cool. If I don't like that game that's cool. We can like different things.

[Megalomaniac]

We've all got different preferences as to what our dream game would look like. We all place different levels of importance on whether there's a story, and whether we prefer realistic or surreal or pure fantasy. A game that's not designed to fit our exact preferences isn't necessarily a bad game, and we shouldn't mock people for liking it - but, equally, we're entitled to explain why we don't like it, and why we prefer a different game, or how we would have altered a game.

Taking it back to the original theme - maybe people overestimated what the 68000 and Blitter / Copper was capable of for sprite-based racing games? If we bought an Amiga expecting a perfect 50FPS Out Run, let alone something like Power Drift, we will have been disappointed several times. Speaking as someone who got lots of fun from Amiga racers here. Lotus 2 is probably the fastest and smoothest full-screen racing game on the A500-level Amiga - Lotus 1 is slightly faster (but still only 25FPS I think) but using only half the screen (not that it really bothered me once I was focused into the action - if you look closely at Lotus 2 the top half the screen is all horizon). The ST version does indeed lack the dotted lines, I'm not sure how much that would bother you in the heat of the racing, except for the "his computer is better than mine" feeling (nowadays there's an unofficial STe port which adds the dotted lines back in).

Sprite-scaling '2.5D' racing games weren't a natural strength for the C64, but until quite late in its life something as technically puny as the first Pitstop was among the best, and WEC Le Mans wasn't the only game that was totally outdone by the Spectrum and Amstrad versions. Then again, things like Turbo Out Run, Buggy Boy and Turbo Charge later showed what could be done if the right sacrifices were made

Can even a top-end 1990 PC (486DX-33 with 4Mb memory - and we'd be talking £5000 for a complete system with that spec) really do 3D racing at 30FPS in 640x480 SVGA? Eight times the data of an A500 screen with five times the clock speed (and no special hardware to help)?