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https://archive.org/ https://archive.org/ is preserving it by letting you play them right in the browser via emulators compiled to Emscripten. For example here
by pmarreck 8y ago
https://archive.org/ https://archive.org/ is preserving it by letting you play them right in the browser via emulators compiled to Emscripten.
For example here is the Macintosh version of Dark Castle, which I spent some number of hours winning at the time (circa 1986, digitized sound was still a brand-new thing) https://archive.org/details/mac_DarkCastle_1_2 https://archive.org/details/mac_DarkCastle_1_2
If you hit "Options" you'll notice the familiar WASD keyboard control layout. Well, this is the earliest game I'm aware of that used that layout...
Here's The Dungeon Revealed, an early Mac dungeon-crawler I also spent a lot of time in: https://archive.org/details/TheDungeonRevealedMacintosh https://archive.org/details/TheDungeonRevealedMacintosh
Here's Crystal Quest, the first color Mac game (although the emulation is in black&white which was also supported): https://archive.org/details/CrystalQuest_2_2_5M https://archive.org/details/CrystalQuest_2_2_5M
Here's NetTrek, one of the first LAN multiplayer games I ever played (was fun!): https://archive.org/details/NetTrekTheRealVersionMacintosh https://archive.org/details/NetTrekTheRealVersionMacintosh
And then there is Bolo, the one game I wish there was a modern-day version of that is remotely similar: https://archive.org/details/BoloMacintosh https://archive.org/details/BoloMacintosh (Wish this was the color version, but anyway... It was a network tank battle game where you could capture points and build autotargeting defense turrets by harvesting trees via sending out your tank pilot (who was then vulnerable and could get killed, the respawn penalty was not trivial as I recall), it was INCREDIBLY fun at the time, literally hours in the computer lab with a group of other nerds)
It's amazing that I can even give other people a hands-on look at this stuff in their own browser. It's too bad that I can't show off the early network-gaming the same way (firing up Bolo or NetTrek in different browsers on the same LAN... It's probably possible to do, right?)
- TAForObvReasons 8y agoEmulators don't tell the whole story. Sometimes features depend on the physical game, as in the case of mario tennis and the n64 transfer pak https://youtu.be/QbRkBTMRxZQ?t=653 https://youtu.be/QbRkBTMRxZQ?t=653
- pmarreck 8y agoI know. But I don't see how watching a "Let's Play" is going to get you much closer to those experiences
- gxqoz 8y agoFor games that have online components or are updated over time, a Let's Play video can at least be a window into how things worked at the time. Seeing a video of someone playing an online match in a game where the publisher has shut down the server is better than not having this information.
- CmdrKrool 8y agoHere's a nice example of someone playing Demon's Souls on PS3 a few days before Atlus shut down the server - a neophyte playing together with an old hand who explains lots about the game and why it was loved. Gaming Jay: Demon's Souls (PS3) (feat. Matt) - Let's Play 1001 Games - Episode 272 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x1mC1M0_Cs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x1mC1M0_Cs EDIT: Adding the title of the video to go with the link, because one thing that's especially annoys me about bare YouTube links is that if the video was removed, YouTube doesn't even give you the former title so that you know what you missed.
- dlp211 8y agoWhich is why I am a big fan of Analogue which is doing hardware level and accurate emulation via FPGAs. Hopefully they will be able to get through the PS1/N64/Saturn. After that, things become quite a bit more complicated due to increased complexity. Also, there are quite a few really good emulators that do handle the vast majority of games and probably could be enhanced to cover the remaining incompatibility. The question is whether there is a enough incentive to do so.
- ta774477 8y agoUsed to love Bolo on the Apple II and went searching for some videos or screenshots to no avail. First time I'd encountered destructable bases. I've been toying with Libgdx and have been thinking about a multiplayeror enhanced Bolo.
- devindotcom 8y agoOh my god. We spent hours and hours just playing on our own, then discovered it could be networked. What a game!
- lathiat 8y agoWith many modern games (even single player ones) requiring online servers (and in particular closed servers that are not released for download) this probably won’t translate well to current times. A couple of very different examples are Super Mario Run (which is just stupid) and Fortnite (which at least makes sense because it’s purely multiplayer in battle Royale mode). This seems driven by a combination of analytics and anti piracy.