Does anyone here miss the good old days...
Discussion
Posting about Hellfire on another thread got me thinking and I found an archived Mean Machines magazine website (man, I used to love that magazine).
It got me thinking about the hours I used to spend (in the good old pre-internet days) staring at half a dozen screenshots of a game in a colourful magazine, desperate to own the cartridge. Nowadays we can just download huge multimedia reviews of a game (pics, videos, demos, etc.) and we often know exactly what to expect as soon as we boot it up.
Does anyone else miss that unknown element of games purchases????
It got me thinking about the hours I used to spend (in the good old pre-internet days) staring at half a dozen screenshots of a game in a colourful magazine, desperate to own the cartridge. Nowadays we can just download huge multimedia reviews of a game (pics, videos, demos, etc.) and we often know exactly what to expect as soon as we boot it up.
Does anyone else miss that unknown element of games purchases????
I certainly do.The wonder of it all is gone now.It's like Christmas i suppose, as you get older it becomes an excuse to get drunk rather than the magical affair it was when you were younger, but it was nice to see gaming come from its infancy through to what we have today.
The youth of today will never be able to gaze in awe at what people of a certain age group (like me) witnessed back then.
The advancements in technology were a joy to behold and even the most simple games had us hooked for hours.It was so fresh and new back then.
I often imagine what it would be like to invent a time machine and appear back in the 70's or
80's with a PC or console from today.Can you imagine the peoples faces?!
The buzz i used to get from rushing home from school for example to play someones new atari cart or the latest C64 tape (on a yellow boots C15 cassette
) will never be replaced.
Years later, linking up the first PC's and seeing your pixelated mate run around in front of you or teaming up to send in the tanks to the enemy base on red alert/c+c or alone on Dune 2 etc are also memories i hold dear.
I remember hearing proper speech being streamed from my CD 32 along with superb music and being blown away again, today of course it's the norm.Before that developers had a few k allocated to them to squash in samples etc and tbh many performed miracles.Memories of hearing my C64/amiga yell "ghostbusters", "welcome to suicide express" or "another visitor..." will always make me go warm and fuzzy.
I think old age has taken away the magic now though in the same way you suddenly got to an age where toy cars just lost that appeal.
We went from making bruum bruum noises as we played with them on the carpet to having them in cabinets and nobody was allowed to touch them!
It seems odd looking back that i had just as much fun with and dedicated just as much time to
this....
...as i now do this.Things have come a long way in nearly 30 years huh?
I even got excited over being able to turn the TV over with a wired remote control plugged into the video - a video that had a clock with hands! The remote had 4 buttons iirc, huge ones too.I even remember my mate owning a beetamax (or weetabix as i called them) video while we owned a VHS machine.When we joined one of the first local video shops, we hired a film and the guy asked which format we wanted it on.We said "VHS or Beetamax" due to teh fact we were going to take it to either his house or mine and the guy said excitedly "what....you have TWO machines?!!!!" lol.
I also stood perplexed as we were given a demo of cooking scrambled egg and jacket potatos in a microwave oven.All around me women and men stood looking on scratching their heads and firing off questions as the woman giving the demo stuck her hand into it to show it wasn't hot.
Then the launch of a fourth TV channel was the talk of the street and i was there to see it!
Happy days indeed.
Now of course many of us have been there, done that, got the T-shirt etc.Maybe that's why every now and again we love a bit of "retro"
I also used to spend a fortune on PC magazines and have many issue 1's and things from the 70's and 80's etc tucked away in the loft.I have quite a few consoles and other interesting bits sitting up their too although i was selling it off a while back.
I had two really nice vectrex systems all boxed that i regret selling now though so i have yet to flog any more lol.
My fave magazine has to be this though..a C&VC (computer and video games) mag from 1981.
It was put into a plastic bag from new so still has the free gift attached.
It's pictured next to an unopened edge magazine issue 1 but i have other edge mags too in a binder.
In fact here are a few more pics that may cast your mind back.This isn't all i own as i dont have pictures of them all, but a few here are edition 1's so may whisk you away to days gone by.
Anyway, i could waffle on all night about the old days where the entire street would go out and play if it snowed and swingball championships took up a big chunk of the summer holidays....but that will do for now.
EDIT:
Oh and i also remember every atari VCS cart i owned.I got so bored of people asking that i memorised them.
Space invaders, combat, night driver, air sea battle, breakout, Indy 500 (with pads!), slot racers, golf, asteroids, missile command, pac man, defender, pitfall and miner 2049er.
