Most modern games tend to be packed with all sorts of bells and whistles, which do add a little variety and interest - but I can't help feel that they also dilute the core gameplay.
In many shooters for example, fast reflexes and hand-eye coordination have become secondary to learning map layouts, the specs of 20 different weapons, and the weaknesses in the AI programming.
In massively multiplayer online games, the most powerful players are not the most skilled, but merely the ones who have spent the most time playing (in some cases, it's possible to build a powerful character by repeating basic tasks that require very little skill - aka "grinding").
Modern games are also typically much slower-paced than older games, as they merge (dilute) the action with elements from other genres (strategy, role-playing, etc), and also place greater emphasis on realism.
The true action game seems to be all but extinct these days, which is a real shame.
So, my question is: What do you consider the "purest" action game?
If you were a scientist trying to measure reflexes/hand-eye coordination/etc using a video game, what game would you choose?
Could you design a new game that would do it even better?
It would have to be a game in which luck and knowledge play no part (in the same way that an IQ test is not supposed to be influenced by education), which rules out modern shooters because they reward knowledge of the game's maps, weapons, AI, etc.
I'm a big fan of Berzerk, Tempest, and Robotron 2084. A game of this type with a LOT of style thrown in was Smash TV. Also, my favourite shooter from my youth was Space Dungeon, which I played on the Atari 5200; I've planned to actually remake that game some day. Sinistar also falls into this category, and I've only discovered it thanks to the "classic" game reissues for the PS2 and XBox.
I think that timers and imposed "deadlines" are essential for this type of game, as urgency forces players to re-think and re-evaluate strategies on the fly and/or in tighter quarters. In other words: one's strategy is tested at different plateaus of the game, which makes a player have to try something different in order to succeed the further they go/longer they play.
Frogger fails at this, in my opinion, or else I would have included it in this list. Space Dungeon has no timer, from what I recall, although it adds a HUGE exploration factor to the game's overall package, pushing the game in an entirely different direction.
The deadline can be represented (like in Quadnet or my own attempt at the genre, Nebula Force, as spamming the player with more and more enemies - equating to less space to squirm around in. Berserk had Evil Otto to enforce its timer. One could argue that Tempest's timer was the fact that enemy ships would walk along the player's edge of the playing field if the player wasn't fast enough in taking out the enemies (although there was always the limited shots of the "superzapper" weapon, and they later implemented the 'jump' feature in an effort to make things easier for players).
Oddly enough, [Root Beer] Tapper also meets this criteria, although the game isn't necessarily at the top of my list. Image Fight, Life Force, and Zanac coupled with it's unofficial sequel The Guardian Legend on the NES are a couple high-scoring games in this category, although they are for the most part pure shoot-em-ups (TGL being the noted exception here).
Shmups are by far my favourite genre of video game. There's always a pure game-skills quotient that's tested in the good ones, which pretty much means I'm playing games that were made in my high school years or earlier. TOTALLY last century.
That's a nice list - some of the games I recognize (Robotron is a great example) and some I'm going to have to look up (Space Dungeon?). I notice you've also only picked "vintage" games, which doesn't surprise me.
I've just been looking on wikipedia, and it turns out there's a name for the genre I'm describing - "twitch" games (this might be common knowledge, but it's news to me).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch_game
Think I might try and make some kind of Quadnet/Robotron clone...
I'd pick Road Fighter, you had to be friggin fast to get back in the road after if you hit a car. Guess i'll have to setup DOSBox again, that game was awesome
That looks pretty lame. Awesome animation, as you would expect from the creator of the greatest animated movie of all time - "The Land Before Time" - but ridiculously linear gameplay.
And again, it's possible (essential?) to learn the fixed sequence of actions required to complete each section - so it's not really a true test of skill.
"Road Fighter" just looks like a poor man's "Bump 'n' Jump".
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