From: marms@python.cs.unm.edu (Mike Arms)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video,alt.games.lynx
Subject: Re: Lynx vs. Game Gear?
Date: 15 Dec 92 23:35:11 GMT
Reply-To: sandia!marms@unmvax.unm.edu (Mike Arms)
Organization: Sandia National Laboratories

rjung@girtab.usc.edu (Robert A. Jung) writes:
|marms@python.unm.edu (Mike Arms) writes:
||Haven't you wished for options to control difficulty
||on games like STUN Runner or Rampart?  Damn those games are frustrating...
||I don't think that I'll find these attributes 
||necessarily in the Game Gear games, although quite a few GameBoy games
||do provide it.
|
|  I think the Game Gear titles are similar to the Lynx ones -- e.g., little
|configuration of difficulty or game parameters. Why? Individual game design
|issues. It's not a limit of the machine, just how the programmers work and
|how the specs are written. But to blame the Lynx for this is silly.

I wasn't trying to necessarily blame the Lynx exclusively, Robert.
But I do find that Lynx games are predominantly non-configurable
and either do not have any difficulty level selection, or the base
difficulty level is too hard for players of low skill that still 
want to be able to enjoy a game.  This does seem to be more of a
trend for Lynx games than for either SNES or Genesis games (I have 
never played a Game Gear).  But if Teh is correct below, then the
Lynx is top of the player-exclusion heap; not a good thing for a
struggling handheld game system.  Rather, Lynx games should endeavor 
to reach more prospective players by making them accessible to players
of a MUCH wider range of skill levels.

But you know, Robert, you didn't answer my question in your reply.
Haven't you wished for options to control difficulty on games like 
STUN Runner or Rampart?  I'd be interested in your particular answer
here.

|  I can concur with the resolution argument, though I think it can be
|overcome. Lynx games have made terrific use of color and display-list
|interrupts to get around the color/palette/resolution situations. Look at
|SHADOW OF THE BEAST and ZARLOR MERCENARY for two prime examples.

I do stand corrected on this point.  When done right, the graphics in 
Lynx games can be amazing.  Shadow of the Beast, Zarlor Mercenary, Klax,
and STUN Runner are all examples of truly exceptional graphics on the 
Lynx.  But as with anything, there are a lot of Lynx games that are a long 
way from exceptional.  


laird@think.com (Laird Popkin) writes:
>tehyang@aludra.usc.edu (Teh Kao Yang) writes:
>>Almost every Game Gear game I've seen at least offers you to choose the level
>>of difficulty. Columns gives you a lot of different options to configure the
>>difficulty.
>
>To paraphrase, almost every Lynx game I've seen at least offers you to
>choose the level of difficulty.  In general, console games are less
>configurable than home computer games.  I can guess why:

I am pretty confused here, Laird.  I own 32 different Lynx titles.
Very, very few of them offers you to choose the level of difficulty.
At best, what they offer is a beginning stage to start on (e.g.
Roadblasters, STUN Runner, Klax).  I do not consider this to be
a difficulty switch.  Rather, it is a limited version of a stage select.
You are merely by-passing the easier stages of the game.  As I said in
my last posting, what happens when the lowest difficulty level of a
game (or here base stage select) is still too hard for a player.  Tell
them, "Too bad, you're just not good enough.  Maybe you can hack it
when you get a couple of years older.  Sorry, kid."  Yeah, that'll
go a long way to bringing new players into a game, or a system if that
is a pervasive trend in games for that system.

>2. home computers have lots of RAM and disk space, while consoles tend to
>have less available RAM and ROM space is limited.  If the programmer spent
>more ROM and RAM space providing lots of flexibile options, that's less
>room for graphics, gameplay, sounds, etc.  Keep in mind that if a game
>offers lots of options, that doesn't just mean an additional screen of
>options to choose -- it also means that throughout the program all those
>options need to be handled.

In arcade style games we're not talking about a large number of
parameters that the user needs to be able to config.  You don't have
to configure the stats of each enemy type.  Mostly, you want to provide
config over stats on the player (e.g. speed, hit points, recover rate,
height of jump, frequency of firing, damage per hit, time limits,
number of retries).  You can provide limited overall enemy config.  Note 
that for a lot of games, only certain stats are relevant.  So we're not 
talking about being able to completely hack your own game.  Rather, 
simply provide the user with some reasonable config of his game.

-- 
Mike Arms
Editor of Encounter magazine
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