Some of them were £20 to £30 a pop too..nothing much has changed on that front really!
The youth of today will never be able to gaze in awe at what people of a certain age group (like me) witnessed back then.
The advancements in technology were a joy to behold and even the most simple games had us hooked for hours.It was so fresh and new back then.
I often imagine what it would be like to invent a time machine and appear back in the 70's or
80's with a PC or console from today.Can you imagine the peoples faces?!
The buzz i used to get from rushing home from school for example to play someones new atari cart or the latest C64 tape (on a yellow boots C15 cassette
) will never be replaced. Years later, linking up the first PC's and seeing your pixelated mate run around in front of you or teaming up to send in the tanks to the enemy base on red alert/c+c or alone on Dune 2 etc are also memories i hold dear.
I remember hearing proper speech being streamed from my CD 32 along with superb music and being blown away again, today of course it's the norm.Before that developers had a few k allocated to them to squash in samples etc and tbh many performed miracles.Memories of hearing my C64/amiga yell "ghostbusters", "welcome to suicide express" or "another visitor..." will always make me go warm and fuzzy.
I think old age has taken away the magic now though in the same way you suddenly got to an age where toy cars just lost that appeal.
We went from making bruum bruum noises as we played with them on the carpet to having them in cabinets and nobody was allowed to touch them!
It seems odd looking back that i had just as much fun with and dedicated just as much time to
this....
...as i now do this.Things have come a long way in nearly 30 years huh?
I even got excited over being able to turn the TV over with a wired remote control plugged into the video - a video that had a clock with hands! The remote had 4 buttons iirc, huge ones too.I even remember my mate owning a beetamax (or weetabix as i called them) video while we owned a VHS machine.When we joined one of the first local video shops, we hired a film and the guy asked which format we wanted it on.We said "VHS or Beetamax" due to teh fact we were going to take it to either his house or mine and the guy said excitedly "what....you have TWO machines?!!!!" lol.
I also stood perplexed as we were given a demo of cooking scrambled egg and jacket potatos in a microwave oven.All around me women and men stood looking on scratching their heads and firing off questions as the woman giving the demo stuck her hand into it to show it wasn't hot.
Then the launch of a fourth TV channel was the talk of the street and i was there to see it!
Happy days indeed.
Now of course many of us have been there, done that, got the T-shirt etc.Maybe that's why every now and again we love a bit of "retro"
I also used to spend a fortune on PC magazines and have many issue 1's and things from the 70's and 80's etc tucked away in the loft.I have quite a few consoles and other interesting bits sitting up their too although i was selling it off a while back.
I had two really nice vectrex systems all boxed that i regret selling now though so i have yet to flog any more lol.
My fave magazine has to be this though..a C&VC (computer and video games) mag from 1981.
It was put into a plastic bag from new so still has the free gift attached.
It's pictured next to an unopened edge magazine issue 1 but i have other edge mags too in a binder.
In fact here are a few more pics that may cast your mind back.This isn't all i own as i dont have pictures of them all, but a few here are edition 1's so may whisk you away to days gone by.
Anyway, i could waffle on all night about the old days where the entire street would go out and play if it snowed and swingball championships took up a big chunk of the summer holidays....but that will do for now.
EDIT:
Oh and i also remember every atari VCS cart i owned.I got so bored of people asking that i memorised them.
Space invaders, combat, night driver, air sea battle, breakout, Indy 500 (with pads!), slot racers, golf, asteroids, missile command, pac man, defender, pitfall and miner 2049er.
Some of them were £20 to £30 a pop too..nothing much has changed on that front really!
Edited by Digby on Friday 24th November 03:41
I dont.
I remember way to many times forking out an awfull lot of pocket money for a game with fatal flaws or major differences for the platform I was running it on etc.
Typicaly thesedays if I reed a few online reviews I can get a sense of the pitfalls of a game (no game is perfect) and if there a deal breaker for me. I also dont have as much time to play games as I did, finding out a game fall sflat on its face later on isnt something I want to do either.
I'm also glad games have grown up with me, some of the basic graphics & gameplay from my youth I miss, but going back is a very hard thing to do, now it'd be ugly and limited, it wasnt back then.
I remember way to many times forking out an awfull lot of pocket money for a game with fatal flaws or major differences for the platform I was running it on etc.
Typicaly thesedays if I reed a few online reviews I can get a sense of the pitfalls of a game (no game is perfect) and if there a deal breaker for me. I also dont have as much time to play games as I did, finding out a game fall sflat on its face later on isnt something I want to do either.
