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[trikster40]

I miss gaming mags as the only source for news, etc. I used to count the days to go to the store for the new mags.

Console wars only existed between you and your friends because the internet didn’t exist.

I also miss trading games with friends, going to the store to rent a game. Ah, the good old days.

 

[wondermega]

My gosh. There could be such a long list of things, ALL I AM IN MY LIFE is nostalgic for how videogames used to be and what solace they brought, also excitement and mystery, novelty. I'll just open by saying they are not necessarily better or worse now, I don't want to sound like an old man - they are just different, as all things are after time. That being said, we are absolutely in a different golden age right now where games are plentiful, technologically incredible, the dawn of VR is here and it is as exciting to me as anything I've ever seen in the medium, etc. That all being said -

I agree with a lot of what's been said already, the excitement and mystery of a game, you only had the word of Nintendo Power and EGM and some screen grabs to get worked up about (and the hype was most definitely often worthwhile!) The difference between arcade games vs home console games, especially in the 8 bit period, arcades were really this magical, untouchable, special thing. It was so incredible to be out somewhere and then have that powerful machine to yourself or to share with your friends for a few minutes. The way things looked and sounded. We would ride our bikes to the bowling theater JUST to play Spy Hunter, Jungle Hunt, Ninja Turtles. Excited about it the whole bike ride over..

The biggest thing for me probably has gotta be the idiosyncracies that made different game consoles unique. A Sega Master System looked, sounded, played pretty differently than an NES, a TurboGrafx-16, a Commodore 64. The differences were hardly subtle, but you'd need a bit of a trained eye to tell which was which I suppose in some cases. The limitations of these devices coupled with the engineers & designers solutions to work with them were ultimately what made them all stand apart and feel special from one another. Nowadays who can tell the difference between a game running on Xbox, PS4, or PC?

I could go on, overall I am always very nostalgic for the days of my gaming youth, and I cherish the memories obviously. But I am happy that there is a fairly active scene which still celebrates this stuff, and just the same I am very happy that the modern gaming scene is still very interesting and exciting to be a part of in several different ways.

 

[Windows-PC]

1. Manuals
2. Club Nintendo & Magazine
3. F-Zero

 

[Eevee86]

Iwata. He was a good man. Shame he didn't get to see the company do a 180 after the Wii U after setting it up.

 

[Mister D]

Cheat codes. I give a rat's ass about achievements. I just want my cheat codes back. Invincibility, infinite money, level select, big head mode, low gravity, all that good shit. Nowadays, everything is broken up to be sold as DLC or removed because of online bullshit and achievements/trophies. I want to go back to playing games and when I hit a wall, pull out the Gameshark or enter a code and now I can cruise through to the end without banging my head against overly difficult sections of a game. I would love to experience the environments and lore in games like Sekiro and Bloodborne but fuck dying to one boss 20 times in the limited gaming time I have now and not progressing in the game while my backlog continues to grow.

Unlocking cosmetics and additional characters used to be done through gameplay or by entering a code. Now all that stuff is hidden behind a microtransaction paywall. I remember playing MVC2 and having 52 characters to play with when I was done or DOA4 having 22 characters with like 6 costumes each. Now DOA6 is a piecemeal microtransaction for every little thing piece of shit incomplete game with most of its content hidden behind multiple season passes or paywalls. Bring back my cheat codes dammit.

 

[Nymphae]

Cheat codes. I give a rat's ass about achievements. I just want my cheat codes back.

Game Genie was the shit, it was awesome having this big book full of cheats for every game.

 

[Shantae]

Iwata. He was a good man. Shame he didn't get to see the company do a 180 after the Wii U after setting it up.

He was probably the most decent CEO I have ever heard of, and yet he was taken from this world way too early. It's not fair.

