The ultimate social gaming experience in the 90's.
Social gaming has changed much in 20 years. Some would use the word “evolved” instead of “changed” as if the way we game has somehow improved over time, and while there have been many technological advances to take social gaming global, there have been many more problems that face modern social gaming.
Social Gaming in the 90’s
The advent of arcades came about in the 80’s with quarter-guzzling machines like Pac-man, Galaga, Donkey Kong, and many many more games, but those were by and large single player experiences. Sure, two players could TECHNICALLY play, but those were simple single player games where players switched on and off. The 80’s were blessed with some of the most classic games of all time, but none of it could really be considered “social” gaming (sorry, Pong!)
It wasn’t until the 90’s that gamers were blessed with a multitude of mulitplayer games to team up on. These games were relatively formulaic, but it didn’t matter because it was the camaraderie that came with playing the game that was emphasized.
SENTINEL HORDES!!!
X-men – (1992) Of all the arcade games in the 90’s, this was the best of them all. There was the two player version that was okay. There was the four player version that was a little more ambitious. Finally, there was the grandaddy of all games . . . the six-player X-men arcade game. Hands down, there was no game more worth playing than this one.
When I was young, I would walk into the ancient arcade paradise known as Aladdin’s Castle, and there would be a horde of people around the X-men arcade game shouting and cheering as a team of six laid waste to bosses like Pyro, the Blob, and Wendigo. Players could choose from Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Storm and . . . um . . . Dazzler and each one had their own special powers. It didn’t matter if some of the powers didn’t make any sense (Wolverine apparently shoots lazers from his claws in this game) and it didn’t matter that some powers were useless (Dazzler’s special always missed) because the game was bright, the music was loud, and it was the FREAKING X-MEN!
When I was a freshman in high school, my friend Justin Stanek and I were at World’s of Fun and we were excited to see the X-men arcade game there. We decided that, food money be damned, we were going to be that game no matter what. Stanek was incredibly excited to play as Storm and I was about to put in my tokens when two juniors walked up and wanted to play with us. Honestly, I didn’t want to play with them because they were jerks, but we couldn’t stop them, so Tim Roedder and Phil Fuhrman ended up playing as well.
Even though I was stuck with Cyclops, I had the best time I’ve ever had at an arcade. We cheered after every boss we killed. We shouted in agony as our characters died. As we began to face Magneto, I remember saying, “If I remember correctly, there are two Magnetos in this game?”
“How can there be two Magnetos?” someone asked.
We continued to fight and eventually, he was defeated. Then, his crumpled body began to change and Tim shouted in his most astonished voice, “HOLY SHIT! IT’S MYSTIQUE!!!”
And we were transported to battle the real Magneto. We leapt around and dodged blasts from the Master of Magnetism until finally, after a long fight and many lives lost, we won!
After that day, I actually became friends with the Tim and we like to say that it’s all because of the X-men arcade game. I fear that I am getting myself off track, so back to talking about gaming.
ALIEN HORDES!!!
Aliens vs. Predator – (1994) Not quite as ambitious as X-men, but still amazing nonetheless, AVP was a four player adventure where players chose from two marines or two predators. Each character was unique and had stats that tailored to different styles of play. Mowing through alien hordes has never felt so satisfying.
GOBLIN HORDES!!!
Dungeons and Dragons – (1996) Far more complicated than the previous games we’ve discussed, D&D featured 6 unique playable characters. The game featured four buttons and involved balancing item usage (truly an innovation for an arcade). I can remember Andy Potter and I spending $6 a piece in quarters to get through this entire game together.
Side-scrolling beat ’em ups were a staple of the 90’s and they are a genre that has virtually died out today (Scott Pilgrim’s game on PSN is a notable exception), but this was social gaming of the 90’s. Gamers would flock to arcades and drop quarter after quarter in order to play along with others. There was something about eating some greasy Sbarro’s pizza in between quarters in the Simpsons arcade game that just made the world perfect in every way.
The Death of the Arcade
As home consoles began to become more and more sophisticated, arcades became more and more obsolete. Home consoles could do things that arcades would never be able to. Storylines started to matter, and the idea of PROGRESSING through a game became more important than merely seeing how far one could go.
For evidence of this, look no further than Super Mario Bros. and Mario 64. The first game was always an endurance challenge to just see how far you could make it. If you lost all of your lives, then you went back to the very beginning and started over again. Mario 64 had tons of levels and plenty of reasons to come back. Playing games for high scores didn’t matter anymore. Think about this: if you played a game today where you died and had to go back to the very beginning of the game, how long would you actually play that game? Demon Souls is annoying enough as it is by having players go back to the beginning of the level with all of their money gone. No wonder it didn’t make any money.
