开发者谈当前游戏开发环境中值得学习的经典街机游戏

原作者：Stefanie Fogel 译者：Vivian Xue

街机游戏总能勾起许多人的美好回忆。把硬币投进游戏机，打上几局吃豆人、街头霸王或者青蛙过是我们最早的游戏体验，并使电子游戏成为了我们终生的爱好。

自街机游戏占领市场以来，行业在过去的数十年间实现了跨越式发展，很多经典的街机游戏如今显得过时、太简单了。但观察那个年代的游戏，你会发现其中一些游戏拥有紧凑的操作和层次丰富的机制——上手简单却难以掌握，它们巧妙地运用了音乐，并高效地推进剧情。

这些游戏能够为如今的开发者带来很多启示。因此，我们询问了几位行业杰出人士，看看他们认为有哪些值得学习的优秀街机游戏。

1. Q*Bert（《跳方块》）：简单也可以很有趣

这是Gottlieb在1982年发行的一款街机游戏，凭借令人难忘的视觉效果、简单的机制以及主角无厘头的语言风靡一时。游戏界面是一个由28个立方体组成的金字塔。玩家操控一个四个方向的摇杆，从金字塔顶部出发，通过在立方体间跳跃来改变每个立方体的颜色。游戏过程中玩家会受到一些敌人的干扰，玩家需要预测敌人的运动方向来躲避他们，直到改变所有方块的颜色后通关。

“这款游戏的精妙之处在于它的简单性，以及它如何在保持规则不变的前提下逐步提高难度，”Adult Swim Games工作室的高级制作人Chris Johnson说。“此外，它模仿了玩家失败后的沮丧不满之情，Q*Bert头上冒出气泡‘@!#?@!’。”

启示：对一个简单的概念进行打磨加工，使它尽善尽美，一个有趣且吸引人的体验诞生了。

2. Centipede（《大蜈蚣》）：“游戏内容生态”的协同作用

即将发行的冒险游戏The Church in the Darkness（《黑暗中的教堂》）创作者Richard Rouse谈到了《大蜈蚣》互相联结的“游戏内容生态”(gameplay ecology)，他认为每个人都能从这个游戏中学到点什么。

在这款经典的雅达利射击游戏(Shoot-’em-up：以尽可能杀死敌人获得高分为目标的射击游戏，游戏邦注）中，每只蜈蚣都能与随机分布在屏幕上的蘑菇交互。大蜈蚣碰到蘑菇后会转向，撞到的蘑菇越多，它向下方玩家移动的速度就越快。玩家击中大蜈蚣后会出现更多的蘑菇。偶尔蜘蛛会吃掉碰到蘑菇，跳蚤会在经过的路上留下蘑菇。快结束时，蝎子将毒死碰到的蘑菇，使大蜈蚣向着玩家俯冲下去。

“不同类型的敌人与环境的交互达到了完美平衡，每一种元素都加强并改变了其它元素的运作，”Rouse说，“并且一旦玩家摸清了这些交互规律，他们的游戏水平也会提高。”

经验：《大蜈蚣》发挥了敌人与环境之间协同作用，提高了其快节奏玩法的深度和策略性。

Dungeons & Dragons Online from gamasutra.com

3. Dungeons&Dragons：Tower of Doom（《龙与地下城：毁灭之塔》）：最早使用分支剧情的游戏之一

United Front Games的Smash+Grab（《抢钱帮》）设计主管Mike Lee表示，这款1993年由Capcom发行横版卷轴游戏是最早采用分支剧情的优秀游戏之一。它基于龙与地下城角色扮演桌游，背景设置在Mystara世界，游戏中有4个常见角色(牧师、战士、矮人和精灵)，玩家将领导他们对抗地下城怪物。游戏中的一些boss包括巨魔、眼魔、巫妖和龙。游戏剧情需要玩家选择如何前进，比如打开A门还是B门，玩家也可以不走寻常路，穿越森林捷径。

