Shreddoc wrote on 2021-02-05, 04:25:

It must be remembered, with games like DOTT and Sam&Max, that those jokes were funny in the early 1990's, for the target audience. Very funny. And crucially, edgy - boundary pushing.

In that era, the world was just seeing The Simpsons for the first time. The sitcom Friends didn't exist yet. Many people had never experienced stand-up comedy. No South Park, no Family Guy. That was all comedy-of-the-future, the world was literally too young to handle it. Young people interested in computers and computer games were a strange minority of outcasts (far, far more than today!). There was no internet. No cell phones. It was a hugely different world and culture.

Those games were funny in the same way that the Police Academy movies were insanely funny, and cool in the way that the Back To The Future and Terminator movies were the height of cool. As a teenager in the 90's.

I understand. What you said was obvious though.

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-02-05, 04:25:

This is the essence of retro. To truly understand the productions of an era, you had to be there at the time, living through it. Then gain several decades of memories on top - a varied landscape to peer longingly back across, in search of old friends from a simpler time of life.

Trends come and go, but some things dont age well. Also the 20th century was no simple time. It was crazy just like now.

Unrelated talk here, but the main reason why I did not enjoy Sam & Max Hit the Road was because of the writing. The jokes didnt really bother me that much but since the writings pretty uneven, I didnt really enjoy the game.

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-02-05, 04:25:

This is the essence of retro. To truly understand the productions of an era, you had to be there at the time, living through it. Then gain several decades of memories on top - a varied landscape to peer longingly back across, in search of old friends from a simpler time of life.

domomex89 wrote on 2021-02-05, 09:03:

Trends come and go, but some things dont age well. Also the 20th century was no simple time. It was crazy just like now.

I did not say the 20th century was simple. 🤣

I have heard some people say Sam&Max ages well, and some people say it doesn't. I suspect both are true in different ways.

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-02-05, 12:03:

domomex89 wrote on 2021-02-05, 09:03:

Trends come and go, but some things dont age well. Also the 20th century was no simple time. It was crazy just like now.

I did not say the 20th century was simple. 🤣

Oh, sorry about that. Did I hurt your feelings?

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-02-05, 12:03:

I have heard some people say Sam&Max ages well, and some people say it doesn't. I suspect both are true in different ways.

The reason why the story of SaM:HtR is bad is because of how uneven the writing is.
The part where the protagonists get info about Bruno & Trixie was okay but I really didn't like the villain. He's supposed to be a very bad person but he just sits there and goofs around doing nothing but singing dumb songs and boasting how he's the king of nature. And the part where the Yetis appear and be like "please save nature Sam & Max!" was honestly stupid.
And the ending was plain awful. Basically the games message ( "green moral", which is basically "lets protect nature". I have read that the games message is a parody of the "green moral") felt forced and awkward.
I know that the game was not intended to be serious and was supposed to humorous (after all Sam & Max are a bunch of jerks), but I feel the comedy aspect of the game ruined the story.
If the game was more serious about its subject and the story was better I would have liked it more.

Nevermind. I think I might have been too harsh about Sam & Max Hit the Road. I don't care if you like the game, but it's not just a good game to me.
I actually would recommend Sam & Max Hit the Road to people who want to learn more about good game design.

Anyways, about adventure games with really good stories, Loom comes to mind. I really like the story of Loom. Its not perfect, but I really liked how serious and straightforward it was.

domomex89 wrote on 2021-02-05, 12:42:

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-02-05, 12:03:

domomex89 wrote on 2021-02-05, 09:03:

Trends come and go, but some things dont age well. Also the 20th century was no simple time. It was crazy just like now.

I did not say the 20th century was simple. 🤣

Oh, sorry about that. Did I hurt your feelings?

