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[Debate on] Journey through the history of videogames (secret Elka started)
elkatas
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I have finally returned work on the book, and I already have write-ups for thirty games. I'm aiming for christmas 2010 release, but there is fair chance that the book could be out little earlier, perhaps little later if there is problems with printing.
As a stylistic change, I have decided that the book will be in released handbook format, making it more pleasing to eye and carry around. Less important games will now get shorter writeup, roughly around 270 words, meaning that two shorter writeups fit into single page. More important games will get full page and 500 word write-up. Thanks to these pagecount is higher, but in the end, the book shouldn't be too expensive to print.
So far games go, I don't try to set set specific number for games anymore, except that definitive upper limit will be 600. I have done some changes to the game list, removed few redundant titles and added few new titles. I have also added release years to each game. Interestingly enough, PSX and later consoles are more featured than the older consoles. Earlier years have seen some changes because originally list didn't have any games for years 1976 and 1978. For historical reasons, I have added both Pong (for Home Pong) and VideoCart-1 (for Fairchild Channel F) to the list. VideoCart-1 is pretty obscure piece of history, but very important as it was first cartridge based videogame.
The list
Discussion about writing
Discussion about writing starts at post #200.
Original first post of this topic
I have finally returned work on the book, and I already have write-ups for thirty games. I'm aiming for christmas 2010 release, but there is fair chance that the book could be out little earlier, perhaps little later if there is problems with printing.
As a stylistic change, I have decided that the book will be in released handbook format, making it more pleasing to eye and carry around. Less important games will now get shorter writeup, roughly around 270 words, meaning that two shorter writeups fit into single page. More important games will get full page and 500 word write-up. Thanks to these pagecount is higher, but in the end, the book shouldn't be too expensive to print.
So far games go, I don't try to set set specific number for games anymore, except that definitive upper limit will be 600. I have done some changes to the game list, removed few redundant titles and added few new titles. I have also added release years to each game. Interestingly enough, PSX and later consoles are more featured than the older consoles. Earlier years have seen some changes because originally list didn't have any games for years 1976 and 1978. For historical reasons, I have added both Pong (for Home Pong) and VideoCart-1 (for Fairchild Channel F) to the list. VideoCart-1 is pretty obscure piece of history, but very important as it was first cartridge based videogame.
The list
Discussion about writing
Discussion about writing starts at post #200.
Original first post of this topic
I don't know if this topic is suitable. Moderators lock if it isn't OK.
Situation is this. For few weeks, I have been doing preliminary planning on non-commercial fundraising project called "501 Greatest Consolegames Ever: Celeberation of seven console generations". Basically, it is a book which will cover 501 most important videogame titles. Each game will get either 600 words long article, couple of screenshots, and perhaps even piece of artwork. Book will be written in finnish, and all profits gained from the book will be given to charity, either to International Red Cross or to Lastenklinikoiden Kummit Ry* (we haven't decided yet). Nobody of us is getting paid for this, and we are doing this primarily for fun and to stave off boredom. There is also fair chance that book is never published due current economic climate.
Me and few other guys are currently writing list of games that will be included in book. So far we have 476 games on the list, and 25 free slots (that are mainly reserved for upcoming games). As you guys are pretty well versed in games, I would like to ask your guidance on the list. What titles shouldn't be on the list? Which titles should be in the list? Please notice following things:
- Book focuses only on console games, normal and handheld. I would have liked to include computer games too, but we came to conclusion that it would be too hard job to choose games from both categories.
- Due marketing reasons, I have been asked to keep amount of japan only games reasonably small.
- Some titles have been selected for historical reasons (i.e. Splatterhouse).
- Some titles have been selected by virtue of having unique concept (i.e. Soundvoyager, Clock Tower).
- Games with platform Z mean series that we have decided to include, but we haven't yet decided which game will be included.
- Some titles haven't been released yet, but we are pretty sure that they will belong to the book (i.e. LittleBigPlanet, Dragon Quest V DS, Left4Dead)
* Lastenklinikoiden Kummit Ry is Charitable organization that collects money for local children research clinics.
Thank you in advance.
List of current games @ Google Spreadsheets: Link
EDIT: Well, writing is starting soon, and after long discussion, we came to conclusion that book's page count could be upped by 32 pages, meaning that book's projected size is now 540 pages. Thanks to this, number of games have been upped to 525.
