Week 5: Vintage Gaming Exercise

 
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2011

Vintage Gameplay Activity
Go to http://www.atari.com/play


Play one of the classic vintage arcade games online via a browser - e.g. asteroids, battlezone,

And answer the following questions:

Student Name: Charles Therrell





Today’s Date: March 3rd 2011





Game Title Examined: Missile Command




Year of Publication: 1980




Game Publisher: Atari





Game Developer: Atari

1 - What is the game genre (e.g. shoot-em-up, racing, sports, puzzle, MMORPG, ‘sandbox’, music sequence following game (e.g. DDR, guitar hero)
The genre is shooter.


2 -What is the type of game ‘world’ or environment (e.g. flat environment, puzzle/maze space, 3D world?)

The environment is six, land based cities, protected by three missile batteries.

3 - What is the perspective taken by player (e.g first person, third person perspective, top down, isometric) in relation to main player controlled character.

Third person perspective, head on cross-section view.

4 - What is the actual gameplay – what does the player have to do?

Protect your six cities from being nuked by multiple inbound threats.

5 - Is the gameplay intuitive? (i.e. is it easy to understand what to do without instructions?) describe.

The gameplay of the arcade original was very intuitive, not so much using a keyboard as you must check key assignments first. Game play also intuitive on XBox 360 version.

6 - Is the gameplay patterned (game does the same thing over & over) or is it random (happens differently every time?)

The missile attack is different every time.

7 - What does the type of graphic approach used as well as the audio tell you about the limits of the technology at the time the game was published?

Looks like 8-Bit raster graphics. The ROMs for cabinet arcade games were hard-soldered to the motherboard. These ROMs had a very limited amount of storage capacity, which made objects rendered in raster graphics sort of blocky.


8 - Describe your views about the game from the point of view of


1. ease of play

Easy peasy, missiles come - I shoot them.

2. enjoyability

Fun and games, brings back lots of High School memories.

c) level of engagement/immersion

Level of engagement high, level of immersion low, easy enough to quit and return for a reality break.

9 - Had you played this game prior to this time? If so, when?

Demo on XBox Live within the last few years.

10 - what does playing the game remind you of in terms of other games/media?

Playing Missile Command reminds me of (many) other arcade games, and the 8-Bit Nintendo Entertainment System (a/k/a Famicom). Also reminds me of playing Missile Command on the Atari 2600.