Super Mario Bros. 1 points

[Kuromatsu]

Now that I think about it, I remember this one pinball machine that had such a high scoring standard, that just hitting the bumper gave you one million points.

[Chupperson Weird]

Ever notice how a lot of old games typically have scorebars that go up to millions? How come there were never really any games that gave you less that ten points for anything? The only ones I can think of are Game & Watch games.

Which would you rather get, 1 point or 100 points?

[Lizard Dude]

It makes the player feel a lot better psychologically to be getting points in amounts of 10 or more instead of getting points 1 by 1, which feels like a slog.

For instance, here's an excerpt from an interview with PopCap co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Jason Kapalka:

There are some tricks and shortcuts we’ve learned… like, always have sound cues of rising pitch associated with combos, and never award points in increments of less than 10. These are often non-intuitive little things that just work with gamer psychology for some reason.

-Lizard Dude

[Bag of Magic Food]

I always thought it was stupid how old games would have a high score list but no battery backup to save them so you could check your scores next time you came back to that game.  At least games in the video arcades would stay on all day...

[penguinwizard]

I think the word "point" has a double meaning in that picture.

lol, yep. And neither of those meanings are related to high scores. I've never played a Phoenix Wright game, but that dramatic pose and the shouting is the only thing I remember about it.

I remember in Tetrisphere for N64 being amazed at how the score easily goes into the millions and billions with little effort compared to other games where a million is very rare. Or at least that scores in Tetrisphere seem very high compared to other games at the time. Even though the score was pointless (as far as I knew), it was a blast to see combos yield such high scores.

Blast Corps gave me that feeling too with the money counter thing. Doesn't mean a darn thing, but it's still cool to see you've caused some 8 million dollars in damage.

[Glitchy]

I know of one game series in which points are very important.

Speaking of points, there is no "point" in bringing that up!

[nensondubois]

Which would you rather get, 1 point or 100 points?

In some G&W games like Green House and Donkey Kong you get bonus points for not missing at around 300 or so points.

[CrossEyed7]

In Fire Attack, you get points 2 at a time, or 5 at a time for a while after some point milestones.

[jmdblazer]

Speaking of points, there is no "point" in bringing that up!

It's a joke. They're "point"ing.

[Turtlekid1]

Points are essential to any classic game (although modern games seem to be ignoring a score system more and more these days).

It's also a psychological thing. "Whoa, I just got 1000 points for getting that mushroom!" It makes you feel cool and accomplished.

And points make you feel competent.

[Luigalaxy]

Scorewise. And so you can brag (and/or lie) about how you got 99999999 points in one go-round.

[Turtlekid1]

Except generally I'm lucky enough to beat SMB having gotten about 20 game overs...

[CrossEyed7]

I like how getting a strawberry in Celeste gives you 1000 points even though there's no score counter

[Lakitu]

Points were relevant before speedrunning.

[Lizard Dude]

I like how getting a strawberry in Celeste gives you 1000 points even though there's no score counter

lol, I never even thought about that. Feels good to get those points though!