Little Things You Miss About Previous Generations

Inspired by the Favourite Generation thread, I've thought of some little things I really miss about gaming in previous generations/my younger years.

Parents buying games

Every new game was a big deal back then. I didn't get many (maybe 2 for Christmas and 2 for birthdays), so I made sure I played the fuck out of any game I got. Now I maybe play until the main story is done, then put it away forever.

The worst era for disposable games was the original XBox, due to "acquiring" games being stupidly easy. Piracy ruins games, but not for the obvious reasons (less money for the industry etc). When you have free access to hundreds of games, there is less incentive to stick with a single game for a decent amount of time.

Demo discs

You mean I get to play all these games for the princely sum of a couple of pounds? Demo discs were awesome, especially the Panzer Dragoon Saga one that consisted of the entire first disc of the game or Christmas Nights, which was basically the equivalent of a small downloadable game nowadays.

Imagine if they sold demo discs containing e3 builds of games. I would be so hyped.

I think one of the things I miss most about previous generations was the fact a game simply had to work once it reached the hands of the consumer. None of this first day patching bullshit, the game actually needed to be ready. Some publishers are taking liberties with this convenience, and we've got to the point where most people accept it as the norm. How bullshit is that?

Cheat Codes: Nowadays, we call those "On Disc DLC" or "Free 2 Play time saves"...

Games that were complete and worked out of the box: Well, Nintendo still offers that, but they're the only ones still sounding the beat of that drum...

Playground secrets sharing: Something that the advent of the internet has sort of ruined (what with how anyone can just jump straight onto Gamefaqs and be bombarded with guides for almost every game in existence) is how some games were designed around sharing secrets and discoveries amongst your friends. Zelda 1 is probably the best example of this...

I guess Miiverse is an attempt to recapture some of that, but it'll never be the same...

The Nintendo Gamecube start-up screen, hold down the 'Z' button when starting up the console the next time you play if you haven't already, such a silly little Easter egg but it never fails... i smile every time. #Jim Babur! @Fierce_LiNk

I miss all the quirky and fun glitches in the first two pokemon generations. They were fun and made the games more interesting with lots of things to explore. I also miss having endless time at the weekend as a child playing video games. I used to take turns playing games. Nowadays time is sacred.

Covers, cases and manuals. I known those still exist, but the detail in what came in the package back then, compared to now... Back then, the manual was the only source of a lot of artwork (well, other than additional material you could buy).

Consoles that start up quickly. Not only do consoles take a lot of time to start up these days (with the main menu being part of it), even discs take a long of time to put in, compared to cartridges and even the Gamecube or PS1 (where switching games was as easy as switching a cartridge).

Carry handles. Actually surprisingly useful at times.

Local multiplayer isn't the same anymore. It peaked towards the middle of the GameCube era for me, but was insanely good during the N64 period. Having your childhood friends around, playing Goldeneye, Mario Kart, WWF No Mercy. Oh myyy.

I miss cartridges, big time. The loading times were amazing. Put in something like Streets of Rage...play it right away. The times were so much simple then. Saving directly onto the cartridge, not having to worry about memory card space or downloading extra data, or patches or shit. It was easy. Disc based systems seem to have waaaaaay more problems, imo. Faulty lasers, discs getting scratched, etc.

Unlockables within the game. I don't know how prevalent this is now, but DLC seems to have ruined this slightly. Rather than play the game to get the extra stuff, you download the data instead. I also feel that games are slightly looked down on these days if you actually have to spend hours on them to unlock extra characters and levels, but that might just be my own personal feeling.

Rumble Pak

Don't really know what it is, but the Rumble Pak just distinguished the N64 and Nintendo's then technological advancement.

I felt really prestige owning one, and it was just freaking cool the way it latched on the back of the pad like a true Japanese power-up.

Could swear that the Rumble Pak offers the strongest controller vibration to date.

Rumble Pak

 

 

Don't really know what it is, but the Rumble Pak just distinguished the N64 and Nintendo's then technological advancement.

I felt really prestige owning one, and it was just freaking cool the way it latched on the back of the pad like a true Japanese power-up.

 

Could swear that the Rumble Pak offers the strongest controller vibration to date.