EDIT 2: In the end, I took control of this project. Book will be now written in english, and it will feature 550 games that are spread amongst 280 pages (each game will get half A4).
Situation is this. For few weeks, I have been doing preliminary planning on non-commercial fundraising project called "501 Greatest Consolegames Ever: Celeberation of seven console generations". Basically, it is a book which will cover 501 most important videogame titles. Each game will get either 600 words long article, couple of screenshots, and perhaps even piece of artwork. Book will be written in finnish, and all profits gained from the book will be given to charity, either to International Red Cross or to Lastenklinikoiden Kummit Ry* (we haven't decided yet). Nobody of us is getting paid for this, and we are doing this primarily for fun and to stave off boredom. There is also fair chance that book is never published due current economic climate.
Me and few other guys are currently writing list of games that will be included in book. So far we have 476 games on the list, and 25 free slots (that are mainly reserved for upcoming games). As you guys are pretty well versed in games, I would like to ask your guidance on the list. What titles shouldn't be on the list? Which titles should be in the list? Please notice following things:
- Book focuses only on console games, normal and handheld. I would have liked to include computer games too, but we came to conclusion that it would be too hard job to choose games from both categories.
- Due marketing reasons, I have been asked to keep amount of japan only games reasonably small.
- Some titles have been selected for historical reasons (i.e. Splatterhouse).
- Some titles have been selected by virtue of having unique concept (i.e. Soundvoyager, Clock Tower).
- Games with platform Z mean series that we have decided to include, but we haven't yet decided which game will be included.
- Some titles haven't been released yet, but we are pretty sure that they will belong to the book (i.e. LittleBigPlanet, Dragon Quest V DS, Left4Dead)
* Lastenklinikoiden Kummit Ry is Charitable organization that collects money for local children research clinics.
Thank you in advance.
List of current games @ Google Spreadsheets: Link
EDIT: Well, writing is starting soon, and after long discussion, we came to conclusion that book's page count could be upped by 32 pages, meaning that book's projected size is now 540 pages. Thanks to this, number of games have been upped to 525.
EDIT 2: In the end, I took control of this project. Book will be now written in english, and it will feature 550 games that are spread amongst 280 pages (each game will get half A4).
Hypnotically inclined.
elkatas on
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I would also consider Rocket Slime (DS), and replacing Sonic and Knuckles with Sonic 3 and Knuckles.
Klonoa 2 was arguably much better than the first.
Honestly, though, that's a hard list to fault.
So many .... things. My life is too short to debate this. But since it was mentioned I'd swap Silent Hill 2 for Silent Hill 1. It was so much better.
猿も木から落ちる
There isn't even a Sierra game on the list. The list is made of fail.
猿も木から落ちる
Terranigma on the Snes.
Also consider at least one Earth Defence Force/Global Defence Force game.
Don't be silly.
猿も木から落ちる
Hey, it was better than Chrono Trigger.
And your mom is better than having sex with a brick what is your point because I do not understand it.
猿も木から落ちる
My point is that it was better than many games on the list and should be on there.
Just because your side of the Atlantic never got it...
I believe you are half correct. Lets arm wrestle about the other half.
猿も木から落ちる
-Replace Ninja Gaiden (NES) with Ninja Gaiden II (NES).
-This list lacks Otogi (XBOX)
-Folklore should be omitted; it is a great game, but it does not deserve to be here.
-SOCOM (PS2) should be replaced with SOCOM II (PS2)
-Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
-Medal of Honor should be omitted; if this was a PC inclusive, I would have put Allied Assault, but the console MoHs have no place here.
-UmJammer Lammy (PSX) could also find a place here.
-de Blob should be omitted
-Bioshock is a first-person shooter, not a survival horror game.
I think that's it.
F-Zero GX was the only notable omission for me. I probably would have also used FF 9 instead of some of the others you picked.
There were also a few I wouldn't have included, but in the spirit of not being an ass, I won't talk about them.
List is console games only.
It came out on the NES
It was on the NES, and it was awesome.
Phail.
If you have friends you can have countless hours of fun, and even if you don't it's not bad.
Also Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow.
This was hard. Original Ninja Gaiden is classic and had more memorable locations, but I agree that Ninja Gaiden II was better as a game. It doesn't help either that NGII wasn't released here.
