LucasArts producer: digital distribution is increasing interest in retro gaming |
Ó
Speaking to Destructoid about Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition,
producer Craig Derrick from LucasArts explained the motivation behind
updating the game.He goes on about the main reasons for the decision, but citing digital distribution as an important factor in making the Special Edition possible, the producer adds that digital distribution itself increases interest in retro gaming.
"...we're experiencing a remarkable increase in retro gaming and nostalgia thanks in part to the digital distribution of games on Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, Wiiware, Steam and iTunes,” he said, adding that the gaming age range has significantly broadened and people are more open to different genres.
He goes on:
When you take a classic like The Secret of Monkey Island with its timeless story, humorous characters and puzzles and situations; the fact that it has very little violence and that you can't die (well, maybe if you hold you're breath for more than 10 minutes you can) and you breathe new life into it by adding special edition features like high definition art, all new voice dialogue, updated controls and an in-game hint system and you start to see why we feel it was an easy decision to make.
Online services like the PSN and XBL allow access to well-loved games from platforms of old, and they don't have to have the emulator know-how to be able to play. With the lack of backwards compatibility and, at times, emulator knowledge, downloading retro games is one easy way to be able to play the old games today.
Cases in point:
- Xbox Originals now officially Games On Demand, downloadable 360 games coming in August
- ESRB: Final Fantasy Tactics rated for PSP, PS3
- Final Fantasy VII reigns supreme on PSN downloads
- US PlayStation Store update 06/18
- E3 2009: More Taito classics revealed for WiiWare and DS as promised
- Gunstar Heroes, Sega Vintage Collection 2 arriving on PSN, XBLA this June
Via Destructoid
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Comments [refresh]
I love the original NES classics, and have bought several for Virtual Console. I also like the new retro sequels (mm9, ff4 after years) but one thing i really can't stand is...
the new "retro" games... maybe its just me, but making a whole new game that looks 8-bit just seems dumb. Megaman and FF actually have 8-bit roots, so its okay in their case... does anyone agree with this?
Is that what they were talking about here? Is this Monkey Island game 8-bit? O.o sorry, I haven't heard of it. Or are you just saying that it'd be dumb to do that?
Monkey Island is one of the best titles in a now semi-defunct genre: graphic adventures... It's like some sort of quest where you have to find items and solve puzzles, all related to a central movie-like plot. Most of the times it involves moving around a character(s) with a cursor or mouse, and giving commands like "open door", "use item on (character name)" "pull rope". Monkey Island was about pirates, and it had 16-32 bit graphics, or something in between (cartoon like graphics).
For the 8-bit thing, I can't think of any example of a whole new game in 8 bits in modern times.