/vr/ - Retro Games

Feelies were the bomb. I seriously think GOG should mail you some cool shit when you buy games at full price.

That was pretty cool. Gaming manuals and maps and shit were so great back then. They often fleshed-out the gameworld in ways the devs couldn't do in the actual game.

A lost art

>>3599102
Games these days don't even come with manuals half the time anymore.

>>3599102
>>3599102

Yeah, I miss gaming manuals like the old days. I remember buying Ultima IV on the Sega Master System. Not did it come with a manual and gorgeous world maps, it came with a huge 'History of Britannia' book which the game told you to read during the opening scene.

>>3599107
>half the time
More like, ever. They might have online manuals, but I've yet to see a PS4 or Xbone game with a pack-in manual.

>>3599092
Sadly, I only rented Startropics back then, so I never experienced that joy.

>>3599102
Yeah, the cloth maps, trinkets, and "manuals" (and even hint books) written as if they belonged in the game world were neat. I think modern special or limited editions sort of carry on that old tradition in some ways with artbooks and insight into the worlds the developers created.

>>3599431
did Neo Geo games come with manuals?

>>3599687
Yup. All of them.

I remember getting D&D Heroes of the Lance for the CPC464 when I was a kid and it came with a manual with the usual character profiles and a NOVEL. An actual D&D novel. It was mind blowing.

>>3599602
Yeah I remember A Link To The Past came with a cute little book of secrets. It was sealed so you had to actually burst it open if you wanted to reveal what was inside. I miss that kind of stuff.

As always, cost prevails. It made sense to ship books and things when the amount of paper and ink and shipping fees were significantly less than the memory you'd need to display them. Not to mention you probably wouldn't want to sit in front of a TV and read badly rendered text off of it for hours and hours.

Nowadays you can pack and ship an .exe for nothing, and the game can contain as much text as it you'd ever need. The fun of feelies is real, but unfortunately it has no place in the modern world.

Though I suppose something similar is those board games they sell now where you actually download an app onto a phone or tablet and then play through that, using included game pieces as 'feelies' for the digital game. But it's not quite the same.

I don't care much for digital-only games myself, but I would buy digital games as packs which came with feelies and other bonuses, especially if one of the bonuses was a physical copy.

>>3600395
I think the nes carmen Sandiego came with an Almanac. And there was a machiavelli:the prince game that came with a copy of machiavelli's book.

>>3599092
I was fortunate to find a copy a few years ago with a dry manual.
I may do this some day to have this feel.

>get Startropics used
>have no idea what to do
>call Nintendo Power hotline
>they tell me to dip the paper in water
>all I have is the manual
>put it in sink and run water on it
>it falls apart
>still no idea how to proceed

I was a dumb kid sure but who ever heard of, even now, doing something like this for a game? Pretty cool idea, but I ended up just trying every passcode one by one until I got it.

747

>>3601761
There was a rumor that it was anti-piracy measure.

But surely thats bullshit right? Piracy on cartridges couldn't gave been that big a deal in the early 90's?

>>3602571
>But surely thats bullshit right?
Probably, since you can bruteforce the code in like 45 minutes.

>games stop coming in old school pc game boxes with all the shit you used to get inside
>no point in buying physical games anymore

I remember every game I bought on my Amiga 500 coming packed with shit. The kind of stuff people pay 3x the price now for a "special edition"

>>3603409
>The kind of stuff people pay 3x the price now for a "special edition"

This guy ain't wrong you know.

>>3603409

>Liverpool
>This starts playing in my head.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg5xvDoQOhA

>>3603409

I mean if the standard is no longer to include those things, the edition with those things is definitely "special".

Let's say that a modern game comes with a 1000-page digital manual that contains everything you could ask for, such as hints, novels, maps, printable wallpapers, high-quality art and concept art, character profiles, dev interviews and more. Would that be comparable to the ordinary physical manuals of the past?

>>3604694
It'd be far beyond. Are you planning to make one for a game?

>>3606986
>Saves Gamefaqs page as PDF.

>>3604694
It would be comparable to a high quality official strategy guide.

>>3606986
No, but that's a good idea.

>>3604694
>digital
lost me there buddy

>>3600960
Wow! Even I forgot about this Guess I was not as clever as I thought I was back then because it looks like I unsealed it.

>>3602571
Not anti-piracy, anti-rental. Nintendo hated the rental market (it was basically unheard of in Japan), so the legend is that it was to fuck over rental places.

>>3602571
>Piracy on cartridges couldn't gave been that big a deal in the early 90's

>what are famiclons

still got my Lunar 2 pendant