“每一项选择都将带来不同的剧情和体验，这使玩家想要探索所有故事线，因此他们将一遍又一遍地玩这款游戏，”Lee说。

经验：分支剧情使玩家获得掌控感并提高了游戏的重复可玩性。

4. Contra（《魂斗罗》）：增强道具影响玩家行为

《魂斗罗》是Konami在1987年推出的一款卷轴射击游戏，它展示了增强道具如何从根本上改变玩家的移动和攻击方式。

玩家出场时拥有一把步枪和无限弹药。游戏还提供了另外四种增强武器——轻型机关枪、激光发射枪、火球发射枪——可以发射旋转火球，以及一把散射枪——子弹朝着五个方向分散。但如果玩家一直使用常规步枪，他们将获得两个额外的增强道具：快速增强火力以及无敌屏障。

尽管增强武器看上去很诱人，但它们无法应对每种场景。“如果你使用散射枪，你很难集中火力在某个点上，这会加大游戏难度，因为你需要一边躲避子弹一边朝终极boss开火，这会让你感觉怎么也打不完，”Lee说，“如果你使用激光枪（进行小范围、单点的打击），boss将派出大批低血量的敌人，你可能很快被包围。”

经验：《魂斗罗》的增强道具和游戏玩法完美融合。它们促使玩家策略性地选择合适的武器应对不同情况。

5. Double Dragon（《双截龙》）：高效的叙事

“优秀的叙事是高效的，”Supergiant Games工作室的Greg Kasavin说，他认为这款1987年的射击游戏《双截龙》是一个高效推进剧情的例子。

游戏开头，黑帮成员绑架了比利的情人玛丽安。几秒后，比利和他的同胞兄弟吉米一路打进了该帮派的地盘，试图救出玛丽安。游戏通过简短的动画描述了整个剧情，无需任何台词。

“一些经典的街机游戏在几秒内就描述了冲突、角色和环境，无需任何台词，”Kasavin说。“尽管这出于许多原因，包括当时技术的局限，并且这种类型的游戏必须快速进入打斗，但今日的开发者仍然可以以此为借鉴，思考如何在短时间内呈现更多、更丰富的剧情。”

经验：设计游戏剧情时，尽快切入主题。

6. Gyruss（《太阳系战机》）：无缝衔接的游戏体验

Supergiant Games工作室的Kasavin说，经典的街机游戏总是通过玩法和呈现方式打造一种梦幻的体验。

其中一个例子是《太阳系战机》，一款Konami在1983年发行的射击游戏(shoot-‘em-up)。玩家操控一艘飞船，环绕着屏幕移动并对着敌方战舰射击。敌人以旋转的方式移动、对玩家飞船开火并撞击摧毁玩家飞船。玩家消灭敌人后进入下一关，此时星空从屏幕正中央向外展开，营造出了一种穿越空间飞行的感觉。

尽管《太阳系战机》很像其他街机游戏，如Galaga（《大蜜蜂》），但《太阳系战机》以其对音乐的使用而闻名。它使用快节奏、电音版的巴赫《d小调托卡塔与赋格》作为背景音乐，并在游戏全程不间断地播放。

“游戏常常会根据关卡变换音乐，但在《太阳系战机》里，背景音乐循环播放，游戏场景之间无缝衔接，”Kasavin说，“去掉了游戏体验中惯有的留白或停顿，游戏的强度逐渐升高，玩家的注意力也更加集中。游戏体验感觉很纯粹。”

经验：《太阳系战机》像鲨鱼一样不断向前推进，通过循环播放音乐并不间断地切换场景创造出了一种无缝衔接的体验。

7. Space Harrier（《太空哈利》）：放弃不可行的想法

《太空哈利》是世嘉在1985年制作的一款射击游戏(rail shooter：射击游戏的一种，玩家只能控制射击方向，不能控制角色移动的轨迹，但可以让角色停止移动，游戏邦注)。与《太阳系战机》一样，该游戏通过伪3D背景和不间断的移动打造流畅的体验。作为最早的第三人称射击游戏之一，它的背景设定在一个充满了龙、独眼巨人、猛犸动物和飞行机器人的超现实世界中。游戏主角在空中飞翔并使用一把激光枪击杀敌人。

