Why 8 bit kicked ass: A cracked style look

[Lee]

5. Patience is a virtue

The modern gamer has it all, take the famed COD series. Black Ops was released world wide on 9th November 2010 selling something crazy like 5million in a day. Woo I got the game the same day as my American counterparts, that's pretty sweet. It wasn't always like that, Super Mario Bros. was release in 1985, Europe got it in 1987 (TWO YEARS!) and it wasn't until 1991 that was got Super Mario Bros. 3, just a point out in 1991 we got the graphically superior Sonic the Hedgehog some two months before we got Super Mario Bros. 3. Can you imagine that happening now? Super Mario galaxy 2 released in June of last year is one of my favourite games but it was released in May in Japan and NA, that was two months...can you imagine waiting until Summer 2012 for this game? Exactly.

4. I was a gaming God because I was forced to be.

Lets pick a game from the 8 bit era...say Super Mario Bros. 1 (again), now I know a lot of people who would class themselves as hardcore gamers who have never completed this game. It's a hard game that no matter how many times I complete it I still have trouble with specific bits in world 8. In the 8 bit era there was no internet so I couldn't find out any tips or strategies, I had to explore every single brick and wall in the hope of finding a warp pipe or a fire flower or a one up. That exploration element as well as the timing on jumps and knowing when you can rush through a level is still pretty apt in most games today, aside from now I can save and check on the net. Mario didn't save back in the day, if I got a game over it was back to square one and a huge grind out that gave great results at the end.

3. I wasn't spoilt

I have had a Wii for the third incarnation since July of last year in that time period I have amassed around about 20 games (barely in a year) yet when I was a kid we would get two or three games in that period, one for my birthday, one for my sisters and one for Christmas. Games were a lot more expensive then (anyone remember £70 for a Megadrive game?) and by goodness would a game get its use. I hazard to guess how many time my Mario carts (as in game carts not driving round!) have been played through all these years. I wonder if in a time when you could get upwards of 20 games easily in a year that kids in twenty five years time will remember the magic of playing a game to death and not getting bored. Exactly.

2. Imagination was key

“The land of Hyrule is in chaos oh no As Link you'll that's me wooop be sent on a treacherous journey to return six precious Crystals to their origins in ...” That's from the Adventure of Link...what about Mario 1? “You'll have to think fast” see the focus is on me here, me the player. This is my realm where now it's Mario this Link that, there it was about me, they need my help. Look at Hyrule in OOT:

Spoiler

Not much to be left to the imagination, but look at Hyrule in Legend of Zelda:

Spoiler

That could be anywhere, your imagination runs wild as you picture yourself on the adventure in a forest near your home, enveloping you further into the game making the 8 bit more like a book than the current generations movie like qualities.

1. It was built to last

Jack Tretton stated that the PS3 was "a machine that we firmly believe is future proof and is going to carry us for the next 10 years." yet already the original PS3 is out of production, the original Xbox was why? Because they broke down all the time. The NES and Master System would occasionally have a break down due to dust (blowing in cartridge anyone?!) but a simple clean up fixed that. Both my NES and master system (both released 1987 in the UK) still work with no problems.

The NES I thought I'd broken when I kicked it across the room accidentally drunk one day and it came with a huge crack on the casing. The fudger still works fine would you believe it?

There's just something magic about plugging in your 8bit machine again and playing a familiar game bringing so many memories back to life.

 

[IrishCanadian25]

I firmly agree with a great number of these, especially #4 and #3.

I recall, VIVIDLY, being 10 years old on a hot summer day. It was a Sunday. We were home from church, it was roughly 12:30 pm. My mom had made me a sandwhich, and though I was hungry, I hadn't yet touched it. Why?

Because I'd just beaten Super Macho Man. And Godammit, I was gonna beat Tyson too.

And I did.

Holy hell was that tough for its time. Trying to time the movements around the simple blink in an 8-bit version of Iron Mike's eyes. Realizing one punch could send you flying.

Beating Mike Tyson's Punch Out, trying to beat Contra WITHOUT the Konami Code and the 30-lives (good f'ing luck), or trying to beat Friday the 13th. ALL of these gave me fits. I'll even add Super Mario 2 to the list. I got past Wart ONCE after YEARS of playing the game.

As for not being spoiled, thats partially true. Nintendo did sell those game guides, which were awesome. And when Game Genie came out, all of a sudden it became in vogue again to play the old games just to have fun with the cheats. Now, when I'm stuck on a level in Super Mario Wii, I just pull up the Youtube Walkthrough on my fucking cell phone.

 

[JGlass]

Number four was the best reason. I've probably played through Super Mario World 1 about 10 times, and I still struggle on the World 8 levels and the underwater levels. And forget about playing through on the advanced modes!

