Pause

[DeadAwake]

This topic is all about the video game phenomenon known as "pause".  Here we can discuss any thoughts relating to "pause", but I will provide some starting points.  Please help yourself:

• What's the longest you've ever left a game paused?
• What's your favorite pause screen or sound effect?  Why?
• Have you ever lied to your mom about being unable to pause?
• If you added up all the pauses you've ever done, how much of your life has been spent in pause mode?

If leaving my DS in sleep mode counts as pausing, my record is two days.  Otherwise, I've been known to keep my Super Nintendo paused for several hours to go out for ice cream or a bike ride.

[TEM]

Pausing for too long severly bothers me, I'd rather lose some data and shut off a system before leaving it on while paused for hours.

The best pause I've ever seen is SSBM. Being able to move the camera and focus in and out on all players is great. This way, while you are out getting a drink, your friends aren't tempted to unpause the game and kill your uncontrolled character. Really great.

Was anyone else bothered by not being able to pause Mortal Kombat?

[Khold]

Three days on Super Mario Sunshine... o_O

[DeadAwake]

Lately, I've come to realize the error of my pausing ways and have begun using the Start button more responsibly--just so you don't think I'm some kind of pausing psycho like Khold.  Sleep mode is a different story, though.  It's not nearly as taxing for the system.

And I am usually bothered by any game that has no pause function--but I can't think of any off the top of my head, and I never played much Mortal Kombat.

[Pt_Peach]

I told my mom that I couldn't pause on PP:TTYD so that I could stay on for an extra 5 minutes. At another time, I paused Paper Mario: The thousand year door for about 6 hours and was scared all the time about if it got turned off. And I left legend of Zelda: The wind waker on for 3 days, because at the time we didn't have a memory card and my brother, after 3 days, turned the game off and now I have to go to that island with the bird things again.

[Lizard Dude]

When I downloaded the Electroplankton demo at E3, I kept it on my DS via sleep for about a week. Watoad had the Meteos demo for a long, long time the same way.

I really like pausing in Viewtiful Joe. The director says a unique thing on each level, and I really like his voice.

What bugs me is games where the game time still goes up while paused. You aren't doing anything, you don't have the capability to do anything, and you probably aren't even there.

[Glorb]

In Bionic Commando, pausing actually gave you a strategic edge; it was a map.

[Koopaslaya]

When I was a youngin' I used to pause a game for only one reason: that is, to eat. NOw this may seem foolish, yet when I was a tiny guy, my grandma wouldn't have it if I played through dinner. So, I would always pause SMB3. I never usually pause games anymore. But I remember my Grandma saying one thing.... DONT PAUSE IT TOO LONG, OR IT WILL BE BURNED INTO THE TV. I thought, what better, Mario permanently etched into my grandma's TV, SWEET!

[TEM]

My friends left Star Wars Episode II (the movie DVD) paused for too long and now there's a purple shadow of Mace Windu's lightsaber stuck on there.

[Pt_Peach]

My big brother told me that if I didn't turn off the playstation 2, it would get burned into the screen. My mom would kill me if it did.

[dude677]

On Halo 2 multiplayer, there was no pause. You press START, and it'll bring up a bunch of menus, but the game won't pause, and your character will still be able get hit.

It wasn't pausing for two reasons,
if one character paused in a game, every would have paused.
It would have been cheating to not get hit when paused. People could just go through a whole game in pause. They would still win.

The longest i ever had any system on was for 6 hours. The n64, and Mario Party 1 was on.

I do keep games on of when i eat, read, or when i can do something really quickly and come back. The TV gets turned off though.

[DeadAwake]

The TV gets turned off though.

Exactly.  I don't know why people are fretting so much about burn-in when you can just turn off the TV.  Though, I do admit Koopaslaya's grandma is smarter than the average bear in that she even knows what burn-in is.  Hooray for grandmas!

[Kojinka]

Whenever I pause a game to eat, I turn the TV off.

[Ludwig]

I also think that the pause feature in SSBM is pretty nifty. I like pausing in cool positions, such as dodging a kick or something.

[Pt_Peach]

Yeah! You gotta love the SSBM pause. But I can't find out how to exit the game from the pause menu if it's not on training. I have to press the restart button. This makes me think: Wouldn't it be cool if the TV burned in a cool screenshot from SSBM on your TV, the one you didn't use?

[Kojinka]

I'd love to try that, but the only TV with the right ports that we never use developed bad picture quality over time. :(

[Unlimited Lumpia]

Oh wow, that would be pretty cool, pt_peach. (so cool, in fact, that it actually inspired me to post. :D )

I just might try that one day once I get around to it.  Thanks for the awesome idea.

[Chupperson Weird]

I like it when the background music still plays while paused.

[Koopaslaya]

BUt, I rather like the "dingo-dingo" noise that SMB makes.

[dude677]

Yeah! You gotta love the SSBM pause. But I can't find out how to exit the game from the pause menu if it's not on training. I have to press the restart button. This makes me think: Wouldn't it be cool if the TV burned in a cool screenshot from SSBM on your TV, the one you didn't use?

Oh gosh.
Hold L+R+B+X or something like that.
You'll go out.

[TEM]

It says in the lower right hand corner.

[dude677]

Yeah.
That too.

You'd have to be pretty oblivious not to notice that.

[Kojinka]

I think reseting in SSBM is L+R+A+start.

[Pt_Peach]

So thats why thats combination is down there. Gosh, how stupid am I? I feel extreamly dumb right now.