“关卡之间无缝衔接，只留给玩家短暂的喘息时间。游戏就像一场无尽的打斗旅程，”Kasavin说。

然而，《太空哈利》的原始概念和最终成品截然不同。它本来是一款让玩家在逼真的军事环境中操控战斗机的游戏，但由于硬件限制，这个概念被否决了。这时世嘉开发者铃木裕和提出了这一创意。如今《太空哈利》被认为是铃木裕和最成功的作品之一。

经验：如果一个想法行不通，勇敢地把它扔掉，尝试一些更疯狂的东西。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Many of us have fond memories of the arcade games of our youth. For a lot of us, dropping quarters into favorites like Pac-Man, Street Fighter, and Frogger was a formative experience, the basis for a life-long passion for video games.

The industry has grown leaps and bounds in the decades since arcade games dominated it, and those coin-op classics may seem quaint or simplistic in retrospect. But look past their age, and you’ll find games with tight controls, layered mechanics that are easy to grasp but difficult to master, inspired uses of music, and efficient storytelling.

There’s a lot that arcade games can teach developers today. With that in mind, we reached out to some industry luminaries and asked them to name some of their favorites that offer a masterclass in game design fundamentals.

1) Q*Bert: A study in simplicity

The 1982 arcade game published by Gottlieb, is a pop culture icon thanks to its memorable visuals, uncomplicated mechanics, and unintelligible profanity. It’s played on a single game board consisting of 28 cubes shaped into a pyramid. Using a single, four-way joystick, you start at the top and work to change the color of each cube by hopping between them. A handful of enemies are introduced gradually into the game to impede your progress. Predicting the enemy’s movements, and making use of escape routes, is necessary to successfully change all of the cubes and progress to the next stage.

“It’s beautiful in its simplicity and how its difficulty ramps with that ruleset,” said Chris Johnston, senior producer at Adult Swim Games. “And, of course, it perfectly imitates player frustration in death with Q*Bert’s trademark ‘@!#?@!’”

Takeaway: One simple concept, polished to perfection, can provide a fun and addictive experience.

2) Centipede: Synergy through gameplay ecology

Richard Rouse, creator of the upcoming adventure game The Church in the Darkness, says everyone can learn something from Centipede and its interconnected “gameplay ecology.”

In Atari’s classic shoot-’em-up, every creature in the game interacts in some way with the mushrooms that randomly litter the screen. The centipede bounces off of them. The more mushrooms it hits, the faster it descends toward the player. Shooting the centipede creates more mushrooms. Spiders occasionally eat mushrooms they come into contact with, while fleas leave additional mushrooms in their path. Finally, scorpions poison mushrooms they touch, allowing the centipede to dive-bomb the player.

“This interplay of enemy types with the environment is perfectly balanced, with each element enhancing and changing how the other elements behave,” Rouse said, ”and once the player understands these interactions they can become a much better player.”

Takeaway: Centipede uses the synergy between its enemies and environment to add depth and strategy to its lightning-quick gameplay.

3) Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom — An early example of branching narrative

Capcom’s 1993 side-scroller is a great early example of branching narrative, according to Mike Lee, design director on Smash+Grab at United Front Games. Based on the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing games and set in the Mystara campaign setting, it featured four common fantasy class archetypes (cleric, fighter, dwarf, and elf) fighting against iconic D&D monsters. Some of the game’s bosses included a regenerating troll, a beholder, an archlich and, of course, a dragon. Over the course of Tower of Doom’s story, the players made choices on how they wanted to progress. They could choose between Door A or Door B, for example, or they could choose to take a shortcut through the woods rather than following the path.

“Each choice has different story aspects and experiences that make you want to explore the whole storyline, which require you to play the game more than once,” Lee said.

Takeaway: A branching narrative is a good way to give players agency and increase replay value.

4) Contra: Powering up power-ups

Contra, the 1987 run-and-gun action game from Konami, is a prime example of how power-ups can be used to fundamentally change how a player moves and attacks.

