25 replies to this topic

[SlowCoder]

Why are so many many 2600 game names so simple? For instance, why 'Video Chess' and not something more interesting like 'Castles and Knights'? Is it just that the video game industry was so new they didn't need to get creative with the names? Were thy names kept short so they could fit them on the end label?

[save2600]

I think the names they came up with perfectly suited the game, especially in light of the relatively new industry. If you had a game called Castles and Knights back then, heck even today, people would be expecting something a little (or a lot) different than chess. Brevity is still king when it comes to marketing. Video Chess is more compelling than just Chess. Even though it's logical to assume it's meant to be played on a television screen, the video part of the title helps make it that much more special.

They could have substituted the word video with Atari, but Atari Chess, Atari Pinball, Atari Bowling... just doesn't seem right. Too redundant. Video Bowling, Video Hangman, etc. I bet would have worked, but I bet they were concerned with a nice uniform look in their fonts and sizes. And yeah, you want nice clear and clean titles on an end label for sure. Something like Triple Strike Bowling would have totally gone against that mantra.

Edited by save2600, Tue Jan 3, 2012 8:23 PM.

[fiddlepaddle]

I think the big predecessor to Atari was TV Tennis, which everyone was familiar with. Keeping the names simple was a way to bridge a potential customers past experiences to a "video" version of something they already knew and loved. Also, I think a single person generally came up with the name, and took the most natural path. At that time, buyer's resistance was more due to the unknown than due to competition with other video games.

I google now, but I used to use a search engine.

[JPjuice23]

Because those names weren't taken. Plain and simple.

[bomberpunk]

Demons To Diamonds ... Fable
SwordQuest: Earthworld ... Halo
Pac-Man ... Klonoa
Missile Command ... Trials HD
Toejam & Earl ... Portal

...you were saying?

[Cynicaster]

I think it’s just an example of an industry evolving. Simple names like “Adventure” seem generic and plain today, when the norm is fancy Hollywood-style names like “Assassin’s Creed: Revelations” or “Red Dead Redemption”.

Back in the 70’s and early 80’s, the videogame “back catalog” was almost a blank slate compared to today. It was so blank, in fact, that simply tacking the word “video” in front of a generic game or sport was probably considered adequately exciting for marketing purposes; almost “futuristic”. In a way, you can think of the word “video” in the 70’s as being analogous to today’s lower case ‘i’ (iPhone, iPod, iPad). That little ‘i’--a single letter—is a self-contained brute-force in marketing because it evokes in the consumer a sense of being on the cutting edge (whether that is perceived or real is another discussion, obviously).

For me, I love those plain old names and seeing them on the aging cartridge labels. It’s a big part of the nostalgia, because it harkens back to a day when a box would connect via analog to a fuzzy old 14” TV with dials on it, display a bunch of bouncing dots and squares, and be considered new and exciting.

[Keatah]

There was little need to use a fancy title to sell a game. Today we need all the catchy-ness we can get in a title, because, today, half the games aren't worth jack.

About 6-months before the crash, the names on the carts got to be more exciting than the game itself.

[Schizophretard]

I think it was because home video games were new and they didn't need to make fancy names to separate the game from other games. Back then they could easily call a game Combat but today you couldn't call a game First Person Shooter because there are many of them.

[oldjd]

Mainly, us folk were simple minded and would not have been able to grasp the meaning of,say "Duke Nukem"
We would have thought that meant we bombed Cuba

[Rybags]

You don't exactly need a complex name if nothing's been done before with a name resembling yours.

And the games were simple anyway. The storylines often had a prerequisite flexible imagination to match the blocky graphics with what was supposed to be going on.

Anyhow, look at movies. The 2 word title became a disease by the 1990s and is still going on.

[Random Terrain]

Rybags, on Thu Jan 5, 2012 5:25 AM, said:

Anyhow, look at movies. The 2 word title became a disease by the 1990s and is still going on.

The 1970s had one word titles like JAWS, Rocky, Airport, Westworld, Rollercoaster, Halloween and so on. I overheard in a pub that the Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain likes short movie titles.

[opeygon]

Simple names for simple games. Plus, these games were so good they didn't need fancy titles!

[Rex Dart]

Probably because of the simply-named arcade games the VCS was trying to emulate.

Anyways, "The Earth Dies Screaming" is on the VCS and "Vanquish" is on PS3, so what the hell do I know.

