I really don’t remember when I actually started to worry about graphics or even began to think about them, I probably never really cared until it became all the rage. It could be that my first experience with video games was on the Intellivision (a system that was marketed for its great graphic abilities), or the simple fact that graphics were not as important to players like me as it was to having great game-play. I do however remember going into the arcade as a kid and wondering why the games looked so different than the ones I had at home, I figured there had to be a reason for doing so. Of course today I understand that the technical capabilities of the time and need to create an affordable console were the reason, but I had no way of knowing that back then.
It wasn’t until I got my Commodore 64 that I realized that each system had its own capabilities and limits, that some can produce higher graphic output than others. But it still stuck with me as to why this had to be so important and who cares if the graphics were better?
But as you know the console wars were all about graphics, pixles, bits, bites, vectors and a whole lot of technical jargon that most of us barley understood. When Mattel started promoting the Intellivision they produced commercials by having “Mr.Intellivision” compare the Atari Graphics with the Intellivision’s graphics (mostly sports games), and would have two TV’s side by side. I guess from that point the battle began as systems started improving, ColecoVision ended up doing pretty much the same by comparing their system to the Intellivision… then came Nintendo and SEGA and so on.
To this day I still prefer to choose my games on play-ability and fun rather than how it looks, although I do acknowledge that sometimes the graphics are important to a degree. I think my main concern is just being able to recognize what the player is looking at, if you can tell the difference between the various characters then you are good. I know that some games like Donkey Kong are almost the exact same except that some ports look closer to the arcade than others, but either way I still enjoyed the game. Then there were games like Super Mario Bros. where the graphics were great and the game-play was even better, but when I eventually tried Super Mario on the Nintendo 64, lets just say I was lost… perhaps I am just not that good at 3D style games but I will take the NES Zelda over the wii version any-day!
I know this all boils down to personal preference as today we can pick and choose what we want to play thanks to emulators and newer systems popping up. Systems like the Xbox and PlayStation were pretty much designed for the players who love their graphics where as the wii seemed to geared toward the old school gamers such as myself. I did state in an article before that even though I own a PS2, I found myself only buying classic games which is not really what the system was intended for.
Of course this is just me and I am sure many would disagree, but I often find that the more complicated the graphics get the more complicated the game becomes! …Or am I just stuck in the past?… yes most likely that!
Brian Pudden