My first love, my only true *passion* to this day, is an unloved genre.
Flight Simulators.
Back in the day, MS flight sim was being developed with basically the entire focus of the MS game staff. Other than that one space shooter and the monster truck games, anyway. They got progressively more realistic and detailed year after year.
The king of the hill was Jane's Combat Simulators. When I was young, nay, merely a lad... I took the email address "Simjanes." Then it was my standard handle for gaming, IRC, writing less than reputable programs, radio, and is now the name of my personal company. They were the king for a reason.
USNF '97 was arguably the best flight sim for the time ever made. The recently made games heralded as reviving the genre are JOKES compared to the originality of JCS titles. Their graphics were on par and exceeding those of any other genre, the replay value was nearly infinite, and the community spewed user-created content that few games could dream to match.
So what do we have to choose from now? The only notable flight sims released in the last few years have been subpar WWII games, knocked out more to cash in on an industry phase than to make a quality game. LOMAC was an excellent try for which I had high hopes, but as is typical for the genre these days, the developer failed to deliver.
Microsoft has essentially not changed their physics engine, aircraft models, skins, textures, locations, or anything else for about ten years. A flight from Berlin to Prague was possible before 2000 in their sims using mod packs written by pilots and hobbyists, and their claims at new maps are a very dubious half-truth at best. I wasted a lot of good money on MFS X deluxe when it was new. I think that was my last attempt at rediscovering my pasttime.
This is not the golden age of gaming. During the golden age, the people rose up, and spoke with one voice, and demanded that great shrines to gaming be built, and it was so, and those shrines were called "the Arcade." Gathered in those mighty temples, we basked in the monochrome and 8-bit colored light of the CRTs and worshipped the gods called Space Invaders, Berserk, Robotron 2084, Defender, and Galaga, amid a deafening, plinking, electronic roar that would put a casino to shame. And ye, verily, our worship was fervent and caused coin shortages in Japan. And even esteemed, stuck-up, Booker Prize winning authors like Martin Amis caught "Pac-Man Fever" and wrote detailed guides on how to score highly. And you could play games, in public, with your friends, and everybody was doing it, even Walter Cronkite, and it was great. And much pizza was eaten.
But lo! Then did Atari blaspheme and anger the gods and createth the sack of crap called "E.T." And in their wrath, the gaming gods did unleash the Kool-Aid Man, and strike down the temples, leaving no stone set upon another stone, and gamers were forced to play at home, alone, on office equipment designed by people that thought "cyan" and "magenta" were useful colors.
So passed the first golden age of gaming. And while we have survived our long exile in the CGA desert, and can once again game with our friends via the new-fangled Internet, and are enjoying a new golden age, let us not forget the mighty temples that were lost. We shall never see their like again.
Some of the games that have been coming out recently have been amazing. I've bought more games in the past month than I did pretty much all last year.
Worms, Castlevania, Lumines, etc. on Xbox Live. Halo 3 beta and new Halo 2 maps coming before the end of spring... The 360 is an excellent piece of hardware, and Xbox Live is more robust than ever.
STALKER finally released, and although buggy, an excellent, immersive game that was worth waiting all those years for. C&C 3 is out, or will be out, what, this week? Alien Shooter: Vengence is good old fashioned fun, etc.
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade for everybody in need of the MMO experience.
More games on more devices now than ever. DS is doing amazing, Nintendo's hardware is flying off the shelf, we've got games on our iPods, cell phones, etc. Even internet/flash gaming is doing pretty well.
Future Blues on
Xbox Live: No Reply
Steam: Jacobontap
LoL: FutureBlues
But lo! Then did Atari blaspheme and anger the gods and createth the sack of crap called "E.T."
I'm not trying to be an ass, but how many of us actually played this game? It's generally regarded as a shit game and it seems to be in every "top ten list of olol bad games evar," but how many have us actually experienced it?
Maybe the learning curve was really steep.
I played it a few years ago, and yes, it is quite bad.
