How did game developers pack entire games into so little memory twenty five years ago?

[uptrendfinancialsignal]

It's a little surprising to see how the dev was able to pack all the entire games into a very tiny memory 25 years ago. Isn't it surprising to see games like Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda, and Street Fighter II fit in cartridges or CDs? The shocker is that the cartridges have a very small space.

How are they able to do that?

 

[lens]

I did a little research on this and found that the dev used clever coding and compression to make it possible. It's amazing how they could discover that in those days. Additionally, you would also notice that the sound effects were also a bit simpler.

 

[uptrendfinancialsignal]

I did a little research on this and found that the dev used clever coding and compression to make it possible. It's amazing how they could discover that in those days. Additionally, you would also notice that the sound effects were also a bit simpler.

I think the devs reused assets, and they also exploited hardware quirks. Look at the original Doom's 2.5MB size. It's absolutely astonishing. That's the work of innovative programming. We still have a lot to learn from retro gaming's efficiency.

 

[Demon_skeith]

They were skilled beyond all words, and it made the games be different as well. Nowadays, developers have so much freedom, kind of kills the game vibe.

 

[Baw$e]

Graphics were a lot simpler back then. Technology improved, and so did videos games. I remember graphics on games looking like paper.

 

[WontByte]

I remember graphics on games looking like paper.

Have to admit, at the time, that blew me away though.

 

[Demon_skeith]

I still like the N64 and PS2 era games the best, looked good and didn't have overcomplicated development.

 

[Ravenfreak]

Programming tricks were done to ensure the games from the 16-bit and 32 bit era would run and look good for the time. Though some games are held together with duct tape, the generation 1 Pokemon games are a good example. With limited space, they had to get creative and that's one of the reasons I still love retro games to modern ones. I love modern ones as well, but seeing all these cool tricks being pulled off on older hardware is awesome. I love seeing new games for old consoles too.

 

[Demon_skeith]

Programming tricks were done to ensure the games from the 16-bit and 32 bit era would run and look good for the time. Though some games are held together with duct tape, the generation 1 Pokemon games are a good example. With limited space, they had to get creative and that's one of the reasons I still love retro games to modern ones. I love modern ones as well, but seeing all these cool tricks being pulled off on older hardware is awesome. I love seeing new games for old consoles too.

Current gen Pokemon games aren't much better programmed these days as well.

 

[Alicia]

Well, everything was simpler then but I was amazed to think that way too. It's quite shocking of what they did. They are well skilled and have the creativity mindset to set them all done.

 

[lens]

They were skilled beyond all words, and it made the games be different as well. Nowadays, developers have so much freedom, kind of kills the game vibe.

Old game developers were very goo. It's amazing how they developed wonderful games on very low memory. And most of those games were special and unique. Now, the developers enjoy all the freedom with tools readily available. So games are no longer unique.

 

[Kross]

Games of those days were not as extensive as games of today. They were just basic designs. The design of the gameplay mechanics of a game today can be 5GB. Not to talk about the graphics and other aspects of the game design. It wasn't so back in the days.

 

[1stop]

The developers of that time were optimization wizards. They relied on low-resolution graphics, yet the games still come out interesting .

 

[Kross]

I quite remember downloading a whole football/soccer game on mobile some years back. The size of the game was just 5MB. I mean a soccer game that has more than 500 distinct players and over 100 teams. That kind of game in this era is nothing less than 6GB.

 

[Henrywrites]

Games of those days were not as extensive as games of today. They were just basic designs. The design of the gameplay mechanics of a game today can be 5GB. Not to talk about the graphics and other aspects of the game design. It wasn't so back in the days.

It is also important to note that games of those years were made simply for players to enjoy a good time playing and for nothing more. It is a very good experience, if you ask me.