Seeing everyone complaining about just how difficult Dark Souls and Super Meat Boy are makes me giggle like a little girl. Well, obviously you need some context to this, as it may come out as a somewhat arrogant and idiotic observation – those are extremely difficult games, indeed.
But decades ago, things were really difficult. Playing a game from start to finish with three lives and no continues, even getting the tapes or the discs to work (legend says that complete silence helped with the loading) was an arduous task in itself.
I recall a lot of situations from a distant time when cell phones seemed like things straight out of science-fiction movies. There was no internet, and consequently no Facebook, no friends list (only if you did it on paper), all multiplayer was local (and a heck of fun) and all those things that we take for granted nowadays.
It was hard being a gamer back then
So hard. I used to walk nearly one hour every other day to the house of a buddy and spend the afternoon playing games – I didn’t skip school, it was only during the times when I had no classes, in case you’re wondering. Worst thing was that sometimes, I wasn’t even sure if he was home at the time – phone calls were expensive back then and our parents had a tight leash on the bill. Imagine doing that nowadays, walking for almost an hour to play a few games with your friends. Seems unlikely, right? Different times.
But those were fun times. There was a special feeling of achievement when you finished a particularly challenging game. A point and click adventure game, for example, as walkthroughs were mostly inexistent back then – remember that there was no Internet, and the few magazines that published full solutions would usually have a delay of at least two or three months.
I remember Hook, the adventure game developed by Ocean and based on the motion picture by Steven Spielberg. This was 1992, on the Commodore Amiga, and we had this challenge to see who would finish adventure games first. Some days we would call one another to check on our progress, and just as we got stuck in a particular puzzle – not usual, but it happened –, there was a bit of mockery going around.
However, this one was memorable, because the puzzle involved getting three mugs, if I recall correctly. I could find two of them, but for the life of me, the third was nowhere to be found. After a lot of persevering, I gave up and asked my buddy just where he found the third mug. As it turns out, it was sitting right there in a table that I crossed dozens of times. So, what happened?
It was a bug. A mug-disappearing bug. I was banging my head on the wall for days because of a freaking bug. In a day and age where quality assurance was far from ideal, bugs were commonplace, but game-breaking bugs were a bit harder to find. Needless to say, I felt cheated.
A bug a day will tear your hair away
Another case of the buggies happened with Darkmere, an isometric action RPG developed by Core Design – you know, the ones that later created Tomb Raider and nearly drowned in a pile of cash. A challenging game with elements of adventure, it looked great for its time – the year was 1993 – and we obviously wanted to see it to the end. Oddly enough, what stumped us wasn’t a lack of save system, as there was one set in place; however, it didn’t work in our version, no matter how hard we tried.
So, we cracked our knuckles and decided to play for hours until we discovered the solution to the puzzles, dying repeatedly and restarting right after. Many wasted afternoons later, we managed to finish the village, which happened to be the first of three “worlds”. I don’t recall the details, but this village takes nearly two hours to beat if you know what you are doing and don’t die in combat – it was hard, even more considering that the fights were the weakest part of the game.
It was kind of a shock to discover that another huge level set in the forest was waiting for us, and no matter how hard we fought, we didn’t manage to finish this one. We also gave up due to another very important reason: the Amiga’s power supply was heating so much that we had to use a fan to cool it down, and still it felt like a fire hazard waiting to happen.
Darkmere beat us, but it was thanks to a low blow.
Let’s not talk about Project X, Never
These are only a few of my nostalgic moments, but I have so many more. Let’s make one thing clear right now: gaming wasn’t better back then, unless you look at those times through rose-tinted glasses. It surely wasn’t worst as well; it was just different. I lost count to the days, weeks, months that I spent in multiplayer sessions with games such as Dyna Blaster, Kick Off 2, Sensible Soccer or Speedball 2, and the amazing new world of graphical adventures that was a wonder to explore, from Monkey Island to Beneath a Steel Sky.
I’m extremely happy with what the video games industry delivers nowadays. There are platforms for everyone, games for every taste, and even an impressive indie scene that delivers the experiences that big-budget studios are afraid to create. There is an amateur scene that suddenly creates stunning content – mods, fan remakes… - and when you look at your library, I’m pretty sure that unplayed games are just piling up, waiting for the right time that never seems to come.
Those were wonderful times and I’ll always cherish them, having grown through exciting days and seeing the rise of the PC and consoles such as the PlayStation and the Xbox. If there’s one bad thing that the Internet led to, it was certainly the “death” of local co-op as we knew it, in favor of the more impersonal, unfriendly online gaming that we know today. Back then, we competed for fun and laughs; now, it’s for leaderboards and virtual bragging, with an unhealthy amount of insults and cheap tactics thrown into the mix.
Oh, and back then we didn’t have online trolls. Damn, those are annoying.
This is my entry to the Gaming Nostalgia #ArchdruidContest created by @Enjar
Image sources: Hook | Darkmere | Dyna Blaster | Speedball 2