 

[MayauMiao]

Video game ads in mags

Spoiler: NSFW

 

[Carna]

Old videogame shows from the 90s, when game jornos actually liked videogames:

 

[EightBit Man]

• Beautiful (often painted) artwork
• Early games' reliance on the player's imagination, resulting in unique interpretations of a game's world
• Neat, illustrated and explanatory manuals - and a thank you from the developer was common as well
• The excitement you felt when you saw screenshots of a promising game
• Whole sections dedicated to gaming magazines and video games
• New, competent companies that dared to enter the gaming market (like 3DO)
• "Exotic" hardware configurations - and developers trying to get the most out of them resulting into unforgettable games
• Fully finished and tested builds on shelves
• Same names, but radically different games on multiple platforms
• Japan absolutely dominating the console space
• Big box PC games, as well as normal CD-case ones - not requiring internet
• Cheats
• Still being able to be impressed by a game's visuals
• The discovery and development of completely new (sub-) genres
• The old SEGA, Namco, CAPCOM, SNK, and Konami
• Really durable hard and software
• The times when gaming was much, much smaller, instead of mainstream - when it was a genuine subculture
• Arcades, and being impressed by the new games in them
• The less reliance on success, money, and sequels galore - the strong decline of risks taken

 

[nemiroff]

As mentioned by others, I genuinely miss the gaming mags during the time when internet was not a thing. It may sound silly for some, but this even includes the anticipation for the newest edition, the smell, and the trip to and from the store

For some reason I also miss the artwork for the Atari 2600 games which sparked a crazy amount of imagination at the time.

 

[zcaa0g]

E3 when it introduced new hardware like HOTAS setups, gamepads and unique devices like in the 90s. Damn consoles ruined E3 starting in the mid 2000s.

 

[V4skunk]

Demo discs from pc gamer to get drivers and patches.

 

[GametimeUK]

The online pass.

 

[Roronoa Zoro]

3d platformers. Even yooka laylee went to a stupid sidescroller

I need more than ratchet and Mario every gen

What happened to the ND guys that made crash and Jak?

 

[reconminicon]

Scanlines

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

It’s a shame that even Atlus stopped having manuals in their games. I think the last one was Catherine which it was even fully coloured.

The main fault about The death of manual is Ubisucks... And the first game was shaun white skateboarding... God Damn ubisoft

 

[Zog]

- Game Manuals and maps
- Starting a game quickly, without tutorials and long intros
- Strategy Guides (they haven't been gone long but I always liked and collected them)
- Cheat devices
- No patches or installs on consoles
- Unique consoles
- The magic others have referred to

Remember when you opened an SNES RPG and you would pull out a map, thick manual, a poster with all the enemies on it and their stats? Remember the 'get the guide free from Nintendo Power with subscription' card that came in the box? Yeah, I miss those.

I used to start an RPG, get the feel for it and make my new player mistakes (like buying the wrong items) and then restart it with my newfound knowledge so I would have a good start. Modern games take hours before they let go of your hand and let you get a feel for it and if that isn't annoying enough, imagine restarting and going through that all again.

I also miss cheat devices like the Game Genie and Gameshark, they were like my security net that I rarely used but would help if things got too difficult and I couldn't progress. Also, unauthorized cheat codes are better than built in authorized ones.

Patches have been known to make games worse like patches that remove licensed music or patches that re-balance a game for the worse. Patches make it possible for devs to release a barely tested, almost broken game with the knowledge that they can fix it later. This will be a problem in the future when the patches are no longer available. Installs just mean that YOU are paying for storage twice, once on the disc and once on the HDD, SSD or MicroSD card. If you buy digital then the publisher pays nothing for storage but the price is the same. I think it's a no-win for the consumer.

Remember when people would ask 'can the Genesis run Donkey Kong Country' or 'can the Super Nintendo run Sonic the Hedgehog'? Consoles capabilities were different, controllers were different. Even when systems shared games you could see the difference between the N64 and PS1 version, for example. This was exciting and drove the imagination of what you may or may not be missing by playing it on this system instead of that one. These days, the same games look almost identical and play almost identical. The controllers are almost exactly the same and it really doesn't matter if you choose the PS4 or Xbox One version. If you choose the Switch version you may still play with an almost identical controller and it will feel almost identical too with a graphics downgrade.

