After seeing some of the new software available for the ZX81/TS1000, specifically “Dungeon of Ymir” and “SRAM HI*RES Extended BASIC,” something has occurred to me about the TS1000 lacking color and sound.
Color and sound is nice, and it can even be spectacular in a good game or whatever. However, I have noticed that after having had lots of it (Atari 2600, etc.), it simply becomes less important.
I think that one of the things that messed up the Atari games machines, is that a bunch of folks jumped in and made a lot of “games” which just rang the bells and flashed the colors and left very little of the (limited) memory for the GAME. Most Atari games, the GAME part, are garbage… rip-offs. They don’t “call” anybody back to play again, not even children. And all the color and sound doesn’t change that.
Also, apart from the rip-offs, there is simply the “saturation” matter. We’ve seen the color and heard the sound. It’s not new anymore. We finally realize that it doesn’t make a classic. Once everybody has it, it doesn’t even give status anymore.
In art, color has its own special things that it can do. Effects that can be obtained in no other way and we wouldn’t even want to detract from that; it is simply true. BUT NOTE that the same holds true for a black and white drawing. A fine charcoal on paper does not apologize to anybody. It has its own special effect. It is not intrinsically better or worse than color. It is just simply what it is, and it can be very fine. It has its own silvery dignity, its own moods.
I don’t even want to detract from the chunky stock graphics of the TS1000. It is what it is. But I’ve got to say that this new WRX16 high-res stuff that I’ve been seeing opens up a whole new world of moods and delicacy.
I’ve enjoyed “Ymir.” I liked it at first, AND it keeps calling me back. That’s the good part. It’s a good GAME, not just the graphics. It holds up. Got time? Take it slow and cautious. Feel adventurous? I do the “Thou art most truly a fool” version, to see how far I can get with just Level 1 experience. If “Dungeon of Ymir” is not a classic, then I don’t know what it is.
Who needs color and sound?