[bobman37]

Pausing in Super Smash Bros. was always fun for my friends and I... up until Shot of Captain Falcon Posing Number 376. I get annoyed by games that lack pausing functions, as well as the ability to save, especially at any point in the game. That's what gets me in the most trouble, not being able to stop because I can't save until later.

[Tingrio]

My longest pause...isn't really a pause, but I left my Animal Crossing: Wild World game on in my DS for 6 hours (11pm-5am) while my DS was recharging.

[The Chef]

I used to leave games on Pause for long periods of time because they never saved how many lives you collected.Take Donkey Kong Country, for example.I would get 40-50 lives per game, but if I turned it off, I'd only have 5 when I resumed playing.

[Chupperson Weird]

I get annoyed by games that lack pausing functions, as well as the ability to save, especially at any point in the game. That's what gets me in the most trouble, not being able to stop because I can't save until later.

But that's what makes games WAY TOO EASY these days. There's no challenge if you can just get up and save whenever you feel like it.

[bobman37]

True, but at least you have the choice. I choose saving right were I am and having an easier game over having more of a challenge and getting busted for being in front of the TV for too long at one time, which would mean no TV in the future for a given amount of time. If you don't want to save where you are, you don't have to. Better than being forced to wait, I say.

[TEM]

Maybe this is a sign that you aren't "ready" for certain videogames.

[Hirocon]

And I am usually bothered by any game that has no pause function--but I can't think of any off the top of my head, and I never played much Mortal Kombat.

The Original Punch Out for NES had no pause to my knowledge.  The start button was used as a game button, letting you perform a super punch, and I don't believe the select button was used.

I couldn't really say what my longest pause was, though once I left SimCity 4 running unattended (NOT paused) overnight for about 7 hours while I slept.  I did it to get money... I had nothing but roads built yet and I was earning $100/month for legalizing gambling.  In the morning my city had ridiculous wealth.

[DeadAwake]

Of course!  I'm very familiar with Punch-Out!!'s lack of a pause function... I've gotta admit, though:  It does make the fight a lot more intense.  And with such quick rounds, I don't think I can hold that against it.

But that's what makes games WAY TOO EASY these days. There's no challenge if you can just get up and save whenever you feel like it.

It depends on the type of game, I'd say.

[Lizard Dude]

Games with savepoints but also a quicksave that auto-deletes when you resume it have it about right.

[The Chef]

^ Sounds like Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, which I still havent beaten.

[bobman37]

Games with savepoints but also a quicksave that auto-deletes when you resume it have it about right.

Yeah, that's a good system. Anything like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is good for me, where you can save during a battle and the data is lost when you pick it up again later.

[Lizard Dude]

WARNING: Language: http://pressstarttoplay.net/comic.php?cid=55

[bobman37]

Another good one on that site: http://pressstarttoplay.net/comic.php?cid=45

[Lizard Dude]

Oh yeah, I should have thought of that. :D

[TEM]

Both of those are great. My friend's little brother used to have a problem with SSBM as depicted in the first comic; we solved that problem as depicted in the end of that comic.

[The Chef]

That pause function should have been applied to camera mode. It's much easier to capture funny or interesting scenes that way.

[Pt_Peach]

That pause function should have been applied to camera mode. It's much easier to capture funny or interesting scenes that way.

But you CAN pause in camera mode.

[The Chef]

Yes, but you can only take the photos using the 4th controller while the game is unpaused.

[smfan1085]

But that's what makes games WAY TOO EASY these days. There's no challenge if you can just get up and save whenever you feel like it.

Some games certainly can have a good bit of challenge even when you can save any time. Take Donkey Kong 64, for instance. That game is quite difficult to get 101% completion in (though it's still enormously fun in my opinion), but you can save at any time you like, and I think it saves automatically every time you get a Golden Banana. What makes this game difficult is the puzzles, which sometimes take a lot of time to figure out, and in its case saving is basically just a way of preventing unnecessary loss of data. One time I was playing the game and the power went out for a moment; I was horrified because I thought I would have to do a big bunch of stuff over again. But to my great joy it turned out that I hadn't really lost anything (except maybe a few coins or something). The frequent saving saved me from a bunch of very unnecessary replaying.

In short, DK64 is an example of a game in which saving doesn't make the gameplay too easy.

[Hirocon]

You can save any time in Donkey Kong 64, but it only saves your play time, number of bannanas, etc., not your exact location and situation within the game.  Some games let you save anywhere, even in the middle of a boss battle, letting you come back as often as you like to that exact moment within the battle.  This sort of saving can easily be abused.

[Lizard Dude]

Console games pretty much never have that type of saving. PC games usually always do.

[NintendoExpert89]

When I didn't own a memory card, and had to have Luigi's Mansion paused overnight so I can continue where I left off, at the start of Area 4 (I had already gotten Game Over several times and didn't want another one... >_<).

[smfan1085]

You can save any time in Donkey Kong 64, but it only saves your play time, number of bannanas, etc., not your exact location and situation within the game.  Some games let you save anywhere, even in the middle of a boss battle, letting you come back as often as you like to that exact moment within the battle.  This sort of saving can easily be abused.

Well, you know, it's not like it's hard at all to get back to most areas in DK64. Most of the challenge lies in the puzzles, where in most cases it would be pointless to save in a particular spot even if that were possible. But yeah, you're right about those games you mentioned; saving in any spot in a game would be too easy in nearly all cases. But I don't play computer games (except a few online ones), so I wouldn't have even known about that type of game.

Come to think of it, though, in Wario Land II for GBC it is possible to save in any spot, though this might just be a quicksave (I can't recall with certainty). But again, I doubt the game becomes excessively easy because of it, since the game is fairly puzzle-oriented and has lots of secrets to find.