I owned the game as a kid, and as bad as it was, I was stubborn enough to finish it, even though I hadn't spent a cent of my own money on it. Same with Superman (the ORIGINAL bad Superman game!). I guess when you can't exactly drive yourself to a store to pick up something new, you find ways to make what you have entertaining. I played the shit out of games back in the day that I would never have the mind to go back to now.
It's clearly the silver age. You know, like comic books went through. "Golden age" would be the SNES/Genesis days, "silver age" would be the DC/PS2/Gamecube/Xbox days, and I guess we'll see what comes up next.
Shameless hawking to film and action figure companies at the expense of everything once beloved by the actual fans?
ben0207 on
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augustwhere you come from is goneRegistered Userregular
I'm sure someone made up a thread like this one in the early Gamecube/XBOX/PS2 days. And I'm sure someone before then thought we were in the golden age when the N64 came out.
I'm not sure if "Golden Age" is the right term, but I do think this is probably the most exciting time ever for video games. Not even mentioning the ridiculous amount of huge games coming out in the next 18 months, having the Wii and DS to play side by side with the PS3/360 and PSP is incredibly awesome. Nothing like this has happened yet in gaming history.
And 2D is still alive and well. The GBA/DS combo is jam packed with great 2D games. New Super Mario Bros.. Metroid: Zero Mission. All 5 recent portable Castlevanias. Drill Dozer.
It's a good time to be a fan of 2D.
Nah. It's an okay time to be a fan of 2D. You're collapsing several years worth of games to come up with a decent handful of titles. In terms of 2D, the current era is a faint shadow of the SNES/Genesis era.
TroubledTom on
Wii friend code: 8704 3489 1049 8917
Mario Kart DS: 3320 6595 7026 5000
It's clearly the silver age. You know, like comic books went through. "Golden age" would be the SNES/Genesis days, "silver age" would be the DC/PS2/Gamecube/Xbox days, and I guess we'll see what comes up next.
Does everyone agree that, at the very least, this gen is much more exciting than last?
I would say that this gen will be akin to what the SNES is.
the playstation/64 begining3D consoles have not aged well, there are very few of those games that we will be able to play in 20 years and think man that game still holds it's ground. Maybe mario 64 but there aren't many. Last Gen is the Nes where most games are still playable but you know, don't have too many wow things. This Gen will be the SNES era where people can keep going back to these old games and think they look a little dated but still be fine.
I mean I've been playing San Andreas again, and man I'm obviously too used to Saints Row cause that game just looks crap, their fingers don't even move..... Don't get me wrong I'm playing through it again because it's fun, but it's really starting to show it's age much like when I decided to boot up Goldeneye a few year back. They're fun games but because we're used to so much they really seem dated.
Does everyone agree that, at the very least, this gen is much more exciting than last?
Easily. I've never seen a gen with as exiting or awesome games.
And I wouldn't say that this is the Golden Age. More like the Modern Age, if we go by comics style. Golden Age is more like the base for everything, generating the legendary characters and concepts that the next ages follow (in comics, Superman, Batman, Human Torch, Captain America, Namor), in video games, I guess the characters of the Golden Age would be Mario, Donkey Kong, Final Fantasy characters and Zelda?
PS2/Xbox/Gamecube age would be Silver Age then. Or was it Bronze?
The "Golden Age" is different for everyone. Games go in cycles, with certain genres and platforms being dominant at different times.
Personally, I think we're in a bit of a rut at the moment, with too many FPSes (and 3D shooters in general). But that's just because I'm not a big fan of the genre.
For me, the "Golden Age" started in mid-1998 and lasted until late 2000. Many of the best PC games ever were released during that period:
- Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II
- Planescape: Torment
- Diablo II
- Sid Meier' Alpha Centauri
- Shogun: Total War
- Starcraft
- Grim Fandango
- Worms Armageddon
- Freespace 2
- Homeworld
- Half-Life
- Thief and Thief II
- Starsiege: Tribes
- Counterstrike
- Deus Ex
- The Sims
And that's just the ones I can remember.
