i have discovered why we remember older games to be so hard

[StriderShinryu]

Older games were hard because they were programmed to be hard. Most games were not that far removed from their arcade origins. You were supposed to die and die often as that was the only way the machine could keep making money off of you. Translate that into the home market and you have a game that you could, theoretically anyway, keep putting quarters into until you finished it.. which would make most old school games all of 30 minutes long. To replicate the arcade limitation of running out of quarters, players in home games were given limited continues.

 

[Snarky Username]

That's probably a huge reason. Also, video games had just come out of the arcade machines, which had to be hard to make money. Personally, the reason I found them hard was that I found that every single game had the character slide whenever you stop moving, usually off a cliff or into an enemy...

 

[Starke]

yeah a combo of bad controls and the fact that most 8 year olds were crap at games...

I blame this. I went back and was playing some very old FPSs recently, and was flat out shocked by how easy they were.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Nah, it was just the way they were designed in general.

Games in the medium's infancy were less about narrative, atmosphere and immersion and more about learning patterns, overcoming obstacles with prescision skill and trial and error.

 

[r0botosaurus]

Old games where hard because back in the day (my childhood and a bit before that) gamers liked being challenged, so game designers made the games really fucking hard.
Now all we get are 3-piece jigsaw puzzles where two of the pieces are already put together and there's a tutorial telling you how to put the last bit in.

 

[minoes]

Because there were games I spent years and never got half way through! Battletoads...go on, play it, tell me when you beat it.

Same with Super Star Wars, Megaman, Alex Kidd, Ninja Gaiden, etc.

And then there were games based on coin-munchers like Golden Axe and Contra.

 

[Klepa]

It's a combination of multiple things.

Instead of listing them, I'll just let this notorious website [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NintenDoHard] do it for me, because it really sums it up nicely.

 

[pigmypython]

Eh, I grew up up on D-Pads.(Well, technically I first started with crappy Atari joysticks) You could get analogue controllers on PS1. That wasn't what made games hard back in the day for me personally. It was limited lives and continues and no ability to save. Go back and play Contra or Ninja Gaiden 1 on NES. X-men on Sega. There is a long list really.

Agree 100%. I remember all the way back to pong for this and Castlevania is a good example.

 

[Treefingers]

No.

No matter how hard I try, I don't think I will ever complete Battletoads. My failure has nothing to do with the D-Pad.

DAMN YOU BATTLETOADS!!!

 

[Monk Ed]

Games were harder for one reason: Rentals.
In Japan, you couldn't rent games back then(Can you now? I dunno). So easier games wer just bought. But in the US you could rent games, so all you'd have to do was rent the game for a weekend and be done with that, cutting into the game company's profits.
Solution? Make the games so hard there's no way to beat them in a single weekend. Either the kid has to keep renting, or get the game to play it whenever. You'll find the Japanese version of any given NES or SNES game is much easier than the NTSC version. Take Ninja Gaiden. On the Famicom it's easy, just another platformer. On the NES it's a NIGHTMARE!

Is this a pure guess or do you have evidence to suggest that this was the thinking? Because it's not like people don't rent today.

 

[Judgement101]

Well, I grew up in the Nintendo 64 era so I've never played a game without an analog stick.

 

[oppp7]

Difficulty back then is hardcore Diablo 2. AKA, losing sent you back farther. Lives meant that if you fucked up, you had to start the entire fucking game again.

Why you people miss that is beyond me(although hardcore seems alright).

 

[Souplex]

That only really applies for the PS1. Every other 3d capable console had the sense to include a joystick.
Prior consoles only needed a control pad as there was no 3d.

 

[lacktheknack]

Ummmm, ever seen LordKat's "Until We Win" series?

THAT'S why we remember old games to be so damn hard.

 

[octafish]

X-Com, do I need to say more?

 

[Wuffykins]

Honestly I think stuff like auto-target or camera lock is where it started to get pretty easy, hell, I remember the good ol' PC games where you had to make your own damn map! (Pardon my 'Back in mah day' moment). But I am serious of the auto lock stuff. Before it you had to figure bosses weak points and do your best to tag it manually. Now it's a bit of lock onto boss, switch target and Wohohoho! This must be his weak spot! let me hit it!

Seriously, think of Monster Hunter. How much easier would that game be if you could lock onto monsters? It be less manly, that's fer sure!

 

[Thaius]

See, when you said "older games," I expected OLDER games, like the original Zelda or Metroid games. In which case the reason was because THEY FREAKING ARE. I think that with added complexity came more ease, in some ways: we simply didn't have enough to face the clannenges of those old games. Crazy stuff.

 

[Nieroshai]

Games were harder for one reason: Rentals.
In Japan, you couldn't rent games back then(Can you now? I dunno). So easier games wer just bought. But in the US you could rent games, so all you'd have to do was rent the game for a weekend and be done with that, cutting into the game company's profits.
Solution? Make the games so hard there's no way to beat them in a single weekend. Either the kid has to keep renting, or get the game to play it whenever. You'll find the Japanese version of any given NES or SNES game is much easier than the NTSC version. Take Ninja Gaiden. On the Famicom it's easy, just another platformer. On the NES it's a NIGHTMARE!

Is this a pure guess or do you have evidence to suggest that this was the thinking? Because it's not like people don't rent today.

I think you'd say Wikipedia isn't valid, but most hard games that were hard on purpose ARE noted as being easier in the Japanese version, and I don't remember whether it was the AVGN or LordKaT who mentioned it during their ninja gaiden or battletoad reviews. I'm not going to spend an hour surfing Wikipedia or re-watching the videos just to answer this post, but you get what I mean. Games were easier over there because they weren't allowed to rent, and rented games take longer to play and therefor cost more if they're hard. Ninja Gaiden. Battletoads. Devil May Cry 3 was a victim of this, albeit more recent. The special edition is closer to the international difficulty than the standard.Of course, the Metal Gear Solid games were different, having a European Extreme mode for non-NTSC and special edition copies.

 

[griffinmills]

Rentals?
Japanese version is easier??
/facepal... well wait lets see if you actually come back with some proof. I think most people who actually lived through those eras recall that Japanese versions were pretty much universally harder. "Any given NES or SNES GAME..." (Also, NTSC is the standard in Japan too so...) ANY!! LOL

I do remember my buddy coming back from a trip to Japan around 1992 and saying that used video games were significantly cheaper which may have something to do with the "no rentals in Japan" thing at least. I'll be really interested to see any proof on this theory that video game executives were sitting around a table, smoking cigars and slapping themselves on the back after solving the "rentals" issue by making games harder.