Hi Dark, I certainly see where you are coming from, but I see two problems with your conclusions. One, is that not every programmer has the same skills, and sometimes one programmer might think of a novel solution to solve a problem that another programmer would not think of to resolve a particular problem in converting some mainstream mechanics to audio. Two, just because a solution has not been introduced does not mean one does not exist. Merely that not all the possibilities have been tried yet.
Let's take your example of Duck Hunt here. I'll be the first to admit Liam did not do the best job of converting that game to audio, because its overly simplistic compared to the NES version. The ducks simply fly across the screen and when they are in the center you hit space to shoot them. Pretty dull and not at all like the original game. However, as I sit here I can think of away to restore the original challenge of the game, and write Duck Hunt to be on par with the video game version. The way to do it would be to add an audio targeting system similar to what Justin did in the Gorbian levels of Troopanum 2. You would be able to move the targeting beep left and right until the duck is centered and then move it up and down to center it on the duck. When the pitch of the beep is at its maximum shoot. If tied with a game controller, mouse, or something we would effectively be recreating Duck Hunt almost exactly like the classic NES version, and have it be fully accessible. Not sure Liam had thought of trying anything like that when creating his version of Duck Hunt, but that is a case of where I think the experience could be drastically improved to be fairly close to the original in challenge and still use the same basic mechanics. I'll freely admit when I was working on Montezuma's Revenge I wasn't trying too hard to find solutions for various issues. I was primarily in a big hurry so if there was not something I knew how to do or have an idea how to get around some problem with converting some aspect of the game to audio I just skipped it intending to come back to the problem at a later time. Therefore certain things such as the bouncing skulls were left undone. That said, now that six years have passed since working on the game I have a few ideas in which I could have implemented the bouncing skulls. One way would be by introducing a bounce or jump sound for when the skulls bounced into the air, and a land sound for when they hit the ground. The Airbot battle in Super Liam is an example of one way the bouncing skulls could be made accessible, but I was in too much of a hurry at the time to really look for that kind of solution at the time. My point being just because various audio games lack a certain feature found in a video game counterpart doesn't mean it is impossible or too difficult to convert a specific mechanic from a video game to audio. It could be a lack of skill, shear laziness on the developers part, or simply a case of not thinking the problem completely through. I'm personally not ready to put the smackdown on converting video game mechanics to audio and give it the 1, 2, 3 until all alternatives have been explored. Cheers! On 5/21/14, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote: > Hi Tom. > > I do see your point in trying to give people who have not played the > original the same experience, however my problem is what usually happens > when a game is translated to audio from an original graphical conceptmy > problem is that when a developer simply cannot replicate a mechanic in audio > > that mechanic gets missed. > > Take Liam's duckhunt for example. The original Duckhunt was challenging > because the ducks could move at any angle across the screen, and the player > > had to either target them with the nes connected gun, or (even more > difficult), line up a circle with his/her pad on the screen. The lining up > targeting process was complex sinse the player could never guarantee his/her > > target was in the right place and it required the player to track the > movement of his/her target, and the movement of the oncoming duck. > > Sinse however there wasn't a way to replicate the vertical movement or > random target lining up of the ducks, we end up with a sterrio targeting > game where the player hears the sound of the duck and must hit space when > it's in the center, thus all the need to coordinate the original target > position vs the position of the oncoming duck is missing from the game and > once again we have a reaction test boppit affair. > > This is why I suggest instead of completely missing out a mechanic which is > > difficult to do in audio as most developers have done, and thus ending up > with a less challenging and paler copy of the original lacking many of it's > > features, we considder adding audio mechanics to approximate the original > challenge. > > I've seen far too many attempts to replicate mainstream games in audio that > > ran into this problem, from space invaders, to duckhunt, and yes, > montizuma's revenge, indeed about the only game which I've seen succeed in > replicating all the mechanics is audio pong, and that just for the obvious > reason that pong has very few mechanics to worry about. > > On the other hand, games like packman talks which utterly changed the > mechanical elements to add additional challenges to the game have been very > > successful, precisely because! where something isn't possible to do in audio > > an additional mechanic is substituted to make up for it, egg losing the > multi object spacial overview of original packman but having an fps explorer > > with the need for fast evasive action instead. > > This is why i'm rather coming to the conclusion that trying to exactly > replicate mainstream mechanics and simply miss off the less doable ones is a > > less successful path for game design. > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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