Gaming 20 Years Ago...How Would You Fare?

[Neverhoodian]

So hypothetical scenario here...

You wake up one morning and realize that you've somehow gone back in time twenty years to 1996. The gaming landscape is a very different place from what it is now. The Nintendo 64, Sony Playstation, Sega Saturn and Pentium PC are the current platforms. Cartriges share store shelves with CD-ROM games. Titles like Super Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot and Quake are tearing up the sales charts. Online gaming is still in its infancy and governed by the limitations of dial-up connections. Print media like GamePro, Nintendo Power and Electronic Gaming Monthly are still the dominant outlet for gaming news.

For the sake of discussion, let's assume you're still the same age that you are now and that you've retained all of your memories. Faced with this environment, how would you fare? What elements of modern gaming would you miss, and what elements would you be glad are gone (at least, for now)? As a bonus question, if you had the power to somehow keep the medium "locked" at where it was then (aka new games can still be made, but business trends and means of distribution remain the same)...would you?

As for myself...I'd probably not fare as well as I'd like to believe. Don't get me wrong, there's a laundry list of modern trends I hate. Always online DRM, on-disc DLC, the preorder culture, "Fee-to-Pay" games, season passes, mictrotransactions, the prevalence of assholes in online games, etc. I would be more than happy to see each and every one gone, along with the return to a focus on single player, cheat codes, free demos and other bygone relics.

Having said that, there are so many modern aspects of gaming I take for granted that simply didn't exist or be feasible back then. I like the convenience of online storefronts. I like the speed of broadband internet connections and what it provides for gaming discussion, entertainment and social activity. I like how indie developers have a wealth of options for exposure and distribution where none existed back then. I like the democratization of gaming information, where you aren't reliant on a handful of enthusiast press outlets that are in bed with the industry. Besides, I can still play most of those old games nowadays thanks to the wonders of DOSBox and services like GOG. So no, I probably wouldn't keep things where they were, as tempting as the offer may seem.

TL;DR- If you went back in time to 1996, what aspects of gaming would you like/dislike, and would you force the status quo of the time to stay the same if you could?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Well I'd be playing Hexen 64 and Ocarina of Time...kinda' just like last night. So bugger all would change.

But I imagine I would hate the lack of organic open-world gaming, and terrible controls. Those two things have really come a long way. I mean OoT have open world shit, but there's nothing to do. Yeah, there's the next temple. But that's it. The next temple.
Gotta' love side quests.

But Hexen 64 is just Doom with more swords. Damn fine game...damn fine...

 

[Casual Shinji]

I'd most likely be frustrated as fuck that I no longer have access to my favourite games. I'd have to wait atleast 9 years to play Resident Evil 4 again, and 17 years to play The Last of Us.

Also no fucking internet - Christ, it would suck!

I guess I'd find confort in my fortune telling abilities.

 

[go-10]

well considering I was an avid gamer during 96... bring on Pokemon Blue and wait for Final Fantasy VII in 97 and Ocarina of Time and FF:Tactics in 98!

 

[Zenja]

It wouldn't bother me much. Losing internet is a mixed bag itself. I love brick and mortar stores and I loved the more social aspect of gaming before it went online. I love the CRPGs of the late 90s and as a matter of fact I only have to wait 5 years before my favorite one, Arcanum, releases. However in 2 years the like of Fallout 2, Planescape, X-Com, and Baldur's Gate are about to hit the market. The MMO scene is starting with Everquest and a few others. I would definitely go back and play Anarchy Online with myself and my friends as I played that game for years as my first MMO. Back when you couldn't max level in a couple months. I remember it was rare and awesome to see someone over level 100 when max level was 200. The highest I ever saw anyone was a level 160 and I was mesmerized. Then they introduced a new expansion that had people maxing out in 3 months in about 2003.

Yeah, I would fare pretty well. I don't know if you could force the status quo though. I fought DLC when it came out and it happened. I fought microtransactions, I fought for brick and mortar stores, online DRM, etc. I would fight it again but I doubt it would do any good because there was always more supporters than detractors. Seriously, back then the arguments were "They wouldn't do that, you act like they are just greedy corperations, it's bad business to do that to their customers" making detractors out to be paranoid. I would do it again, but I have a hard time thinking people would listen this time around.

 

[Windcaler]

I fared quite well in those years so I dont think much would change (I was 16 in 1996). However lets get something straight in 1996 the internet was just becoming a common thing that most households were getting as a luxury, it was far from a necessary utility that it is today. That said online multiplayer on PC was very much a thing. E-sports did happen but it was mostly localized to the individual communities. I remember one event in particular at my high school where we held a Heavy gear tournament for charity and the cheering of the people watching us is something I'll never forget.

Historically speaking Ive always felt that the late 90s and early 2000s were a sort of renisance for games as we saw new pieces of art coming out and developers approaching game design in fundementally different and challenging ways that hadnt been explored before.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Be fun to play EQ again as a new game.

 

[Saelune]

So if I went back to my golden age of gaming? Yeah, Id be fine.

Id buy games instead of renting them 100 times though. My parents should have realized that.

 

[Recusant]

I'd be delighted! But that's mostly because I've made a point of memorizing at least one major winning lottery number for every year I've lived, just in case I go back in time. I mean, yes, the mid-to-late nineties were pretty much when gaming was at its peak; big enough to do all sorts of fancy things (force feedback that's actual force feedback!), small enough to get away with things that'd never fly today. Old enough to have mostly lost the "gamers are psychologically damaged" attitude of the 80's, young enough to avoid the "everyone and their grandmother is in on this now, so we need to pull the best talent in the industry into making crap" (the 2000's put Brian Reynolds at Zynga; the 2010's put Soren Johnson there; I fear in the next decade they'll be gunning for Sid himself). No Facebook. No Google. No people weirdly insisting that the Internet somehow didn't exist yet (seriously, guys- Gamefaqs.com went up in '95; you'd have it, in this hypothetical).

