Why I need to start a gaming company.

 Just looking through everything that is retro, I get a little disappointed that we have to replace everything we started loving games for. Don't get me wrong, it's important to evolve. Would you rather play your FPS games Doom-style, using only a keyboard? Do you feel the need to constantly type out instructions for your RPG character to follow? Is DOS something you think never should have died out? Things have to change for us to get a new experience in gaming, but that doesn't mean there was anything wrong with what used to drive games in the past.

 It's hard to go backwards with everything we've been introduced to, but is it really? Have the concepts become so outdated that we can't try them again with new uses? I'm not so sure. The reason for the title of my article is that I believe that older concepts can be reused to amazing results, and the technology needed to drive games like this isn't much at all. We tend to get caught up in the latest and greatest things, where graphics are a premium and the console reigns supreme. It's bothersome when we reach a point where we finally figure out how to use what we have in so many innovative ways only to have that lesson taught to us at a time when we have to adopt a new graphical standard and start all over again.

 Take a look at the state of PC gaming. Many people have complained that the reason for PC gaming's downfall as a standard is due to a few "obvious" factors, including consoles, cost, and piracy. To be honest, none of this is true. The reason why the PC has fell out of favor for anything outside of competitive FPS, RTS, and MMO gaming is that no one is actually taking advantage of what the PC is capable of. To be fair, most of the concepts are available on any console as it stands, but the PC is so entrenched in our everyday lives that it's impossible to ignore the flexibility it has as a platform.

 I've often wished that there was a really good game that returned to the cyberpunk influence, and there have been some glimmers of hope in the past. Unfortunately, may of these games are so outdated that it's difficult for a gamer to get the feel of decent gameplay. Clunky GUIs, if any at all, too much immediate freedom, and an unforgiving learning curve set most of these games back, so it's understandable that a console-fed gamer would shun returning to the PC roots of the genre. We've reached a point, however, where everything that was introduced before 2000 has been perfected to the point where none of these shortcomings should matter anymore. Yet, we continue to ignore that this is the truth, and we come up with new things to play with.

 I mentioned in the last article that Star Control II still holds a great deal of influence in gaming, regardless of the platform it's played on. As a game, it is solid and still holds weight, and it was made in 1992. Cleaning the game up, adding content, and making it more user friendly doesn't demand 2010 graphics. All it demands is a little refinement, and we're at the point where hobbyists can blow that refinement out of the water in the span of a weekend if they really tried. Bluntly put, we have the technology capable of reviving this game sitting in front of us on our netbooks, but we never looked back and thought of doing it.

 So, back to the cyberpunk game. Does it need to be 3-D? Maybe yes, maybe no. What matters more is that the game be fun, enjoyable, and provide a large amount of atmosphere. What it does not necessarily demand is million-dollar cutscenes. People were quite happy playing a good cyberpunk adventure on DOS, and I would imagine that as long as the game is good, no one would actually care if the player character appeared like a non-jagged version of Leon from RE2. Hell, we can throw characters of that quality into a game a a hundred times over and never stress our video cards. So let's say, for the sake of argument, that we are going to deal with a game using a cleaner, higher resolution version of RE2's graphical style. Even if we went "all-out" on graphics for a game of this style, we would really only need to beef the graphics up to the level of the RE1 remake for the GameCube, which was made in 2002. So screw it, for the sake of argument, we only need 2002 graphics for this game at most.

 Music is easy. We're far beyond the days of needing a sound-synthesizer on our computers. No more SoundBlaster, AdLib, or Soundscape. MP3's are the easiest things in the world to incorporate, and that's why we made them in the first place.

 As far as interface goes, and this is really what I'm getting at, we would return the old days to prominence. The cyberpunk ideals are ideally suited for reviving retro concepts. Flying a hovercar with the old joystick could be a lot of fun, too, but that's not really necessary. Developers are so concerned with a style of play that revolves around a single control scheme that they forget how many resources everyone has to work with. We all have microphones that plug into a computer, and we are all certainly using keyboards. The game should use everything at the user's disposal.

 Let's say that you're an investigator working on busting a syndicate. You have discovered a dead body, so you decide to go check out the home of the victim. You walk into a room using your controller to guide the character through an apartment complex. Once in the room, you could use the mouse to investigate around to see objects of importance. Underneath a bed, you find a data disc, which you take over to the computer. You could either use your mouse to access your inventory, or just tell the character through your mic to take out the disc for fun. Putting the disk into the computer, you find yourself rummaging through his files with your mouse and come across a document with some importance to it. You uncover a PIN number and a few key words that are necessary to access his job-files. Taking this information with you, you wander off to his workplace and get a seat at his computer terminal. You find a safe underneath the desk, and you use the keypad to enter the PIN to unlock it. Turning to the computer, you use your keyboard to navigate through a DOS-like interface where you find the programs that respond to your key words.

 It doesn't seem like much at first, but take into consideration that the user is more immersed in the game and is using all of the tools that any PC user has to expand the usability and believability of the experience. There was something concrete about using text commands in King's Quest, but even though that style has long been rendered obsolete, the tangible nature of the keyboard allows a little bit better roleplay. Being able to "think" out loud and have the game respond is something that games usually do for you, but a microphone could encourage players to get into the mindset of their character while also removing an inventory system altogether. Speech recognition could even be incorporated into dialogues, especially when clever use of known information can uncover information not on a designated list of topics to choose from. The mouse, as well, has become a control scheme on its own, but apart from the FPS genre, it was always used best as an investigation tool for adventure games. Many players feel comfortable controlling characters with a controller, so to give them their usual choice of control and add the tools already at their disposal removes almost any need for in-game menus, and it serves to dramatically increase the flexibility of a game while, in turn, actually simplifying the gameplay. If every tool at your disposal has a clear use, and those elements are clearly reflected in gameplay, then there is no need to have a few dozen hotkeys or strange and convoluted controller schemes.

 It's not a revolutionary idea by any stretch, but these are the most basic gaming devices that have been around for 20-30 years. We never use them like this, and we're always trying to replace them with the newest toy. If we could stop for a couple of minutes and realize that we could make great use of what's staring us in the face every day when we check out e-mail, then PC gaming would have a good game like this to call its own. It wouldn't even have to be a powerhouse of a game to be legendary. For the amount of time we spend counting gigs for every new game that comes out, is it so hard to imagine that a game the size of a CD with pre-2002 graphics could be massive, replayable, fun, and superbly interactive? Unfortunately, I don't have the money to front in order to make this kind of game possible, so I guess imagining is all I can do for now. But one day, you never know. Digg It Stumble it ! Reddit