Dear Future Gamer,

I am writing in response to most of the letters in FG14. It has now struck me how future-minded gamers today are, and how preoccupied they are with graphical improvements in games.

I certainly look forward to the release of the Dreamcast over here, and although I do have a powerful PC (P2 400MHz, Voodoo Banshee etc), I really miss "the good old days".

Robert McChesney's letter advised you not to do budget reviews, and I have to agree with him, because there's nothing quite like looking back at an old games mag for things like that. After reading his letter, I managed to find some old mags, such as Issue 1 of GamesMaster, and issues 1-36 of NMS (now Official Nintendo Magazine). Brought back some memories, believe me.

Although I am not that old (16), I have loved videogames from an early age (I remember Gamesmaster Live, do it again!!) and have seen them develop, just as you see a child grow up, and my personal opinion is that videogames were better when technology wasn't, because developers concentrated on gameplay.

Just look at Elite, Worms, Doom, the Mario trilogy on the NES, and dare I say it, Street Fighter 2: the ORIGINAL... the list goes on for ages. And if this NUON lives up to its name (it's the 128bit Jaguar we've all been waiting for...), things will become worse.

I agree, it would be impossible to play Tekken 3 or GoldenEye on an Atari. Creating a realistic environment is important for RPGs such as FFVII, Grim Fandango, and "video" games like The X Files, and I accept that change happens, but the bottom line is that developers shouldn't be so worried about the game engine and graphics and concentrate more on the gameplay.

Chris Higgins

FG: Programmers are pressured from many sides, not least from the marketing men who tell them to produce Game X because they know it will sell. How do they know it will sell? Because they produced Game Y (just the same as Game X but not as good looking) and that sold loads. Rather than innovate, it's easy money to renovate.