100 year old video games?

A thought just occurred to me. Books and artwork can live for generations and still be heralded as classic and meaningful decades, even centuries after their release. Video games haven't been around all that long, but original arcade games like Pac-Man are approaching their 35 year birthday, and it's still played to this day in its original form and billion different adaptations. PC games aren't far behind either.

How do you think video games will be looked at when they're 100 years old? Do you think they will still be played? It's kind of odd how historical works are usually physical things, but we are approaching an era where code will be just as old. Electronic games will be locked away in a vault for all to behold at a museum? Or the code released for users to play? Those original arcade games still haven't lost their luster it seems. Even young kids enjoy playing them to this day, I know mine do.

 

There are games, books, movies, songs and etc. that would never get old. So I guess even after 100 years, there would be things that would still be enjoyed. Let's hope that we would live long enough to see it

 

It's funny that you mention this, because I'm in the middle of a back-to-the-oldies gaming marathon. I've finished Wolf3D, Doom 1/2 and Heretic over the last few weeks. Currently, I'm working on Duke3D.

I can definitely see people playing these games in 80 years. I played them 20 years ago, and I'll probably play through again in another 20 years. If medical advances allow, I'll happily do this again in 2090.

 

if there's one game that will still be played 100 years from now, it's not pacman. it's TETRIS! that's a true classic

 

Interesting thought exercise. Humans have always sought out new ways to entertain themselves using the materials and mediums available to them. Reminded me of an article i had just read where they found one of the oldest games yet to date
World’s Oldest Board Game Found in Turkey | Geekosystem

I'd imagine that the games we regard as classics now will still be viewed as such in the future. I'm sure code will be playable with emulators. I do wonder about game types like MMO's. I've never played WOW, for example, but I've heard that the game's history itself has changed a lot over the years, how Vanilla WOW was different, better, etc. Some of these games will be viewed as classics, but might be completely unplayable in the future.

Another interesting bit to ponder is how digital property rights are evolving - eg Bruce Willis wanting to leave his kids his itunes library. Would you be able to leave your saved games in your will to your kids? Could you bequeath your skyrim magelord to your first born?

 

That's the sad thing is all this "online only" crap that they never remove that DRM, so when you go to play the game ten years down the road, to revisit a classic, you can't because the servers are no longer running. It's such a shame.

 

Even sadder is that given how cheap storage is per GB, there is really no excuse anymore not to be able to preserve at least playable portions of the game. It's the main reason I have never found myself attracted to MMO type games

Back to the subject at hand, though, I imagine that even with future tech, we will still be playing the same type of games. For example, MS had a demo showing how they could turn an entire room into a virtual game room. Imagine playing something as simple as chess, where you and your opponent are the Kings, and holographic pieces move and do battle.

 

More than humanity's love for video games is their love of preserving history. (Although definitely can't be said of online focused games, unless someone restarts the servers)

P.S. I believe old games will eventually be free to the masses eg. the many websites offering past console games, Paperboy, Road Rash etc.

 

i had many links saved on an old forum but as mentioned the servers or whoever uploaded them had left or turned them off.
was a big fan of space invaders until asteroids came out and then i was hooked. was great going into an arcade and watching people queue up to play the game. 10p for 5 lives would last the average player 15 minutes. then i would have a game and last 2-3 hours clocking the game to 999,999,999 for 10p

the one im still trying to find a decent version of is pheonix. so far the 3 versions ive tried are very buggy and cant play for more than a minute.

was in the papers today that the inventor of nintendo passed away. so anyone with old nintendo gear it will start rising in value.
ive got a gameboy in its box with 44 mint condition games. now ive bought before but never sold on ebay. hmm time to learn

 

I'm not sure the value of old nintendo stuff will go up in value, unless it was signed by Yamauchi or something like that. Perhaps they might sell for a premium in Japan, as Yamauchi was the richest man in Japan and fairly well known. But why would you want to sell anyways? Keep them for nostalgia or for your (future) kids.

 

It depends on the game and how it ages in time. Games like Pong can always be played due to it's level of simplicity yet competitive ability. Now FPS shooters from earlier may not age as well as in Goldeneye on N64. It was revolutionary at it's inception yet people wouldn't really "get it" now based on the advancing controls (consoles) and graphics. A game like SF2 Turbo is still very playable for it's colorful and simplistic graphics and FLUID gameplay but a game like MK 1 or Pit Fighter just didn't age well and users who never played them might not "get it."