The magic people are talking about being gone. Part of that is because we are here. We come here to read and discuss everything gaming and that helps to destroy the mystery (the magic). We see what goes on behind the scenes, we hear about how game developers are mistreated by publishers and that takes some enjoyment out of gaming I think. Reading every piece of news about an upcoming game removes most surprises. Here we are though, some of us spend more time talking games than actual gaming because once the magic is gone......

Also I have said this for years, hype is a bad thing for consumers. Hype creates huge expectations and it's often impossible for a game to live up to it's own hype. It's not good for consumers or developers and I guess the only real beneficiaries of hype are the publishers. So stop the hype, please.

 

[existensmaximum]

Mystery. That every little detail of every game isn't analyzed, and every little secret spoiled by people online.

New ideas and games not being rip-offs, or entirely reliant on nostalgia. Good level design. Oh, and good story that isn't mind-numbingly stupid.

Unique consoles with more exclusives and unique versions of the games.

 

[MetalRain]

I used to go to game store every week to see what used games they had. I didn't have that much money but there were always something under 15 euros.

I miss that kind of discovery fueled by low resources. Now I have hundreds of games across different digital services, some that I haven't even started.

Surely there were bad purchases as well. I remember purchasing used Baldurs Gate 2 and last CD didn't work so I never got past install and actually play that game.

 

[Quezacolt]

Buying a game and it being the full experience, no shitty dlc or lootboxes and games not requiring day 1 patches to work.

 

[Hypereides]

Pre-rendered backrounds:

I honestly believe this is still viable game design even today and any game developer that claims otherwise is ridiculous.

 

[Phunkydiabetic]

My family didnt have money to be buying games all the time so renting was my thing. In the 80s it was independent stores or places like Hollywood Video. Then Blockbuster came and was the go to.

Right before Blockbuster went out of business they tried all sorts of attempts to remain viable. They were pitiful attempts. One of their most spectacular last ditch efforts was no late fees. A long you returned the rental before 30 days all you paid was a $2 "restock" fee. I took advantage of that like you wouldn't believe. I did you dirty Blockbuster, at your lowest point tok, and I'm sorry.

 

[Gormless Noodle]

Gameplay innovation. Almost all of that effort, especially from Western games right now (plenty of Japanese games too) , goes into monetary extraction innovation. Gameplay for a lot of games is now almost entirely in service for encouraging players to buy the micro/macro transactions via various methods which means it's become really quite boring and formulaic.

 

[Pansy]

Having a bloody game that you bought actually completed without having some schmoozy developer promise future updates of fixing all the bugs and glitches.

 

[RPS37]

Gaming magazine demo discs, E3 Press Conferences....

 

[Rentahamster]

I miss having the full game on release day.

 

[bigdawg69]

egm. gamepro. 16 bit wars. turbo duo.

 

[PanzerAzel]

Old mom and pop game shops.

I remember in high school there was this little shop in a strip mall near my school. The place was like an ultimate man cave, dank, dark, cozy, packed with hundreds of games on the walls, half a dozen systems set up to a bunch of TVs, couches, chairs, a magazine rack, an SF II machine. Owned by a guy and his wife who were massive gamers and who would play alongside customers and who knew all of us by name. The owner smoked cigars like a chimney.....ah I still love that smell as it brings back great memories. Unfortunately it didn’t survive the corporate train and they eventually went under.

It’s what I truly miss, just being able to go into a gaming store and having it feel like a friend’s house and not some aseptic, corporate suit’s dictate.

 

[Hawks Eclipse]

Hm, around 2006/2007. So basically when MMORPGs started dominating the market and when shitty things like "Games for Windows - Live" became a thing.

Yeah, 2006/2007 still had euroboxes, and even at a later point, although then used as collector's editions. What I did notice though, American publishers switched to DVD cases earlier while European publishers went with euroboxes until the end.