It was hard keeping up with all the AAA games during this period, and most genres were well-represented.
For me, the "Golden Age" started in mid-1998 and lasted until late 2000. Many of the best PC games ever were released during that period:
- Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II
- Planescape: Torment
- Diablo II
- Sid Meier' Alpha Centauri
- Shogun: Total War
- Starcraft
- Grim Fandango
- Worms Armageddon
- Freespace 2
- Homeworld
- Half-Life
- Thief and Thief II
- Starsiege: Tribes
- Counterstrike
- Deus Ex
- The Sims
And that's just the ones I can remember.
I think you are probably right. Deus Ex, how I miss you. *sigh*
I was ridiculously spoilt, I was just starting to play games then...
I'm not a fan of the reliance on the internet that gaming seems to have developed (...everyone seems to lazy to bug check their games before they release them). It breeds poorly made games and potentially flawed good games. A game doesn't sell well at first, so it loses support and then it might become popular due to a mod or something and then - whoops, no more patches. Or you get companies like Activision and their utterly useless '2 patch limit', despite the fact that patches often create new bugs (and I'm not buying an expansion just to fix game-breaking bugs in the original).
More worrisome is episodic content and the generally good reception it seems to receive from the general public. You pay exorbitant fees to play for part of a game? Does that not make sense to anyone else (...aside from financially...for the creator)?
I'll concede that early 3D-era games have generally not aged well, but there are still some decent games to be had in the PSX/N64/DC/early PS2 era; many of the RPGs tend to be worth it (personally I enjoy a good ol' RE romp as well, but I haven't gotten around to buying a GC/Wii).
I'd say we're in an age of refined graphic technology and proven market genre-demand, but not a golden age. Of all the console eras I've participated in, the SNES/Genesis one is still my 'golden age' I had more Genesis and Nintendo cartridges at one point than I have total games now. Many people can list off a mountain of games from that time (Mario games, Sonic games, Kirby games, Toejam and Earl, Jurassic Park, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, True Lies, FFs, Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid, Castlevanias, Zeldas, Mortal Kombat, Primal Rage, the emergence of Madden, (many games I've missed/bypassed...).
The period now may be considered a golden age at some point however (...if those few problems pan out well); but the longevity of many games just hasn't been proven of most Xbox, PS2 and GC games...Generally the PC has always been a bastion of something worthy to play, though.
UltimaGecko on
The facehuggers want to play with you in the AvP LP. Facehuggers also want you to check out the TF2 cards here. View the in-progress RE mansion recreation for L4D here.
Or you get companies like Activision and their utterly useless '2 patch limit', despite the fact that patches often create new bugs (and I'm not buying an expansion just to fix game-breaking bugs in the original).
Broken games are ruining this generation (*cough* Mediaeval Total War 2 *cough*). It's just not fun, but it is a symptom of how much more complex games have become. It'd be pretty hard to miss a bug in Mario (but possible I'm sure), however in something like MTW2 it is very easy. And it happened. Half the stuff just plain didn't work, then wasn't fixed in the first patch. Whether it will be or not ever remains to be seen, which is especially ridiculous as many mods have managed to fix it all...
The golden age of gaming for me was the Spectrum Vs C64 Vs Amstrad days.
Almost 20 minutes waiting to load a game, Bit like a PSP eh? :P
I have to agree with that, I got the most gaming done on my C64. The anticipation of the load, knowing those last few flashes meant you could play the game soon, being able to pick a £2.99 game up whenever I liked, a myriad of cool joySTICKS, saving up pocket money to buy the bigger budget titles.
It's not a golden age unless you can point at it and say "games were better back then". :P
But otherwise, there's plenty of arguments as to why this isn't a golden generation. A lot of the current hardware seems poorly made (infinitely more reports of stuff breaking down than, say, SNES), development costs mean that some games get pushed out only half-done, and for every innovative idea there's two dozen shovelware titles or generic clones.