The rumble pak is the greatest attachment of all time. Clipping that pak into the controller and playing Lylat Wars for the first time blew me the fuark away.

Genuinely one of those "oh shiiii-" moments. I remember having to call my brothers and parents from the next room, having to show them how awesome it was. The water effects on Lylat Wars blew me away, too.

That's another thing I love about the previous generations; the graphical enhancements were so obvious. We can say what we like about not being "graphics whores" or whatever, or that it's "more about the gameplay", but who in their right mind didn't ejaculate all over their carpet when booting up Lylat Wars or Rogue Leader or Wave Race Blue Storm for the first time.

That's another thing I love about the previous generations; the graphical enhancements were so obvious. We can say what we like about not being "graphics whores" or whatever, or that it's "more about the gameplay", but who in their right mind didn't ejaculate all over their carpet when booting up Lylat Wars or Rogue Leader or Wave Race Blue Storm for the first time.

We can add Final Fantasy FMVs, Tekken endings and pretty much everything from the early life of the Gamecube onto that list.

Any graphical advancement since those times has been minor by comparison.

Cartridges

I know Flinky mentioned them but it is something I really miss. Having been playing my N64 this year it's so refreshing being able to just slit the game in and away you go. No loading times, no staring at the screens, just pick up the pad and play. This brings me to my next point...

Starting Straight Away

Every console now has numerous updates and msny games do as well. It's so annoying when you get in from work and you just want to chill and play a game only to find you have an update for your console that needs downloading. You get through that, put the game on and then another update is needed for the game. RAAAAAAGGGGGGEEEE.

The rumble pak is the greatest attachment of all time. Clipping that pak into the controller and playing Lylat Wars for the first time blew me the fuark away.

I had a Logic-3 brand rumble pack that could shake so hard it made the official product feel like a mild tickle in the palm. It was like going black.

No adverts on my home screen (looking at you, 360...)

Games that were complete and worked out of the box: Well, Nintendo still offers that, but they're the only ones still sounding the beat of that drum...

Really? I distinctly remember saving in Lumiose City screwing your game up. And that's a real big issue, not just some framerate dropping.

Truth is, a lot of games had minor issues in the past, but now they can actually patch those issues. Games nowadays are also often more complex (I'm thinking Skyrim and Fallout), so you're probably right in that there tends to be more that can go wrong.

Cheat Codes: Nowadays, we call those "On Disc DLC" or "Free 2 Play time saves"...

 

Games that were complete and worked out of the box: Well, Nintendo still offers that, but they're the only ones still sounding the beat of that drum...

 

Playground secrets sharing: Something that the advent of the internet has sort of ruined (what with how anyone can just jump straight onto Gamefaqs and be bombarded with guides for almost every game in existence) is how some games were designed around sharing secrets and discoveries amongst your friends. Zelda 1 is probably the best example of this...

 

I guess Miiverse is an attempt to recapture some of that, but it'll never be the same...

I agree to all of that plus I would add 'bots'. I never had the internet for many years so games with bots were the nearest thing I got to multi-player gaming. People might be lamenting about the fact that Nintendo is going to remove Wi-Fi gaming next month on DS and Wii but when online gaming gets removed from PS3 and Xbox 360 games, people will soon realise that some of their games are largely worthless.

Local multiplayer isn't the same anymore. It peaked towards the middle of the GameCube era for me, but was insanely good during the N64 period. Having your childhood friends around, playing Goldeneye, Mario Kart, WWF No Mercy. Oh myyy.

 

I miss cartridges, big time. The loading times were amazing. Put in something like Streets of Rage...play it right away. The times were so much simple then. Saving directly onto the cartridge, not having to worry about memory card space or downloading extra data, or patches or shit. It was easy. Disc based systems seem to have waaaaaay more problems, imo. Faulty lasers, discs getting scratched, etc.

 

Unlockables within the game. I don't know how prevalent this is now, but DLC seems to have ruined this slightly. Rather than play the game to get the extra stuff, you download the data instead. I also feel that games are slightly looked down on these days if you actually have to spend hours on them to unlock extra characters and levels, but that might just be my own personal feeling.