This is tricky one, but we did try to limit how many times same series could be on the list (some things like Zelda and Mario are exceptions). We did select Metal Gear, Metal Solid and Metal Gear Solid 3 because every one of them pushed series forwards heavily. In my opinion, both MGS2 and MGS4 felt like transistional titles, if that makes any sense.
I think that first Medal of Honor was pretty good game, especially when you consider what platform it came to. Not to mention that it is responsible for WWII FPS shooter trend.
Yeah, I know that it was on NES, but it felt really awkard (at least to me). But I guess it is achievement for its time.
To be honest, I never even knew it was a PC game till I joined these forums.
If it is published. Because of standards we are aiming for, this is going to be surprisinly expensive venture, especially when we plan to print 700 copies or so. But we are going to price it so that we get our expenses back by selling 300 copies.
I nominate at least one Monster Rancher, Guardian Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2. You have a kind of weird thing going on where you are nominating what I consider basically PC games at this point for a console. Notably Cave Story and Thief, was thief that good for Xbox? I really consider it a PC game, but I suppose it would be a good addition to illustrate the PC games coming to consoles trend.
This is a massive undertaking, unless you and a few other guys is like...50 other guys you might want to shorten it a bit. This book would be absolutely massive wouldn't it? I mean I would think that one full colour page for each game would be pretty substantial in the printing department overall. How much were you thinking of retailing for? Awesome that you would do it for charity though.
Maybe, given the nature of your writers you would consider writing it first in english. That might help assure it's geting taken on by a publisher, since something like that could largely market through the internet/amazon. Also that way I could buy it.
I personally think that Thief was good game on Xbox, although series glory days had already passed. But it is very good game in its genre. Cave Story is there thanks to its significance as a downloable title. Same goes for Pac-Man Anniversary Collection, which might be one of the influential games of this generation.
480 pages. Few games that you can't really tell that much will get 450 words, rest will get 800 words or so (at maximum).
But yea, Monster Rancher 2, post haste.
Yeah, we did plan publishing this in english, but it would mean that we would need to hire native speakers to write. And even if everyone would be getting only 2 (EUR, not USD) cents per word, we would be looking at 6000 dollars or so. Book printing itself will cost 4000 euros or so. Perhaps even more. Of course, all costs will be tax reductable, but it still way too much money.
I'd say Lunar 1 for classic, but Lunar II blows it away on almost every level.
I will come back to edit this if i can think of some others.
Edit: You may also want to include Yars' Revenge (Atari 2600) as it was probably one of the best/most widely known games on the console.
Impressive list. Thief was a good add. I had played the series extensively on PC, and while the console itteration wasnt quite the same, it was an excellent game overall. The sanitarium level is still one of the creepiest I have experianced in a while. I thought the console subtitle was "Deadly Shadows" though... I could be wrong.
Ones I think you missed:
Phantasmagoria (Saturn). Not necessarily because it's good, but because it defined the "interactive movie" genre, and was pretty controversial.
Gun (X360). Open world western with adult themes. Flawed, but a Great story IMO. A runner-up here would be Red Dead Revolver.
I think the Orange Box should be split up. Portal deserves it's own mention.
Overall, good job.
Steam/PSN/XBox Live:LutExIV
Also, THPS3 should be replaced with 2. 2 was really the breakout of the series, and probably the most influential extreme sports game ever made.
And it sucks this book is only in Finnish! I would buy the shit out of an English version.
If it doesn't get on there I'm going to burn this mother dooowwnnn!!!
I personally don't like Rondo of Blood that much. It's a solid game, but it is way overhyped thanks to its rareness. I could add Dracula X Chronicles to the list, but then the series would have overpresentation:
Castlevania
Super Castlevania IV
Symphony of the Night
Dracula X Chronicles
Order of Ecclesia
Little too much, no matter how much I love Castlevania.
2) Medal of Honour Wii should be considered, again for its use of motion control.
3) de Blob 100000% deserves to be on there. If anyone else says otherwise I will castrate them.
4) Why are you omitting PC games, exactly? You have a fair bit of crap that you could fill with PC slots.
For focus. It would be too hard to choose both computer and console games to list, especially if you add stuff from niche genres (grand strategies, flight sims, adventure games, etc.).
I also thought that Okami Wii was better then the PS2 version.
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