I know what you mean, and a lot of arcade-style games from the 80's were designed to be played for a few minutes only. It took a while before we had games like "Legend of Zelda" where you can play all night & see new things the whole time.
Yes, this is why I have mixed feelings about the events in King of Kong. On the one hand, I find myself admiring their skill at Donkey Kong; it's impressive to see...for about 5 minutes. Then I start to have a rather sinking feeling and start to wonder if these guys might actually have some sort of problem that keeps them playing these games so long. Assuming I could get to the point where I could play these games for hours on a single quarter, I mean, DAMN, how long could I withstand that before it became excruciatingly boring? I hope I'm not offending anyone who DOES enjoy that kind of thing, but I just don't get it. The only reason I can play certain games for hours on end is that the content at least appears to be changing, and there is a variety of different things to do. For instance, I could easily see playing something like Ultima VII for weeks if not months. But I bet I couldn't play Donkey Kong for more than a half hour or so without losing interest. And this is coming from a diehard retrogamer!
The idea that someone actually sits there and carefully watches all those tapes of them playing for 16 hours...That gives me nightmares. I'd be chewing off my own foot in an hour or less.
I know what you mean, and a lot of arcade-style games from the 80's were designed to be played for a few minutes only. It took a while before we had games like "Legend of Zelda" where you can play all night & see new things the whole time.
Yes, this is why I have mixed feelings about the events in King of Kong. On the one hand, I find myself admiring their skill at Donkey Kong; it's impressive to see...for about 5 minutes. Then I start to have a rather sinking feeling and start to wonder if these guys might actually have some sort of problem that keeps them playing these games so long. Assuming I could get to the point where I could play these games for hours on a single quarter, I mean, DAMN, how long could I withstand that before it became excruciatingly boring? I hope I'm not offending anyone who DOES enjoy that kind of thing, but I just don't get it. The only reason I can play certain games for hours on end is that the content at least appears to be changing, and there is a variety of different things to do. For instance, I could easily see playing something like Ultima VII for weeks if not months. But I bet I couldn't play Donkey Kong for more than a half hour or so without losing interest. And this is coming from a diehard retrogamer!
The idea that someone actually sits there and carefully watches all those tapes of them playing for 16 hours...That gives me nightmares. I'd be chewing off my own foot in an hour or less.
Matt Barton, Managing Editor
Location: St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA
Email: matt@armchairarcade.com