I'm also glad games have grown up with me, some of the basic graphics & gameplay from my youth I miss, but going back is a very hard thing to do, now it'd be ugly and limited, it wasnt back then.
Digby - wicked post! I have a similar obsession with my Transformers comics collection! And all those recollections are very similar to my own (One of those "moments" in life, for me, was playing Sonic The Hedgehog for the first time on my Megadrive - it was like a whole new thing - unbelievable graphics, speed, colour!!!!! Or spending hours and lots of effort to hook up a few PCs and play co-operative Doom for the whole night at my mates!!!! You and me sir could while away many hours over a beer, I fear!!!
I remember way to many times forking out an awfull lot of pocket money for a game with fatal flaws or major differences for the platform I was running it on etc.
I agree. There have been big advances that bring some benefits. But I do miss pawing over magazines, absorbing every little details of the pictures but still not knowing exactly what to expect until I saw it moving on the screen in front of me.
RobDickinson said:
I remember way to many times forking out an awfull lot of pocket money for a game with fatal flaws or major differences for the platform I was running it on etc.
I agree. There have been big advances that bring some benefits. But I do miss pawing over magazines, absorbing every little details of the pictures but still not knowing exactly what to expect until I saw it moving on the screen in front of me.
Edited by che6mw on Friday 24th November 03:14
che6mw said:
I agree. There have been big advances that bring some benefits. But I do miss pawing over magazines, absorbing every little details of the pictures but still not knowing exactly what to expect until I saw it moving on the screen in front of me.
I also remember walking into games shops as a kid and picking up the then out of our price range Amiga and ST boxes and being stunned at the graphics compared to the speccy, amstrad or C64 versions we sometimes purchased.
Much like early ads in magazines, the cover art was often enough to tempt you.Large colourful text sucked you in even further with promises of you "saving the world from alien attack" or suggestions that you needed to "travel the world" to "solve the mystery of the sphinx" etc.The game graphics, if shown at all were always the size of a postage stamp too if the game was rather crap looking, especially the budget games.
In reality you often got 10 screens of coloured blocks and some beeps for sound and the mystery of the sphinx was a text only adventure.Oh what fun we had with those..
"you enter the dank smelling crypt, a single candle lights the walls around you, you see an axe"
PICK UP AXE
"i can't do that"
COLLECT AXE
i can't do that"
TAKE AXE
"i don't know that command"
EXAMINE AXE
"what axe?"
FU#@ THE FU#@$NG AXE THEN
"no need for that language"
kjHASDJHGASDLHASKHALKJSDHGK
"syntax error" :d
We still loved them games though.We were young and impressionable and felt like we really were in a dark dingy tomb!
Great days indeed!
excellent post. I don't miss the endless movie tie-in 2D platform games on the 16-bit machines that had very little seperating them other than some levels, sprites and the background music. As a simulation fiend, I miss Microprose the most; I spent so many hours on F-19, F-15, M1A1 (and Gunship 2000 when I finally got a PC) it was unreal.
The first PC game I ever played that made me just sit and watch was Unreal, just as you get out of the Vortex Rikers and in to the open (very much the engine doing a 'look ma' as before then nobody had don't outside) the same game also scared the crap out of me far more than Doom 1/2/3 could ever do (the first Skarjj encounter where the lights thunk off). And that's something else I miss, the "Ohh my god, look at this!" factor. Unreal 2 was just a simple remake of the original with shoddy graphics that whole sale lifted the three most famous parts of the original; the look ma at the beginning, the Skarjj encounter and the 'unhappy ending'. It isn't just graphics that I'm talking about it's music and incidental work (in Unreal a flock of birds fly over screeching just as one of the best pieces of music 'Shared Dig' starts).
I guess what I'm saying is that I don't miss the lack of originality because computer games haven't been for a long time, but I miss those intricate little scene setters that show the Devs were really on their game even if it's simply a well timed piece of music.
The first PC game I ever played that made me just sit and watch was Unreal, just as you get out of the Vortex Rikers and in to the open (very much the engine doing a 'look ma' as before then nobody had don't outside) the same game also scared the crap out of me far more than Doom 1/2/3 could ever do (the first Skarjj encounter where the lights thunk off). And that's something else I miss, the "Ohh my god, look at this!" factor. Unreal 2 was just a simple remake of the original with shoddy graphics that whole sale lifted the three most famous parts of the original; the look ma at the beginning, the Skarjj encounter and the 'unhappy ending'. It isn't just graphics that I'm talking about it's music and incidental work (in Unreal a flock of birds fly over screeching just as one of the best pieces of music 'Shared Dig' starts).