I'm quite happy with gaming at the moment, since I'm too poor to sit out on the cutting edge of releases. It seems like a dangerous idea even if I did have the money, though.
The golden age of gaming for me was the Spectrum Vs C64 Vs Amstrad days.
Almost 20 minutes waiting to load a game, Bit like a PSP eh? :P
I have to agree with that, I got the most gaming done on my C64. The anticipation of the load, knowing those last few flashes meant you could play the game soon, being able to pick a £2.99 game up whenever I liked, a myriad of cool joySTICKS, saving up pocket money to buy the bigger budget titles.
Awesome time.
Load"*",8,1
Run.
I just remembered how some games would create a single picture on the screen over the course of the 20 minute load, doing it pixel-line by pixel-line. You could start loading it, go away and get something to eat, then check on the progress by how much of the picture was visible.
Now I'm glowing with the thrill of remembering Manic Miner. And Chuckie Egg.
The golden age of gaming for me was the Spectrum Vs C64 Vs Amstrad days.
Almost 20 minutes waiting to load a game, Bit like a PSP eh? :P
I have to agree with that, I got the most gaming done on my C64. The anticipation of the load, knowing those last few flashes meant you could play the game soon, being able to pick a £2.99 game up whenever I liked, a myriad of cool joySTICKS, saving up pocket money to buy the bigger budget titles.
Awesome time.
Load"*",8,1
Run.
I just remembered how some games would create a single picture on the screen over the course of the 20 minute load, doing it pixel-line by pixel-line. You could start loading it, go away and get something to eat, then check on the progress by how much of the picture was visible.
Now I'm glowing with the thrill of remembering Manic Miner. And Chuckie Egg.
In the later years of the Speccy, I ended up playing Gameboy(1st version) while waiting on games to load. Another treat from that age was receiving a tape from your friend which had like 10 games on each side, And those magazines with free games & demo's on the front were lifesavers.
And looks like I'll have to fight you now Mr_Grinch...so,
Spectrum 128+2 is much better than the C64 graphics wise so HA! ;-)
The golden age of gaming for me was the Spectrum Vs C64 Vs Amstrad days.
Almost 20 minutes waiting to load a game, Bit like a PSP eh? :P
I have to agree with that, I got the most gaming done on my C64. The anticipation of the load, knowing those last few flashes meant you could play the game soon, being able to pick a £2.99 game up whenever I liked, a myriad of cool joySTICKS, saving up pocket money to buy the bigger budget titles.
Awesome time.
Load"*",8,1
Run.
I just remembered how some games would create a single picture on the screen over the course of the 20 minute load, doing it pixel-line by pixel-line. You could start loading it, go away and get something to eat, then check on the progress by how much of the picture was visible.
Now I'm glowing with the thrill of remembering Manic Miner. And Chuckie Egg.
In the later years of the Speccy, I ended up playing Gameboy(1st version) while waiting on games to load. Another treat from that age was receiving a tape from your friend which had like 10 games on each side, And those magazines with free games & demo's on the front were lifesavers.
I remember those tapes. The one that got the most use had Planet Invasion on one side and Zaxxon on the other. Planet Invasion was insanely fast (oh god no not a splitter get away) and would result in ever-more frantic giggling/screaming as we tried to shoot/flee the chasing ships.
Magazines with actual programs written in them that you could type out, line by line, then play. Ah, the good old days. Games that were impossible to complete, either because they simply made you do the same levels again (but faster, with tougher, faster bad guys and your fuel being used up more quickly) once you'd finished or because the damn thing didn't work (Jet Set Willy - don't go in the attic or you break the game).
The "Golden Age" is different for everyone. Games go in cycles, with certain genres and platforms being dominant at different times.
Personally, I think we're in a bit of a rut at the moment, with too many FPSes (and 3D shooters in general). But that's just because I'm not a big fan of the genre.
