Bushnell slams modern games

via Eurogamer


Atari founder Nolan Bushnell thinks modern games are rubbish. If he's talking about the ones with dropships in, we're with him.

"Video games today are a race to the bottom. They are pure, unadulterated trash and I'm sad for that," he told Electronic Design. Oh wait, that's it. Sound-bite, then.

The article itself is about Bushnell's current venture - the uWink family restaurants where you can play tabletop games, talk to hated family members and eat. There's one in Woodland Hills, California, and he seems pretty chuffed with it. And himself.

"I am the luckiest guy to be able to continue to innovate and create games and toys. Throughout the years, I added a technical twist to everything I did. I interpreted technology for the masses and it feels good," he explained. To be fair he was a bit of a wizard.

Sadly he doesn't add anything to his description of modern games, but he does tell us all about his personal favourite game, Breakout. "It is one of the games that everyone loved," he says. "It was very satisfying to play.

"It was like breaking down walls. And it was a metaphor. The world is better when you break down walls. Walls separate people. The more inclusive we can be, the better we can be as a species."

Yes, except the walls were at the top, and you generally got impatient with it and ended up bouncing the ball through gaps to smash the walls from the other side. Other than that, correct.

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Originally Posted by Shrygue

via Eurogamer

"Video games today are a race to the bottom. They are pure, unadulterated trash and I'm sad for that," he told Electronic Design.

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i couldnt agree more. even the almighty bioshock and especially halo three were complete crap. nothing is even coming close to hitting the mark

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Originally Posted by furthermore

i couldnt agree more. even the almighty bioshock and especially halo three were complete crap. nothing is even coming close to hitting the mark

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:rofl:

Only 2 questions, 1) Can I buy some crack from you?
2) If you don't really like modern video games, why in Sam-hill are you hanging out with people like us?

I gotta say this Bushnell can't take the heat anymore. Way back when, sure, maybe blitting 2 images to a screen with crummy AI was acceptable, but the media has grown, as has technology.

The video games aren't trash. His opinion is.

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Originally Posted by Shadowblind

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2) If you don't really like modern video games, why in Sam-hill are you hanging out with people like us?
...

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:thumbup:
heh...second

I won't repeat what I posted to this same topic in an earlier thread, but essentially, these are the ramblings of an old man...

You're an idiot if you can't recognize that the story-telling, graphics, and AI in games like Adventure are ridiculously primitive compared to the Neverwinter Nights, KOTORs, and Bioshocks of today.

Nolan Bushnell Says

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"It was like breaking down walls. And it was a metaphor. The world is better when you break down walls. Walls separate people. The more inclusive we can be, the better we can be as a species."

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Oh yes of course, and Tetris is a deep commentary on the faults of the proverbial utopia and humankind in itself conveyed through beautiful graphics and storytelling....Oh wait, no it's not, it's a simplistic puzzle game, just like breakout. I was confusing Tetris with Bioshock again. Silly me...
You know, you may have something here Nolan. Maybe all modern games are trash...Or maybe Atari is crumbling and your desparately trying to save some face by saying everything but simplistic puzzle games developed by you are trash. Regardless, breakout is anything but a metaphor. You summed it up pretty well yourself armystrong

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Yes, except the walls were at the top, and you generally got impatient with it and ended up bouncing the ball through gaps to smash the walls from the other side. Other than that, correct.

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Your entitled to your opinion I suppose Mr Bushnell. But your opinion is pure unadulterated trash.

Well, breakout was before my time. And yes, there are only so many different breakout style games you can endure, my personal favorite being Arkanoid for the NES.

I think the more underlying sentiment here is the fact that a lot of games today although more technical and visually impressive, lack that same magic that a lot of the classics or more retro stuff did.

A lot of it is nostalgia and being able to reminisce. But times change, technology improves, and we do have to grow and evolve.

Its hard to pinpoint exactly what it is, and there a a lot of great games today but the magic just isn't there like it used to be.

What happened to the days when you would sit and play the hell out of game working up blisters on your thumbs and getting so frustrated you punch or throw the controller. Then a few minutes later you are back at it. I speak of the NES and SNES. Man, I beat the hell out of my SNES controller and it took a lickin' and kept on tickin' LOL... Now I would never punch or throw my PSP, but I often load up the emulators and get my retro gaming fix in.

How did those old platforms create such a fun experience of exploration, adventure, fantasy, etc.?

Now there are too many movie/franchise game that are mostly rubbish, too many games trying to jump on this or that bandwagon, and not enough exclusive hand crafted masterpieces.

All hope is not lost and I think the developers who haven't yet gotten it, will soon get it. It has to go back to quality and not quantity mass produced for every platform.

I don't agree 100% with the idea that the gaming industry needs to adopt just 1 platform, but I do see how that would dramatically increase the quality and diversity of games.

um yea WHO, just kidding

this guy hasnt been in the industry for almost 30 years , his innovations past atari mostly boils down to him tinkering in his garage, and trying to get people to play pong, breakout, and missle command again (gotta get that check)

do i think games are going downhill? yes for me its hard to find a "fun" game, course ive been playing them since the 2600 and theres only so much of game type X you can play before they start blending together

are they send our youth to the pits of hell like tv and rock and roll? no and theres always some out of touch old fart that says yes every generation of machine

also lets not forget atari's age of gaming, there was so many complete shit titles then that the industry had a crash

now who was there to pull video games out??

it shure as hell wasnt Nolan Bushnell

so thanks for your opinion but quit calling the kettle black you pot

is it just the fact that i agree or more the idea that i think halo and bioshock were two of the most mediocre games ever made that you don't like?

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Originally Posted by furthermore

is it just the fact that i agree or more the idea that i think halo and bioshock were two of the most mediocre games ever made that you don't like?

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Both. I couldn't give a crap about whether you think Halo 3 is the aforementioned or not. Bioshock on the other hand never deserved that. Halo 3 is fun, but nothing to live up to the hype.

I'm more one of those people who really doesn't care about the graphics and sound unless the gameplay is great. Bioshock could be 2D and I'd still love it.

Just tell me whats to love about pong after playing it for 5 minutes.

PS Wheres my crack? :p

I liked old games back when they were new, but they never met up to my hopes and dreams. Nowadays, games have lots of explosive warfare and lots of games nowadays are team-based with AI allies. That's just not a part of old games, since they couldn't accomplish such things.