For that matter, no partially hydrogenated oils making fried food taste like crap- but that has nothing to do with gaming.

Past the era of lousy FMV games and straight into the era of lousy low-count polygon games. Well, you can't have everything. And that leads in to why I wouldn't be too enthused. Maybe it's just that I long ago stopped regularly keeping up with the latest releases, but almost everything I had back then, I have now: my Force Feedback 2 sticks still work just fine; I can blow away children in Fallout and walk in on prostitutes in Daggerfall; I can play Alpha Centauri, with Alien Crossfire, without waiting another four years. Granted, the playerbase for Jedi Knight is probably nonexistent, and the only folks playing Tribes are a few die-hards who could kill me with one hand behind their backs, but I'm not much of a multiplayer guy. And I still can't get Emperor of the Fading Suns to run right (come on, GOG; you know you want to pick that up!). But aside from a more optimistic attitude about where the industry's going, what have we really lost? With a bit of effort, it's easy to wrap yourself in a comfortable era cocoon and never leave it, and I don't want to lose S.T.A.L.K.E.R, or Mount & Blade, or even Minecraft. As much as I despise certain modern trends, and as much as I miss (and think we should bring back! Don't think that's not possible!) others, I don't think I'd want to go back.

Besides, would you want to wait twenty years before something new comes along?

 

[Potjeslatinist]

Old games are hard so I would bleed to death.

 

[Catnip1024]

Well, I would have two full years to wait until Pokemon yellow, which would suck.

On the other hand, some of those Atari ST games were awesome, and you can't even get hold of these days. Three dimensions are overrated anyway.

 

[Souplex]

Old games are hard so I would bleed to death.

Games in the NES/SNES era were hard. The N64 era was the first era of easy games.
Honestly I'd hate it. Gaming was just dipping its toes into 3D and hadn't learned how to handle it well yet. There was very little 2d, controls would be clunky, GUIs obtuse, and graphics awful. That era has aged worse than any other.
Good shooters won't exist for another 5 years, and I would have just missed good 2D platformers. Western RPGs would be broken and convoluted, JRPGs have just begun to suck after their peak years.

That said, I'd be popped into a world where I don't have a home, work history or bank account, and my SSN belongs to a 5 year old who bears my likeness. I think I'd be screwed.

Assuming I just quantum leap into myself I'd advise my family members that had money to put money in Microsoft stock and Brooklyn Real Estate, sell their Microsoft stock in 2000 to buy Apple stock that is continuing to rise to this day. I'd also recommend Nintendo stock prior to the launch of the Wii which would be sold prior to the launch of the WiiU. Since I wouldn't be prepared for this trip I couldn't get some lotto numbers in advance.
I'd also kind of feel responsible for stopping Bush V Gore and 9/11, but I'd have no idea how to do that, as I doubt anyone in power would listen to me. Stopping Bush V Gore would be a lost cause, but if my presence in the timeline didn't alter things so none of my stock plans work out, I guess I could use my family wealth to pay some people to stage an unsuccessful high-profile 9/11 beforehand in order to put everyone's guard up and make it more difficult for the real one to happen.
I don't think I could stop the banking crash.

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, I'm 35 now, so I WAS gaming 20 years ago. The only real change would be never to buy FF8, which will be out soon.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I think I fared pretty well, it's not that I'm old, it's just that... Hang on, I have to tell some kids to get off my lawn.

But seriously now, I don't think that games today are much easier than they were back then. Then you had limited lives, checkpoints and save files were a thing heard from the whispers of PC gaming. Which I also played. I think that people who didn't play that era of games will have a much harder time of it than those of us that did grow up with them.

 

[Satinavian]

Did play then. Occassionally play games of that area now.

I don't think newer games are harder. Civ II is easily broken and has bad AI compared to Civ 4 or 5. Baldurs gate is not harder than Pillars of Eternity, only more cumbersome. The first Total War game (Shogun) is not more difficult than the latest (Warhammer), only less pretty. And i know of no game of that area with rules as complex as those from EU IV.

I would avoid the old ugly early 3D grafix, but i did the same thing then because i already found those ugly and totally-not-worth-it when i experienced it the first time.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Well, I'm 35 now, so I WAS gaming 20 years ago. The only real change would be never to buy FF8, which will be out soon.

You'd have 3 years to prepare to not buy it.

OT: I'd be playing Quake, because that's what I did in '96. Plus many other awesome things, might even pick up some rare games that were released around that time.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

I played through that era the first time, so I'd be right at home. I'd take advantage of the knowledge I have now to play some classics I missed out on the first time around - FFVII, Baldur's Gate, Chrono Trigger, etc.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

Eh, I'd probably fare fine. I'd just spend my time playing lots of old school PC games (since I spent most of my childhood with consoles last time round). Hopefully all those old school games will be able to distract me from the fact that I'm now going to lose 20 years of my life waiting for the 2016 to arrive once again, and will thus get to see much less of the future than I'd like.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

God dammit, I didn't like the graphics back in 1996, I don't want to go all the way back and suffer that shit again!

But ehhh, nothing much would change, probably just avoid some titles I didn't back in the day... maybe invest a *little* money in Microsoft and Apple for when the Xbox and iPhone hit the shelf... you know, little things like that.

It will be annoying knowing that Cofagrigus isn't going to be invented for another 14 years though. Dammit, I love that ************, I don't want to go back to using the all of 1 available ghost type at the time!