[Syntaxerror999]

Cynicaster, on Wed Jan 4, 2012 8:40 AM, said:

I think it’s just an example of an industry evolving. Simple names like “Adventure” seem generic and plain today, when the norm is fancy Hollywood-style names like “Assassin’s Creed: Revelations” or “Red Dead Redemption”.

Back in the 70’s and early 80’s, the videogame “back catalog” was almost a blank slate compared to today. It was so blank, in fact, that simply tacking the word “video” in front of a generic game or sport was probably considered adequately exciting for marketing purposes; almost “futuristic”. In a way, you can think of the word “video” in the 70’s as being analogous to today’s lower case ‘i’ (iPhone, iPod, iPad). That little ‘i’--a single letter—is a self-contained brute-force in marketing because it evokes in the consumer a sense of being on the cutting edge (whether that is perceived or real is another discussion, obviously).

For me, I love those plain old names and seeing them on the aging cartridge labels. It’s a big part of the nostalgia, because it harkens back to a day when a box would connect via analog to a fuzzy old 14” TV with dials on it, display a bunch of bouncing dots and squares, and be considered new and exciting.

Nail on the head. Its the same reasons I like the old Text lables over the pictoral... sure the art was great... a style I would love to see make a comeback on modern games (imagine what the Halo box art would look like in that pencil art/water color montage style gracing the covers of early atari games) but nothing says "Atari" to me more than the black background, game name in that wonderful font atari used, and the short game varriation list.

[JPjuice23]

Keatah, on Thu Jan 5, 2012 1:58 AM, said:

because, today, half the games aren't worth jack.

Yeah, unlike back then where every game was pure gold.

[BassGuitari]

I like the generic titles of the older games, myself. They seem more fitting to the simple, primitive games they adorn.

A game like Combat being called "Iron Showdown 1918: Clash At Villers Bretonneaux" would seem mildy over the top.

[Skylark68]

And then you had the issue where the titles were so simple that someone at Sears had to go gonzo on renaming them for the Telegames line....

Hangman became Spelling
Surround became Chase
Human Cannonball became Cannon Man
Sky Diver became Dare Diver

I mean, seriously, who ever calls skydiving, darediving?

[Rex Dart]

Skylark68, on Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:46 AM, said:

I mean, seriously, who ever calls skydiving, darediving?

Never heard of Timothy "Double-Dog" O'Sullivan, champion dare-taker? Why, he was second only to Rex Kramer...

[high voltage]

it was a much simpler world back then

[RF14]

Well IMO a shorter title is more appealing. Something like Defender II: Combat against the Evil Aliens is too long and doesn't really "fit". Something like Defender II: Alien Combat is short, simple and too the point.

[rockman_x_2002]

Why such simple game names?

Why not? The more succinctly you can describe your game in its title, the better players will understand exactly what they're looking at. Sometimes, simple really is best.

[BassGuitari]

RF14, on Thu Jan 19, 2012 11:02 AM, said:

Something like Defender II: Alien Combat is short, simple and to the point.

Why not just "Defender II" then? I'm going to disagree on that one. It's needlessly convoluted and the extra "Alien Combat" doesn't really describe anything that the "Defender II" part doesn't already imply...so why bother with it? I think Atari had it right to begin with.

Personally I hate dual-titled/subtitled names (pretty much any one with a colon in it), except for sequels or series expansions. Star Wars takes this to the extreme, though. Take, for instance, The Empire Strikes Back. Its full title is "Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back;" why does this movie (or ANY of the Star Wars movies) need THREE damn titles? The "Star Wars" part I get, since it's part of a series, but even shortened to "The Empire Strikes Back," people know exactly what the movie is.

[Keatah]

If a game has a simple title, it could mean the game is good enough to speak for itself. But once you get titles that are like sentences, then you've got all sorts things going on.

1 - the title is trying to make up for a bad game or lackluster game.

2 - the title needs to be catchy in order to garner popularity for something that's obscure.

3 - the title has to be complex in order to describe a complex game.

There's more, but I digress..

[SlowCoder]

You guys make very good points. Thanks.

[theloon]

You also had to convince purchasers to stock your game. These peeps hardly knew what a video game console was. Even years later Nintendo was able to pawn off its early models as NOT a video game system. Simple names for non-gamers who buy stock for big chains.