Anyone born in the 70s? Remember how good the 90s games were?

[chrcoluk]

Even comparing the SNES super mario kart to the newer versions shows you how things have regressed, SMK1 the much simpler and more enjoyable game, any of the newer ones I tried turned me off very quickly, just massively overly complex tracks etc.

 

[DirtyDingusMcgee]

 

[AusWolf]

LAN parties with friends playing Doom in coop in highest difficulty

I never knew you could do that!

 

[lexluthermiester]

Doom and Doom 2
Heretic

I would highly recommend the use of GZDoom for all of the old Doom and Heretic/Hexen games.

ZDoom - Downloads

zdoom.org

You'll thank yourself later!

Golden Axe another one.

Golden Axe Warrior is another Hidden Gem!

 

[AusWolf]

Even comparing the SNES super mario kart to the newer versions shows you how things have regressed, SMK1 the much simpler and more enjoyable game, any of the newer ones I tried turned me off very quickly, just massively overly complex tracks etc.

This is a topic that keeps coming up in different threads, and I agree. How many times I find myself scrolling through my 500-long Steam library, looking for some quick fun to pass 30-60 minutes and think "nah, too long", "nah, too complex", "nah, needs too much thinking", "nah, too time consuming", and so on.

Edit: "Too much content, not enough substance, constant grind, zero fun" pretty much sums up the majority of modern movies and games, imo.

 

[ratirt]

Quake and Quake 2
Doom and Doom 2
Heretic

I remember Hexen 2. That was a cool game. Don't know if anyone played.

 

[GamerGuy]

Back in those days, I recall playing OG Doom and Soul Blade, the intro theme was just epic, games were so much simpler then, and surprisingly enjoyable. I was a late into the gaming scene then, a boomer here....

 

[Solaris17]

Back in those days, I recall playing OG Doom and Soul Blade, the intro theme was just epic, games were so much simpler then, and surprisingly enjoyable. I was a late into the gaming scene then, a boomer here....

I had a conversation similar to this thread some months ago. shit maybe a year. I listen to classical a lot. Its what I grew up with before my high school hair band phase \m/ but I had a recommendation on my feed. It was a remake of the theme music for the temple of time.

Its funny, because you know, I think games are a lot better, a lot more engaging even. But it lacks imagination. not of the artist or studio, of you the player. It lacks your imagination. They take it away, and I would argue immersion is not the same as imagination at least in this context.

I imagine myself as plenty of protagonists for sure. What I dont do however is fill in any gaps. This is all done to well. I can imagine all I want about being the next operative, or a powerful wizard. I am seldom given the freedom to make the world I'm in though. Including the music, which is what I did a lot.

The temple of time listening to it now...well you don't need me to tell you, or probably anyone in here. Most of us have heard it.

Back then though. When I had no idea what Zelda was or what to expect, I heard this:

I think themes and music in general in games are a primary driver of the wonder lust. I didn't hear the rough stepped midi sequence the n64 struggled to provide. I heard the melodic orchestra of the forgotten.

 

[GamerGuy]

Just going down memory lane, looked around after mentioning Soul Blade, and found the original intro theme, still love it, tried finding it in Spotify, but there's a cover version available, not this one!

 

[Apocalypsee]

Speaking of music, that is what gotten me into early days of gaming. Gaming back then is less about graphics because of the technology of the time, the soundtrack is there to compensate of it and for me that is what makes the games memorable. Music is there to convey emotion, the situation of the player is experiencing. People praising Resident Evil remakes, I tried to play them, to me it just didn't feel the same without the iconic music, it just feels...empty. Graphics is nice and all but it just lacking emotion to me. One of the reasons I despise remakes.

 

[VulkanBros]

Hippie child - 1967.
My youth was thrilling - ZX Spectrum - Commodore 64 - first PC (Intel 80286 + 2 MB RAM + 2 x 5.25" floppies)
Crazy times in the 90s with Matrox, S3, 3DFx Vodoo etc.
First real PC games:
- Sensible Soccer
- Half-Life

 

[AusWolf]

Back in those days, I recall playing OG Doom and Soul Blade, the intro theme was just epic, games were so much simpler then, and surprisingly enjoyable. I was a late into the gaming scene then, a boomer here....