Arcades tried to keep up, but they couldn’t do it. Games like NFL Blitz and Gauntlet: Dark Legacy tried to get console gamers to get out of the house and to the arcade by inviting players to bring their memory cards to the arcade. Tekken 4 tried the same thing a few years ago to no one’s interest.
Perhaps the only game to really go all out in terms of evolving the arcade cabinet was Soul Calibur 2. The game was connected to a network of other SC2 games where players could register a codename and fight in a clan for supremacy. Players had to win fights and depending on how they fought, their stats would increase. It was really a genius plan, and no other game that I know of has ever tried to reach this level of complexity in an arcade game since that time. Probably because the arcade has died out.
Social Gaming Today
X-Box Live and the Playstation Network are excellent ideas in theory to try and get gamers connected with one another. And, at first, they are beautiful ideas because gamers all over the world can play with one another and socialize. Apparently, the cost of worldwide gaming has been general politeness, and the ability to keep a conversation going.
It doesn’t matter what game you play online – from Halo to Metal Gear to Little Big Planet – conversations typically revolve around three things:
1) how much a person sucks
2) if a person is gay or not
3) who is having sex with who’s mother.
Can you imagine the real world being like this at all? Can you imagine playing an arcade game with someone and you make a mistake when all of a sudden they go on and on about how crappy you are?
Guys make fun of each other all the time for various things, but to be so malicious to complete strangers is something that has come with the anonymity of online gaming.
Being able to game with friends should be easier as well, but finding someone who is willing to put down $60 for a game to play together has proven to be more challenging than I expected. None of my friends want to play Metal Gear, and I’m not willing to buy Modnation Racers until the price drops and once it does, everyone else will be on to the next big online game.
Compare this to the 90’s. Back then, friends would come over to play games with one another. Maybe it was a new game, but more than likely, it was a game rented for the weekend from the local video store (another dead 90’s essential). Today, two people have to own the same game, they have to be online and they have to know each other’s username and be friends with them to get a game going. For the PSN and Xbox Live, it’s not too bad, but for the Wii, you have to know a ridiculously long number to input into the system. Gaming is just more expensive and tedious today in terms of trying to just play a game with one another.
Even the idea of getting together at the same location to play the same game seems to be rejected by gamers. Take this excerpt from IGN’s review of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, for example. “For all the fun you’ll have with Scott Pilgrim, it has two unforgivable omissions: No online gameplay and no instant drop-in/drop-out co-op play. That means you and three friends must sit on a couch together, share the same air (yech), and start from the main menu together. Come on, even Streets of Rage had drop-in co-op.” God forbid people sit in the same room with one another and actually spend time with each other.
All is not completely lost, however. Steam is offers a great balance of gaming and social interaction. There are tons of users and with the ability to manage friends and chat with one another, it seems to be a step in the right direction for social gaming. Unfortunately, console gaming still hasn’t quite advanced this far, yet.
Nothing is like the arcade used to be. Even games that try for an “arcade experience” (like Marvel vs. Capcom 2 or Final Fight on PSN) can’t capture the allure of the arcade. Going to an arcade was a deliberate act of social interaction. Online gaming is hiding at home and texting strangers about how gay they are. “Changes” have certainly been made in the way we perceive gaming, but that personal interaction that came with making a friend at an arcade can never be replaced by online gaming, and more than anything else, I think this is why I miss the 90’s.
I think one of my biggest “video game” regrets is not really ever being able to have the arcade experience. Being born right before 1990, by the time I really got into video games (admittedly a little later than I would have imagined), arcades were on their way out and I can only think of one that was even remotely nearby. That said, random other comments.
As far online play, I think it was funny that I was “spoiled” per se by my first experience basically being TF2, which, compared to everything else, is by far (to my knowledge), the cleanest and most polite online experience. It was actually a bit shocking to watch some friends play something like Modern Warfare 2 and realize that these stories I thought were exaggerations were actually true. And Nintendo does need to get their act together if they want to have online gaming. I have a bunch of Nintendo online accessible games, but don’t use that capability because it is such a hassle.
Scott Pilgrim game looks awesome, and I’m frankly a bit annoyed it is only on PSN. I really appreciate the local only multiplayer (or at least it doesn’t bother me as I actually vastly prefer this and am annoyed that a number of XBox and otherwise titles can’t do local, or it is extremely complicated), but drop in and out would be nice. Also I think it could have benefited hugely from a DS or DSiWare release, but perhaps that’s just a bit of personal interest talking…
Fortunately, it is coming to Live in two weeks, so you’ll be able to play it soon!
My wife and I are playing it now and it is absolutely awesome!
One of the most enjoyable times I had related to an arcade was playing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade Game with three total strangers at Wal-Mart. We didn’t make it past Shredder, but it was so much fun.
