Random Gaming Thoughts

[isiolia]

I honestly will probably build a windows 95/98 machine for myself soon, or maybe XP? I want to be able to play with all 3 windows versions and their games. Fortunately dos and 3.1 are very easy to emulate, and people even made an archive of dos games already emulated.

95 or so still gives you decent DOS capability as it has the Restart in MS-DOS mode stuff you can utilize. Many games were still DOS based when that was out, where 98SE is probably better for games that no longer had DOS versions. XP is still Windows NT, which has limited compatibility with a lot of 90s stuff (if that's what you wanted to run), but does have the angle of still supporting some hardware - such as the early 3D audio - that Vista's revised audio layer kinda broke. So there's certainly a window of software that a "period correct" system could be interesting for, even if a lot of software from the time could still work today without much issue.

I heard PS2 had issues with the launch, some console drought, you couldn't find one...something like that. Were people big on backward compatibility then? I remember the common ideology back then was out with the old and in with the new.

It was in short supply for a few months or so. Wait lists were common. I think some folks appreciated the backwards compatibility, but it wasn't exactly an expectation at the time. Sony probably set something of a precedent, if anything. DVD playback was a bigger deal for most people.

[pook99]

When does it become ok to clone a game?

I recently played immortals pheonix rising, which is about a blatant a rip off of breath of the wild as is possible. Still a very good game and generally reviewed well, but it's detractors lambasted it for being a rip off and unoriginal.

On the flip side of that we have games like Bloodstained curse of the moon and Blazing chrome, which are also blatant rip offs, but they are rip offs of much older games, and received universal acclaim. This is not a knock on these 2 games as they are easily among my favorite indies of all time.

I find this funny, I mean most games are a rip off of something, outside of those rare genre defining games, so why is it so acceptable to clone a game from 20 years ago but not from 2 years ago?

[MrPopo]

When you do a genre throwback you are bringing back something that has been dormant, and doing so with love for the original. Whereas the "X clone" phenomenon is usually a case of follow-the-leader without necessarily understanding WHY something was good in the first place.

[RCBH928]

I keep hearing PS2 sold on being a DVD player but it was $300 ($450 FFI), thats too expensive for a DVD player in 2000. I was thinking more of it as they bought the PS2 because it doubled as a DVD player too. Now thats a real money saver and system seller feature. We take electronics prices granted now days I guess. I remember LaserDisc and DVD players- at release - being super expensive like $800 , not sure if memory is serving me right.

When does it become ok to clone a game?

I recently played immortals pheonix rising, which is about a blatant a rip off of breath of the wild as is possible. Still a very good game and generally reviewed well, but it's detractors lambasted it for being a rip off and unoriginal.

On the flip side of that we have games like Bloodstained curse of the moon and Blazing chrome, which are also blatant rip offs, but they are rip offs of much older games, and received universal acclaim. This is not a knock on these 2 games as they are easily among my favorite indies of all time.

I find this funny, I mean most games are a rip off of something, outside of those rare genre defining games, so why is it so acceptable to clone a game from 20 years ago but not from 2 years ago?

I dunno, ask the 90s There were so many platformer, fighting, and fps clones.

I hate clones, to me they feel like a celebrity impersonator and not the real thing but I have come to a conclusion. Its commercially sound. GTA makes a lot of money, put a "GTA in China" skin on it --> make money. It works! can't blame them, I just wont be one of the players. There are some copy cats that adds a nice twist on it enough to make it likable and its own thing. For example I am not sure if Duke Nukem is considered a Doom clone, I am 100% sure its influenced by it, but its different enough to be its own thing. You also have stuff like Hexen which to me feels like a Doom mod, but its different enough to give a different experience.

Then there is the tasteless stuff like Dante's Inferno which is GoW in hell. Its not a bad game per say -since its GoW really- but the fact that its just copying makes me not respect it. I didn't play it thought, I will let others give their opinion on it if its otherwise.

[isiolia]

I keep hearing PS2 sold on being a DVD player but it was $300 ($450 FFI), thats too expensive for a DVD player in 2000. I was thinking more of it as they bought the PS2 because it doubled as a DVD player too. Now thats a real money saver and system seller feature. We take electronics prices granted now days I guess. I remember LaserDisc and DVD players- at release - being super expensive like $800 , not sure if memory is serving me right.

To a fair point, yes, though it wasn't as large a price gap as you might think. People were still paying $300ish for a lot of players in 1999, and even by 2001-2002 the average price was still close to $200. There were cheaper options, but same as a PS3 for Blu-ray or Xbox One S for 4k Ultra, it was both a reasonably priced player and a game console, which like you mentioned, creates a huge value.

[Ziggy]

I keep hearing PS2 sold on being a DVD player but it was $300 ($450 FFI), thats too expensive for a DVD player in 2000. I was thinking more of it as they bought the PS2 because it doubled as a DVD player too. Now thats a real money saver and system seller feature. We take electronics prices granted now days I guess. I remember LaserDisc and DVD players- at release - being super expensive like $800 , not sure if memory is serving me right.

$300 was a cheap DVD player in the year 2000. But you're right, I'm not sure how many people went out and bought a PS2 just to play DVDs but it definitely helped sales that it could play DVDs on top of being the new cutting edge game console. I'm betting it was a lot of kids' first DVD player.

[Gunstar Green]

I don't know anyone who bought the PS2 just as a DVD player, however I did know people who bought a PS2 as their first DVD player and chose it over other consoles of the time specifically because it was a DVD player.

Heck, the PS3 and PS4 are the only two blu ray players I own now that I think of it.

[marurun]

A year before the PS2 came out, mid-grade players had JUST dropped to $400. PS2 was as good as most cheap players and for the same cost also played games. And it only glitched on a few DVDs.

[RCBH928]

Yes I can see clearly, its like buy this console and get a free DVD player too. I wonder if Microsoft and Nintendo skipped intentionally on this or just didn't see it coming. The other question is, why did Sony decide to make it a DVD player too?! Maybe because the console chose DVD for their games so might as well make it a player too?

[Gunstar Green]

Yes I can see clearly, its like buy this console and get a free DVD player too. I wonder if Microsoft and Nintendo skipped intentionally on this or just didn't see it coming. The other question is, why did Sony decide to make it a DVD player too?! Maybe because the console chose DVD for their games so might as well make it a player too?

Nintendo and Microsoft would have had to license DVD technology from one of the company pools with a patent. Sony on the other hand was part of one of the company pools with a patent so it didn't cost them anything extra to do it.