How did Atari produce so many innovative arcade games in the

[TL]

A great answer to a question on a site called Quora by ex-Atari programmer Chris Crawford!

http://www.quora.com/Game-Development/How-did-Atari-produce-so-many-innovative-arcade-games-in-the-1980s

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[Rogue Trooper]

Mark Cerny, talking to Edge back in Nov.2002 on working at Atari's Coin-Op division:

'In 1982 the team was just 1 person, you'd do your game design, your programming, your artwork, your sound, you'd discuss any special controls that you might want with the group that made controls and you'd discuss your special hardware needs with the hardware people......'

'At Atari during the golden age of of the arcade, every time you made a game it had to be an absolute original.If the gameplay had been done before in anyway, shape or form, then you could'nt do it that way again.You had to innovaite 100% every time.And it was'nt just Atari either;if you looked at Tim Skelly's games like Star Castle, Rip-Off and Reactor, or Eugene Jarvis games, such as Defender and Robotron, you'd see the same phenomenon.We were creating brand new games all the time'.

[TrekMD]

Pretty interesting.  Fascinating to think they had to come up with some new type of gameplay for their games and avoid coming close to something that had been done before.  No wonder they had to be so creative!  Perhaps that tactic should be used when developing today's games!  LOL

[guest4826]

I wish that more people these days that made games took some gambles like Atari did back in the day. Even though you were using a lot of the same technology back then, the games were still top notch and not anything that could be touched by anyone at the time outside of possibly Midway. I'm talking in the US, by the way. I know that Namco was a heavy hitter back then too, but again, many of the old cabs from them back in the day were distributed in the US by Midway. I wish some of the console developers from today could be put in a warehouse with nothing but old arcade cabs from the 80's and early 90's for a whole year. make them play nothing but those games. Perhaps they would learn that being graphics whores do not make great games, it's about how much fun you have playing them.

[onthinice]

Very True!

I lived in a small town so it was mostly Atari, Bally/Midway and Namco. Sometimes an arcade from Sega or Exidy might show up. Creativity was absolute, no matter the game maker.

[guest4826]

Very True!

I lived in a small town so it was mostly Atari, Bally/Midway and Namco. Sometimes an arcade from Sega or Exidy might show up. Creativity was absolute, no matter the game maker.

Yeah, because back then you had to be creative because the graphics were primative compared to now. Imagine what games would be like now if the same creativity went into them with the nice graphics we have these days? It's sad that we get stuck with either empty shells that look great or a movie with mini games between scenes. It really is a waste in the end.

[TrekMD]

Back then the games required that the creators of the games have creativity while the player had to have imagination to immerse him/herself in the game.  Now the graphics take the imagination element away and it doesn't help creativity.  People just keep making variations of the same formulas.

[onthinice]

I wonder sometimes if it is just an age thing? A person grows up during a certain time and no matter what comes along new, it is never good enough.

[guest4826]

Back then the games required that the creators of the games have creativity while the player had to have imagination to immerse him/herself in the game.  Now the graphics take the imagination element away and it doesn't help creativity.  People just keep making variations of the same formulas.

It's kind of like movies these days. Wash, rinse, and repeat sequels are killing that industry too. Not saying that a sequel can't be a good thing, but let's change it up some. Remakes and sequels, both the Gaming and Movie industries anymore. Crazy bad for business.

[TrekMD]

I wonder sometimes if it is just an age thing? A person grows up during a certain time and no matter what comes along new, it is never good enough.

I don't think it is just that.  Remember that these older games still do appeal to many youngsters now.  So, there's definitely something about these games that still captures their imagination.

[TrekMD]

Back then the games required that the creators of the games have creativity while the player had to have imagination to immerse him/herself in the game.  Now the graphics take the imagination element away and it doesn't help creativity.  People just keep making variations of the same formulas.

It's kind of like movies these days. Wash, rinse, and repeat sequels are killing that industry too. Not saying that a sequel can't be a good thing, but let's change it up some. Remakes and sequels, both the Gaming and Movie industries anymore. Crazy bad for business.

Well, that's even worse.  There they change things for the sake of change and the story becomes secondary to the look of the movie. 

[guest4826]

Back then the games required that the creators of the games have creativity while the player had to have imagination to immerse him/herself in the game.  Now the graphics take the imagination element away and it doesn't help creativity.  People just keep making variations of the same formulas.

It's kind of like movies these days. Wash, rinse, and repeat sequels are killing that industry too. Not saying that a sequel can't be a good thing, but let's change it up some. Remakes and sequels, both the Gaming and Movie industries anymore. Crazy bad for business.

Well, that's even worse.  There they change things for the sake of change and the story becomes secondary to the look of the movie.

