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I have a few that come to mind.

1) Retrogaming for the sake of retrogames. (Before digital distribution.) Just being able to enjoy older titles because they were games I liked, or because they were from a slightly old/discontunued system and being able to buy them loose without the looming thought that some idiot sold a sealed in box copy of glorified 6502 code for more money than you've seen in your life. I miss when Retro was just old games.

2) Stendhal, the obscure Java MMO. So I don't quite remember how I found this one. But I remember I was there long enough to build a rapport within the community, and even remember when their old client upgraded into a properly themed one. I sometimes spin up a solo server for fun, seeing as the game is small enough to fit on a BBS.

3) Neopets, before the collapse. Basically, getting to experience a strange social sim like that...nothing going to ever be quite like that again.

4) The Paranoia Live forums, because getting to roleplay a tabletop system without the tabletop via a forum is nice. Unfortunately, the community was mostly dead by the time I found this one.

5) Shareware, in general. There are many games and titles I never would have discovered. Spiderweb Software, Steve Moraff, many Klik & Play titles, never would have found them without shareware CDs packing them all in unhelpful names and vague descriptions. Just wish more of them had escaped their chains.
Old-school multiplayer before it went online. Whether it was LAN parties or "hot-seat" gaming, playing with friends in person you knew and could laugh & joke with was an order of magnitude more pleasant than putting up with today's trolls / griefers / squeakers / cheaters / general 'undiagnosed Borderline Personality Disorder' of the average online "gamer" today, who take 'muh online social status' as part of their 'identity' way too seriously than has even been healthy.
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Darvond: 1) Retrogaming for the sake of retrogames.

5) Shareware, in general.
Probably retro-gaming and shareware too. There are so many weird & wonderful shareware titles otherwise lost to time. Eg, recently replayed Stellar Explorer, a 1991 game that's a cross between a point & click adventure and "top-down 2D System Shock". Or Dune (1992) that game whose strange hybrid adventure / strategy gameplay worked out surprisingly well and still feels pretty unique today. I have quite the collection of stuff like that that I have a feeling GOG will never get due to rights issues / the original one-man developer has either retired, quit, moved and can't be located or even passed away and whoever inherited the rights has zero interest in gaming.

As for retro-games, I grew up with a ZX Spectrum and am delighted to still be able to play a lot of that stuff. Likewise, being part of "that niche" in the 2000's of still wanting 90's games during the period of widespread disc availability, it was generally the "peak" time to buy 90's discs at very low cost (often £2 each) before the recent post-2010 trend of "collector" morons drove up the price of older games paying £30 for a bit of cardboard then re-auction it for £50, £60, £350, etc... I'm certainly glad I'm part of that niche of having the only DRM-Free copies of classics like Age of Empires 1-2 Collectors Edition, Age of Mythology, etc, that will neither be released here in original form nor remastered in any DRM-Free form today.
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BrianSim: Old-school multiplayer before it went online
Same. When multi-player gaming went online and "anonymised", I lost all interest.
Post edited November 23, 2022 by AB2012
1) Shareware and Freeware on both Atari ST and PC. I think this is why I really dig indie games. It taught me to appreciate the little things instead of only being interested in AAA games and the latest graphics. Plenty of fun to be had due to the creativity and dedication of talented individuals, hobbyists or small studios, without big corporations involved. I especially enjoyed:
- the Public Domain series from various Atari ST magazines in the 90s that some smaller computer stores had on disks that they would allow customers to borrow for free. I loved browsing listings with short descriptions about the contents of the numbered disks and then decide which packages to get (they were usually in tens, I think)
- the freeware/shareware CDs for PC that were like surprise bags with hundreds of little games to try out
- all the true and higher quality Freeware sites on the net in the 2000's that were well curated and came with reviews and screenshots and all

2) Admittedly, for a while I was also into Abandonware, when there was no GOG yet and no commercialized digital distribution of old classics. Home of the Underdogs was my favorite site.

3) My favorite freeware related experience was discovering the AGS (Adventure Game Studio) community back in the days, even before Dave Gilbert and others found a way to sell their creations with the engine.

4) The FRUA (Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures) community. Small and very friendly bunch of authors and modders who worked hard on bringing out the best of the Goldbox game engine und pushing it beyond its limits. Some of whom are loyal to the game for almost 30 years now.

5). The NWN (Neverwinter Nights) community, same as above, for about 20 years now.