I would boldly argue that a game has to be simple to be enjoyable.

Just think about board games. You have simple rules. You do A, then B happens, to which your options are C or D. That's it. That's why they're so much fun, that's what gives them basically infinite replayability.

Then you had early video games where you had to do A, to which your path took you through B and C. Same stuff.

A lot of modern games try to break out from this concept, which is fine in theory, but it doesn't work. They try to be everything, they try to put hundreds of hours of entertainment in front of you with an infinite number of possibilities to fulfil all your dreams, etc. It's an impossible endeavour because you have to be a super talented writer to create so much stuff that's actually worth doing, but even then, it's too much to take in a lot of times. It only creates the infamous "Bethesda RPG" effect when you fire up a game, and you end up doing bugger all in it, then you quit because you're confused and lost. You stare at the map trying to figure out which one of the hundreds of icons you should put a marker on because you honestly don't know. After a while, you start wondering why you should even care because doing random shit coming out of your own head is more interesting anyway. Besides, how can we talk about replayability when a single playthrough with side missions can cost you 200+ hours? Who has time for that, really?

Then you have the other side of the coin, like Space Marine 2. It's a bog simple game: you kill aliens. That's it. And it's so incredibly fun that it will keep mainstream game journalists blushing for the next 10 years.

 

[Vayra86]

I had a conversation similar to this thread some months ago. shit maybe a year. I listen to classical a lot. Its what I grew up with before my high school hair band phase \m/ but I had a recommendation on my feed. It was a remake of the theme music for the temple of time.

Its funny, because you know, I think games are a lot better, a lot more engaging even. But it lacks imagination. not of the artist or studio, of you the player. It lacks your imagination. They take it away, and I would argue immersion is not the same as imagination at least in this context.

I imagine myself as plenty of protagonists for sure. What I dont do however is fill in any gaps. This is all done to well. I can imagine all I want about being the next operative, or a powerful wizard. I am seldom given the freedom to make the world I'm in though. Including the music, which is what I did a lot.

Save 60% on Noita on Steam

Noita is a magical action roguelite set in a world where every pixel is physically simulated. Fight, explore, melt, burn, freeze and evaporate your way through the procedurally generated world using spells you've created yourself.

store.steampowered.com

As usual these days there is always a game to scratch that specific itch. I have yet to play this one, but seems to match what you've not been able to do as a 'Wizard'

I would boldly argue that a game has to be simple to be enjoyable.

Just think about board games. You have simple rules. You do A, then B happens, to which your options are C or D. That's it. That's why they're so much fun, that's what gives them basically infinite replayability.

Then you had early video games where you had to do A, to which your path took you through B and C. Same stuff.

A lot of modern games try to break out from this concept, which is fine in theory, but it doesn't work. They try to be everything, they try to put hundreds of hours of entertainment in front of you with an infinite number of possibilities to fulfil all your dreams, etc. It's an impossible endeavour because you have to be a super talented writer to create so much stuff that's actually worth doing, but even then, it's too much to take in a lot of times. It only creates the infamous "Bethesda RPG" effect when you fire up a game, and you end up doing bugger all in it, then you quit because you're confused and lost. You stare at the map trying to figure out which one of the hundreds of icons you should put a marker on because you honestly don't know. After a while, you start wondering why you should even care because doing random shit coming out of your own head is more interesting anyway. Besides, how can we talk about replayability when a single playthrough with side missions can cost you 200+ hours? Who has time for that, really?

Then you have the other side of the coin, like Space Marine 2. It's a bog simple game: you kill aliens. That's it. And it's so incredibly fun that it will keep mainstream game journalists blushing for the next 10 years.

Simplicity in concept, complexity in execution, I would like to add.

Indie games have many great examples of this. They simplify existing games but they excel on the execution part, you're given a simple toolbox, but the way you use those tools is where the gameplay keeps evolving. Triple A also gives you a simple concept, but then forgets to make it shine, they don't explore the possibilities in execution, its just giving a character a standard moveset and then dragging it through a game world, when open, to visit all the map markers, and when linear, to check off the quest markers going from A to B. What's supposed to keep you attached is a constant stream of gacha mechanics, flashy lights when leveling up and constantly holding a promise that there's more, which really doesn't amount to anything.