I think it's more due to cost-cutting, rather than space issues. While euroboxes were a standard, DVD case were an even bigger standard and were also cheaper to produce. In addition, less space means less reason to supply gamers with thick manuals, goodies etc.

Man, I would really like to compare but it would be too much of a pain to get through all the boxes. What I remember though, one of my Falcom games (2000) weighing ~1800g. Easily blew away the competition in terms of weight.

Hey, sorry to take a while.

I never got into any MMO so I have no idea when that craze started or ended, though I do know WOW was the biggest one for many years. I believe at the time my main gaming platforms were my NDS and PS2.

By the way, when you say Euroboxes, is there anything that differentiates them from the American ones? Or is it just your way of naming them?

Yup, I believe it was all the combined reasons you mentioned that ultimately led to the demise of the big boxes. Even from a pragmatic perspective it makes 100% sense, but I'll always miss those boxes and its era. Oh well...

I'm really curious which Falcom game that is to come in at 1.8kg. I do remember flight simulator games back in the days would weigh a lot simply because of how thick the manuals were.

 

[Lucumo]

Hey, sorry to take a while.

I never got into any MMO so I have no idea when that craze started or ended, though I do know WOW was the biggest one for many years. I believe at the time my main gaming platforms were my NDS and PS2.

By the way, when you say Euroboxes, is there anything that differentiates them from the American ones? Or is it just your way of naming them?

Yup, I believe it was all the combined reasons you mentioned that ultimately led to the demise of the big boxes. Even from a pragmatic perspective it makes 100% sense, but I'll always miss those boxes and its era. Oh well...

I'm really curious which Falcom game that is to come in at 1.8kg. I do remember flight simulator games back in the days would weigh a lot simply because of how thick the manuals were.

MMO player numbers increased steadily from the beginning but WoW helped it make a break-through and also reach all the casual players. Afterwards (basically 2005 and onwards), MMOs were THE genre. It's also part of the reason why PC gaming was being decleared "dead" or "dying", even though player numbers were higher than ever before...they just didn't buy new games but played MMOs instead (well, browsergames too, as those became really big around that time as well). Didn't help that companies introduced absolutely terrible DRM like (limited) online activation and such bs.

Generally standardized sizes, though, there were different variations (open at the top, whole front being a lid...and maybe some other one?). In contrast, the US and also partly GB had just straight up different forms at times but also stuff like the Unreal box where the US version looks like this https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7e/32/3c/7e323cf3eae8d223c2c8ab6643099670.jpg but European releases look like a normal box.

The Legend of Heroes IV: A Tear of Vermillion (2000, DVD, limited edition). There should be other Falcom games which are around as heavy though.

 

[NeoGeoAES]

Round based RPG's in the style of Final Fantasy 7 & 8 & 9

 

[Hawks Eclipse]

MMO player numbers increased steadily from the beginning but WoW helped it make a break-through and also reach all the casual players. Afterwards (basically 2005 and onwards), MMOs were THE genre. It's also part of the reason why PC gaming was being decleared "dead" or "dying", even though player numbers were higher than ever before...they just didn't buy new games but played MMOs instead (well, browsergames too, as those became really big around that time as well). Didn't help that companies introduced absolutely terrible DRM like (limited) online activation and such bs.

Generally standardized sizes, though, there were different variations (open at the top, whole front being a lid...and maybe some other one?). In contrast, the US and also partly GB had just straight up different forms at times but also stuff like the Unreal box where the US version looks like this https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7e/32/3c/7e323cf3eae8d223c2c8ab6643099670.jpg but European releases look like a normal box.

The Legend of Heroes IV: A Tear of Vermillion (2000, DVD, limited edition). There should be other Falcom games which are around as heavy though.

I genuinely had no idea that MMOs were the de facto genre for that period, guess that's what closing both eyes figuratively does haha.

Browser games would be stuff like Newgrounds yea?

Heh, I did have that Unreal box way back then.