Agreed with all of the above. Online play is nowhere near as good as local play and never will be. It's so sad to see it get shoved to the confines of history, while online play (which won't last forever) takes its place

Split-screen multiplayer gaming. Having had the chance to replay that at a recent streetpass event (in the tune of F-Zero X i might add), being able to play this way is certainly different to how we play today. The hard part is trying to figure out what corner of the screen you are on.

And of course, there are the others mentioned here.

Parents buying games. Well, it is kind of still there. But it's not as fun anymore, considering the fact that you can go out and get any game you fancy these days. Back then, like @Goafer i only had games 2 or 3 times a year (unless i saved my pocket money up) and they were from parents. And yes, you played them to death.

Covers, manuels etc. Most of the time these days, it is all "Get your gaming manual electronically online". And it misses the good stuff (aka the new "smell", the art etc).

Having that one friend who knew how to get a certain character/level etc. These days, a quick look online and bam. There you go.

Agreed with all of the above. Online play is nowhere near as good as local play and never will be. It's so sad to see it get shoved to the confines of history, while online play (which won't last forever) takes its place

But does the idea that it won't last beyond say 10 years really matter? Who is still booting up say PS2 shooter/racer games? These types of games get superseded pretty quickly by newer releases, I think.

Also I get that local play can be fun, but honestly, how many of us get to play locally much these days? It's rare I would be in a situation like when I was a teenager; we all work now, we all have busy lives. Online play is just so much more convenient, and if voice chat is there can be pretty good. Plus you get to use your full screen!

Really? I distinctly remember saving in Lumiose City screwing your game up. And that's a real big issue, not just some framerate dropping.

 

Truth is, a lot of games had minor issues in the past, but now they can actually patch those issues. Games nowadays are also often more complex (I'm thinking Skyrim and Fallout), so you're probably right in that there tends to be more that can go wrong.

That's not the same thing and you know it. I'm referring to games like Infamous Second Son (which launched with a big chunk of the game not actually being on the disc, but rather it was released as a day 1 patch) and Resident Evil 6 (which had a ton of content on the disc that was hidden behind an arbitrary pay wall to unlock the content you already have on the disc you own). When those online servers go offline, that content is gone for good (unless you can otherwise hack the game/console - but that would be beyond the means of many and shouldn't have to be done to begin with). That's not right and there is no way on this planet that you can spin that otherwise!

But does the idea that it won't last beyond say 10 years really matter? Who is still booting up say PS2 shooter/racer games? These types of games get superseded pretty quickly by newer releases, I think.

 

Also I get that local play can be fun, but honestly, how many of us get to play locally much these days? It's rare I would be in a situation like when I was a teenager; we all work now, we all have busy lives. Online play is just so much more convenient, and if voice chat is there can be pretty good. Plus you get to use your full screen!

I still play locally on a regular basis and so do many others. Just because you don't, doesn't mean that nobody else does...

Not to mention that it's not just about us, but it's also about the kids of the future. 10 years from now, they're still gonna be able to enjoy the likes of Super Mario 3D World or Smash Bros Melee just as much as we did when we first played them; Titanfall... not so much...

People growing up now deserve to be able to enjoy the games that we play just as much as we do. It's not right to leave them with nothing but dead husks of games that used to be, or to leave the "flavour of the month" pap of the day (at that point in time in the future) being their only option when they grow up...

Oh and as for your PS2 quib... tell that to the Burnout games... A great game now is still a great game decades from now

But does the idea that it won't last beyond say 10 years really matter? Who is still booting up say PS2 shooter/racer games? These types of games get superseded pretty quickly by newer releases, I think.

Funny you should say this when me and a friend still play Burnout 3 and Timesplitters regularly on his PS2 And a few fighting games as well.

Making sure that a game can still be played a few years down the line sounds like a reasonable demand to me. Especially when games like Counter-Strike are still immensely popular in so many places.

That's not the same thing and you know it.

You're right - the Nintendo game is worse, since you're completely disabled from playing it if you save there, unless you patch. That was my only comment - that it was weird to praise Nintendo as the only one doing it right with regards to getting it right first time, when one of their games has one of the worst bugs I've seen left in it.

