Are You an Old-School Gamer?
If you played games in the 80s and 90s, you may fondly remember some of these little habits. From blowing on cartridges to actually owning your games, here are some things the newer generation doesn’t know it's missing out on.
1. Blowing on Cartridges
Let’s see if this triggers any memories. You insert a game cartridge only for it to bug out and not work. So, you pull it back out, blow on it, and put it back in. Just like that, problem solved!
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2. Old-School Multiplayer
Back in the day, online play wasn’t yet in full swing. Luckily, you didn’t have to worry about that with couch co-op always being an option. You remember inviting your friends back over and handing them a player 2 controller as you duke it out on screen.
3. Game Trading
While it was great to be able to go buy a new game from the store, it was also expensive. Lots of gamers took to trading physical copies with friends in order to try new games. This is something modern players can’t generally do due to the online and digital nature of most games.
4. Game Manuals
Back in the day, you couldn’t just look up a game tutorial online or figure it out as you go. Lots of these games luckily came with instructions printed into their manuals. It was pretty common to read through it before diving into the gameplay.
5. Memorizing Moves
There were only so many buttons to click in these video games, which is why many companies ended up putting obscene combinations together to use certain moves. Lots of gamers would have to memorize crazy combinations like up, down, down, right, a key, b key, up, jump” just to pull off one kick.
6. Physical Games
Buying digital copies of games simply wasn’t a thing back in the day. Not only would you have to go to the store and pick out physical copies, but it was better that way! You can never truly own a digital game, but a physical copy is yours forever.
7. Insert Disc 2
While new gamers would look at you weird, you know exactly how to follow these instructions. Lots of games were too big to store on one disc, so they would instead be split across multiple discs.
8. Save Codes
Autosave simply wasn’t a thing back then, but some games would let you get away with save codes, which many gamers would have to scribble down into a notebook. Other games, on the other hand, would let you use checkpoints, but they weren’t all that frequent, making every loss and win even more intense.
9. LAN Parties
While modern games still have LAN parties today, they were far more social back in the day. After all, current gamers just use Discord or video calls to play with their friends, but you remember having to haul your gaming set to your friend's house.
10. Mario Vs. Sonic
This was like the Edward vs. Jacob debate but for gamers. Everyone had to choose which camp they belonged to back then, as you were either a Nintendo fanboy or a Sega enthusiast. This little rivalry is still going strong now, but it certainly peaked in the 90s.
Now that we have talked about some common tropes of old-school gaming, here are some things new gamers don’t know they’re missing.
1. The Games Were Hard
Many modern games think Dark Souls is the epitome of difficulty, but that’s because they haven’t played BATTLETOADS. Back in the day, these games were unnecessarily difficult. After all, you would only have a set amount of lives before hitting that game over screen.
2. Arcade Etiquette
New gamers only seem to visit arcades to get a taste of the 90s, which is why they might not know the typical rules. For instance, using quarters to hold your place, or trash-talking face-to-face over high scores.
3. DLC Culture
Nowadays, games seem to come out in parts to really milk consumers of all their money. You buy the game, then you can get pre-order bonus content, and let’s not forget all the DLCs. Heck, if you want the complete Pokémon experience, you need to buy two different versions of the same game. Old-school gamers would never stand for this!
4. Information Overload
Modern gamers have so much access to information about their games. There are walkthroughs showing off every exploit or hidden feat. But back in the day, old-school gamers knew they had to explore and discover things for themselves.
5. Patches
These days, games are being constantly upgraded, and it’s more like buying a right to use a product than it is owning a physical game. But back in the day, you got the game just as it was, bugs and glitches included.
6. Fighting Over Player 2
Modern games let either player decide which character they want to be, and usually have a wide selection to pick from. But old-school gamers remember when you’d have to fight over the player one spot. Because after all, your choices would be being Sonic or being stuck as Tails.
7. Sacred Cheat Codes
Nowadays, you can just look up cheat codes to unlock extras and bonus content. But originally, these codes were revered knowledge that was only shared by word of mouth.
8. Starting Over
With so many checkpoints and the autosave feature, new gamers don’t have to worry about starting all the way from the beginning. In fact, modern games who do this are often ridiculed for it. But old-school gamers remember the intensity of risking it all as they tried to progress on one life.
9. Era of Discovery
Games still felt so new and fresh back in the day, as lots of genres and mechanics were being discovered and implemented. Nowadays, new gamers feel like they’ve seen already everything, and you really have to push the ante to do something new.
10. Choosing Difficulty
Current gamers expect games to let them decide just how easy or hard they should be. Some games even have story modes where it's impossible to lose. But old-school gamers didn’t grow up with these luxuries. You either survived, or you didn’t. Easy mode was never an option.
