Well yeah but did people play them with people is my question.  Now it is easy with online but back then you had to have other people interested in a local area etc

Hell yes. Ever since I first got my hands on Ice Climber!

Played split screen games almost 24/7 back in the day with sometimes up to eight players fighting for a controller. Mario Kart 64/Double Dash!!, Mario Party 3/4/5, Super Smash Bros./Melee, Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo-Tooie, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Mario Tennis/Power Tennis, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, F-Zero GX, Metroid Prime 2, Pokémon Stadium 1/2, GB Pokémon generation 1/2, etc., etc. Those were the golden days of multiplayer gaming for sure :)


Now we have kids shouting in their microphones about how bad their "connections" are...

Quake 3, Halo 1 before xbox live and many other games. My older buddy had a bad ass set up. So gamed on PC. can't remember all the games but Quake was my favorite.

Yes, actually xbl and psn turned me away from (online) multiplayer.

Local multiplayer from the start, and most recently Mario U.
First online multiplayer for me was fs4 through dial up modem.
Lan multiplayer for duke nukem 3D, half-life, quake, unreal, age of empires 2, unreal tournament, and more.

Lord of The Rings: Return of the King on PS2, countless of hours playing it with my buddy.

Of course, who hasn't? Some of my early MP memories revolve around:

Local: Goldeneye (N64), Quake II (N64 & PS1), Street Fighter 2 (SNES), TOCA (SNES), FIFA (PS1), Pro Evo (PS1), Super Mario World (SNES), Tekken 3 (PS1), Smackdown (PS1)

Online: Age of Empires 1 & 2, Quake 2, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, Starcraft

Super Mario Kart consumed three winters of my childhood. Such a brilliant game with battle or race mode. Honestly, to this day I still much prefer local co-op over anything online.

To me not having local co-op, but having online co-op is one of the more baffling developments in gaming.

actually i've toned down online gaming in the last 4 years while gaming on the PS3.

in the past i've wasted endless hours in warcraft 3 frozen throne, starcraft, diablo2, quake 3,2, unreal tournaments...

Yes, on the visionary Dreamcast. A console ahead of its time that got ignored.

It was alot better than the PS2/GC/Xbox, yet the consumers seemed oblivious to its excellence.

Games i remember: fondly: Phantasy star online, Quake 3 arena, speed devils.

After that i had a generation with no online play in the "PS2/GC/Xbox" era and again in the "360"era where i refused to pay for online. Sick of the situation and Microsofts abuse, i have changed to Nintendo and Sony where i get free online play again, starting with the 3DS and Vita, and in time on the Wii U and PS3/PS4. Microsoft... never again.

Oh, god, yes.

Even though I have a Live account, I still try to have friends over at least every 2 weeks or so to play local multiplayer, be it older games or things like Resident Evil 5 or Smash Bros. Brawl. I just spent the night at a buddy's house and we spent at least four hours playing SSB Melee--it was glorious :D

There is honestly no substitute for actually being with your friends, hanging out, and playing a good video game.

On the topic of what games I spent the most time with in local multi, the N64 is the clear winner:

- Mario Kart 64
- Smash Bros
- Wrestlemania 2000
- Goldeneye
- Perfect Dark
- Sooo many others that wasted many a Saturday and Sunday

Not to mention great stuff like TMNT IV: Turtles in Time, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the first Halo, Super Double Dragon, various Mario games, Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur... far too many to name, really.