As for the rest, I still stand by that in today's sequel culture, many of the games get superseded anyway and I can't imagine most people would still want to play the games that were online back on the PS2. Off the top of my head, both SOCOM and Twisted Metal Black Online... each have had games since release on the PS3. So for them to shut down isn't really an issue. This generation, I can easily see most online games having been spiritually replaced before the death knell comes. It's one of those situations where people think they'll care more about it happening thant they really will.

About the most annoying one I can think of is Mario Kart Wii, but that kind of premature shutdown likely won't happen again. It'd be nice to be able to play those tracks again in some form with others, but that game does have a local mode after all.

Funny you should say this when me and a friend still play Burnout 3 and Timesplitters regularly on his PS2 And a few fighting games as well.

 

Making sure that a game can still be played a few years down the line sounds like a reasonable demand to me. Especially when games like Counter-Strike are still immensely popular in so many places.

But what online game on the PS2 do you still wish you could play that you no longer can? Since that is the major point here - that online games won't last.

Demo discs:

Back in the 32/64-bit generation, there were four things I envied my Playstation owning friends for: Gran Turismo, Driver, Need for Speed: High Stakes (yeah, the N64 was truly starved for racing games) and demo discs.

The ones who bought game mags received a disc smacked full of videos and playable content for sometimes new, and sometimes not yet released games. In many cases, we'd have as much fun out of a demo disc as we'd get out of a retail priced game.

FREEDOM!!!

I never realised it at the time, but what completely defined the N64 and that generation of consoles was exploration. From the obvious expansive worlds in Pilotwings 64, that I spent probably hundreds of hours exploring using both the Gyrocopter and Jetpack, trying to land in all the most ridiculous places, to the singleplayer campaign in Goldeneye where I was always able to find something new to do. Top Gear Rally had the short-cuts that made the game world feel like a plausible place. All the platformers which allowed me to get the maguffins I want in whatever order I want.

Today it's all decorated hallways, Mario Kart seems to be the only racer with proper short cuts and Pilotwings has one single, tiny world and a time limit.

Exclusives

Consoles used to be defined by exclusives. Even failed consoles like the Saturn had lots and lots of exclusives. Sometimes for no other reason than that the developer didn't have resources to develop for several systems at once. Firstly, that meant that there were more games fully utilising your console, secondly it meant that choosing which console to buy was easy: most games to your liking won!

N64 was truly starved for racing games

The N64 had an AWESOME variety of racing games, with Mario Kart 64, Wave Race 64, F-Zero X, 1080 Snowboarding, Excitebike 64, Top Gear Rally, Diddy Kong Racing, F1 World Grand Prix, World Driver Championship and even V-Rally 99

I never felt that the console was lacking in that area at all, but then I'm not particularly fond of things like Gran Turismo

You're right - the Nintendo game is worse, since you're completely disabled from playing it if you save there, unless you patch. That was my only comment - that it was weird to praise Nintendo as the only one doing it right with regards to getting it right first time, when one of their games has one of the worst bugs I've seen left in it.

 

As for the rest, I still stand by that in today's sequel culture, many of the games get superseded anyway and I can't imagine most people would still want to play the games that were online back on the PS2. Off the top of my head, both SOCOM and Twisted Metal Black Online... each have had games since release on the PS3. So for them to shut down isn't really an issue. This generation, I can easily see most online games having been spiritually replaced before the death knell comes. It's one of those situations where people think they'll care more about it happening thant they really will.

 

About the most annoying one I can think of is Mario Kart Wii, but that kind of premature shutdown likely won't happen again. It'd be nice to be able to play those tracks again in some form with others, but that game does have a local mode after all.

 

 

 

But what online game on the PS2 do you still wish you could play that you no longer can? Since that is the major point here - that online games won't last.

I think his point was more that many games require Day 1 patches etc. so if for example in 10 years time someone wants to play GTA5, but they've shut down the servers that host these updates, the game will be totally unplayable. I know things like the Virtual Console/Playstation Now will allow people to buy old games, but the retro game market will totally die. You will no longer be able to go on eBay, pick up something old, stick it in your console and expect it to work.

Maybe all these updates will stay online, but the cynical part of me reckons they won't, preferring to re-release digitally to gain another sale. In fact, if this does happen, with games requiring day1 updates becoming unplayable, it effectively becomes a form of DRM.