Hi,
Michael said:
Remember when these games we have were released. There are tipically
large chunks of empty time between any two game releases.
It takes ages to put a game together.
My responce:
Not only that we need to keep in mind the more complex the game the
longer it takes. I can put together a simple Blackjack game in a couple
of days time. Something like Shades of Doom or Tank Commander would take
at least a year or so to complete with my current schedule. Probably longer.
Michael said:
Don't throw the baby out with the bath-water. Arcade games shouldn't be
thought of as less worthy acomplishments. We haven't even begun to approach
the variety and scope available to sighted people.
My responce:
That's certainly true. There are several games that fall into the arcade
game genre, and have become legends in their own right. Games like
Asteroids, Montezuma's Revenge, Pacman, Missile Command, Bomberman, and
so on will go down in history as some of the best games in history. A
couple of years ago Activision released an Atari console with several
clasic arcade games on it, and it sold like hot cakes. People still
enjoy those old Atari classics even though they are very old in terms of
vidio game technology.
In terms of theaccessible games market we have only had a small, very
small, samplying of what the arcade genre has to offer. So far we have
seen a demo of Montezuma's Revenge, PCS has done a good reproduction of
Pacman, and several people have created their own Space invaders style
games. However, that is actually a drop in the bucket when it comes to
all of the games that once existed for the Atari and other arcade consoles.
Michael said:
Sidescrollers have a whole lot to offer blind people. We really haven't
seen any serious exploration of that genre despite the relative ease
of translating it into accessible form.
My responce:
Yes, and there have been many good games that were originally created as
side-scrollers. Games like Castlevania, Megaman, Double dragon, Pitfall,
Montezuma's Revenge, Super Mario Brothers, Prince of Persia, etc all
started out as side-scrollers, and became best sellers. The genre has an
impressive history, and converts fairly well into an audio only format.
Michael said:
Variety, rather than actual innovation, is what is truly being sought
here. Let's be clear about this. The actual complaint being sent to
game developers
isn't truly about their lack of innovation. What a lot of us truly seek
is new experience of genres we haven't gotten a chance to play in yet.
My rsponce:
I have to agree with that excellent observation. It isn't like we have
hundreds of side-scrollers, arcade games, first person shooters,
simulators, etc to choose from that are actually 100% accessible out of
the box. There is nothing wrong with card games, board games, and so on
but we don't have enough variety to satisfy everyone's interests properly.
I'm personally interested in real time action games like Shades of Doom,
Tank Commander, and Lonewolf. I'd love to see more games along that line
being created. Someone else might really be into card and board games,
and want to see more games like that being developed. Others might want
to know what it was like playing the classics like Donkey Kong, Frogger,
and Asteroids, and would like to see more games like that being created.
Unfortunately, there isn't enough of us skilled game developers to
satisfy everyone currently.
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