No, your out-of-context response merely confused them momentarily. Cheers for your apology, not really necessary.

domomex89 wrote on 2021-02-05, 12:42:

The reason why the story of SaM:HtR is bad is because of how uneven the writing is. The part where the protagonists get info abo […]
Show full quote

The reason why the story of SaM:HtR is bad is because of how uneven the writing is.
The part where the protagonists get info about Bruno & Trixie was okay but I really didn't like the villain. He's supposed to be a very bad person but he just sits there and goofs around doing nothing but singing dumb songs and boasting how he's the king of nature. And the part where the Yetis appear and be like "please save nature Sam & Max!" was honestly stupid.
And the ending was plain awful. Basically the games message ( "green moral", which is basically "lets protect nature". I have read that the games message is a parody of the "green moral") felt forced and awkward.
I know that the game was not intended to be serious and was supposed to humorous (after all Sam & Max are a bunch of jerks), but I feel the comedy aspect of the game ruined the story.
If the game was more serious about its subject and the story was better I would have liked it more.

Sam & Max, but remove the comedy - gotcha. Sounds... interesting.

I think I'll leave that particular vision of "enjoyable gaming" to you, sir. 😀

After a few nights of downloading Guild Wars 2 I'm really looking forward to playing it this weekend. I used to play the original Guild wars along with WOW back in the day so I'm really looking forward to Guild Wars 2.

Lately I finished for the first time both Thief Gold and Thief 2 The Metal Age and they were probably the only games on PC I finished since Half Life 2 in its days. A great gaming experience and awesome titles. And played them with a odd netbook config so the frame rate experience was quite time correct mostly around 20-30fps. 😁

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-02-04, 12:31:

While it's charms are plain to see, especially in context-of-ye-olde-times, I don't rank the original Monkey Island very highly within the SCUMM list.

The sequel, on the other hand... (is the one I personally grew up with 🤣)

The soundtrack alone, pure magic.

Personally, I quite disagree. I thought the second one overstayed its welcome and relied on moon logic way more than the first. I also found the subtle change in art style to not be to my taste.

However, I played both on the Amiga and that may have contributed to differences in our experiences..

I’ve been working my way through No One Lives Forever GOTY Edition. Played this game multiple times but never this version. Simply a fantastic game back at release and now.

appiah4 wrote on 2021-02-05, 20:32:

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-02-04, 12:31:

While it's charms are plain to see, especially in context-of-ye-olde-times, I don't rank the original Monkey Island very highly within the SCUMM list.

The sequel, on the other hand... (is the one I personally grew up with 🤣)

The soundtrack alone, pure magic.

Personally, I quite disagree. I thought the second one overstayed its welcome and relied on moon logic way more than the first. I also found the subtle change in art style to not be to my taste.

However, I played both on the Amiga and that may have contributed to differences in our experiences..

Yes I'm sure that skewed our relative experiences, as part of the general "the way I played it" bias we all have built in, which also includes factors like when we first played them, at what age, in which order, etc. It's safe to say they're both revered games, each of which has a lot of fans for many valid reasons.

I'm just happy that I can fire up the DX4 and play CIV2, badly as it is going 🤣

Does anyone else just feel tired of PC Gaming sometimes?

I spent most of my entire teenhood playing TF2 daily with online friends, hours and hours on end. When I was alone I'd spend my allowance on steam sales and binge great titles like Saints Row 3, or Borderlands.

Im 22 now and I just can't bring myself to spend that much time on computer gaming anymore. I'l play an hour or two of Red Alert 3 and that's it. Maybe it's because I'm older. Maybe it's because I don't have the free money to spend on new game releases anymore (I don't remember the last time I bought a full priced AAA game. It's like $80 now). Idk

I have a *very* nice computer compared to the time I actually spend using it for gaming. Like, I enjoy the PC building process. That's what I spend so much of my retro hobby doing because I can't afford to do that with modern parts.

I guess...I enjoy the building and tinkering more then I enjoy spending playing games anymore. Well, modern games anyway.

A part of me really wants to get back that childhood excitement for PC gaming again 🙁

SodaSuccubus wrote on 2021-02-06, 04:52:

Does anyone else just feel tired of PC Gaming sometimes? […]
Show full quote

Does anyone else just feel tired of PC Gaming sometimes?