For me, the "Golden Age" started in mid-1998 and lasted until late 2000. Many of the best PC games ever were released during that period:
- Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II
- Planescape: Torment
- Diablo II
- Sid Meier' Alpha Centauri
- Shogun: Total War
- Starcraft
- Grim Fandango
- Worms Armageddon
- Freespace 2
- Homeworld
- Half-Life
- Thief and Thief II
- Starsiege: Tribes
- Counterstrike
- Deus Ex
- The Sims
And that's just the ones I can remember.
It was hard keeping up with all the AAA games during this period, and most genres were well-represented.
Thank God I never had to use those tapes. My first computer was an Apple //e ... and to be honest I really didn't have many games (due to my floppy disk holder falling on a screwdriver, impaling half my shit). I did play a lot of Kareteka, Pac Man, and Moon Patrol all on my beautiful green monochrome monitor. (well, until my mom stupidly hung a plant over the computer as decoration, then watered the plant)
Anyhow... a lot of the games I played were things I "programmed" by copying them out of a programming book. There were no text editors on the //e, so what you'd do is clear out the current program, then enter your code line by line like this:
> 10 PRINT "My Game"
> 15 END
You had to leave some increments in there so you could add stuff, like this:
>11 PRINT "by: me"
If you wanted to change a line, you couldn't backspace, you just typed that number and put in what the line should say
>10 PRINT "My AWESOME Game"
And then you could either save all you had into a file on the floppy, or you could execute it, or load something else. In many ways, this sucked complete ass, but it's how I learned. It's also how I picked up the habit of programming longhand on lined paper before typing it in.
Posts
Flight Simulators.
Back in the day, MS flight sim was being developed with basically the entire focus of the MS game staff. Other than that one space shooter and the monster truck games, anyway. They got progressively more realistic and detailed year after year.
The king of the hill was Jane's Combat Simulators. When I was young, nay, merely a lad... I took the email address "Simjanes." Then it was my standard handle for gaming, IRC, writing less than reputable programs, radio, and is now the name of my personal company. They were the king for a reason.
USNF '97 was arguably the best flight sim for the time ever made. The recently made games heralded as reviving the genre are JOKES compared to the originality of JCS titles. Their graphics were on par and exceeding those of any other genre, the replay value was nearly infinite, and the community spewed user-created content that few games could dream to match.
So what do we have to choose from now? The only notable flight sims released in the last few years have been subpar WWII games, knocked out more to cash in on an industry phase than to make a quality game. LOMAC was an excellent try for which I had high hopes, but as is typical for the genre these days, the developer failed to deliver.
Microsoft has essentially not changed their physics engine, aircraft models, skins, textures, locations, or anything else for about ten years. A flight from Berlin to Prague was possible before 2000 in their sims using mod packs written by pilots and hobbyists, and their claims at new maps are a very dubious half-truth at best. I wasted a lot of good money on MFS X deluxe when it was new. I think that was my last attempt at rediscovering my pasttime.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
^5
XBL/PSN-Polaris314/Twitter/DJ P0LARI5
Worms, Castlevania, Lumines, etc. on Xbox Live. Halo 3 beta and new Halo 2 maps coming before the end of spring... The 360 is an excellent piece of hardware, and Xbox Live is more robust than ever.
STALKER finally released, and although buggy, an excellent, immersive game that was worth waiting all those years for. C&C 3 is out, or will be out, what, this week? Alien Shooter: Vengence is good old fashioned fun, etc.
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade for everybody in need of the MMO experience.
More games on more devices now than ever. DS is doing amazing, Nintendo's hardware is flying off the shelf, we've got games on our iPods, cell phones, etc. Even internet/flash gaming is doing pretty well.
Steam: Jacobontap
LoL: FutureBlues
I owned the game as a kid, and as bad as it was, I was stubborn enough to finish it, even though I hadn't spent a cent of my own money on it. Same with Superman (the ORIGINAL bad Superman game!). I guess when you can't exactly drive yourself to a store to pick up something new, you find ways to make what you have entertaining. I played the shit out of games back in the day that I would never have the mind to go back to now.