6) The Fight the Dragon community. Not nearly as long-lived and as good as dead now, but it was fun while it lasted. Another, if more limited engine that allowed players to create their own adventures and become really creative.
Post edited November 23, 2022 by Leroux
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AB2012: As for retro-games, I grew up with a ZX Spectrum and am delighted to still be able to play a lot of that stuff.
One thing that fascinated me about that is that a lot of the creators from that era don't seem to be particularly litigious or care about the fact that there are massive collections of C64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad and CoCo games. But all presumed, I think it might be some kind of loophole about islands of accessibility?
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Darvond: One thing that fascinated me about that is that a lot of the creators from that era don't seem to be particularly litigious or care about the fact that there are massive collections of C64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad and CoCo games. But all presumed, I think it might be some kind of loophole about islands of accessibility?
I think that was the era where few big publishers = many games were a "labour of love". I've seen some channels on Youtube (eg, RZX Archive) where in several cases, one of the comments written in response to a game played was from the actual developer who openly said "If you want to play it, just download it". They were usually more interested in sharing why they made it a certain why, development challenges involved, and happy that people were still interested in them / the 8-bit era in general today.
Post edited November 23, 2022 by AB2012
GOG for a short while. It was an open, diverse and generous community, where you had christians and muslims peacefully discussing religion, you had trans people being open with their identities, etc. The opposite of what GOG became once the floodgates of assholery opened, and, in that somewhat innocent, moderation-free environment, silenced or chased away all minorities. But for the duration where GOG was a cool place, I was really proud of that community and even (to my shame) publicizing it. I later even came to regret my giveaways.
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Telika: GOG for a short while. It was an open, diverse and generous community, where you had christians and muslims peacefully discussing religion, you had trans people being open with their identities, etc. The opposite of what GOG became once the floodgates of assholery opened, and, in that somewhat innocent, moderation-free environment, silenced or chased away all minorities. But for the duration where GOG was a cool place, I was really proud of that community and even (to my shame) publicizing it. I later even came to regret my giveaways.
I think that regularly gets overblown for singling out GOG specifically to the point of becoming a meme. People have sadly noticeably become more political over the past decade right across the net (noticeably so for video games starting around 2012), and Reddit, Steam, other forums and the bulk of social media in general are regularly just as toxic on any day as the worst day here. Same goes for how some mis-remember "today's GOG isn't like the 'good old days' for quality of reviews", it really doesn't take long to find 10 year old two-word ("F***ing garbage") reviews for classics like RollerCoaster Tycoon written in 2012, and nor are the Steam forums (or have they ever been) any real different...
GameSpy Arcade
Old MMORPGS
Old-server based games


They all have the same trait, just people who would hang out and play games without any overarching motive or narrative. No dickheads (mostly), genuine connections, and great games. This new style of lobby-based MP, cross-realm MMOs and social media where people compete for points is just so cold.

It feels like people are too keen to prove something these days and share something.
Myabandonware
Internet Archive
Children of Bhaal pl
Chomikuj
GOG.com! : ) <3
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BrianSim: I think that regularly gets overblown for singling out GOG specifically to the point of becoming a meme. People have sadly noticeably become more political over the past decade right across the net (noticeably so for video games starting around 2012), and Reddit, Steam, other forums and the bulk of social media in general are regularly just as toxic on any day as the worst day here. Same goes for how some mis-remember "today's GOG isn't like the 'good old days' for quality of reviews", it really doesn't take long to find 10 year old two-word ("F***ing garbage") reviews for classics like RollerCoaster Tycoon written in 2012, and nor are the Steam forums (or have they ever been) any real different...
Nope, the gog forums HAVE been an exceptionally lovely place, ten years ago. I was already jaded by the rest of internet back then, and had been impressed by gog's community.
When gaming magazines in my country used to have full, DRM-free games on a CDs/DVDs, sometimes several of them, included for free with the purchase. Most notably SCORE, LEVEL and also Gamestar.

Today, only SCORE still somewhat does it and it's usually just a Steam code for one game.

I have many older games on CDs/DVDs thanks to that. Really glad my dad used to used to buy them back in the 90s to 2000s.

Oh, and I definitely miss ISOzone, which had to die only because they also hosted ROMs. So many abandonware games could be found in a convenient ISO format there. Screw Nintendo.
Post edited November 23, 2022 by idbeholdME
Owning and being part of the SAM Coupé (remember those ?) community back in 89/90 when it was just released. Being impressed by the 'advancement' in hardware compared to my then owned Spectrum 48k plus, and all for the cheap price of £169.99. Struggling to find software specifically for the machine so early in its rather obscure life, was a challenge to say the least. Resulting to emulation (Spectrum mostly), copying magazine code listings and snail-mail disk-magazines and demo disks were pretty much the order of the day for this unloved loverble blue-shoed 8-bit on steroids. I kept the little rogue for almost 5 years as a more or less direct replacement for the now redundant Speccy, and can safely say that I really did enjoy every minute of owning that machine. Sadly, the 16bit machines had been dominating the media and a lot of peoples homes for quite sometime now, and seeing a special offer in a Speccy magazine for the Amiga 500 Plus for £199, with 10 games at a Silica Systems shop in town. That was the turning point of me going over to the dark side.
Post edited November 23, 2022 by Trooper1270
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idbeholdME: When gaming magazines in my country used to have full, DRM-free games on a CDs/DVDs, sometimes several of them, included for free with the purchase. Most notably SCORE, LEVEL and also Gamestar.
Demo disks are a fine one too. And probably the only way several games have been preserved at this rate, a shame.
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BrianSim: Old-school multiplayer before it went online. Whether it was LAN parties or "hot-seat" gaming, playing with friends in person you knew and could laugh & joke with was an order of magnitude more pleasant than putting up with today's trolls / griefers / squeakers / cheaters / general 'undiagnosed Borderline Personality Disorder' of the average online "gamer" today, who take 'muh online social status' as part of their 'identity' way too seriously than has even been healthy.
Came here to say LAN parties, as well. Some of the best times of my life looking back on getting all our towers together and playing and snacking for entire weekends.