Before explaining my latest grand idea, a little history. The first video game console system, the Magnavox Odyssey, was released in 1972. This was the "pre-Pong" era, characterized by games that were basically a single dot bouncing back and forth across a screen with players using paddles to direct its motion. Before Pong, there were no capabilities for games to track a score, and there were certainly no graphics beyond single large dots! The entire game had to be created around a single mechanic, and customized through non-electronic add-ons -- and the Odyssey had a lot of add-ons. Transparent overlay screens were laid on top of the screen to allow the moving dot to illuminate different parts of the image, creating the illusion of motion. Objective cards defined the operations that players were supposed to perform with their moving dots. Scorekeeping poker chips allowed for players to keep track of who was winning, an operation well beyond the capabilities of the console itself. A primitive light-gun could be used to shoot at the dot in various hunting games. The point is that early video games were necessarily a hybrid of physical and electronic components.
Magnavox maintained this philosophy with its later-generation consoles, culminating with the Odyssey2 in 1978. This was a true programmable console with the capability for swapping different cartridge games, rather than just playing the same "game" (some form of Pong) with varying overlays and control schemes. By the time this system was released, it was already being eclipsed by arcades and the Atari 2600, systems with much better graphics, fluid controls, and faster action. But the strategy it used to compete was by going high-brow and trying to boost the physical inserts provided along with the cartridge. This approach culminated in 1981 with the release of Quest for the Rings, the first video game I ever attempted to play.
 |
| QftR, in all its glory. |
This is seriously the most overproduced game in pretty much all of history, and that includes a lot of collector's editions released today. You can see that it's a video game that has an entire board game wrapped around it. The board game has about 60 pieces, a gold-embossed game manual, a full-color map board, a keyboard overlay, and lots of Escher-esque concept art showing you the graphics the designers probably wished they could cram into the actual cartridge.
The video game itself consisted of several simple Pacman mazes with four different types of fantasy monsters, including a fire-breathing dragon. The game was designed to be a cooperative stealth game. Each player chose a character from one of four classes, and tried to use what we'd today call "aggro management" to steer at least one character to a ring at the opposite side of the maze. To mix things up, the maze walls would sometimes move and shift, and other times be made of lethal lava. It was unique in that era for being a two-player cooperative game and for having characters with totally unique skill sets: a warrior who could kill enemies, a wizard who could stun them, a phantom who could walk through walls to escape, and a changeling who could become invisible to dump aggro. The monsters were also better differentiated than the ghosts in Pacman, with different sizes, speeds, and movement patterns.
I never really succeeded in playing it, partially because the game was difficult even for two players, partially because the control paddles were hideously clunky, partly because I was six years old (!), and partially because it was at a friend's house and I only got to try it a few times. But the idea in abstract principle, a hybrid supergame with one foot in the physical world and another in the electronic one, has continued to be something I want someone to implement for me in a perfected modern form.
While I'm no programmer, one idea I've been contemplating is to merge two existing types of games: a high-level economic system played using an existing strategy game, and a tactical resolution system using an existing video game. For example, a board game like Civilization could be played out normally, but using the arena mode of a low-level strategy engine (like the SSI's Fantasy General) to resolve the outcome of battles. One of my projects a few years back was to unify the economic system from Starfire with the tactical battle system of Space Empires IV, allowing for a solo Starfire game -- a project that was basically superseded by the discovery of Aurora. (But not until after I had sunk a few dozen hours into modding SE4 to work with Starfire tech!)
Currently my latest idea is to combine a sandbox CRPG with the economic system in ACKS, creating a solo RPG with higher level domain management components. This could work with some of the old Gold Box games (or their FRUA reimplementations), as well as with the d20 indie title Knights of the Chalice. Most modern games have too many plot constraints to allow for integration with an outside system, but maybe there are some player-created Neverwinter Nights modules that might work. A major complication is the need for a character hex editor that can import elements (money, characters, magic items, spells) from the economic system back into the computer game. (The Gold Box Companion works OK for basic functions like creating gold or leveling up, but encounters some game breaking bugs with the item creation functions.)
Like all of my grand schemes, I hardly have enough time to implement this one. But I think I'll at least play with the idea in my mind and see where it goes.
No comments:
Post a Comment