 

[AusWolf]

Simplicity in concept, complexity in execution, I would like to add.

Indie games have many great examples of this. They simplify existing games but they excel on the execution part, you're given a simple toolbox, but the way you use those tools is where the gameplay keeps evolving. Triple A also gives you a simple concept, but then forgets to make it shine, they don't explore the possibilities in execution, its just giving a character a standard moveset and then dragging it through a game world, when open, to visit all the map markers, and when linear, to check off the quest markers going from A to B. What's supposed to keep you attached is a constant stream of gacha mechanics, flashy lights when leveling up and constantly holding a promise that there's more, which really doesn't amount to anything.

Yeah. Quality over quantity of content, basically.

If a game features two things, but they're executed with 100% perfection, that's a perfect game. But if there's a million, but otherwise half-assed things in it, it'll still feel like a half-assed game.

 

[Vayra86]

Yeah. Quality over quantity of content, basically.

If a game features two things, but they're executed with 100% perfection, that's a perfect game. But if there's a million, but otherwise half-assed things in it, it'll still feel like a half-assed game.

Project scope must be determined beforehand, and accurately, too. What you see in a lot of triple A is that scope is either completely misinterpreted from the beginning (oops, this is bigger than we thought, No Man's Sky for example), or made far too large during development (Cyberpunk going open world) and then all hell breaks loose. We're seeing more and more of this, even the scope changing entirely during development, with games serving a different niche altogether all of a sudden. The most recent example I saw was Wayfinder.

What we see in triple A is that we're promised a massive scope but underneath the varnish we notice there's really just a tiny set of systems repeated ad nauseam, a good example is the repetitive style of assignments you do in Hogwarts Legacy or Skyrim, or more recently Star Wars Outlaws: there are certain types of encounters, types of locations, and they are all slightly different, yet execute the same concept. If you've seen one dungeon, you've seen them all. Therefore, none of them feel unique and the theme park idea starts taking hold. Its an immersion killer, too. These tricks are ways to oversell the scope of a game, really, with the argumentation that 'the concepts themselves are fun to play' so why wouldn't you do them a few dozen times. Except its a fine balance between being fun, and being repetitive, while we can be certain its never unique.

 

[kapone32]

Who else remembers Zeliard?

 

[sepheronx]

I was born in the early 80s and still remember how good 90s games were. Most of my favorite games of all time. FF7, Phantasy Star 3, RE2, Sonic 2, Super Mario World, Street Fighter 2, Doom, Hexen, Unreal, Quake, Dino Crisis, Silent hill, Parasite Eve, MGS and so much more.

Mw too, fellow youth.

 

[freeagent]

My family did not embrace computers or games. They made me go play outside lol.

But the games I had I loved, perfect for passing the time when I was grounded lol..

 

[lexluthermiester]

Save 60% on Noita on Steam

Noita is a magical action roguelite set in a world where every pixel is physically simulated. Fight, explore, melt, burn, freeze and evaporate your way through the procedurally generated world using spells you've created yourself.

store.steampowered.com

As usual these days there is always a game to scratch that specific itch. I have yet to play this one, but seems to match what you've not been able to do as a 'Wizard'

That's a good one!
Also on GOG!

Noita

Noita is a magical action roguelite set in a world where every pixel is physically simula

www.gog.com

My family did not embrace computers or games. They made me go play outside lol.

My mom was half way on that. She knew that computers were the future and that I had a knack for it. But she still tried(and failed) to put limits on it all..

Who else remembers Zeliard?

This Zeliard?

Zeliard - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Never played it but the box art looks catchy!

 

[kapone32]

Project scope must be determined beforehand, and accurately, too. What you see in a lot of triple A is that scope is either completely misinterpreted from the beginning (oops, this is bigger than we thought, No Man's Sky for example), or made far too large during development (Cyberpunk going open world) and then all hell breaks loose. We're seeing more and more of this, even the scope changing entirely during development, with games serving a different niche altogether all of a sudden. The most recent example I saw was Wayfinder.

