| zeldaring said: Imagine having online gaming in 90s lol that would have been insane as a kid growing up. Playing streets of rage 2, mario kart, street fighter 2 and mortal kombat online. Nostalgia is one hell of a drug. |
It would have ruined the experience of going over to a friend's house one day, friends coming over to your house the next day to play games together. My kids just play online with their friends and only actually see them when they go to the park or come over to swim.
It was great. One of my close friends had C64 and later Amiga 500. I had MSX and PC. Other friends had PCs as well and we actually ended up coding some stuff for the demo scene. We always carried floppies with us to exchange games and mods. Plus pulling all nighters playing Civilization together. Dune 2 was a big one as well which I made a level editor for so we could keep on adding different scenarios. I would make the scenario, then watch my friend play it and help him out. Golden Axe, Fire Power, Super Offroad Racer were our biggest favorites for local multiplayer. Games were a lot easier to just jump in and play than they are today. And trying to figure something out together was much better than googling it :/ Asking the neighbors if they knew what do to at certain points in Police Quest, that just doesn't happen anymore.
But we did actually have online gaming. I played Flight Simulator together with a friend through dial-up. We only did it once though as it's just more fun to play together than communicating through text. Voice wasn't an option since the landline was already in use! In the 90s we used to play together at work in LAN at the end of the day. Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, HL Death match, Age of Empires 2 (we got in to work in the weekend to play that). It was the golden age for playing together. Online ruined it all!
But the excitement when Doom and Descent came out. That was unbelievable. Friends calling at night, you got to come over to see this. Full 3D, 6 DOF, that was unheard of. And sure you can still play those games today, but you don't get those seismic shifts in gaming anymore. The magic of seeing Mario 64 in a demo kiosk, Wave race 64. We brought Dreamcast and N64 to work to play in the break room together. 4 player split screen Re-Volt crowding around a 14 inch tv, it worked, magical!
That magic isn't lost, I had my kids and their friends playing 4 player split-screen Terraria on my projector. The level of excitement was contagious and the parents had the biggest trouble getting their kids to come out lol. But it's just easier to play online so that's what they do.
