Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: History of Gaming

Are We Lacking Excitement?

Posted on by Viljami

I barely remember the beginning of the 90s. No, I wasn’t partying hard back then. I mean that I was only a young child that didn’t have this ability to understand some things. I got the idea for this blog post as I was once again playing some Golden Axe 2 for Sega Mega Drive. It was first released in 1991.

I remember that this was one of the most popular games we had that time for Mega Drive. I definitely connect this game as a defnite Sega game. There are some games that just make me feel this way. We can mention games like Sonic and Outrun. This can tell you only how skillful these engineers and game designers were. They were not playing with their technical skills.

If we think about technology we can think about 1980s and how Commodore 64 influenced several young people to commit a huge amount of time to programming and getting into this technical field as a hobby. Some might have even made it to the industry as a professional. I can think of people like Linus Torvalds right here. Did you know that he is also from Finland? Well, he is.

While users of Mega Drive gaming system weren’t able to program or design their own games with this device there definitely was some sense of excitement towards technology, computers, games and everything else related to video games.

If you play Golden Axe 2 for a while you can notice how thoroughly the makers of this game have thought about many aspects about this game. First of all we have here some very carefully designed characters. We also have these surroundings that can make your imagination take a dive in to the wolrd this game presents. There is also a light story among with some enemy characters. All this just explains the quality of this work. This is defnitely a good game of this era.

The gameplay is very nice also. Graphics could be better. It’s a shame that we haven’t seen a new Golden Axe game for a while now. There was a game released for PS3 and/or Xbox 360 some time ago. But I think that this game looks good if you think about it being released back in 1991.

What would I add to this game if I had a change to modernize it? It lacks some character development in my opinion. I could see this game being a very nice action RPG if it would be brought to this day. If there would be experience points and some way just to develop your character. The story and surroundings are just so detailed. This game has taken some influences about some phantasy literacy and maybe even movies. So it would be a good fit for a role playing game.

Mega Drive had a deep impact to game development. Did you know that Diablo was inspired by NHL 94? Well, it was. Turn based role playing games were dominating the markets before Diablo was released. The developers at Blizzard thought that they should bring these action features to the world of role playing games. At the same time real time strategy games were beginning to become more popular.

But we should return to the main question that I set in the beginning of this blog post. Were things different back in 1991? And if so how? The biggest change there has happened is that video games are a way bigger business today. Do we have enough room here to create something unforgetable? Are we still excited about new technology and with the same time about building new phantasy stories, worlds and characters?

I think we haven’t lost all of our excitement. But if we wish to progress in this world of gaming we have to keep this matter in our minds. Money is important, I know that. But it shouldn’t take away these opportunities and all this excitement. So let me say, once again, don’t loose your dreams! Don’t loose the excitement…

Maybe There Really Is a Reason?

Posted on by Viljami

Have you ever wondered what could be a reason for collecting games? Sometimes it feels like you find yourself spending too much money for retro video games. You are getting every legendary game and also every game that gives you nostalgia. You really wish that you can come back to these games that really defined your childhood or youth. You are basically trying to save those moments and hope that you can always come back to those memories.

I  have myself found out that I don’t have so much time for playing video games today. There seems to be so many responsibilities. I want to sleep my nights as well as I can. So there’s less time for diving into a good retro game.

There seems to be a limitless count of good games. There are old games and new games. There are games for all ages and games for only grown ups. There are games for young people and games that even old people can play. How can you define what is worth keeping in your collections? How could also those people that don’t know a lot about video games learn something about them.

I am thinking about this. Maybe we should keep our history of playing video games with us. There should be museums for games. There should be books written about this subject. Because if we continue this way all these games are becoming harder and harder to find and get back into.

So, I think, there is definitely a reason for all this. With this I mean collecting video games. There are already lists of games that have been released for a gaming console. It is very valuable if someone knows also something about a game or about some games. I think literature is very valuable. And in a way we hobbyists have a very important mission that I think we have already begun to execute.