But many old games still have very active audiences as evidenced by Kickstarter funding for games like say Leisure Suit Larry. It would probably be horrible for me to play but I still debate getting it as I remember VIVIDLY as a very young pre-adolescent trying to random guess the "age check" questions and going through the point and click adventure. Look at the demand still for games like Killer Instinct; games just keep a certain "feel" and "memory" for those who grew up experiencing what it brought to the table from an artistic, fun, and gameplay experience.

I will always remember playing Elevator Action or Karate Champ on the NES for endless hours. For some, they will always be appreciated, for some it won't make any sense how they could have been considered fun. The fun games will be the simple and competitive games that just "work." What I mean is games that are game play rich and don't sacrifice game play and performance for say graphics as graphics are always evolving. That is why people who never played Pit Fighter or Mortal Kombat will be " What made this game fun?" Historians of gaming (probably a growing field if you think about it) will take interest in studying why the games were released and what the appeal and relevancy of said games were on the culture at that time. Obviously for Mortal Kombat and Pit Fighter it was about digitized graphics and fatalities; whilst not having the programing and budget for intense and competitive game play. MK2 is a game that can still be played because it made the series relevant and with game play that still allows gamers to compete with a fair level of competition...or should I say Kompetition.

Final Fight is still around because side scrolling fighters are hardly around but the game just kinda "works." Who wouldn't want to be 6-10 years old and pick Haggar who looks like iconic WWE Wrestlers and go smash through hundreds of enemies in a controller throwing frustrating level of unforgiving difficulty?

Interesting topic HTWing.

 

99.99% of the games will be forgettable, but a small number will be remembered and still played today. My kids enjoy the classic video games today. Heck I broke out my Atari 2600 and surprisingly some of the games still worked. They liked Combat despite it's 24x16 (or whatever it was, lol) block resolution and a few colors. I think the simplicity of it is what makes it so attractive yet fun. It's like shooting a basketball in the hoop. It's the same thing over and over, yet different every time.

 

Yes I agree. However at the deeper nerdy level, I am interested in the evolution of gaming and think back to my "WOW" moments. It's interesting to study WHY I loved certain games both then and now and one's that just didn't age well. There are games I would like to know the name of that i forgot. Two come to mind
1. A PC game that was only text based and you start out maybe in a cave and have to keep typing "turn" "left" etc to continue on the game.
2. A genesis side-scroller where you keep wearing different masks (maybe up to 100) which give you different powers and abilities.

 

Oh yeah the old Infocom games. I played most of them. I remember waiting MONTHS after spending $40 (in mid 1980's) on HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy and played it all the way to the end. $40 for someone in middle school in the late 80's was a lot of money too. But I had a paper route and spent a good part of my money on that game. I remember it vividly too.

 

I remember playing my first console game, it played pong. Just pong, and only pong. Oh, there were options too. You could have a long or short paddle. Yep, it was a delux model. I also remember playing Spacewar on a monochrome CRT linked to a Mini.

Here are a couple of timelines you might like.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games

Video Games: Timeline | Infoplease.com

 

since video games are inexorably connected to technology, our present day video games would most likely be considered mundane forms of entertainment maybe much like the way we see kaleidoscopes or that moving etiquette toy that was a precursor to the movie projector.

 

I hope people in a half-century people look at Shadow of the Colossus like we look at the film Citizen Kane today. I've played a lot of great games, but there was really something special and profound and timeless about that.

 

The FIRST Arcade game:

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The FIRST home console:
From Wikipedia: " The system was sold with translucent plastic overlays that gamers could put on their TV screen to simulate color graphics, though only two TV sizes were supported. Some of these overlays could even be used with the same cartridges, though with different rules for playing."

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The FIRST ever PC game, "Donkey":

<iframe width='640' height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/05YI7BfmgPg" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

We wouldn't know because we would be dead by then lol

 

Not really. Some of the younger generation will see games of the 1980's in 2080. And heck even 50-60 years. The original gen arcade games were in the early 80's.

 

Although it's not that well-written, a bit hokey, and purely escapist, the novel Ready Player One discusses this question a bit as well.

I would suggest that even the majority of "greatest video games of all time" by our current standards will fade away by then, if not much sooner. The games that will survive in 100 years will be the Citizen Kanes - the games that carry as much historical relevance for how they changed the face of gaming as they do entertainment value for their gameplay itself. World of Warcraft is definitely not going to last nearly that long unless Blizzard finds a way to keep the game running and evolving for at least another twenty years.

 

All I know is that I hope I am still physically capable of playing video games in my old age. I introduced my 91 year old grandfather to Limbo and Braid, which he was able to play even with arthritis.