Notes on Retro Games

Aesthetics             Dynamics             Mechanics        Other

Aggressiveness     Fighting                Moving            Familiarly
Immediateness                                 Shooting           Immediateness
Protection                                        Hiding

Comparing Computer Space vs Space Invaders


Computer Space by Nulling Bushnell <-- 1st Game commendably founded by him before Atari with Ted Bundy

Space Invaders by Taito in 1978

Computer Space wasn't very successful but Space Invaders was a huge world wide hit.

Computer Space was the first coin-op game and had to build it's audience from scratch. however there's more to it. Both were set in space, battling aliens. Both were popular with young adults & men in the 60's and onwards.

Both have clear goals (shoot aliens and avoid being hit).

The controls however differed massively. Space Invaders merely had a joy stick (L - R) plus a 'fire' button.

Computer Space had a fairly complex control system: 4 independent buttons to rotate the ship, thrust ad shoot.

Computer Space was more complex where as Space Invaders is easy to pick up and has a broad audience.

Space Invaders is also more immediate due to the 6 - 11 frame work both are set on aggressiveness but because the player is defending his home he is more inclined to do so & feels more real. = CLEAR OBJECTIVE.

As computer Space takes place in a void in a far away galaxy, plus having complex controls this adds to the lack of the players motivation to justify the players aggressiveness.

Asteroids

Asteroids hit arcades in the late 70's - early 80's, from Atari.

Set in a never ending belt of asteroids 7 complex controls (more so than Computer Space). Hyper space added to this (this made the ship appear at a random point on screen, and added to the total of five buttons.

1st)The goal was immediate but the controls were not. Why was it successful? There are two reasons for this: It came out in 1979 - 8 years after Computer Space. Even though games were still new there were no longer a gimmick (& a 1st groups of hardcore gamers were born).

2nd) Also it was fantastic at triggering the competitive nature of players.

Before Asteroids, games were only able to record the top high score but nothing else. Asteroids introduced a small leader board where players could also display nicks (the first three letters of their name).