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Wing Commander III

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Re: Wing Commander III

#11

Post by bentcorner »

cgriswald wrote: post #6

I've lost something. When I was a kid, buying a new game was nearly impossible; If I was lucky, I'd get one for a birthday present or a Christmas gift. Occasionally a cool friend would lend me a copy of something. For a very short time, I lived about a mile away from a video game rental store and I'd sometimes be able to convince an adult I was responsible enough to return the game and spend my own money renting a ga…

I'm in the same boat. Part of it is the medium has so much choice now, and the other part is that we're adults with both more money and less time to spend on things.

I remember playing a handful of NES games countless times, and being able to beat several of them in a single sitting.

I think some people manage to hold onto that (see speedrunners and/or world-class players of this or that game), but you'd have to be very intentional about it.

Re: Wing Commander III

#12

Post by aequitas »

cgriswald wrote: post #6

I've lost something. When I was a kid, buying a new game was nearly impossible; If I was lucky, I'd get one for a birthday present or a Christmas gift. Occasionally a cool friend would lend me a copy of something. For a very short time, I lived about a mile away from a video game rental store and I'd sometimes be able to convince an adult I was responsible enough to return the game and spend my own money renting a ga…

I feel the same. I used to be able to get uncountable hours of gameplay out of simple demo's of games because I didn't have the money for full games. The examples that come to mind are Cavewars and Fallen Haven. Both strategy games with a time limit. My brother and I would play the demo level over and over again and try to progress further and further within the set time limit. In a way it was like speedrunning but the other way around.

Re: Wing Commander III

#13

Post by bluefirebrand »

cgriswald wrote: post #6

I've lost something. When I was a kid, buying a new game was nearly impossible; If I was lucky, I'd get one for a birthday present or a Christmas gift. Occasionally a cool friend would lend me a copy of something. For a very short time, I lived about a mile away from a video game rental store and I'd sometimes be able to convince an adult I was responsible enough to return the game and spend my own money renting a ga…

I feel the same way.

I'm really fascinated by speedrunners who can beat my favorite classic games less than an hour, sometimes in minutes. Some of that is cutting weird corners but often it's pure excellent execution.

I often wonder about doing that myself, playing hundreds of hours of a single game to master it. Putting all of my focus on a single game like I used to as a kid, but I don't find anything keeps my attention that way now.

I think partially it's what you said, more money than time and I naturally gravitate towards spending my time on novelty instead of mastery. That's just how my brain works.

The other piece is when I look back, I don't think I spend nearly as much time replaying the same things in the past as I feel like I did. I think those memories of playing and replaying games are somewhat distorted by my memories.

I also spent a great deal of time watching those games being played by friends and their siblings and so forth, during sleepovers and after school.

Re: Wing Commander III

#14

Post by _pmf_ »

cgriswald wrote: post #6

I've lost something. When I was a kid, buying a new game was nearly impossible; If I was lucky, I'd get one for a birthday present or a Christmas gift. Occasionally a cool friend would lend me a copy of something. For a very short time, I lived about a mile away from a video game rental store and I'd sometimes be able to convince an adult I was responsible enough to return the game and spend my own money renting a ga…

For me, this magic was in playing the shit out of demo games that came with my PC Games magazine subscription. I fondly remember playing Diablo I and War Wind (a WarCraft 2 clone) demos over and over again.

Re: Wing Commander III

#15

Post by tibbydudeza »

bentcorner wrote: post #9
sandworm101 wrote: post #3

Owned it. It was campy fun even then but WCII and WC:Privateer were far and away the better games. III was one of many attempts at a game-movie crossover that never really worked imho. Privateer is the basis of EVE online, Star Citizen and countless other modern titles. In terms of influence it is up there with SimCity and Civilization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander:_Privateer

Privateer was a lot of fun. I remember playing it and the sequel. I'd be interested to see more behind-the-scenes of Privateer 2. It also had FMV and (from what I recall) had this sort of campy sci-fi TV movie feel. Great game, although I'm hesitant to look at it without the lens of nostalgia.

Well Chris Roberts is back with Star Citizen , 500 million dollars for an eternal beta of nostalgia.

Re: Wing Commander III

#16

Post by unixhero »

cgriswald wrote: post #6

I've lost something. When I was a kid, buying a new game was nearly impossible; If I was lucky, I'd get one for a birthday present or a Christmas gift. Occasionally a cool friend would lend me a copy of something. For a very short time, I lived about a mile away from a video game rental store and I'd sometimes be able to convince an adult I was responsible enough to return the game and spend my own money renting a ga…

You are not alone. This was my experience precisely as well.

Re: Wing Commander III

#17

Post by burlesona »

One of my all time favorite games, because as a ~10 year old I can think of nothing cooler than playing Luke Skywalker in a sci-fi top-gun movie about saving earth from murderous Cat Aliens. :)

Privateer 2 was a more ambitious and interesting take on the same theme, I loved that one too.

Re: Wing Commander III

#18

Post by elorant »

cgriswald wrote: post #6

I've lost something. When I was a kid, buying a new game was nearly impossible; If I was lucky, I'd get one for a birthday present or a Christmas gift. Occasionally a cool friend would lend me a copy of something. For a very short time, I lived about a mile away from a video game rental store and I'd sometimes be able to convince an adult I was responsible enough to return the game and spend my own money renting a ga…

Games lasted longer twenty years ago. It was easier to immerse in the game for this reason. Nowadays, blockbuster action games give you twenty hours of gameplay give or take. Even RPG games are shorter these days. Baldur's Gate took me weeks to finish. I can't remember the last time I played a contemporary game that lasted that long.

Re: Wing Commander III

#19

Post by skohan »

sandworm101 wrote: post #3

Owned it. It was campy fun even then but WCII and WC:Privateer were far and away the better games. III was one of many attempts at a game-movie crossover that never really worked imho. Privateer is the basis of EVE online, Star Citizen and countless other modern titles. In terms of influence it is up there with SimCity and Civilization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander:_Privateer

I believe it was WCII which had a framerate which was dependent on the speed of the processor. I remember trying to play it some years after it came out, and you literally couldn't understand what was happening on screen because it was too fast.

Re: Wing Commander III

#20

Post by abledon »

cgriswald wrote: post #6

I've lost something. When I was a kid, buying a new game was nearly impossible; If I was lucky, I'd get one for a birthday present or a Christmas gift. Occasionally a cool friend would lend me a copy of something. For a very short time, I lived about a mile away from a video game rental store and I'd sometimes be able to convince an adult I was responsible enough to return the game and spend my own money renting a ga…

Its like eating a few table spoons of maple syrup, then biting into a fresh orange. your tastebuds will have become less receptive to the sweetness of the orange. Pretty much the overload of media/games today for the youth, hard to appreciate and enjoy the 'taste' of a sweet game, when theres 382472398407 games easily accessible on steam to play, or free for that matter e.g. LoL, engineered to blast open (crit chance 0.95x) your dopamine circuits.
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