Gaming Issues of the Past

[tintinmayo]

I remember during the days of DOS games, one of the problems for non-tech savvy people like me was running games that only use conventional memory, as it meant we'd have to do stuff to the autoexec.bat even if we have 8 MB of RAM. Because the game can't access memory beyond the 640kb, which is already used by system files loaded on startup.

Another gaming-related conflict on the PC side that I remember was one of the Voodoo cards not offering 32 bit color, which is not really that big of a deal then as things looked gorgeous even at 16 bit, but it was around that time when people are still fascinated by numbers (more colors, more hertz, more bytes, etc = better), so nVidia was able to take advantage of it and marketed their TNT cards based on it having 32 bit color support (even though it was actually a slower card compared to the Voodoo equivalent).

[BoneSnapDeez]

I was too young to be PC gaming during the DOS era - probably a good thing.

I do remember buying the Ultima Collection as a high school junior. My first experience with DOS games, I had no idea what I was doing. I remember getting pretty far in part II before it crapped out on me. Turns out the game was buggy to the point of being unplayable. Nice!

[Opa Opa]

Getting stuck in games back in the day sucked.

Unless a guide was available or the game came with a hint book, you were kind of screwed if you got stumped. Sometimes you could get lucky and find helpful articles in magazines or talk to your friends that might have already played the game.

Nowadays, you can be on gamefaqs in less than fifteen seconds and figure out what to do next.

[Stark]

Getting stuck in games back in the day sucked.

Unless a guide was available or the game came with a hint book, you were kind of screwed if you got stumped. Sometimes you could get lucky and find helpful articles in magazines or talk to your friends that might have already played the game.

Nowadays, you can be on gamefaqs in less than fifteen seconds and figure out what to do next.

That's why you called the Nintendo hotline and get chewed out by yr mom, dude.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Getting stuck in games back in the day sucked.

Unless a guide was available or the game came with a hint book, you were kind of screwed if you got stumped. Sometimes you could get lucky and find helpful articles in magazines or talk to your friends that might have already played the game.

Nowadays, you can be on gamefaqs in less than fifteen seconds and figure out what to do next.

Thankfully I subscribed to Nintendo Power as a kid. I would also pick up strategy guides for games like Link to the Past, FFVI, Chrono Trigger, etc... Not having maps was the toughest thing for me as I got lost very easily. I used graph paper and mapped out Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and a few first-person dungeon crawlers. Fun times.

I never called a Nintendo hotline, but I did write to Nintendo Power. I heard back in like... 4-6 weeks. Sad to say, the game I was stuck in was Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

[BurningDoom]

Blowing into NES cartridges and wiggling them around in your NES to get them to work. So annoying.

But thankfully, the older me now knows about replacing 72-pin connections.

[Key-Glyph]

Data transfer between two Game Boys connected by Link Cable, or a Game Boy connected to a Game Boy Printer, could be painfully slow. Pokébattles in the days of Red and Blue were extremely frustrating, especially if each party insisted on switching out for a type advantage at every opportunity. And that's not even mentioning the fact that you had to be tethered together with a short foot or two of cord to do any of these things in the first place.

I'm still thrilled whenever I connect my DS to wifi or play a round of Mario Kart with several people and only one cartridge among us. It's fabulous.

Also, batteries. I am so glad rechargeable batteries became the norm in handheld systems.

[AppleQueso]

Also, batteries. I am so glad rechargeable batteries became the norm in handheld systems.

Holy crap this.