Hi Dark, Yeah, I know. I've played around with a number of the retro remakes myself and I am aware not all of them strictly use original sounds. Although, that really wasn't my point.
What I wanted to point out is that many of these retro remakes are designed from a purely sighted point of view with a lot of the emphasis on the graphics, but the developers pay very little attention to the audio environment. As you said yourself a lot of the retro remakes would have to be completely redesigned from scratch to make them accessible. The game might have to be slowed down a little bit, certain traps would need to be altered to be understood purely through an audio medium, and the sounds themselves would have to be selected for their realism. However, my point is I don't think we can just take the game as is and bolt accessibility onto it. Accessibility would have to be designed into the game from the beginning and have the graphics and animations added to the game once the accessibility was in place. Take good old Montezuma's Revenge for example. The precious jewels were hanging in the air, and the only way to get them is to jump up and catch them out of the air. James North and I used a sound for the jewels, and a little chime sound when you caught one. The retro remake by Digital Art in 2006 was very good, the sounds and graphics were excellent, but there was no way to find the precious jewels, keys, gold coins, and other treasures in the pyramid. What I would have liked to have done is join up with Digital Art and get their 3d graphics and add it to my own version since the audio environment was designed for a blind gamer in mind. On 1/29/12, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Tom. > > firstly, not all retroremakes have the original sounds and music. one of my > favourites for instance, a game called millenipeed which is obviously a > remake of the game centipeed, has modern soundes and music, and it's own > graphics. > > the graphics are simple as compared to modern console games, but certainly > far more than what've been possible when centipeed was originally released. > It all depends upon how much the individual developer redesignged the game. > > speaking of redesign, I personally don't think it'd be a case of modifying > an existing remake to make it audio accessible, both for strictly > programming reasons, and because also the game might need a little rejigging > in speed, enemy position etc in order to make a good audio game. > > For example, in the game ice climbers, you are vertically assending a > mountain. You can knock holes in ledges above you by jumping up to hit them, > but also have to cope with things like moving ledges. > > Frequently, you'll have to jump onto one horizontal platform, jump onto > another, and then! have to hit blocks above you. This is further complicated > by the flying topies (birds), that fly horizontally across. So, in order to > calculate your jump you need to considder not just your position, but that > of two ledges above you, where the blocks are you can bash out of the way, > and whether any toppies are flying around. > > this is a case where perhaps taking in that much information in audio just > would not work as is, so a developer might have to substitute some other > challenge, ---- for example having only one moving ledge to jump onto above > you, but having some spikes at either side that could kill you if you jumped > onto the moving ledge when it was too close to them. Thus, you'd stil need > to use your judgement of moving ledge position and your knolidge of game > mechanics, but not in a way that would require an overload of audio > information. > > This is why I think if one or other of the retroremakes devs were to work on > an audio game, it would have to be a case of doing something from scratch, > picking the right game and designing the audio elements to work along with > the rest of the game and graphics. > > Afterall, something like prince of persia would require not too much in the > way of alterations to gameplay, just audio kews for pit length, guard > attacks etc, ditto with some of the arena based shooters, or games like > packman (indeed I personally find packman more fun as an audio game than > visually). > > Beware the Grue! > > Dark. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