I spent most of my entire teenhood playing TF2 daily with online friends, hours and hours on end. When I was alone I'd spend my allowance on steam sales and binge great titles like Saints Row 3, or Borderlands.

Im 22 now and I just can't bring myself to spend that much time on computer gaming anymore. I'l play an hour or two of Red Alert 3 and that's it. Maybe it's because I'm older. Maybe it's because I don't have the free money to spend on new game releases anymore (I don't remember the last time I bought a full priced AAA game. It's like $80 now). Idk

I have a *very* nice computer compared to the time I actually spend using it for gaming. Like, I enjoy the PC building process. That's what I spend so much of my retro hobby doing because I can't afford to do that with modern parts.

I guess...I enjoy the building and tinkering more then I enjoy spending playing games anymore. Well, modern games anyway.

A part of me really wants to get back that childhood excitement for PC gaming again 🙁

I tried and tried to replay Star Control 2 in my early 20s, mid 20s, late 20s, early 30s, lived in another country for bit, then realized - once that veneer has been peeled, heheh...

However, since 2015, I have played and beaten Crystalis on the NES every Christmas.

For some reason, that never gets old.

Must be something to do with cultural overlay vs. your own at 14 years of age.

Now I know how Jesus felt. 😁

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-02-05, 13:23:

Sam & Max, but remove the comedy - gotcha. Sounds... interesting.

I think I'll leave that particular vision of "enjoyable gaming" to you, sir. 😀

I don't care if a game has some comedy in it, I just don't like games that are too silly to the point it ruins the game for me.

Anyways, I have been playing Pepper's Adventures in Time lately. I know I'm too old to even play edutainment titles, but it's actually really good.
Fair difficulty, okay game design and somehow what clever writing. I personally laughed at some of the jokes.
I'm not against edutainment but I personally think that Pepper's Adventures in Time would have made a really good normal adventure game instead of an edutainment one. It felt too serious to even be a edutainment game.
Sorry to tell you this but I personally think its much better than Day of the Tentacle.

SodaSuccubus wrote on 2021-02-06, 04:52:

Does anyone else just feel tired of PC Gaming sometimes? […]
Show full quote

Does anyone else just feel tired of PC Gaming sometimes?

I spent most of my entire teenhood playing TF2 daily with online friends, hours and hours on end. When I was alone I'd spend my allowance on steam sales and binge great titles like Saints Row 3, or Borderlands.

Im 22 now and I just can't bring myself to spend that much time on computer gaming anymore. I'l play an hour or two of Red Alert 3 and that's it. Maybe it's because I'm older. Maybe it's because I don't have the free money to spend on new game releases anymore (I don't remember the last time I bought a full priced AAA game. It's like $80 now). Idk

I have a *very* nice computer compared to the time I actually spend using it for gaming. Like, I enjoy the PC building process. That's what I spend so much of my retro hobby doing because I can't afford to do that with modern parts.

I guess...I enjoy the building and tinkering more then I enjoy spending playing games anymore. Well, modern games anyway.

A part of me really wants to get back that childhood excitement for PC gaming again 🙁

I took about a 10 year break from gaming from the time I got married til my son was old enough to be interested in computer games. That seemed long enough to rekindle the fire. 😉 There was another multiyear break earlier, somewhere between 25-30 yrs old. And there were periods where I was interested in building PCs but not in gaming. Now, in my early 50s, I have an appreciation for both. Building is much more expensive and only really happens every 3-5 years, so that's not a sustainable hobby for me. Gaming, especially with a family, is an easier hobby to maintain because there's not enough time to burn yourself out on it. I average about 45-60 minutes a day gaming and it only happens when the rest of the family is either sleeping or out of the house. I'm an early riser, so most of my gaming ends up happening before the sun comes up.

SodaSuccubus wrote on 2021-02-06, 04:52:

Does anyone else just feel tired of PC Gaming sometimes?

