The good old days of videogame storytelling

[8 1/2]

I recently came across a boxed copy of Section Z for the NES. Here's what the back says:

"Planet Earth in the year 2XXX. You are relaxing at the console of your computerized supercondutor-generated interplanetary satellite communications system. Suddenly, high frequency radio and television transmissions blast warnings to all inhavitants to prepare for the brutal invading forces of Balangool Empire.

You take control to defend and preserve the lives and freedoms of the people on Planet Earth. You shed your earthly identity. You unite with freedom fighter Captain Commando to become the one remaining astronaut in space.

Concealed in your special solar-energized, jet-propelled supersonic spacesuit, fully armed with quick-firing multi-directional weaponry, you leave Earth on your death-defying mission.

The mission: battle and defeat the space soldiers of Balangool. Penetrate their base divided in section A through Section Z, then destroy Balangool master control "L-Brain."

You and Captain Commando must maneuver safely through 4 levels of superbly animated vertical and horizontal adventurous scene scrolling to destroy L-Brain.

Will you and Captain Commando penetrate Section Z and defeat the Balangool Empire? You control the future of Planet Earth! "




I miss this sort of over-the-top set up that games used to have. Modern games, with their cutscenes and voice actors, just bore me. The thing is, games like this never paused to tell you the story. This set-up on the back of the box was all you got. In modern games you play for a while and then stop while the game tells you the story. There's no fluidity in that. Give me a good old, badly-worded piece of gibberish like this and I'm happy.

[SheSaidDutch]

I agree, It's also funny in a B-Movie kind of way

[Ganelon]

Captain Commando sure did a hell of a lot of saving the world...

[MadSteelDarkness]

Hey, who says this kind of thing is completely dead...

The opening "story" in Dimahoo is priceless!

[Stormowl]

I recently came across a boxed copy of Section Z for the NES. Here's what the back says:

"Planet Earth in the year 2XXX. You are relaxing at the console of your computerized supercondutor-generated interplanetary satellite communications system. Suddenly, high frequency radio and television transmissions blast warnings to all inhavitants to prepare for the brutal invading forces of Balangool Empire.

You take control to defend and preserve the lives and freedoms of the people on Planet Earth. You shed your earthly identity. You unite with freedom fighter Captain Commando to become the one remaining astronaut in space.

Concealed in your special solar-energized, jet-propelled supersonic spacesuit, fully armed with quick-firing multi-directional weaponry, you leave Earth on your death-defying mission.

The mission: battle and defeat the space soldiers of Balangool. Penetrate their base divided in section A through Section Z, then destroy Balangool master control "L-Brain."

You and Captain Commando must maneuver safely through 4 levels of superbly animated vertical and horizontal adventurous scene scrolling to destroy L-Brain.

Will you and Captain Commando penetrate Section Z and defeat the Balangool Empire? You control the future of Planet Earth! "

SECTION Z.

my gosh do i have memories of that game from my younger days. memories of it totally owning my ass.

i agree 8.5. video games try too hard to have some sense of reality or seriousness in their storytelling these days, to me it just seems cheesy (only exception being metroid prime, but the storytelling in that game is somewhat optional and not heavy handed). as far as story in shooters goes, radiant silvergun and einhander are the only shooters i can think of where a good story was sucessfully intertwined within the action of the game without becoming obnoxious. on the other hand ARE YOU GREAT? holds up just as well.

[BulletMagnet]

as far as story in shooters goes, radiant silvergun and einhander are the only shooters i can think of where a good story was sucessfully intertwined within the action of the game without becoming obnoxious.

Bah, I say Silvergun's was still obnoxious.

But, to get to the point, as you say, nothing can beat Dimahoo when it comes to Pulitzer-worthy storytelling.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

I like the games where they say little and get a lot done or that find different ways of conveying the story besides cutscenes. For example, Castlevania: Sotn and Resident Evil 4. The former has less than half an hour of dialogue, but gestures and pure coolness make up for that (*shakes hand* "Die monster, you don't belong in this world"). RE4 is just like the MGS games but with cutscenes usually 1/4th of a time shorter and just as cool.

[BulletMagnet]

The former has less than half an hour of dialogue...

With voice acting like it has, even that's too much. "Hmmm...this switch hasn't been pressed yet!"

[dave4shmups]

Yeah, I miss all that too. And box art kinda went down the toilet as well. You'll notice this especially if you head over to www.atariage.com and look at some of the 2600 box art-simply amazing, IMO, for American video game box art!

Same with Arcade Cab art; I'd love to have a full size Centipede side art off of a cab of that game! It'd be so cool, IMO, to hang something like that up in your room! Unfortunately, so far, I've only found arcade marquees on Ebay.

I'd also love to get my paws on a Gradius V poster, too!

[landshark]

What I miss are NICE FULL COLOR MANUALS. Like the early NES games had. Full of all the monsters you would encounter throughout the entire game with descriptions of each.

My favorite manual ever would have to be Kid Icarus. I remember not being able to get past level 2 for the longest time and reading the manual over and over again hoping to get to level 3

Seriously, most games come with fucking piece of shit manuals. You are lucky if you get a printed manual at all. And if you do, it's black and white and lame.

The last game I bought that came with a good manual was Baldur's Gate II. Came with a nice big bound manual with lots of good info. Great game to boot!

[8 1/2]

Here's one from "Puss N Boots" also for the NES.

"Pero is Puss N' Boots of storybook fame and he's caught up in a whirlwind adventure, traveling through time and around the world!

True-blue Pero has been "cat-apulted" back through time by the terrible Count Gruemon. Now Pero must cross many dangerous lands to defeat Count Gruemon and recover the Time Machine which will return Pero home. It's a "cat-astrophe!"