The front being a lid would be Fallout and its landscape orientation. I managed to buy it back at launch for around 30% off the regular retail price, not sure why it was cheaper but it was a heck of a bargain!

I tried looking for pics of A Tear of Vermillion and came across this page: http://collectorsedition.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15155

Generally Collector's Editions are always going to be weighty with the extra physical goodies

 

[LemmingWithaParachute]

Stealth.

Turned based strategy.

 

[rofif]

it's unreasonable but I miss Windows 95/98, dos and voodoo

 

[ROMhack]

I miss Brap

 

[hariseldon]

I miss Brap

May I suggest switching to a sniper rifle?

 

[Strife In a Teacup]

Probably early MMO days.

Launch era for Ultima Online and Everquest 1 were both quite special. Likely will never be replicated in the same sense until some full on VR MMO in the future.

 

[Radical_3d]

Ken Kutaragi. I really miss the dude.

 

[ZywyPL]

Games that are finished at launch.

 

[Lucumo]

I genuinely had no idea that MMOs were the de facto genre for that period, guess that's what closing both eyes figuratively does haha.

Browser games would be stuff like Newgrounds yea?

Heh, I did have that Unreal box way back then.

The front being a lid would be Fallout and its landscape orientation. I managed to buy it back at launch for around 30% off the regular retail price, not sure why it was cheaper but it was a heck of a bargain!

I tried looking for pics of A Tear of Vermillion and came across this page: http://collectorsedition.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15155

Generally Collector's Editions are always going to be weighty with the extra physical goodies

Absolutely. They owned the opposition in the West but easily crushed everything else in the East (China, South Korea, Japan, SEA etc). I remember playing on some Malaysian server for an MMO at some point (wasn't available in the West yet) and constantly bumping into European players. Even games like Call of Duty 2/4 had no chance and after 4, they gave the middle finger to PC players anyway.

Nope. Games like Travian where you are playing in your browser in realtime, together with thousands of other people. IIRC, Travian had, at some point, several 100k players across the world. Browser games started dying though when mobile (games) started to take over in like 2010. A lot of browser games never really made the switch to that for some reason.

That's not the one though. It's technically a first edition but the actual limited edition was official mail order only and looks different. As for the other PC Falcom games seen there, I have all of them and more (except for the ones not developed by Falcom).

Here is how the official mail order one looks:

 

[Woo-Fu]

Cloth maps?

 

[Kerotan Frog]

In-game unlockable costumes, not Day-1 DLC or retail exclusive preorder DLC, or lootbox microtransactions. Just do something cool/find it in game and get a costume. Spiderman PS4 was the last game to do this right.

MGS Kojima Trailers. I looked forward to every gaming convention of the promise of a new 8 minute masterpiece of a trailer. If you look back from MGS through Phantom Pain, there are SO MANY awesome trailers. Now MGS is dead and Kojima makes stupid hiking sims.. The series that pushed me into hardcore gaming is now just a memory.

Single-Player focused games with original ideas. Remember when Assassin's Creed was this awesome new IP that everyone was hyped for? Yeah, that was 14 years ago. I feel we are getting back to that because Sony just won't let the SP game die (bless you Sony) with games like God of War, Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima, Spiderman, Death Stranding, Ratchet and Clank, Days Gone, etc., but it was pretty bad from 2015 to 2017. Every industry trend was leaning towards MP Service Games with Microtransactions! It was depressing.

 

[Kerotan Frog]

I’m with you, OP, on all three points.

I’ll also add 2nd hand / flea market game culture. The internet has killed this where I live (Indiana, USA). As late as 2005 or so, you could go into any indoor flea market in my area and there were no fewer than three booths specializing in games. Here's the fun part. The owners would pour their creativity into their enterprise; lots of custom graphics thrown up all around the booth (some of it charmingly bad too!), lots of promo stuff like homemade demo stations on 13" CRT television, weekly specials, things like that. you used to be able to find fun, rare games from Japan, or niche gaming peripherals, things like that. Sometimes they were run by some old dude who clearly wasn't a fan of games at first, but then saw the opportunity to make bank on this new big thing, and then he became a fan whilst trying to learn why people buy games. I saw that a lot around here. To a lesser extent I would even include chain shops in strip malls specializing in 2nd hand games, like Disc Replay here in Indiana, which stayed relevant as long as disk based games were still the main modality of gaming.