Of course I suppose many that lived the 80's and 90's pc gaming might have good memories but also bad ones with hardware problems, incompatibilities, and after so much time I also got tired sometimes even for much time and happens to leave computers beside basic home/office tasks. It happens maybe to switch sometimes to old game consoles if I have (not much) patience to play games anymore in the last decades but recently I found the patience to begin and finish both Thief Gold and Thief II pc games with a modern o.s. both for the technical quest to make them run into an odd hardware config and also for that old style feeling when you want to finish them no matter what. It didn't happen to have that patience since Half Life II, and they were not exactly easy games.

But what is important imho is not necessary to continue to play games or build computers, but to not loose the whole knowledges learnt in so much time because there're many people not having any hobbies or passions and it's important to have something that make interesting investing the free time. Also many knowledges about old games or old hardware or old software, would be lost if anyone would forget them.

SodaSuccubus wrote on 2021-02-06, 04:52:

Does anyone else just feel tired of PC Gaming sometimes? […]
Show full quote

Does anyone else just feel tired of PC Gaming sometimes?

I spent most of my entire teenhood playing TF2 daily with online friends, hours and hours on end. When I was alone I'd spend my allowance on steam sales and binge great titles like Saints Row 3, or Borderlands.

Im 22 now and I just can't bring myself to spend that much time on computer gaming anymore. I'l play an hour or two of Red Alert 3 and that's it. Maybe it's because I'm older. Maybe it's because I don't have the free money to spend on new game releases anymore (I don't remember the last time I bought a full priced AAA game. It's like $80 now). Idk

I have a *very* nice computer compared to the time I actually spend using it for gaming. Like, I enjoy the PC building process. That's what I spend so much of my retro hobby doing because I can't afford to do that with modern parts.

I guess...I enjoy the building and tinkering more then I enjoy spending playing games anymore. Well, modern games anyway.

A part of me really wants to get back that childhood excitement for PC gaming again 🙁

Honestly there is such an absurd variety of products in PC gaming today if you are getting burned out on it you are probably just too lazy to search for something you would have been more interested in instead. Not that it is always easy to find them, storefronts make discovering most things outside of general media coverage and current zeitgeist very difficult but they are out there.

appiah4 wrote on 2021-02-06, 15:34:

SodaSuccubus wrote on 2021-02-06, 04:52:

Does anyone else just feel tired of PC Gaming sometimes? […]
Show full quote

Does anyone else just feel tired of PC Gaming sometimes?

I spent most of my entire teenhood playing TF2 daily with online friends, hours and hours on end. When I was alone I'd spend my allowance on steam sales and binge great titles like Saints Row 3, or Borderlands.

Im 22 now and I just can't bring myself to spend that much time on computer gaming anymore. I'l play an hour or two of Red Alert 3 and that's it. Maybe it's because I'm older. Maybe it's because I don't have the free money to spend on new game releases anymore (I don't remember the last time I bought a full priced AAA game. It's like $80 now). Idk

I have a *very* nice computer compared to the time I actually spend using it for gaming. Like, I enjoy the PC building process. That's what I spend so much of my retro hobby doing because I can't afford to do that with modern parts.

I guess...I enjoy the building and tinkering more then I enjoy spending playing games anymore. Well, modern games anyway.

A part of me really wants to get back that childhood excitement for PC gaming again 🙁

Honestly there is such an absurd variety of products in PC gaming today if you are getting burned out on it you are probably just too lazy to search for something you would have been more interested in instead. Not that it is always easy to find them, storefronts make discovering most things outside of general media coverage and current zeitgeist very difficult but they are out there.

I mean your not wrong 😜

Often times I am a bit too lazy to look for new exciting games. I'm not really a huge indie gamer for reasions god knows why. And anything else new released here in Canada is often too expensive for me to buy games frequently outside of steam sales. Unlike when I was younger.

Most of my free money these days goes towards my retro hobbies, saving up to see my BF, or other things.

Played some tetris on a digital camera, it was fun for 5 minutes.

I've been playing Guild Wars 2 and it's really fun. I'm still in the human starting area but I'm really enjoying the game. I've wanted to start playing WOW again but this is scratching that itch without the monthly payment.