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pocketmego

What many people here already know about me, is that my business is marketing. One of my passions is how Video Games have been marketed to consumers over the years.

Depending on the time period, the way a game is sold changes as much as the games themselves.

This is a series of Activision Promos from one of my favorite ALL TIME gaming eras...the Mid 90's...

1996 to be exact...

Enjoy!

-Ray

Raven_Sensei

reminds me of the old TM1 endings and boy those were the days

Sunflower

Interesting that you liked this era the most. Pretty interesting - I remember these very, VERY well. I loved that era's feel as well.

WONDERFUL to have you back.

pocketmego

Sunflower4000 said:
Interesting that you liked this era the most. Pretty interesting - I remember these very, VERY well. I loved that era's feel as well.

WONDERFUL to have you back.

Raven's Twisted Metal Clip is a great example of why this era was so much fun. We were just getting into the Ps1/PC era and the games were all part of this wild combination of Gorilla game making and low budget film making.

There was a mindset in game production of the time that is only rivaled in history once before and that is the CRAZY Grindhouse/Drive-In flicks of the 60's - the 80's. It's all got that same lets do this shit as wild and off the hook as we possibly can. No idea is too weird.

-Ray

quahgg

Yay!! Pocketmego!!

Ya, Twisted metal is a perfect example of that. I really think that they went that route because as geeks they loved media. Being the 90's they looked bcak to their childhood and thought of things like Mad Maxx, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elmstreet, and other over the top ridiculous story lines (Weird Scince lol). Having those movies as the warm spot in their hearts made it alot easier to accept the ridiculous, and allowed 'original IP's' like Twisted Metal.

Another big contributor would be the sudden inclusion of the new form of data storage, the CD. Suddenly the amount of storage was no longer limited to a small cartridge. With so much space they finally had the space to make complex games much easier without sacrificing graphics what-so-ever. That combined with the child of the 90's lead to pretty much every movie that wasn't about highschool kids to become a game in some sort of fashion. And they were done well because there was no DL'able bug fixes. You bought a game and it almost always worked.

Now, the new Blu-Ray Tech and HD-DVD have once again opened up storage. Unfortunately in my opinion, it is wasted solely on graphics and not on expanding the gameplay. Imagine Lufia, Chronotrigger, Ratchet and Clank, Final Fantasy using the late era PS2 graphics; but having a story that expands the length of Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower' Series. So much space is wasted on pretty stuff that it feels alot like going to a fancy restraunt. You get a very well presented dish, it's bright and visually pleasing. It tastes great, but the serving is so small compared to a median priced restraunt.

Personally I think we are in the hay days of this generation. Games this year will start to expand as compression techniques begin to improve and the emphasis will be away from graphics since the install base is reaching saturation. Graphics sell systems, Once the systems are bought you start to see the best games being made/finished. I am truly excited about the next 2-3 years in gaming. Yeah the casual market is picking up, but the hardcore market is still there.

pocketmego

quahgg said:

Personally I think we are in the hay days of this generation. Games this year will start to expand as compression techniques begin to improve and the emphasis will be away from graphics since the install base is reaching saturation. Graphics sell systems, Once the systems are bought you start to see the best games being made/finished. I am truly excited about the next 2-3 years in gaming. Yeah the casual market is picking up, but the hardcore market is still there.

I haven't been this excited about a gaming era since my 16 bit days. Because, like then, games are going through this amazing transition and it is really hard to tell where that is going to take this amazing hobby of ours.

-Ray

yuzo

I dunno if storage technologies will have as much impact as the whole social network phenomenon will this generation. With the new 360 dashboard and Sony's Home, we're going to be playing games together in entirely different ways over the next few years.

Also, the new distribution models of WiiWare, PSN, and XBLA is seriously going to breathe a lot of new life into the industry with new, innovative gameplay mechanics.

The network is the future. :)

What an exciting time to be a gamer.

Yw

killswitch423

Dude... Twisted Metal and Zork... wow. I grew up on this shit. Of course, I wasn't technically old enough to play them ;) This whole era was when I started to get really, really drawn in to games. I always enjoyed them from the age I could pick up the controller and play Super Mario or Raiden Trad, but it was the PS1/N64 when I first had my 'own' systems. The SNES was my dad's, hah. Anyway, these games had me hooked and I still love going back and playing TM over and over again with friends.

As far as this generation, welll... ~squee.~ So many games, so little cash. xD;

quahgg

oops... did I bump this thread?

Also, if you can get ahold of the Baldurs Gate discs, check out the win of a trailer on that disc. Wow. 28kb Internet multiplayer!! We're cooking now baby!!

pocketmego

Aw what the hell...

For more FMV fun here is Spoony with DEMOLITION MAN!

This game is an absurd and beautiful example of its era. :D

-Ray

apophis_dd

Haha, "I'm waiting..." - just watched that movie yesterday.

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