Golden Era of Gaming...

[chojin]

re. scouring the back pages of the mags... i'm still smarting after trading F1 Exhaust Heat to one of the importers and it going missing in the post!!

I think for anyone around our age (39)... the 16-Bit era was the golden era..

I remember booting up my US SNES for the first time, I was in absolute awe of SMW.. I still have all the Mean Machine mags that I read to death in anticipation of finally getting a SNES, an expensive week for my mum as I had no idea what scart was, so got a 2nd hand tv the same week as the SNES arrived from Raven Games... no pocket money for ever, extra paper rounds and garage cleaning for me' but all worth it

Also remember Street Fighter II being released and costing ?52 from the importers, worth every penny, think I was terribly ill that week and nt being able to goto school

[Asura]

Also remember Street Fighter II being released and costing ?52 from the importers, worth every penny, think I was terribly ill that week and nt being able to goto school

I wonder how much erosion of the perceived value of videogames is a factor here.

I know it's a big issue on the iPhone platforms. I see on Gamesindustry.biz all the time, people lamenting that ultimately, the platform hasn't really moved on from Candy Crush (except for a few notable successess). Many outspoken developers seem to be saying that they went to the platform 3-4 years ago in the hope it would "mature" to the point where good, ?10-or-so games would be a viable business proposition by 2015, and that hasn't happened. That market just refuses to believe videogames are actually worth money.

[dvdx2]

re. scouring the back pages of the mags... i'm still smarting after trading F1 Exhaust Heat to one of the importers and it going missing in the post!!

I think for anyone around our age (39)... the 16-Bit era was the golden era..

I remember booting up my US SNES for the first time, I was in absolute awe of SMW.. I still have all the Mean Machine mags that I read to death in anticipation of finally getting a SNES, an expensive week for my mum as I had no idea what scart was, so got a 2nd hand tv the same week as the SNES arrived from Raven Games... no pocket money for ever, extra paper rounds and garage cleaning for me' but all worth it

Also remember Street Fighter II being released and costing ?52 from the importers, worth every penny, think I was terribly ill that week and nt being able to goto school

?52?

More like ?102

http://www.meanmachinesmag.co.uk/review/352/street-fighter-ii-the-world-warrior.php

[Baseley09]

Yep, PC Engine SF2' plus an Avenue Pad 6 totalled ?110 from Raven I think. Was the greatest purchase ever mind.

[samanosuke]

I find it difficult to compare games of yesteryear to today's market as I have not really played anything beyond an Xbox 1 ('1', not 'One'). I guess I lost interest in the whole 3D thing, FPS shooters and what I perceive to be overly-complex gameplay. Sorry to be so dismissive of it all but I am the proverbial pig in sh*t when it comes to pixel art, chiptunes and a creaky gamepad, so why bother trying anything else.

With that in mind, you can probably guess what side of the fence I sit on. For me, the golden era was most certainly the late eighties to early nineties. So much excitement surrounding the launches of the new boys, the Megadrive and SNES, and then there was of course the esoteric PCE and near-mythical NeoGeo AES to throw in there as well.

Each console had its own style, its own identity, its own strengths and weaknesses, probably moreso than any other generation. And it meant that owning more than one console was a worthwhile investment.

That generation gave us the likes of Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Super Mario Kart, Streets of Rage 2, Street Fighter 2 and Sonic 2. These are games nearing perfection, ones that have never been bettered in my opinion, apart from SF2 which I firmly believe SF3: TS to be the ultimate in the genre.

Aside from this - and most importantly in my view - was the arcade scene at the time. Now I am too young to have much recollection of the Space Invaders/Pacman/Donkey Kong era of arcade gaming, but for me the arcade was the absolute pinnacle of all gaming during '88 - '92. Nothing compared to going into a seaside arcade and rinsing all your coins on the likes of Outrun, Space Harrier, Turtles, Aliens and Final Fight. The arcade scene is something that I feel has been too overlooked in this topic, and its downfall is something that makes it impossible for me to view later gaming generations as being better than that halcyonic period of gaming.

All I can say is thank f*ck for the Heart of Gaming. It is the last bastion of 'proper' gaming and I hope that it receives enough support from the community to remain a viable business platform long into the future.

[VR46]

?52?

More like ?102

http://www.meanmachinesmag.co.uk/rev...ld-warrior.php

What great times though, know I paid ?90 for it on release, from Dream Machines think they were called, used them a lot for SNES stuff in the early nineties.

[Asura]

I remember paying ?63 for Sonic 3, pretty much on launch. Daft, really, in retrospect. That being said, I loved it; played it for literally months.

[ExMosquito]

@Samansuke: Epic post!


I was born in late 78', So my personal golden era was 85' - 92' (obviously!) My most fond memories growing up are mainly for arcade games more than console stuff. I remember I was always mesmerised by arcade games at a very young age, and when I had my ZX Spectrum most of my games were arcade conversions, be it very bad ones. Whenever I went on holiday to caravan parks or seafronts the first thing I'd do was to find the arcades. That feeling of excitement of walking into a giant seaside arcade and seeing a row of 30+ Jamma cabs all blasting out attract tunes/sound effects blew my mind. I was a little too young to fully appreciate the impact of Space Invaders etc but I don't think I missed all that much tbh, the very late/early 80's although they have their charm the simple graphics and non-existent music doesn't really do it for me, 85+ is where my love is. I have find memories of coming home from school and getting my rollerskates on and traveling 1miles to the video shop in town (Big John's Video) and spending my pocket money on Shinobi at 10 years old.


