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How do we deal with nostalgia?


Gamers are not generally known for their tender sensibilities or for exploring the more emotional end of the spectrum that the medium has to offer. And yet nostalgia, that warm, fuzzy callback to happy memories or experiences in our past, is a force to be reckoned with, both in the way we play videogames and the way they are marketed. So let's talk about it!

IGN put up an <span class="bold">interesting article</span>, discussing the way gamers are affected by this powerful feeling. It's a pretty emotional, reflective, and occasionally critical journey through "The Blue Fields of Nostalgia", and it features the thoughts of legendary creator Ron Gilbert, Night Dive CEO Stephen Kick, and several of GOG.com's prominent people, among others. Go ahead and give it a read, but keep a pack of hankies close at hand.


So how does nostalgia factor in your own experiences? Does it dictate your gaming habits? Are there any evocative gaming moments that you still cherish? Feel free to share, nobody's judging here. After all, it's totally normal to cry at the end of Cinema Paradiso AND Grim Fandango. Totally.
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ShaunRoberts: I like how this has devolved into a "WHERE DA GAEMS AT!!?!?" set of posts
Every thread on GOG eventually does. ;)
The market for video games have really changed over the years. I remember choosing games was scarce and risky. An NES cartridge would cost $40 - $50. When you are a kid that's a lot of money! If you bought the game you couldn't return it if you opened it, so you had to make the best of what you had; you had to overcome any bugs, glitches, bad gameplay, controls, cheating AI, etc. to get your money's worth. There were no updates to fix anything, so you just had to deal with it. Nowadays you have a plethora of games to choose from. If you don't like something, you stop playing it and try the next one or you are distracted from playing a game when a new game is released and don't continue and finish the one you were playing. I have hundreds of games now, I'll probably die before I finish them all; no, I know I'll die before I finish them all. LOL
Post edited January 31, 2017 by BrokenBull
Anyone know if this news article is available in an ADHD multi-part audio-book edition?
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ShaunRoberts: I like how this has devolved into a "WHERE DA GAEMS AT!!?!?" set of posts
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Leroux: Every thread on GOG eventually does. ;)
OBLIVION!
Bah, humbug, I say! Those rose-tinted glasses can hurt one more than anything. Either old games are still fun to play or they're not worth anyone's time. Old Game != Good Game. Yeah, I have some really fond memories of certain games, but most of them I would never revisit either because they would very likely be too simple, too awkward, or just plain too badly designed to play for me now. I've already been burnt by some of those nostalgia purchases here on GOG.

If one was growing up with the games of the '80s and '90s one's age definitely affects how one was viewing the medium as well, often not taking into account what could have been better rather being distracted by the "cool" effect. A lot of games' drawbacks due to hardware limitation could probably forgiven at the time. Not every game can be an X-Wing, Master of Orion 2, Doom, System Shock, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Heroes of Might & Magic 2, etc...
Post edited January 31, 2017 by mistermumbles
IGN + interesting article = does not compute.
The could remake Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Loom, Full Throttle. I don`t know but for me, nostalgia for PC games comes from LucasArts old games. Sure there are plenty other games, but those from LucasArts are the best.

There is also some old computer systems that made me lost hours playing through the night. In my country was very common a personal computer called MSX. Great games and great times.


For the consoles, Genesis, SNES, NES, are the reference in my opinion.
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Sir_Kill_A_Lot: Unless you guys are talking about MI1 EGA the original versions are contained in the Special Editions.
Also have a look at this: Monkey Island Ultimate Talkie Edition Builders.
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Barry_Woodward: The special editions are Windows only. People want the original versions running in DOSBox or ScummVM that are playable on Windows, Mac and Linux.
The original versions are contained in the Special Editions which can be extracted and then played in ScummVM or even DOSBox. See Ultimate Edition builders (although you need Windows to build those using these scripts).

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fcga76: The could remake Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Loom, Full Throttle. I don`t know but for me, nostalgia for PC games comes from LucasArts old games. Sure there are plenty other games, but those from LucasArts are the best.
Full Throttle is currently being remastered by Double Fine and should be released this year :-)
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Sir_Kill_A_Lot: The original versions are contained in the Special Editions which can be extracted and then played in ScummVM or even DOSBox. See Ultimate Edition builders (although you need Windows to build those using these scripts).
That's precisely why people are asking for standalone versions. They don't want to mess around with scripts or be confined to Windows, they just want the original games, playable on all three operating systems.

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ShaunRoberts: I like how this has devolved into a "WHERE DA GAEMS AT!!?!?" set of posts
When the topic is nostalgia, can you blame people for asking about the games they're nostalgic for?
Post edited February 01, 2017 by Barry_Woodward
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ShaunRoberts: I like how this has devolved into a "WHERE DA GAEMS AT!!?!?" set of posts
True. In my defense it's because they put a picture of Guybrush Threepwood on the front page, so I wanted to take the opportunity to remind GOG the originals still aren't here.
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GOG.com: It's a pretty emotional, reflective, and occasionally critical journey through "The Blue Fields of Nostalgia"
You know what also blue? The ocean...