The West
Begin in the wild and wooly West. Ya-hoo!

Ocean
You'll cross over the ocean in a sturdy ship and then explore the ocean botton in a powerful submarine!

Arabia
Motor across the vast Arabian desert!

Space Wars
Fly unfriendly skies, filled with danger!

London
London has many killers, hazards, and demons!

Liberty
It's a bold battle in a big balloon!

New York
A final fight with cruel Count Gruemon!



Anyone else have any back-of-the-box gems?

[Davey]

Unfortunately, although weirdoes like us find charm these stories, the mass population isn't sophisticated enough to fully enjoy the stories behind Blaster Master, Bad Dudes, etc.

[Diabollokus]

Gaiares had one hell of a story, Who will ever top ZZ badnasty?? and the Tozer system. *Laughs, falls over*

[chtimi-CLA]

i like cheesy and over the top scenarios too.
not a game, but the scenario, voices and sound effects, and overall atmosphere of "attack from mars" (pinball) should be a source of inspiration for action game devs.
the scenario? martians are invading earth, destroy them.
you know what i mean about the voices if you've played it, all of them are perfect, from the cheesy accents of the countries you save to the loud, long and overplayed howl of the super jackpot.
"not you again !" (an afraid martian)

[Acid King]

as far as story in shooters goes, radiant silvergun and einhander are the only shooters i can think of where a good story was sucessfully intertwined within the action of the game without becoming obnoxious.

Bah, I say Silvergun's was still obnoxious.

But, to get to the point, as you say, nothing can beat Dimahoo when it comes to Pulitzer-worthy storytelling.

I love the intro to Border Down.

"Then, the seed have 'sown'"
The universe is no longer just a "promised land".

[dpful]

I make it a habit to buy old games and then read the manuals to my wife on the way home. I do it with new games, too.

You know, they should keep it in the damn manual (the story, I mean)

Although, I really enjoy the cut scenes in Cyber-Lip "I am Cyper-Lip! I am not evil- I have just been evily reprogrammed!"

And, for the best cut scenes ever done...........
Strider

[Andi]

Guys, I hate to break it to you but, games STILL HAVE over the top and chessy stories. Not really that much has changed.

For instance, in Final Fantasy 10 you are a football player caught up in a plot to save the world.

[CMoon]

Hey, who says this kind of thing is completely dead...

The opening "story" in Dimahoo is priceless!

ARE YOU GREAT!??

[dave4shmups]

The weirdest storyline of any old school video game has to, IMO, go to Midway's Blaster. Honestly, the plot sounds like it was written by the Heaven's Gate cult:

"You are only 25 million light years away from Paradise!"

"Uh huh, yeah, sure. Pass me some of that apple sauce, Bob."

[FatCobra]

Ooo...this is an awesome topic. I love old school storys, the type where it's just a paragraph in a manual. I also like it in a game where you are just dropped in the middle of nowhere and have to figure it out yourself (like in the NES Zelda and Final Fantasy).

Some modern game stories are over-the-top too though. To someone who mentioned FFX's story: Yeah is it very cheesy. A soccer player? Geez...but alot of modren FF's stories are over-the-top.

Don't forget Gradius V's story though, just a paragraph in the manual and a pretty ridiculous one at that. Black and white manuals suck by the way.

[dave4shmups]

"Guys, I hate to break it to you but, games STILL HAVE over the top and chessy stories. Not really that much has changed."

I think that's true to a certain extent-what manuals used to have in them, a lot of game intro movies now do. For example, the intro movie to Thunder Force V: sure, it's a total rip-off of Terminator 2's storyline, but that's part of what makes it so fun-it's cheesiness!

And there are some truly awesome game intro movies now: Gradius V, G-Darius, PS1 Souky, etc.

[Andi]

The best part about shooters with the story written in the manual is that I never have the manuals for my games.

From what I can figure, Bio-Hazard Battle is about a mutant mosquito and dolphin killing bugs and sperm cells before they take over the world.

[jp]

Here's one from "Puss N Boots" also for the NES.

"Pero is Puss N' Boots of storybook fame and he's caught up in a whirlwind adventure, traveling through time and around the world!

True-blue Pero has been "cat-apulted" back through time by the terrible Count Gruemon. Now Pero must cross many dangerous lands to defeat Count Gruemon and recover the Time Machine which will return Pero home. It's a "cat-astrophe!"

The West
Begin in the wild and wooly West. Ya-hoo!

Ocean
You'll cross over the ocean in a sturdy ship and then explore the ocean botton in a powerful submarine!

Arabia
Motor across the vast Arabian desert!

Space Wars
Fly unfriendly skies, filled with danger!

London
London has many killers, hazards, and demons!

Liberty
It's a bold battle in a big balloon!

New York
A final fight with cruel Count Gruemon!



Anyone else have any back-of-the-box gems?

I love that game... so very very much.



I recall Blaster Master and Totally Rad having somewhat odd stories.

[Diabollokus]

I think the best manual stories were on the Sega Mega cD

Ever Read the Manuals of Microcosm or Soulstar? they had some serious back ground take yah a few minutes to read em!

[undamned]

Mr. Driller has a wonderful story:

"The City has been overtaken by colored blocks!"

-ud

[dpful]

Hey, who says this kind of thing is completely dead...

The opening "story" in Dimahoo is priceless!

ARE YOU GREAT!??

I love how it says "ARE YOU GREAT?" and then "WE ARE GREAT!" like they have invited you to join in their greatness and give you permission to guide them on their adventure- but don't forget, that they are already great, so your honor is at stake if you're going to think your great too.
You know, I think it's an effective subtle message- I always feel horrible when I die in Dimahoo.