8 bit games I can play over and over because winning just feels like more of an accomplishment. Furthermore, at no point is the game boring. It's certainly frustrating, but never dull. Even in my favorite games of today there are missions or levels that are just flat out pointless. There's way too many levels in GTA where you have to drive somewhere only to have to drive somewhere else. Perfect example: In Vice City you had to fly an RC helicopter to blow up a building, god that mission sucks! Now try to name one level in any of the Mario world's that was boring and pointless? You can't, every level was a challenge that captured your imagination.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Found this while searching for something else. How did I miss this thread months ago? It deserves a bump for being a great topic.

Patience is something that most of today's gamers have never heard of. They "want it now" and are not willing to work or wait for the next big game to come out or for the next breathtaking moment in a game. Part of what made oldschool games great was that you had to wait a while for the next great one to come out, whereas today we are bombarded with games coming out constantly and the wait hardly seems worth it sometimes. Long ago it was, and then some.

I'm right there with you Lee, on your point about Mario Bros 1. World 8 was insane, especially the third level with those hammer brothers that were just about impossible to avoid without Fire Mario's abilities. Then there's all the loops in the castle. Old games made you work harder to complete them. It was about SKILL, not getting thousands of achievement awards that never matter in the end. You could have a score of 99,999 gamer points on X-Box Live, but beating "Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels" at all is FAR more impressive. This was also before youtube's video walkthroughs existed. You had to USE YOUR BRAIN to figure out some puzzles and boss strategies. Most gamers are so spoiled these days.

I also like the points made about how imagination was more important back then. People whine and cry about the graphics of the 8 bit era, but those games are legendary and will live on forever. Part of that is the impact they had on people with vivid imaginations. People who would pretend they were out on a quest in a forest or temple to save the princess, and the same people might be pretending that every pipe has piranha plant or koopas in it waiting to get them. Old games made you THINK. It had a huge impact on my own imagination and I know I'm not alone.

Finally, the last point in the opening post holds true as well. Games used to be DURABLE. Ever since games were moved from cartridges to CD's, I knew that games would never be durable again. You had to be careful to make sure not a single speck of dust got onto the discs, whereas with the cartridges we all have fond memories of blowing in them to make them work. And it WOULD make them work. My NES is older than the majority of the members on this forum, and it on rare occassions will STILL work. My SNES is getting old too, at 20 years old it still works in fantastic condition. Can the same be said for the PS3 or even the Gamecube? Very likely not.

Gamers are spoiled by undurable games that have an emphasis on graphics rather than exploration, video walkthroughs that spoil everything for them, easier difficulties compared to oldschool games, and a surplus of game releases when those of us who remember the 8 bit days had to wait forever for the next great game. 8 bit will live on forever because of the fond memories we older games have of those days, when the true gamers dominated.

 

[Trill Co$by]

OMG do I miss 8bit games. Whether it was Super Mario & Sonic on the consoles or it was walking through the fields in the original pokemon games on the Gameboy Colors, 8bit was fucking amazing!

And I have to agree, reason Number 4 is without a doubt the best reason for why it was better. And to add to that, for me anyway, it wasn't just about being the best that I can be, it was about being the best when it came to the entire family or anyone in the house. It didn't matter what it was. Mario, Sonic, Donkey Kong, Duck Hunt (I <3 Duck Hunt), Contra, Double Dragons, and even Pac-Man... In those days, if you had any pride, and you were challenged... you accepted the challenge without ANY fear. Especially in Pac-Man and Duck Hunt.

For some reason, it's not the same when you play online. For me, I like knowing I truly am the best by seeing my victim pout and cry in person. I don't care about speaking through a headset to get mad at someone. I want to see that true competitor in front of me and see them try to step to me in another game just so I can crush them again.

Unfortunately, today's games took over the 8bit and unless you feel like downloading Emulators or going to find Doukutsu Cave Stories, you're pretty much screwed.

 

[Davi323]

One of the reasons the NES lasted so long, and many still are perfectly functional, is the actual game medium. Cartridge based game systems are far simpler than CD/DVD based games, because the cartridge connects directly to the hardware, rather than relying on a laser to first decode the info. The NES has a lot less breakable parts.

On to why 8-bit systems ruled:
1. gameplay. When you have such little space to work with, you have to make it count. Game developers couldn't rely on snazzy graphics to sell the game, even if it had mediocre game play...with 8-bit systems, The graphics were going to be weak in general, so the actual game itself had to be fun. Now we have a lot of beautiful games that have mediocre gameplay.

2. Simplicity. Two buttons. You didn't have 30 million combos to memorize. You could just pick up the game and play. There is value in that. Who wants to buy a game and have to constantly have the manual open, because in order to do anything, you have to memorize too many things?

3. NO memory cards! I know the PS3 and 360 don't have this issue, so this is more of a comparison to the PS1, PS2, N64, Game Cube and XBox...Why in the blue hell should I have to buy additional memory cards to play a game? Most NES games that couldn't be beat in one sitting had a password system. You could enter that password on your buddy's copy of the game and pick up right where you left off, without having to carry a memory card, just a piece of paper. Other games, like Zelda had a battery in the cartridge itself, but again, no additional accessories needed.