The player begins the game with a rifle and unlimited ammunition. There are four other weapons in the game available as power-ups. There’s a machine gun, a laser gun, a fireball gun whose bullets form a corkscrew pattern, and a spread gun that sprays bullets in five directions. If the player sticks with the default rifle, however, they get two additional power-ups: a rapid fire upgrade and an invincibility barrier.

Although it can be tempting to pick up any of these power-ups when they appear, not every gun is ideal in every situation. “If you take the spread gun but need to focus fire on a single point, the game is much harder, as you need to be really good at dodging or evading while you fire at an end boss for what can feel like forever,” explains United Front Games’ Lee. “If you take the laser [which does narrow, single point damage] and the boss sends out large groups of low health enemies, you can quickly be overwhelmed.”

Takeaway: Contra’s power-ups are integral to its gameplay. They force players to strategize by choosing the right weapon for the right scenario.

5) Double Dragon: A masterclass in ‘narrative punctuality’

“Good storytelling is efficient storytelling,” said Supergiant Games’ Greg Kasavin, and the 1987 beat-’em-up Double Dragon is a masterclass in what he calls “narrative punctuality.”

In the game’s opening moments, members of the Black Warriors gang kidnap Marian, the love interest of martial artist Billy Lee. Seconds later, he and his twin brother, Jimmy, are punching and kicking their way through the gang’s turf to get her back. This brief sequence sets up the game’s entire story without uttering a single line of dialogue.

“Some classic arcade games established conflict, characters, and atmosphere in mere seconds, using no words,” Kasavin said. “While this may have been due to a combination of factors, including technical limitations and the format’s requirement for quick play sessions, contemporary game developers still can go through the exercise of considering how to set up context for their games as quickly and richly as possible.”

Takeaway: When creating your game’s narrative, get to the point as quickly as possible.

6) Gyruss: A seamless experience

Classic arcade games can create an almost trance-like experience for the player through both their gameplay and presentation, according to Supergiant Games’ Kasavin.

One example of this is Gyruss, a shoot-’em-up released by Konami in 1983. The player, represented by a starship, moves in a wide circle around the screen and fires at enemy ships. Enemies move in swirling patterns and can fire back at the player’s ship or destroy it by contacting it. Once all enemies are destroyed, the player moves on to the next level. The game’s scrolling starfield begins at the center of the screen and spreads outward, creating the illusion of flying through space.

Although Gyruss plays similarly to other arcade games like Galaga, Gyruss is notable for its use of music. It uses a fast-paced electronic version of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor that continuously plays in the background as you progress through each intergalactic level.

“While it’s common for games to have music that changes from level to level, in Gyruss the music just plays on and on, and the stages transition seamlessly from one to the next,” said Kasavin. “Without the customary gaps, fade-outs, or pauses in the experience, the game’s intensity ratchets up and the player becomes that much more focused. The game feels purer for it.”

Takeaway: Like a shark, Gyruss is always moving forward, using its constantly-playing music and constantly-moving background to create one seamless experience.

7) Space Harrier: Kill your darlings

Like Gyruss, Sega’s 1985 rail shooter Space Harrier uses a quasi-3D background and constant movement to create a sense of flow. One of the earliest third-person shooters, it’s set in a surreal sci-fi/fantasy world filled with dragons, cyclopean mammoths, and flying robots. The protagonist flies around the screen and uses a laser cannon to blow up enemies and clear each stage.

“Stages transition seamlessly from one to the next, providing you with only brief moments to catch your breath. It feels like one continuous action-packed journey,” said Kasavin.

The original concept for Space Harrier, however, was very different from what eventually made its way to the arcades. It was supposed to feature a player-controlled fighter jet in a realistic military setting, but the idea was rejected due to hardware limitations. That’s when Sega developer Yu Suzuki stepped in to give the game its psychedelic sci-fi twist. It’s now considered to be one of Suzuki’s best works.

Takeaway: If an idea isn’t working, don’t be afraid to throw it out and try something utterly crazy.（source：Gamasutra）