Basically Ebay destroyed this culture. Flea market shop runners can't compete with the open market of the whole globe. Anyway, I'll remember these places fondly.

Yes, this also extends overseas to Japan. When I first went to Akihabara in 2013, it was a gold mine of gaming heaven. But then I went back in 2015 and 2019, and it has dried up considerably. A lot of second hand shops have closed down and are replaced by gift shops and cafes. This is largely in part to online selling. I get it, but damn it just isn't the same. That first time I stepped foot there was pure magic.

 

[Andahe]

I miss the surprise/anticipation of games. No major leaks, no teasers. Just a trailer, release date and some gameplay. That was it.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

Bloom and piss filter
/s

 

[Okami Haundo]

I miss those grimy demo stations you'd see at stores like Wal-Mart. The ones that always had a broken controller and a TV mounted like 3ft above average height so you had to destroy your neck to look at it.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Name something from "the good 'ol days" you really miss and don't see anymore in the current industry.

For example i really loved the typical game stores with big Nintendo/Sega/Playstation-signs. The colorful cardboard pictures of Lara Croft, Sonic, Mario and of course the awesome demo pods.

Another thing I miss are demo discs. I Remember playing the SSX tricky demo for hours on my Playstation 2.

One last thing is the game manuals. Some of them were 20 pages thick and filled with awesome content. Today the best you can get is a lousy one-page advertisment for a season pass.

What are things you miss and love to see again GAF?

Game manuals, use to love opening up my games and looking at (sometimes cool) art on the manuals.

Also all the money I spent on egm and game fan magazines. Bro every month I couldn't wait to hear about the new games, tech and reviews. I have dozens of magazines here I still go through and laugh. SF2 was so fucking huge it was amazingggg

 

[Hawks Eclipse]

Absolutely. They owned the opposition in the West but easily crushed everything else in the East (China, South Korea, Japan, SEA etc). I remember playing on some Malaysian server for an MMO at some point (wasn't available in the West yet) and constantly bumping into European players. Even games like Call of Duty 2/4 had no chance and after 4, they gave the middle finger to PC players anyway.

Nope. Games like Travian where you are playing in your browser in realtime, together with thousands of other people. IIRC, Travian had, at some point, several 100k players across the world. Browser games started dying though when mobile (games) started to take over in like 2010. A lot of browser games never really made the switch to that for some reason.

That's not the one though. It's technically a first edition but the actual limited edition was official mail order only and looks different. As for the other PC Falcom games seen there, I have all of them and more (except for the ones not developed by Falcom).

Here is how the official mail order one looks:

Thanks for the details. I'm a little surprised that MMOs had a grip on Japan too considering they're supposedly not that huge on PC gaming?

Haven't heard ot Travian but I think I have a rough idea of which browser games you mean. I remember seeing some of them with lots of number crunching going on.

Mobile gaming has seemingly crystallised into its own thing, not even Nintendo could shift its direction with Super Mario Run by the looks of it.

I wonder if the browser games not making the transition was in part due to not knowing how to monetize it? (I'm not familiar enough with the browser and mobages so I'm just spitballing).

Oh yea I know the game you mentioned isn't in there, I just thought it had a nice bunch of those CE boxes on display.

That red box screams vermillion hah.

BTW since your collection is so extensive, I wanna ask if you have the big box version of Ys Origin's JP PC release? I seem to remember having seen it before, being a similar size to the Felghana vanilla box but searching the web previously hasn't really shown me what I think I remembered.

 

[TheStruggler]

Whens games were finished they were legit finished

Also skins and unlockables in games that didn't need a credit card to get as a micro transaction