Home gaming for me hit it maximum awesomeness with the advent of the Mean Machines section at the back of C&VG and the 'complete guide to consoles' books (the light blue and yellow ones especially!) and later the proper Mean Machines magazine. This was when home gaming got exciting for me. The whole 16-bit import scene in the late 80's/early 90's was a magical time for me, phone up importers in C&VG and Mean Machines was a major event! I still remember the excitement of going on holiday to a random town and finding an indie import shop tucked away down a side street full of grey imports and seeing rows of Japanese Megadrive and Sfc boxes, it was like looking at heaven itself to a wide-eyed boy. This was when home games felt like the arcades for the first time and videogame music hit it's stride. I'll never forget going to Tottenham Court Road in 91' and seeing the SFC in nearly every shop, it was an import paradise back then. We're kinda spoilt now what with the internet and eBay imo, the magic isn't there. For me personally, the magic in gaming started to lose it's charm when the PS1 got released and everything started going 3D/Anolog controls and the budgets got bigger. The PS2 totally pasted me by and was totally forgettable, and the original Xbox I bought to play Hyper SF2 anniversary online, all these big budget 3D runabout games bore me to tears, I can't physically bring myself to play them. Give me a low-rez balls hard arcade classic like Final Fight or R-Type any day, for this reason I will never own a nextgen console, they literally do nothing for me at all. Beside, why would I need that when I have a Sega Astro City cab in my living room playing the games I love

[Arashikage]

/\ /\ /\

He loves Portal 2 though

[Leon Retro]

Home gaming for me hit it maximum awesomeness with the advent of the Mean Machines section at the back of C&VG and the 'complete guide to consoles' books (the light blue and yellow ones especially!) and later the proper Mean Machines magazine. This was when home gaming got exciting for me. The whole 16-bit import scene in the late 80's/early 90's was a magical time for me,

Yeah, Mean Machines and 'The Complete Guide to Consoles' really injected a lot of excitment into the gaming scene. The UK gaming environment was dominated by computers, which had lots of good game, but all the consoles[PC-Engine, Neo Geo, Mega Drive, Super Famicom] from the Far East, were said to take gaming to another level. Enthusiastic reviewers, such as Jaz Rignall, were promoting consoles as must-have items, because the games were far closer to the arcade experience many gamers craved. That was a big selling point at a time when the arcades were hugely popular venues that had a big influence on gaming.

The '80s & 90's for gaming, were all about excitement. Gaming was something new and the evolution in graphics, sound and gameplay was rapid. That element of gaming has naturally faded away now, which is exactly why the gaming scene feels stale and dull to many people. I don't share that feeling, despite appreciating why some people feel that way, because I still enjoy some modern games. Gaming - when it comes to games, computers and consoles - isn't as exciting as it once was, simply because nothing feels fresh and new anymore.

I think it will take amazing Virtual Reality, or something like a holodeck experience to once again make virtual playgrounds feel like the new frontier they were in the '80s & '90s. Modern gaming has a lot to offer, but I'm glad I experienced the gaming buzz of the early days of gaming. The best classic games still grip me, because I love 2D art, chip tunes, and gameplay that actually demands concentration and reflex action. Even if I had Virtual Reality, I'd still play really old 2D games. Modern gaming, with its shiny 3D worlds, red book orchestral music etc.. has actually made me appreciate so-called "simple" old school games even more. I love creative 2D graphics and hummable chip music.

[Team Andromeda]

I've seen and read about so much of a game prior to release it robs much of the impact when I finally come to play it (my own fault, granted). I think a number of factors made the early 90s golden, but golden they were.

That has a huge part I mean I'll never forget seeing F-Zero running for on the Snes or the 1st time one saw those top down sections on Contra 3 for the 1st time in your how , now the internet and the likes of youtube makes those truly jaw dropping moments a thing of the past . To me also getting old and having a full time job and family makes gaming less speical . When you're young you and your mates can plays games for hours , have sleep overs and what not , now only at the likes of Christmas do me and some of my mates have a day where a of few of us are in the same room playing console games together.

One aera that really has suffered though is Arcade gaming -its now more or less dead here and even in Backpool and London the Arcade's are pretty rubbish compared the 80's and 90's . I really miss the days of my local chip shop and cafe having a collection of Arcade games you could play while waiting for your fish and chips

[chojin]

Speaking of The Complete Guide.. That first issue got read to death, the wait for the Super Nintendo was an age. I can't believe SFII was ?102, thinking back now that was a ridiculous amount. The AES wasn't even an option.

[boxhead]

That's nothing. I remember when I worked at an import shop called console concepts in the 90's. Super street fighter 2 for the sfc came out and was selling for ?120. There was a queue when I arrived to work and all our copies (maybe 50 or so) sold out in about half an hour.
We kept one demo copy in the shop though which was cool for me as I supplemented my very meagre part time wage by hustling customers on the shop copy!

[Colin]

I remember Console Concepts well. I was on the phone to Colin Dimond one day looking for a PCE game and he told me he was going to start opening the games up to selling to the highest bidder only as they were getting hard to find, that was the end of my dealings with them!

[dvdx2]

I remember Console Concepts well. I was on the phone to Colin Dimond one day looking for a PCE game and he told me he was going to start opening the games up to selling to the highest bidder only as they were getting hard to find, that was the end of my dealings with them!

Colin Diamond....now thats a real blast from the past!

Spoke to him many times - used to get cool fanzines from them