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General discussionAnti-nostalgia ... what do you *not* miss about old games?(290 posts)(290 posts)
(290 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted October 14, 2018
Controls / UI and changing disks are the big ones.

Long games with a limited number of lives are another one. I'll never beat the classic Sonic games without cheating, which means I won't bother with them at all.
Posted October 14, 2018
The two things that popped into my head right away were pixel perfect jumping and the "you need to add more quarters" difficulty that came over from arcade cabinets.

I remember so many games played back on the NES that I just couldn't do well in because I was still young and had still developing hand eye coordination and just couldn't make those idiotically precise jumps.

The second is just the idiocy that they used in arcade games to make up for how small the games actually were, and it ended up carrying over into a lot of early console games. Probably PC type games as well, but I didn't get into those until the mid to late nineties. (Gradius 3 was one of the big offenders I remember, and it was freaking toned down for its SNES release I'm told.)
Posted October 14, 2018
I don't miss having a limited number of "lives" and "continues". Nothing was more frustrating than to get to the last level of a game only to die on your last life with no more continues.

Now-a-days, I can retry and replay as much as I want. Not succeeding at an attempt is punishment enough. I don't need the aggravation of re-starting the whole game over again if I make a mistake.
Posted October 14, 2018
Oh I also enjoy being able to resume games at all.

Many of them, in particular action games, simply had no saves. Each gaming session meant restarting the game from the beginning.

When you were lucky, you were rewarded some codes, to write down snd type in next time, allowing you to start from a given level. I don't miss those very much either.
Posted October 14, 2018
I enjoy the fact that there are certain art styles that have carried over from past games, but we have a much better sense of what is acceptable when it comes to graphics. The same can be said about controls. We know what works, and we know what doesn't work in these two categories. Customers expect a certain level of quality when paying a premium price for a modern game.
Post edited October 14, 2018 by joelandsonja
Posted October 14, 2018
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adaliabooks: I can buy (often brilliant games) for £1, I've frequently both almost a dozen games for £8 or similar on Humble Bundle, compared to £20 - £30 minimum for anything other than bargain bin stuff (that was either old or crap, or both).
Indie game devs shouldn't be underselling themselves despite the saturated market, imo.
Posted October 14, 2018
Grid Paper. Auto-maps should have been the very first thing invented for RPG's.

And what I DO miss the most is MANUALS. Every new game I buy now I feel like I'm playing blind because of the lack of explanation. I had the same ritual for EVERY game I ever bought. Buy it. Open it. READ THE MANUAL. Then install it. And not only would a good manual explain the way the game works so that you feel at least semi-competent playing it, but a really good one would have you watering at the mouth ready to play. I am reminded here of Fallout 1's manual, Realms of Arkania manual, and the manual for the old (German I think??) RPG where there really wasn't any "story" or main quest to beat buy your goal was fame (and fortune). Damned memory is so bad I can't remember the name of that one despite enjoying the hell out of it.

For awhile I boycotted (refused to purchase) any game without a manual. And once again (sigh) consumers made it clear that developers could sell games without adequate explanation.. save money (and make more profit)... and that was just A-ok with them. I'm going to die without understanding today's consumers. Which is okay.. because they're WRONG. And when they grow up they'll likely learn that. Or not.
Post edited October 14, 2018 by OldFatGuy
Posted October 14, 2018
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joelandsonja: I enjoy the fact that there are certain art styles that have carried over from past games, but we have a much better sense of what is acceptable when it comes to graphics. The same can be said about controls. We know what works, and we know what doesn't work in these two categories. Customers expect a certain level of quality when paying a premium price for a modern game.
I love that you mention art styles and your avatar is from Machinarium. That game had a great art style, I thought.
Posted October 14, 2018
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tfishell: Difficulty. I don't want to keep having to play the same level over and over, I don't have the time for that like I did as a kid, I'm more interested in completing the adventure even if it means cheating (so for old games I look for games with cheat codes before buying).
This.
Posted October 14, 2018
Bad controls and DRM in the form of requiring a manual to get through the game, literally.
Posted October 14, 2018
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joelandsonja: I enjoy the fact that there are certain art styles that have carried over from past games, but we have a much better sense of what is acceptable when it comes to graphics. The same can be said about controls. We know what works, and we know what doesn't work in these two categories. Customers expect a certain level of quality when paying a premium price for a modern game.
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sergeant_citrus: I love that you mention art styles and your avatar is from Machinarium. That game had a great art style, I thought.
Absolutely amazing art style in Machinarium. One of my favourite games of all time!
Posted October 14, 2018
Lack of drag select, as in Dune 2, or only very limited drag-select as in Warcraft 1.

CD that had to be in the cd-drive while playing.
Posted October 14, 2018
FPS object activation by moving against it, like a big honkin' square button on a wall to open a door. Yuck.
If I want that switch flipped, let me press a key to flip it!
Posted October 14, 2018
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OldFatGuy: Buy it. Open it. READ THE MANUAL. Then install it
For me it was buy it (knowing full well the system requirements before-hand), and while installing it, read the manual so I could play it once installed (and the old OSes restarted).

Now most games follow the same controls as other games of its type, and the first levels are nearly always designed to babysit the new player and gradually introduce gameplay mechanics as they go.

I miss those SPECIAL manuals those old top-shelf games had that were made of special paper, made to feel old & such. A nice touch that was.
Posted October 14, 2018
- counter-intuitive UI
- disk swapping
- unfair, rage-inducing difficulty

Edits:
- green blood or any other stupid censoring
- lack of auto-mapping
- pixel hunting


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OldFatGuy: ...and the manual for the old (German I think??) RPG where there really wasn't any "story" or main quest to beat buy your goal was fame (and fortune). Damned memory is so bad I can't remember the name of that one despite enjoying the hell out of it.
Do you mean Darklands?
Post edited October 14, 2018 by viperfdl
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionAnti-nostalgia ... what do you *not* miss about old games?(290 posts)(290 posts)
(290 posts)