Research for an essay

[SuperYoshi93]

Hello everyone. Im actually working on a essay for an exam of Theory and Critics of Media and i need to collect data on the introduction of the CD-ROM in the environment of videogames's consoles.

What I want to ask You is to write your opinion about that period, what You were thinking and/or feeling when it was introduced/announced, how in your opinion the videoludic panorama had changed or hadn't, how it has been acclaimed positively or negatively, if it had resolved or not problems that could be still present today, if it had brought innovations or had created new problematics.

Keep on mind that I dont want to create a debate of wich the memorization support is the best or if someone is right or wrong more than somone else, I just need your only opinions and sensations. In the post You can attach external resources, if it is needed, to power up your content.

Yes, I know I know that there are a lot of articles and essays already done with many informations in them about the topic but my intention is to make a research on my own, directly on users's comments and I thought that this site (and another one) could have helped me. If something shouldn't be clear, let me know it!
And probably I could make hypertextual references o directly cit. your posts in my work. So, if You dont want eventualy be reported, just write it directly in the post.
Btw when I will be done with the exam (and if it wont suck so much), I'll publish directly the essay.

I thank you in advance for any answer. If something is not wright with the thread, I ask the modders to write me on PM.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I think that the introduction of discs was a good decision at the time (you could put more data on a game for less $$), but nowadays with solid state flash media progressing the way it is, I think that the only way for game companies to move forward is to re-adopt a cartridge format

 

[FAST6191]

What are we looking at here?

The TurboGrafx-CD hit in 1988 and had some very nice games result for it (thought most people will look to were for the supercd which hit in 1991), the segaCD in 1991 and maybe did not have so many nice games but had some effect, 1991 saw the Commodore CDTV which was an amiga with a CD rom drive but I don't know when the addon might have appeared, the Philips CD-i was announced in 1986 even if it did not appear until far later. For some of those around here it is less twinkle in your daddy's eye as much as eventual twinkle as your daddy's balls have not finished dropping yet.

Sure the PS1 was 1994 or even 1995 by the time it hit Europe which makes things a bit easier if you choose that.

As you mentioned consoles I suppose I shall say I had already seen it on the PC where, like many, I had been introduced to it via 7th Guest and I think I sat over someone's shoulder as they played Myst. Similarly the front covers of computer magazines had loads of game demos on them which I used to play on the school computers, even if there were things I would normally have had passed to me on floppy discs. I had a segaCD but my one game in the brief shining period a friend's segacd worked was road avenger so not really a tour de force of CD capabilities there, likewise most amiga cd drives were broken by the time I appeared.
For the PS1 then I was not really that hyped and my main memory of future games in that year was the gamesmaster segment on the N64

That segment made me late for dinner, no regrets there.

"videoludic panorama"
Is this like that ludo narrative dissonance nonsense? Say game and story potential if that is what you mean.
Anyway at the time.
That cut scene sure is shiny, however it is not as good as cartoons and why couldn't I have had more levels with all this storage instead.
Having full music is nice and has introduced me to new tracks, however my TV already has my amp in line if I needed it/we have a hifi in the same room.
Load times more than 5 seconds? I am not sure about this.
3d is fun but in some ways I liked sonic's art more. I don't know if I would have used a phrase like will age horribly, or have even thought along those lines, but there was something. I don't think it was just expense of extra controllers and games that saw us return time and time again to what we have for the 16 bit consoles.

At this point I am having trouble separating memories from years before and immediately after (all the 3d acceleration in PCs started in 1995/1996, along with windows 95 and what that brought, doom had hit in 1993 and for 3d exploration I had elite plus and older versions of elite for years at this point), cds might have helped some of that but whether they were a driving force or a part of the puzzle I am not sure.

 

[Veho]

"videoludic panorama"
Is this like that ludo narrative dissonance nonsense? Say game and story potential if that is what you mean.

"Panorama videoludico" is Italian for "videogame landscape" so I'm guessing the question is "how did the introduction of a new storage system affect the videogame (market) landscape".

 

[SuperYoshi93]

"Panorama videoludico" is Italian for "videogame landscape" so I'm guessing the question is "how did the introduction of a new storage system affect the videogame (market) landscape".

Thanks for the explanation. Videogame landscape sound so much batter than mine term.

Anyway Thanks really for the answers. And i've already learnt that i should change "consoles" to "computers/consoles", cause many people felt the change on the computers more than on the consoles.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Thanks for the explanation. Videogame landscape sound so much batter than mine term.

Anyway Thanks really for the answers. And i've already learnt that i should change "consoles" to "computers/consoles", cause many people felt the change on the computers more than on the consoles.

Oh certainly. The transition from floppy/tape drives to CDs (and eventually DVDs) was HUGE in the computing world. For instance, it was the first time that it was actually feasible to store quality audio files, as opposed to just MIDI type stuff that the computer would have to recreate note-by-note

 

[SuperYoshi93]

Oh certainly. The transition from floppy/tape drives to CDs (and eventually DVDs) was HUGE in the computing world. For instance, it was the first time that it was actually feasible to store quality audio files, as opposed to just MIDI type stuff that the computer would have to recreate note-by-note

So, you felt it more on the multi-medial aspects than on the games's landscape?

 

[TotalInsanity4]

So, you felt it more on the multi-medial aspects than on the games's landscape?

Yeah, but it allowed for more expansive game worlds, as well

 

[Veho]

On PCs, the jump from 1.4 MB of storage per medium to 700 MB of storage per medium was huge, as you can imagine. No (immediate) increase in game length or content (especially in the transitional period when not everyone had a CD-ROM drive, and games were still released on floppy disks as well as CDs), but an immediate jump to high quality audio (voice acting, for one; a bunch of games had "talkie" versions on CDs and mute versions on floppy), better textures, and video cutscenes.

FMV exploded, storage space allowing for it; there were games with movie- (or even miniseries-) length video cutscenes (Wing Commander springs to mind), and there were games that were entirely done in FMV, as interactive movies or as video sprites on pre-rendered backgrounds. I am not saying this was a good thing, I'm just saying this was a thing The live videos all look incredibly cheesy now, but then again so does the rest of the 90s, so yeah

And since CDs were so cheap to produce you could just stack as many as you wanted. FAST mentioned 7th guest which came on 2 CDs, but some games like Phantasmagoria came on seven, for example. Developers could go wild - budget permitting.

It was an interesting time.