You know what takes place in the ocean? Freddi Fish 2...

CONFIRMED!
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Gengar78: You know what also blue?
Balls!
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Sir_Kill_A_Lot: The original versions are contained in the Special Editions which can be extracted and then played in ScummVM or even DOSBox. See Ultimate Edition builders (although you need Windows to build those using these scripts).
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Barry_Woodward: That's precisely why people are asking for standalone versions. They don't want to mess around with scripts or be confined to Windows, they just want the original games, playable on all three operating systems.
Unless they include the EGA version (which would be awesome) you'd better upgrade to Ultimate Version anyway or you would have to deal with all those bugs introduced in VGA versions like this :-)
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ReynardFox: IGN + interesting article = does not compute.
that was my only complaint here. there wasn't a lot of "article." no build up or talk about the retro market, or any of that. just guys saying stuff. and not even really strung together very well.

hopefully, someone can get these same people in a room again and do this actual idea justice.
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Barry_Woodward: That's precisely why people are asking for standalone versions. They don't want to mess around with scripts or be confined to Windows, they just want the original games, playable on all three operating systems.
this.

MANY times over.

while i'm not a neophyte to this sort of thing and i probably could mess around with the builders that's not what most "ordinary" customers want. they want the simplicity of a gog installer doing the heavy-lifting to run a dosbox/scumm wrapper to play the old game as they remember it without fuss and without having to mess with the "revamped" version [which, ironically may introduce problems of it's own.]

i seriously dislike this lack of choice. [cf: gog's version of loom, etc.]

i want to play the ega version? i should be able to.
Post edited February 01, 2017 by lostwolfe
to actually add to this topic:

i came here primarily when gog /was/ "good old games."

i don't mind the indie focus too much, but it sad to see that core tenet of the store go away in favour of "the new shiny."

i feel like much has been lost over the last three generations or so [the last fifteen years] in gaming. we're now deep in the throes of the cash shop frenzy where drm is not just ever-present, but overbearing and where the core experience of gaming has been whittled down to trophyism. [ie: the awarding of achievements for booting up the game, etc.]

things i like:

whole products that add to the game through expansions. one of the worst offenders here has been armello, which basically ditched it's core game for a cash shop [and a decision not to update on gog because it was "too difficult" or some nonsense along those lines.]

good stories: to be fair, this HAS gotten better over time. i think the idea of a primordia or a gone home or a life is strange [get that here, please, gog] might have occurred to older developers, but they possibly didn't have all the tools to make that possible. [in primordia's case, that meant multiple, easier solutions to some problems, in gone home's case, that would have been the careful narrative through exploration - not dumping mechanic on top of mechanic to get that core story told. etc.]

no "after market" silliness: i want the whole game and nothing but the game. selling me skins? that should have been in the game to begin with. selling me levels? maybe, but why aren't you turning that into a big expansion that enhances the game. selling me the soundtrack? i'd like that, if you made a collector's edition that had actual interesting extras in it that i was looking forward to.

everything in the box: by which i mean: exclusivity is stupid and a terrible practice and should be completely avoided. [i'm looking at you, obsidian, with your "pre-order," sight-unseen nonsense for tyranny. [edited in later: while we're talking about tyranny: ALL THOSE SILLY DIFFERENT EDITIONS NEED TO DIE IN A COLOSSAL FIRE. there should have been only two versions of the product: base game and collector's edition. the end. microsoft learned this the super hard way, which is why there's basically [almost] only a home and a pro version of windows 10.]

proper testing: telltale, this one's totally on you. we know you don't like the gog store. and that's kind of too bad. we're LITERALLY one of your biggest target audiences. the least you could do is actually test your games before releasing them here.

so, really, my feet are QUITE firmly planted in the past for most of the reasons i've stated above. well. i should say "firmly planted in the past with a tiny bit of a forward lean." i LOVED shovel knight [but plague knight was terrible. i hope that gets fixed with the next dlc and they make a better third attempt.] - i LOVED primordia. i LOVED evoland ii. [i think you can see that my "forward lean" mostly involves neat indies.]

but apart from that? i'll take my complete king's quest 6 any day over some of the silliness being perpetrated today. i far prefer the dig to much that has come since. i'd rather dig through the old text adventure archives and discover a gem like gateway than worry about whether or not some company has decided to not sell me the whole product because they want more money day one.

i think it's very safe to say that i'm /all/ for nostalgia.
Post edited February 01, 2017 by lostwolfe