The other day Pike and myself were looking back with fondness on a certain videogame company. It was quite stunning, once we actually sat and talked about it, just how many games they were responsible for, and not just games, but true classics, things that defined – even created – genres.
Which company am I talking about? Well, which one came to your mind when you read the above? In this case we were discussing MicroProse, but there are quite a few companies which could have been mentioned here and all would fit; Bullfrog, Rare (Of old), Codemasters (ditto), Psygnosis, etc. (And these ones are just examples from the UK!)
Where are the equivalent companies today? Who are even candidates? You can point to people who have had huge impact – Bungie for instance – but one series of FPS games, however brilliant and however influential, does not put them in the same league as these giants who bestrode the 80s and 90s. Nobody that I can think of today has the ability to put out X-Com, Transport Tycoon, Master of Orion, Civilization, and Rollercoaster Tycoon. Now, okay, you look at any of these companies and they tend to have something of a narrow focus, at least in the games that really stand out, but still, nobody today seems to come close, regardless of focus. Maybe Blizzard and Valve, but the former seems to be determined to fall from grace, and the latter hasn’t released something that isn’t a hat since the Bally Astrocade was new. I’m not trying to say there are no good companies anymore or anything, but none seem to really have the scope and grandeur of some of these old-timers we so fondly remember.
Who is your favorite game company of yesteryear? Am I overlooking someone modern?
I personally think you’re overlooking Carpe Fulgur. Yes, they may “just” be a localization team, but they’re a localization team that’s attached itself to a hungry niche that’s gone without attention for ages, and are taking great pains to choose fantastic games from the East and lovingly localize them for Western consumption, like Recettear and Chantelise.
I’ve got as much love in my heart for Carpe Fulgur today as I did for people like Microprose or pre-FF7 Squaresoft back in “the day”.
Black Isle.
Man, I love those old RPGs, and I keep hoping they’ll make a comeback.
Origin… Back in the Lord British days.
No, you’re not overlooking anything modern because these days we don’t have Game Companies anymore. Now we have companies that make games and the difference is fairly obvious to anyone who plays those games.
The only company I can think of that even comes close is Gearbox.
Ahh Microprose… how I feel honored to have been in my game buying early teens when you were at your best. And how I feel sad for the game buying teens of this day not to know the likes of you.
/sniffle…
Sierra. Man, I loved pretty much all those quest games…especially Space Quest and Police Quest. Though I was a little young at the time [to be allowed] to play Leisure Suit Larry.
Enix. Defined early RPGs.
Interplay.
Oh, and speaking of old Rare, anyone remember Wizards and Warriors for the NES? Yeah, that’s right. No save option, no passwords, no nothing. You just had to plow through the whole thing in one massive sitting. It was cool XD
A narrow focus isn’t always a bad thing. It is certainly a departure, but having a company specialise in a certain style of game is not inherently bad.
It’s just the fact that there isn’t always a noticeable increase in the quality of games. If you’re giving something your full attention, I expect to see some grand increases or interesting and daring new takes on things. Sometimes I think Ardprest is quite on the money with his (or her) comment.
Westwood Studios is my pick, I practically grew up playing the Red Alert and Tiberian games, and I still find myself quoting lines from the Dune series of RTS games, even though it’s been years since I played any of them.
One massive run on sentence, hooooo!
For me, it’s probably Koei. Some of my favorite games have been made by them: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Dynasty Warriors, P.T.O… Oh man, I wish I could find of ROM of P.T.O. II somewhere.
Roger Ebert has this saying I love: “A movie isn’t about what it’s about. It’s about how it’s about what it’s about.” In plain English, this is the realization that no one is really telling original stories anymore, and no one has for thousands of years. There are basic templates – the love story, the hero-saves-the-damsel-in-distress story, the adventure story, etc. – and now a story’s quality is based on how well it tells that particular story.
I think that’s all that’s going on in the gaming world now, too. The companies from back then we loved were the ones who defined the genres of games – fps, RTS, turn-based strats (TBS?), etc. – and now the industry is about seeing who can make better ones as time goes on. There are a boatload of details that can be different, and advances in technology make it possible to make games of increasingly better graphic quality at least, but the genres have all been defined; now we’re just seeing (hopefully) better and better versions of the types of games that already exist. The companies that make truly better versions will be rewarded, while those who do not will fail (with “better” being admittedly subjective in this case).
The game that turned me, as a teenager, from someone who liked games into a dedicated gamer was Microprose’s F-15 Strike Eagle II. The combat flight sims that have come after it are vastly better in pretty much every regard, but that was the game that showed me the possibilities, that all the cool stuff I could imagine was (virtually) possible, and I could actually kind of experience it. I’ve played much better flight sims than that over the years; I’ve forgotten most of them. I’ll never forget that one though, and THAT’S what we’re really remembering. That’s what made those companies great. In defining these gaming genres, they opened up whole new vistas to humanity that never existed before, and let our imaginations out to play. And our imaginations have been like kids on Christmas morning with every new game we’ve played since. =)