14 Years Of Gaming History - The World During DNF Development.

[Caliostro]

I'm still having issues accepting that Duke Nukem Forever is actually coming out. And the more I think about it the more surreal it becomes.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Duke Nukem Forever will become one of the most iconic game releases ever for the simple fact that it actually came out. Unless the game is a complete pile of malfunctioning crap, this is gaming history in the making. 14 years. We've been making vaporware jokes for what? 10 years?

How many times have you used "[...] when Duke Nukem Forever comes out!" as a synonym of "never"?

How many of you have actually stopped to consider how much time 14 years really is? Do you remember where you were 14 years ago? Do you remember what major events happened to your world in the time it took them to start and to finally deliver this game?

To start the thread:

- I was 10 years old. I didn't even know English back then.
- I thought the Playstation was the greatest thing ever invented, Tekken 3 was a graphical godsend and that Final Fantasy VII's CGI scenes were going to be a graphical plateau for quite a while.
- Half-Life didn't exist yet.
- The Dreamcast (let alone the PS2 or the Xbox) didn't exist yet.
- Internet was still a rare and unique commodity.
- 9/11 hadn't happened.
- Toy Story had just came out 2 years before.
- A lot of people playing games today weren't even fucking born yet.

 

[nicksdrago0]

I was yet to have my mind opened by the wonders of the internet.
I was yet to have my mind corrupted by the horrors of the internet.
I went though nursery, primary school and secondary school.
I thought that the gamecube was the greatest thing alive and would always be so.
I had hope for the wii.
You would get punched in the face for spoilers for saying that aeris died.

 

[Spinwhiz]

I was 19 and either taking my finals or moving out of my dorm to head back home from college for the summer
My game of choice to whoop my friends in was GoldenEye or WCW/NWO Revenge on the N64 or NHL Hockey on the PS2
Britney Spears had not yet introduced her first single "Hit Me Baby One More Time"
I was working at a car wash on the weekends and getting ready to start as a day camp counselor

 

[ChaoticKraus]

-I would have been 4 (turning five)

-I had just occasionally tried out video games while watching over my uncles shoulder

- I still believed in Santa

- My biggest accomplishment was tying my own shoes and opening a pack of milk by myself.

-9/11 hadn't happened

-The new millenium hadn't begun

- Swedish politics would still have been overshadowed by one huge party.

- China wouldn't have been on the mind of everyone and his mother

-Crazies wouldn't have been shouting about 2012, they would have been shouting about Y2K


DAYUM! That was a long time ago.

 

[Caliostro]

DAYUM! That was a long time ago.

Kinda...hits you after a while doesn't it?


- Eminem released "Slim Shady LP" that year. This was the album that catapulted him to world fame. His career as you know it today started then.

- The FIRST Grand Theft Auto game was released this year.

 

[Savagezion]

I was still in high school.

-I was playing X-Com and Civilization 2 as fairly new releases.

-Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal (martial artists in general) movies were taking over the action movie genre from guys like Stallone and Shwarzenegger.

-Tomb Raider was a big deal inspiring a soon to be flood of 3rd person action/adventure games.

-The Macarena dance was popular.

-People thought the end of the world was going to be New year's Eve 1999.

-Y2K was making people act retarded.

 

[Mannayz]

-I was playing a Nintendo 64. Loved that system.
-I was still interested in drawing, having future aspirations of becoming a cartoonist.
-My father was still alive. (Yeah, depressing, I know.)
-I was living in the sticks.
-I've never really played FPSs.
-Cartoons were freakin' awesome.
-I was still blissfully ignorant at eight.

 

[Snork Maiden]

I thought the Playstation was the greatest thing ever invented, Tekken 3 was a graphical godsend and that Final Fantasy VII's CGI scenes were going to be a graphical plateau for quite a while.
- Half-Life didn't exist yet.

Stuff like Half-Life and FFVII are all kind of lumped in my mind as happening at the exact same time. I'm always surprised how young I was when I played them (I'm 2 years younger than you), and that there was an appreciable amount of time between titles being released.

 

[Vault Citizen]

-I was six/seven and living in guernsey
- My parents were still married
- I had only used a computer once (if that)
- I never ever completed a game

 

[putowtin]

-just left school and got my first job working in EB (don't hate me!)
-only played PC games (I remember theme hospital being a big favourite!)
-went to my first festival (Reading/Leeds Woo hoo!)

 

[Caliostro]

Stuff like Half-Life and FFVII are all kind of lumped in my mind as happening at the exact same time. I'm always surprised how young I was when I played them (I'm 2 years younger than you), and that there was an appreciable amount of time between titles being released.

Yeah, I had to look it up to make sure. I thought of FFVIII, but that came out around 2/3 years later, around the same time as Half-Life and Deus Ex.

Oh yeah. Neither franchises existed back then. Neither did the entire Lord of the Rings[footnote]The movies. The books were written long ago, obviously.[/footnote] or Matrix cinematic trilogies.

Here's a kick in the groin - The following things took LESS time to happen than the DNF development cycle:

- The entire process of putting a man on the moon. Yes, starting with Kennedy's challenge. We put a man on the moon in less time than we made this game.
- Both World Wars together.
- Digging the Suez Canal by hand (only took 11 years).

 

[hazabaza1]

I was crapping my nappies. Lovely.
Jesus, to think that a game is nearly as old as me and is coming out sometime soon, it's crazy.

 

[Bootscooper]

I was just turning one year old. Wow.

 

[Vault101]

1997? just started school

my gaming consisted of ski free on the computer

disney was still synonamous with child hood

rockos modern life was on

 

[Valate_v1legacy]

I hadn't discovered gaming beyond say, Spyro the Dragon. I didn't have a computer. I could barely read, but I definitely could talk >.> And KotOR hadn't been made yet. That about summs it up.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

I was seven, and the internet was in its infancy.
My very first PC game was Oregon Trail. Normally everyone in my parties died of either fever or dysentery (uncooked rabbit meat does mean shit to one's intestines).
People though Lara Croft at the time was attractive.
Chuck Norris jokes have not come into existence.
Both Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network had standards.
People actually liked Sonic the Hedgehog.
Pokemon was gaining momentum in North America via games, TV and the card game.
MTV still showed music videos.
Rare shined as a developer.
Males who liked My Little Pony were swiftly beaten down.

That's all I can recall at that age.

 

[mcattack92]

They would have released the game 12 years ago if they didnt keep changing the game engine they wanted to use and scraping all their work evey few months. That is why they went bankrupt, they were never happy with what they had.

 

[Biodeamon]

wans't duke in devolopment for 15 years? i was only one back then if it was 15 years.... back then pokemon was the shit, i was blisfully ignorant, the two towers where still standing, the internet was it's early devolopment, global warming was only a nagging sensation in the back of your head, gameboy adavnces were the most popular handheld, halo had barely begun and a whole lot more