I am both shocked and appalled at your failure to mention, in my opinion a game that surpasses the X-Men arcade game, that being the Spider-Man Arcade game.
From the fun style shifts of the regular sized side scrolling beat em up, to shrinking the characters down sections is was an endless source of fun. With the options to play as Spidey, Black Cat, and then for some reason Hawkeye and Namore, with no one character ever truly being better than the others, as Spidey and Hawkeye could shoot at a range when tiny, but Namor and Felicia had area attacks in normal sized.
And then the epic list of villains that you fight. It still brings so much joy to my memory to this day. And it irks me that i can never find an emulator of it anywhere.
I still enjoy the X-Men arcade game, though my best experience with it was at disney land hotel, In which for some odd reason, the 4 player version was hooked up to a giant projection screen, while the 6 player version was just a regular cabinet, this still makes no sense to me, but it was still fun. Though the only Characters i ever used and in this order were Nightcrawler, Collussus, Dazzler (mabye you just lacked the skill to hit with her light grenades or whatever it was supposed to be) then finally Wolverine.
Regardless of personal opinions about the x-men arcade game, i still think its tarnished considering its based of Pryde of the X-men.
WENDIGO!
Joe – I completely forgot about the Spider-man game! It was good, if not incredibly strange. Certainly it was far better than the Avengers arcade game. Still, I have a special place in my heart for the Superman arcade game even though it was two players and I only ever really played it once.
Steven – How could I forget Turtles in Time?!?!?!?!?!?! I am ashamed. That game rocked.
Also, even though I mentioned the Simpsons arcade game, I don’t think I emphasized enough how sweet it was.
man i dont even remember a superman arcade game…I do remember trying out some VR helmet once at Dorney Park….i can;t believe people thought that sort of thing was going to be the future of gaming. or the weird Hologram arcage game
90s always make me think of Starcraft, which is still one of my favorite all time games. Love your articles cody.
Joe – here are some links to Superman
http://www.arminbwagner.com/crates_and_barrels/barrel_superman1.jpg
http://www.texturemonkey.com/HCG/blog/supermanarcade_(14).png
And I played one VR game in the 90’s. It was a VR boxing game and it was really lame. Those hologram games WERE really bizarre. There was the time travel game about a cowboy that was really strange. I played that one a lot.
kroack – thank you so much! I never played Starcraft but I always wanted to. Now that the new game is out, I want to play it but my computer won’t support it, probably. Oh well . . . I’ll just settle for my console.
Excellent article as always.
When reading this I had flashbacks to a wonderful, awesome, frantic game from the Xbox Live Arcade called Castle Crashers. ‘Twas a side-scroller, and ’twas amazing. I remember the huge amount of time that was sunk into this game my freshman year of college. For a solid month, the dorm’s common room (open to all thirty guys on my floor) turned into one never-ending game of Castle Crashers. It beat out Halo 3. It beat out Gears of War 2. Hell, it even beat out Mario Kart (and let me tell you, that was a miracle in itself. The number of times that I went to sleep and woke up to the sounds of racing go-carts, Mario going “Wahoo!” and screaming profanity are impossible to count.)
Was the superman game the one where player two was basically Captain Marvel?
Yeah. Player 2 was an off-colored Captain Marvel
I only have one friends who will still come over and play games with you sitting on the same couch. There aren’t many games that I want to play that even allow for split screen interaction, it’s basically down to fighting games.
Tad – that’s one of the problems with gaming now – a lack of offline multiplayer. My wife and I played Champions of Norrath and Return to Arms on the PS2 until we couldn’t play it anymore. We played through Justice League 6 times (no joke) and since we’re Marvel snobs, we couldn’t get through Ultimate Alliance.
We own a PS3 and there just aren’t any games for us to play. She hates fighting games and shooters. She sucks at racing games. We can only play cooperative games that are beat ’em ups. Scott Pilgrim has come to save us, but I wonder how long we will enjoy it.
Dear website,
Talk about arcade games top 40 games of all time from 90s.
1. Angel eyes, angel kids,
2. Battle toads,
3. Captain America,
4. Die hard,
5. Dark stalkers,
6. Dance dance revolution,
7. Dance freak,
8. ehrgeiz,
9. Fatal fury 1 to mark of wolves,
10. Galaxy fight,
11. G – loc air battle,
12. Gauntlet legends, golden tee 1, 2,
13. Hit the ice,
14. Jo jo blizzare adventures,
15. Jo Jo venture,
16. Knight of round table,
17. Last Bronx,
18. Mortal combat,
19. Mortal kombat 2,
20. Mortal kombat 3,
21. Mortal kombat 4,