What we see in triple A is that we're promised a massive scope but underneath the varnish we notice there's really just a tiny set of systems repeated ad nauseam, a good example is the repetitive style of assignments you do in Hogwarts Legacy or Skyrim, or more recently Star Wars Outlaws: there are certain types of encounters, types of locations, and they are all slightly different, yet execute the same concept. If you've seen one dungeon, you've seen them all. Therefore, none of them feel unique and the theme park idea starts taking hold. Its an immersion killer, too. These tricks are ways to oversell the scope of a game, really, with the argumentation that 'the concepts themselves are fun to play' so why wouldn't you do them a few dozen times. Except its a fine balance between being fun, and being repetitive, while we can be certain its never unique.

That's a good one!
Also on GOG!

Noita

Noita is a magical action roguelite set in a world where every pixel is physically simula

www.gog.com

My mom was half way on that. She knew that computers were the future and that I had a knack for it all. But she still tried(and failed) to put limits on it all..


This Zeliard?

Zeliard - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Never played it but the box art looks catchy!

Yep. My first platformer RPG. There were levels where you had to have special shoes just to finish them. It was the Game I played and one of the ones that made Sierra the King in that Space at the time.

 

[Fokker]

My family did not embrace computers or games. They made me go play outside lol.

But the games I had I loved, perfect for passing the time when I was grounded lol..

I didn't have that issue, but I also self-regulated as was just at home outside as I was in front of a computer. I always managed more play time by doing my grade school homework in class during lectures.

 

[thesmokingman]

oh... Seal Team from 1993 was a lot of fun. It's a whopping whole 4mb lol, those were the days.

Seal Team

Remember Seal Team, an old video game from 1993? Download it and play again on MyAbandonware.

www.myabandonware.com

 

[Tatty_Two]

My family did not embrace computers or games. They made me go play outside lol.

But the games I had I loved, perfect for passing the time when I was grounded lol..

When I was young there were no computers/games/consoles that were available, the go to tech was an Abacus or an "Etch a Sketch" (dependant on age those might need googling ). TV's were black and white, pretty small and only 3 terrestrial channels available, there was no choice but to go outside to play or die from boredom Electronic calculators became widely available in retail when I was about 13 I think although they existed before that but I had never seen one in a shop until that age.

 

[Princess Garnet]

When I was young there were no computers/games/consoles that were available, the go to tech was an Abacus or an "Etch a Sketch" (dependant on age those might need googling ). TV's were black and white, pretty small and only 3 terrestrial channels available, there was no choice but to go outside to play or die from boredom.

I might be quite younger than this, but I can relate to an extent because tech was still expensive when I was younger, or at least "expensive enough" because our family wasn't financially well off (especially at the time time, and it was compounded due to a divorce between my mother and father with a remarriage resulting in more kids in one household, haha). I think we had a Nintendo and a Super Nintendo in my late childhood years, but those sort of came later for their times and I didn't spend a whole lot of time with them back then. The late 1990s and early 2000s when I was going into my teenage years is when tech was really getting faster and cheaper and there was a bit more money to go around for luxuries, so we got a PlayStation and PlayStation 2 (the latter was a holiday gift in 2001 I think). That was also the time I started spending more time with games, and when access to PCs became a reality for me. First thing I did? Emulate the console games I was interested in. This was also the time when more focus in games was being put on things like narrative and story if I'm not mistaken (I didn't play it at the time, but I heard Half Life was a big deal for this reason), and that's part of what got me into games around that time.

 

[64K]

When I was young there were no computers/games/consoles that were available, the go to tech was an Abacus or an "Etch a Sketch" (dependant on age those might need googling ). TV's were black and white, pretty small and only 3 terrestrial channels available, there was no choice but to go outside to play or die from boredom Electronic calculators became widely available in retail when I was about 13 I think although they existed before that but I had never seen one in a shop until that age.

I'm a couple years older than you so I remember the day when the only multiplayer games we had to play was sitting in a circle together and smacking rocks together while chanting lore. These youngsters have it good today. They will never know what our life was like as kids. Walking 5 miles to school and back in the snow uphill both ways while being chased by hungry wolves the whole way.