There is a reason. You have been learning to play video games. How long have you spent playing? This was a question that came to my mind as I was younger. I thought that maybe this was all a some sort of waste of time. But, actually, it never and rarely is like that. Everything you do, even ifd you are making a mistake, keeps adding up to your experience. You can think of this as you would in a roleplaying game. Everything you do keeps advancing you in some way.

Some good books come to my mind. For example the book about GameCube that I got some months ago. It’s a defnite proof of how it is possible to gather information about a game console that isn’t the newest one anymore and is getting a bit rare to find already. What were all these games about and what were the technical details of this console? I personally find this kind of information very interesting.

There are already some museums that present the history of gaming here in Finland. I think there are many museums like this all over the world. There is a website that holds every Commodore 64 game that you can think of and that does exist.

Just think about how much work it can be when you develop a video game. There are countless individuals that have been involved in all these years in game development. There are some technologies that were used. There are many game engines that were used and also many programming languages. I think every game is a valuable one. So, there really is a reason to also collecting games and keeping them in order just to show and present our valuable history. Also, I think that history in playing video games can definitely give you an edge if you are working as a game developer. So, this was something if you are looking for a reason to this all.

The Certain Appeal of PlayStation 1

Posted on by Viljami

What does PlayStation 1 offer that makes you just pick up the controller and play? It was released almost 30 years ago. I still find that it has a lot to offer even compared to modern game consoles.

I can only try to describe what it felt like playing PS1 back in the day. We, gamers, were excited. Technology was new and it was advancing at a high speed. You could literally see how games became more and more realistic. It was the dawn of three dimensional game environments.

Sound quality reached also the level that was offered by the CD format. There were many electronic music artists that produced some cathchy musical vibes to these new kinds of video games. CD-ROM as a platform for video games offered game developers way more space than everyone was used to. Games became more complex and gamers started to spend more time playing. Little by little it came acceptable for grown ups to play games, also.

PC games were also developing. It became clear that computer gaming offered several strategy games and also some very good first person shooters. You really didn’t play FPS games on a console. The first FPS console game is often considered to be GoldenEye 007 that was released in 1997 for Nintendo 64. The point where FPS really conquered consoles and made them break out from only being playable with a keyboard and mouse to getting controlled with a gamepad became when Halo was released for Xbox.

The games that you preferred to play on PS1 were games like Gran Turismo, some early games of Need for Speed series, Crash Bandicoot and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. These games had a combination of action, cool looking graphics and an excellent playability. This is how games of PS1 were presented and this is why they are still causing me to feel this endless joy and also nostalgia still after all these years.

Today I have a PSOne console along with my PS2. As you probably read form that earlier post I have been struggling a bit with my PS2. I currently have my PSOne in storage but I am thinking of moving it to my setup once again. It has luckily functioned very nicely since I bought it back in 2017.

I have a strong history in playing video games with PS1. It was important gaming console and it shaped my knowledge in video games and made me go deeper and deeper. It wasn’t my first gaming console. That spot is taken by Sega Mega Drive. I did play some PC games on DOS before I got to play with consoles.

It hasn’t always been clear in my life that games deserve a spot in my life. That is why I sold my PlayStation 1 back in 2000. I didn’t know if playing video games would make me progress in my life. I also sold all my games that I had. I think I had maybe 30 games back then. I do regret this. If I have to think something positive about this I can at least think that I made the buyer happy.

Today I have bought nearly all games I used to have back in to my collection. This featured image related to this blog post displays my current PS1 games collection. I have recently added games to it and it keeps getting new games to it all the time. I might have to update this image soon.

PlayStation 1 sold over 100 million copies. Its production was discontinued in 2006. You can still get your hands on a PS1 gaming console. You can get a used console for a bit below 100 euros. You can also get your hands on an emulator like ePSXe or DuckStation. For being a legit gamer you must rip these rom files that you use to play from game discs that you own. You also have to copy your BIOS from PS1 console that you own. And otherwise you are basically breaking the law. One other way to play PS1 games that I have to mention is to buy a PlayStation Classic console.