XBL/PSN-Polaris314/Twitter/DJ P0LARI5
Shameless hawking to film and action figure companies at the expense of everything once beloved by the actual fans?
Also, Volition might as well be dead.
True dat.
I miss nerve-stapling in Civ 4.
Nah. It's an okay time to be a fan of 2D. You're collapsing several years worth of games to come up with a decent handful of titles. In terms of 2D, the current era is a faint shadow of the SNES/Genesis era.
Mario Kart DS: 3320 6595 7026 5000
"please don't go
the drones miss you
they look up to you"
Almost 20 minutes waiting to load a game, Bit like a PSP eh? :P
"I swear, those planet busters are for entirely peaceful purposes, like, uh...
...landscaping?"
<On Black Isle folding>
My Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance!!
What has it ever done to you?!
Nothing!!
*sobs*
My poor..poor Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance..
PFFFF
You are smoking the hype-pipe my friend.
A John Byrne reboot. Game and Watch it is!
I would say that this gen will be akin to what the SNES is.
the playstation/64 begining3D consoles have not aged well, there are very few of those games that we will be able to play in 20 years and think man that game still holds it's ground. Maybe mario 64 but there aren't many. Last Gen is the Nes where most games are still playable but you know, don't have too many wow things. This Gen will be the SNES era where people can keep going back to these old games and think they look a little dated but still be fine.
I mean I've been playing San Andreas again, and man I'm obviously too used to Saints Row cause that game just looks crap, their fingers don't even move..... Don't get me wrong I'm playing through it again because it's fun, but it's really starting to show it's age much like when I decided to boot up Goldeneye a few year back. They're fun games but because we're used to so much they really seem dated.
Satans..... hints.....
Easily. I've never seen a gen with as exiting or awesome games.
And I wouldn't say that this is the Golden Age. More like the Modern Age, if we go by comics style. Golden Age is more like the base for everything, generating the legendary characters and concepts that the next ages follow (in comics, Superman, Batman, Human Torch, Captain America, Namor), in video games, I guess the characters of the Golden Age would be Mario, Donkey Kong, Final Fantasy characters and Zelda?
PS2/Xbox/Gamecube age would be Silver Age then. Or was it Bronze?
Personally, I think we're in a bit of a rut at the moment, with too many FPSes (and 3D shooters in general). But that's just because I'm not a big fan of the genre.
For me, the "Golden Age" started in mid-1998 and lasted until late 2000. Many of the best PC games ever were released during that period:
- Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II
- Planescape: Torment
- Diablo II
- Sid Meier' Alpha Centauri
- Shogun: Total War
- Starcraft
- Grim Fandango
- Worms Armageddon
- Freespace 2
- Homeworld
- Half-Life
- Thief and Thief II
- Starsiege: Tribes
- Counterstrike
- Deus Ex
- The Sims
And that's just the ones I can remember.
It was hard keeping up with all the AAA games during this period, and most genres were well-represented.
(incidentally, I just wanna give a shout out to Demerdar for his sig. 8-))
I think you are probably right. Deus Ex, how I miss you. *sigh*
I was ridiculously spoilt, I was just starting to play games then...
More worrisome is episodic content and the generally good reception it seems to receive from the general public. You pay exorbitant fees to play for part of a game? Does that not make sense to anyone else (...aside from financially...for the creator)?
I'll concede that early 3D-era games have generally not aged well, but there are still some decent games to be had in the PSX/N64/DC/early PS2 era; many of the RPGs tend to be worth it (personally I enjoy a good ol' RE romp as well, but I haven't gotten around to buying a GC/Wii).
I'd say we're in an age of refined graphic technology and proven market genre-demand, but not a golden age. Of all the console eras I've participated in, the SNES/Genesis one is still my 'golden age' I had more Genesis and Nintendo cartridges at one point than I have total games now. Many people can list off a mountain of games from that time (Mario games, Sonic games, Kirby games, Toejam and Earl, Jurassic Park, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, True Lies, FFs, Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid, Castlevanias, Zeldas, Mortal Kombat, Primal Rage, the emergence of Madden, (many games I've missed/bypassed...).
