Retro games from my formative years:
Newer games:
I realize those are divisive entries in each of their franchises, but they’re the ones that hit for me and just let me wander off and do whatever I feel like.
A few months ago, I walked into the grocery store and Dio’s Holy Diver was playing. 40+ years on, the music and content are pretty tame, but it was still a surprise. I don’t think RJD ever figured in that happening.
Remember when we’d just torrent movies from the Blockbuster?
Using the “torrenting” to mean both physically copying something and downloading is fucking me up.
But yeah, in the US, pirated cartridge games weren’t really a thing.
For PC games, it was stupid easy to copy a game and give it to a friend. Copy protection for floppy games was usually just like “look up the 5th word in paragraph 3 on page 16 of the manual” which was easily defeated with a photocopier. And if you were on BBSes, you could gain access to the “private” file section or just find a pirate board. The limitations in hardware made it time consuming, but doable. Having a dedicated phone line was a huge boon.
And then you get into CD based games, broadband, stronger copy protection … And that hasn’t really changed a whole lot. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
But man, the entire PC industry in the 80s was built on and thrived on piracy. If sharing programs and games hadn’t been so common and easy, what would the home market have looked like? Would Doom have secured the same space it now occupies? Would Windows have become the prominent UI?
For what it’s worth, I just updated today and there’s a “Plain” post style now that goes toward making the padding issue better.
I don’t use For You, so I don’t miss it. I guess. But I do agree on the other points. There is way too much padding on the sides. And while I think it makes some logical sense, the parent post thing confuses the shit out of me because it seems opposite the way every other app handles it.
I had been using Openvibe for a while and switched for Flare a month or so ago? I’m not a heavy user, but I like it better than Openvibe. No issues.
Huh. Well that was a fun way to spend a few minutes this morning.
Oh, for sure. I’m not offended by it, just stating fact.
It’s amazing that Irfanview is still around 30 years later and doing it’s ONE THING so well still. Sure, it looks a little dated these days and can feel a bit obtuse, but it’s an invaluable piece of software.
In the late 80s/early 90s, my parents wouldn’t let us have a game console, but somehow trying to bed hookers in Leisure Suit Larry was okay for their pre-teen. IDK.
If it’s the humor that made LSL good for you, the Space Quest series is an easy leap. Or Freddy Pharkas. Plus lots of Lucasarts games like Monkey Island, Indiana Jones, Maniac Mansion…
The Police Quest series is my favorite. PQ1 is easily in my top games of all time. Followed very closely by the first Gabriel Knight game. I went to New Orleans years back for work and the best thing I got to do was look out over Lafayette Park and St Louis Cathedral from the same vantage point as in the game. Maybe silly, but it was a really fulfilling moment.
Oh, I always really liked the Quest for Glory games too, though I don’t think I ever finished any of them. Maybe I should work on that this year.