I guess what I'm saying is that I don't miss the lack of originality because computer games haven't been for a long time, but I miss those intricate little scene setters that show the Devs were really on their game even if it's simply a well timed piece of music.
agree. Maybe we've just got older or maybe the developers have gotten tired? Even though it had to go that way it's a shame the industry has expanded beyond one persons bedroom to needing millions to develop a game now.
Agree about Unreal. Although Doom was more intense for me overall that first moment with the lights going off in Unreal was ... unreal. Brilliant stuff. Quake has an aura of spookiness about it too that I love. But yeah - that first time you go outside in Unreal was great. And I seem to recall what that engine did with water and transparency was pretty special too.
Can't remember the flight simulator that got me in to PC gaming (it was modern aircraft, I think from an aircraft carrier. Trying to search online but most game sites are blocked here at work).
Agree about Unreal. Although Doom was more intense for me overall that first moment with the lights going off in Unreal was ... unreal. Brilliant stuff. Quake has an aura of spookiness about it too that I love. But yeah - that first time you go outside in Unreal was great. And I seem to recall what that engine did with water and transparency was pretty special too.
Can't remember the flight simulator that got me in to PC gaming (it was modern aircraft, I think from an aircraft carrier. Trying to search online but most game sites are blocked here at work).
Edited by che6mw on Friday 24th November 23:30
AJLintern said:
brilliant "... the terror of tape loading error ...."
I used to have an elaborate hand waving ritual (complete with hum) for games that were hit and miss loaders.
BBC Micro said:
Tape Loading Error
Rewind Tape and Try Again
ThePassenger said:
I guess what I'm saying is that I don't miss the lack of originality because computer games haven't been for a long time, but I miss those intricate little scene setters that show the Devs were really on their game even if it's simply a well timed piece of music.
How very true, i know exactly what you mean and remember all of what you mention.
I remember some of the music from the first tomb raider game as you entered certain new
areas making me tingle with excitement for example.They were mood setting beyond belief.
Or who can forget the dogs jumping through the window in the first resident evil?
Another superb moment for us was on a quake level iirc in some form of coop mode.
One of them massive creatures was chasing me down a corridor type area and as i ran - literally shaking due to the fear and panic - i passed my mate going the way i had just been.
I managed a quick "DON'T GO THAT WAY!!" only for him to say "why, what's the....OH S#IT!!".
He started running behind me, we got outside, ran across a huge drawbridge and managed to fumble and
hit a button to raise it.
The creature stood on the other side pacing around making horrible noises and an
overwhelming sense of being safe at last flooded over us and our heart rates began to
return to normal.We just had time to say "Jesus Christ, wtf is that thing?" and the bloody thing
lept the ravine onto our side of the canyon! OMG!! i am sure we died for 10 seconds at that moment
because we couldn't speak or move
We managed to drop the bridge again and leg it mind you and it must have been 20 minutes before
we were calm enough to carry on lol.
In fact we had some third party alien addon for quake or quake 2 iirc and honestly, we got to a stage where we didn't want to play it with the lights off lol.
I think the last time in a game i felt the same kind of panic was in the PC game based on the film
starship troopers.I had fought my way through shed loads of the critters to retrieve something and
had to make my way back to an outpost.
I made it back, heard the door close behind me and assumed all was well...it was time to rest at last.
Wrong!
I noticed a few black dots on the horizon, then they got bigger, then there were hundreds of them and
within a minute it was like a scene from Zulu dawn as hundreds of them attacked which included them
getting over the walls.
Sheer panic and a gem of a gaming moment!
I shall have to try and think of some more classic moments if i can.
As for flight sims, some simulator on a mates Atari got me hooked on those.
After that we spent hours on solo flight, mig 29 fulcrum and later even managed a link up
on the cinemareware game called Wings.Top stuff.
Edited by Digby on Friday 24th November 23:47
Digby said:
I shall have to try and think of some more classic moments if i can.
I've a great one. It was Dark Forces. 1st person shooter on PC where you plaid Kyle someone or other. It was at the end of a very difficult mission. You'd just killed the level bad guy and you were low on health, low on ammo and frankly waiting for the cut scene to tell you you'd finished that level.
But the cut scene doesn't come.
You have to make your way back to your ship and suddenly over the radio comes a garbled message, static and all, about some bounty hunter (boba fett) being sighted and coming after you.