The period now may be considered a golden age at some point however (...if those few problems pan out well); but the longevity of many games just hasn't been proven of most Xbox, PS2 and GC games...Generally the PC has always been a bastion of something worthy to play, though.
Broken games are ruining this generation (*cough* Mediaeval Total War 2 *cough*). It's just not fun, but it is a symptom of how much more complex games have become. It'd be pretty hard to miss a bug in Mario (but possible I'm sure), however in something like MTW2 it is very easy. And it happened. Half the stuff just plain didn't work, then wasn't fixed in the first patch. Whether it will be or not ever remains to be seen, which is especially ridiculous as many mods have managed to fix it all...
Seriously. Am I the only one who finds Gears of War a little, y'know, dull?
edit: Also, my golden age was around 1999.
I had my first dose of massive player base (via asheron's call) and an evolving game.
I don't like any MMO that has come out after it, nothing has given me the same feeling. So i still play it... hoping for the fun to come back.
I have to agree with that, I got the most gaming done on my C64. The anticipation of the load, knowing those last few flashes meant you could play the game soon, being able to pick a £2.99 game up whenever I liked, a myriad of cool joySTICKS, saving up pocket money to buy the bigger budget titles.
Awesome time.
Load"*",8,1
Run.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
But otherwise, there's plenty of arguments as to why this isn't a golden generation. A lot of the current hardware seems poorly made (infinitely more reports of stuff breaking down than, say, SNES), development costs mean that some games get pushed out only half-done, and for every innovative idea there's two dozen shovelware titles or generic clones.
I'm quite happy with gaming at the moment, since I'm too poor to sit out on the cutting edge of releases. It seems like a dangerous idea even if I did have the money, though.
I just remembered how some games would create a single picture on the screen over the course of the 20 minute load, doing it pixel-line by pixel-line. You could start loading it, go away and get something to eat, then check on the progress by how much of the picture was visible.
Now I'm glowing with the thrill of remembering Manic Miner. And Chuckie Egg.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
Imports.
There are still a bunch of games that are released in one country but not in another.
Once the market is universal, and PAL format is eleminated along with other region formats, everything will be good.
In the later years of the Speccy, I ended up playing Gameboy(1st version) while waiting on games to load. Another treat from that age was receiving a tape from your friend which had like 10 games on each side, And those magazines with free games & demo's on the front were lifesavers.
And looks like I'll have to fight you now Mr_Grinch...so,
Spectrum 128+2 is much better than the C64 graphics wise so HA! ;-)
I remember those tapes. The one that got the most use had Planet Invasion on one side and Zaxxon on the other. Planet Invasion was insanely fast (oh god no not a splitter get away) and would result in ever-more frantic giggling/screaming as we tried to shoot/flee the chasing ships.
Magazines with actual programs written in them that you could type out, line by line, then play. Ah, the good old days. Games that were impossible to complete, either because they simply made you do the same levels again (but faster, with tougher, faster bad guys and your fuel being used up more quickly) once you'd finished or because the damn thing didn't work (Jet Set Willy - don't go in the attic or you break the game).
Uh, back on topic, games are great today. Yeah.
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Bravo to you and your list.
Anyhow... a lot of the games I played were things I "programmed" by copying them out of a programming book. There were no text editors on the //e, so what you'd do is clear out the current program, then enter your code line by line like this:
> 10 PRINT "My Game"
> 15 END
You had to leave some increments in there so you could add stuff, like this:
>11 PRINT "by: me"
If you wanted to change a line, you couldn't backspace, you just typed that number and put in what the line should say
>10 PRINT "My AWESOME Game"
And then you could either save all you had into a file on the floppy, or you could execute it, or load something else. In many ways, this sucked complete ass, but it's how I learned. It's also how I picked up the habit of programming longhand on lined paper before typing it in.