Exactly. They seem to do the same thing with games anymore. However, not to say there aren't exceptions to the rule. The Monkey Island games were fantasticly redone and the new Flashback looks solid as well. It would be nice to see Fade To Black redone the way the game was supposed to be done though. That game had brains behind it and would have been good too. It's hindrance was the technology of the time.

[Rogue Trooper]

I'd wager the publishers and developers would respond with line concerning they are only producing what the public wants, if you look at sales figures.

Recent Call Of Duty/M.W games might have seen a 'drop' but they still steamroll over all in their path, reviers compare any FPS to them and they and players moan when ever anyone tries something different (witness Killzone 2 controls being 'patched' to feel more like the 'twitch' based contol of COD as players seemingly unwilling to invest time in adapting to a control scheme which had a feeling of wieght to it).

Reviews are based it seems on a checklist that every game must find itself ticked off on, points wise:Is there online MP? if not..deduct point, co-op mode? and so on.....


E.A  etc did try and support the Wii with 'original' games, they bombed, so E.A stopped making them and we saw them ported across to PS3 as HD versions ( i own Dead Space Extraction+HOTD:Overkill).

Things like L.B.P might score 10's from likes of Edge/Gamestm due to their create-based nature, but they are niche products.
Which Sonic games sold the best? the 2D classics i grew up with or the modern tat, same for Resident Evil, Capcom admit sales for Outbreak (which was dire) were through the roof, believe Res.Evil 6, which took ideas from so many genres, sold very well.Aliens games AVP on PS3/360/Pc was poor, big seller.Aliens:Col.Marines, COd in space, but big seller.......

Pandemic closed down because The saboteur did'nt perform as well as expected at retail, yet i loved the game, hows GTA 5 doing sales wise? it's just delivering more of the same.Bizare Creations closed because Blur did'nt perform well at retail-yet it was probably the most chaotic fun online i'd had this generation.MS:Closed Ensemble after Halo Wars, canned 360 Freelancer sequel, got Rare doing Kinect stuff galore, pushing Kinect even more this upcoming generation.Sony:closed Psygnosis, Zipper etc, Move still lacks a 'killer app' yet it's in concept, very much alive on PS4, wand just replaced by blue light on pad....

Use of middleware Engines means games have a very familar 'feel' to them visually-i gave up on Dishonored last night as it felt like so many games i'd played already this generation, dug out Thief on original Xbox instead, far more atmospheric and i feel nothing for Capcom's PS4 exclusive, Deep Down, as so far, it looks like Capcom trying to get in on Demon's Souls market on PS4 for Japan etc.


As for locking developers in arcade of yesteryea...i honestly thought they had.Games featuring poor A.I, strict time limits, Q.T.E sequences galore, does'nt sound like cutting edge gaming to me...plus how many arcade games of years gone by just used new technology to dress up shallow games? Laser disc based arcade games, fancy cabinets (moving chairs etc-which if you played same game on a basic, stand up machine, lost a lot of the impact), digitised visuals.The arcades used to be THE testing bed for new technology, now we just see it more on the PC etc with new graphics cards etc coming out before you know it, new mobile phones/tablets appearing every 12 months or so, packing more gimmicks in.....sales really showing signs of slowing down?

Consoles supposed to be dead-Yet Sony warning UK retailers to expect months of shortages, Japan launch later etc etc, as pre-orders so massive (and based on what i don't know).

[guest4826]

Are we talking PC games here? Reason being is that you must live in a different territory than me because, for sure, Aliens: Colonial Marines, in the US, sold very badly. It's been slammed left and right by reviewer after reviewer and the gamers also hate it. At least the console version. From what I understand, the PC version is much better with all the bugs and crap that kills the console versions ironed out, but yeah, Resident Evil Operation Racoon City and Resident Evil 6 also both did nowhere near as well as Capcom was hoping, 6 especially. The last Console Resident Evil that did decently here was Resident Evil 5. Resident Evil Revelations for the 3DS has also done fairly well, but that's a Handheld game. As for the HD releases of it for the PS3 and 360, I( couldn't tell you. All I know is that Capcom is not doing well as a company at all right now.

[Rogue Trooper]

Talking Sega's own annual financial report sales figures, which put Aliens:C.M at 1.31 Million copies sold, only beaten by Sonic And all-stars Racing Transformed in at 1.36 million and trailing behind these 2, Football Manager 940,000 and London 2012 in at 680,000.

so for Sega, despite game being totally slaughtered at review, it did great buisnessfor them at retail.

I live in UK and having played 360 version to completition (worst of the bad bunch) it's not as bad a game as many haters make out, it's just not the game we were promised.It's not the bugs or glitches that make it a poor Aliens game, more the ropey Alien behaviour A.I (they are'nt on par with rebellions Windows '95 PC release in terms of attacks etc) and fact it's little more than COD in space, with Aliens.