I never felt such panic making my way back through an affectively empty level knowing boba fett could pop out at any moment ....
P.S. That big yeti like monster in Quake was scary wasn't it?!!!!!
Edited by che6mw on Saturday 25th November 00:00
che6mw said:
P.S. That big yeti like monster in Quake was scary wasn't it?!!!!!
Sure was, it was the noise it made as it chased you.Horrible.
I will be sitting bolt upright in bed later on, covered in sweat
and screaming "YETI!!!".
My woman may or may not ask me at that point whether i have watched the
football violence film 'the firm' one too many times at that point.
I dont miss the ball ache of the old games...I remember spending hours writing XMS/EMS boot discs just to maximise the playability of Test Drive 2 on my PC!
What I do miss is the quality of the product. I dont think its acceptable to fork out £40 on a game and only receive a shity box with a disc in. Where is the 400 page manual? Where are all the maps and stats? What else do I have to read on the bog?
What I do miss is the quality of the product. I dont think its acceptable to fork out £40 on a game and only receive a shity box with a disc in. Where is the 400 page manual? Where are all the maps and stats? What else do I have to read on the bog?
Rob P said:
I dont miss the ball ache of the old games...I remember spending hours writing XMS/EMS boot discs just to maximise the playability of Test Drive 2 on my PC!
I kinda quite liked that geeky element. Made being able to load the game and get it running on highest settings a satisfying reward for a few lines of DOS code!!!
Rob P said:
Where is the 400 page manual?
Ahh yes, the ones with the copy protection.
"please enter the 5th word on page 36, paragraph 2"
Either that or you sometimes got one of them colour wheel
type things with millions of numbers on etc and had to
spin them to a certain location to reveal a password.
As for loading games and keeping your fingers crossed, does anyone
remember the C64 Azymuth head adjuster tape? You robbed up a
precision screwdriver from who ever owned one at that time, played
the tape, inserted the screwdriver into the tiny hole on the datasette
and turned it while listening to a pinging sound coming from your
tv speakers.
I fixed a few PS2's by adjusting pots in a similar way
years down the line, although i had to take them apart of course.
che6mw said:
Agree about Unreal. Although Doom was more intense for me overall that first moment with the lights going off in Unreal was ... unreal. Brilliant stuff. Quake has an aura of spookiness about it too that I love. But yeah - that first time you go outside in Unreal was great. And I seem to recall what that engine did with water and transparency was pretty special too.
Can't remember the flight simulator that got me in to PC gaming (it was modern aircraft, I think from an aircraft carrier. Trying to search online but most game sites are blocked here at work).
Can't remember the flight simulator that got me in to PC gaming (it was modern aircraft, I think from an aircraft carrier. Trying to search online but most game sites are blocked here at work).
Aye. One of the first games to actually have water as something a player could swim in I believe (I could be wrong, I never Quaked) or at least the first to include stuff in the water. I'll agree that Doom could be intense but more as a straight You vs 100's of enemies although it couldn't hold a dull glow stick to Unreal (I used to just leave it on the flyby screen and be impressed
) As for early carrier flight sim, possibly one of the F/A-18 Hornet sims? Or perhaps ohh... erm.. Carrier Air Wing? I think that was F-14's though, assuming I've even got the name right. Having said that Carrier Command still rocks my RTS socks even today, so simple... so complex.
ThePassenger said:
As for early carrier flight sim, possibly one of the F/A-18 Hornet sims? Or perhaps ohh... erm.. Carrier Air Wing? I think that was F-14's though, assuming I've even got the name right. Having said that Carrier Command still rocks my RTS socks even today, so simple... so complex.
Don't think it was any of those. We're talking 1993-4ish when I was playing it. This is going to bug me now till I can get home and check online. I think it was flying the Eurofighter but could be wrong.... Eurofighter 2000? does that have potential? I recall it had fog and decent looking hills and stuff but think it was largely based over water.
P.S. Can I just say how cool it is to find a girl in to games?!!! Where were you in my teens
Digby said:
che6mw said:
P.S. That big yeti like monster in Quake was scary wasn't it?!!!!!
Sure was, it was the noise it made as it chased you.Horrible.
I will be sitting bolt upright in bed later on, covered in sweat
and screaming "YETI!!!".
My woman may or may not ask me at that point whether i have watched the
football violence film 'the firm' one too many times at that point.
Favourite monster must be the 'Fiend' - that big hariy thing that leaps towards you while grunting and trying to rip your head off
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