Current Events > 10 Video Game Traditions That Are Dead And Buried

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VdrDSe-y20

10- Cheat Codes
9- Gaming Magazines For Major Reveals (or just gaming mags in general)
8- Demos For Every Big Game (demo discs in particular)
7- Rentals
6- Cheat Cartridges (aka cheat devices. Game Genie, GameShark, ActionReplay etc)
5- Chipped Consoles (consoles with region lockout chips)
4- Instruction Manuals
3- Weird Controllers and Peripherals
2- Unlockables (thank you, DLC...)
1- Video Games Finished at Launch

I would also have added Player's Guides and 1-900 hint hotlines to the list.

Limited continues

HylianFox posted...

Video Games Finished at Launch

Games never released unfinished prior to the Xbox 360

Just to add onto rentals, remember when you could rent a console?! Whatta thought. It's like renting a tux but better.

Unlockables are not dead. Not on Nintendo games at least.

I do miss cheat codes though. Diddy Kong racing.

Nintendo is just getting into adding DLC, so enjoy the unlockables while you can.

HylianFox posted...

3- Weird Controllers and Peripherals
2- Unlockables (thank you, DLC...)
1- Video Games Finished at Launch

These aren't dead, just diminished.

I miss cheat codes alot

Microtransactions are so full of it

Another dead classic is the "Fuck you" deaths

Point and click adventure games and old arcade were full of bullshit impossible to predict deaths.

Some Adventure Games were so bad, they'd have fuck you items or scenarios that would go on for ages, so you'd keep playing and save only an hour later realize you have to restart the whole game.

It's one tradition I'm glad died out

The_Wheelman1 posted...

Limited continues

this goes into the monetization. they'd rather keep their players playing and thus spending money rather than have to start the game all over again from scratch after dying 5 times.

Kamil posted...

Just to add onto rentals, remember when you could rent a console?! Whatta thought. It's like renting a tux but better.

i remember renting a PS2 and not having a memory card for it so I rented the bouncer with it so I could just keep starting over.

good times.

I miss unlockables so much, especially in fighting games

HylianFox posted...

I would also have added Player's Guides and 1-900 hint hotlines to the list.

Players guides aren't dead and buried - they just pivoted in their use case scenario. Now they're seen as a collectible alongside a favourite video game.

I didn't like him bad mouthing Instruction Manuals.

I wish people would stop conflating unlockables with DLC. They're not at all mutually exclusive.

HylianFox posted...

5- Chipped Consoles (consoles with region lockout chips

They call it jailbreaking these days.

demos are not completely dead

Can someone top my rent a system? I remember I could rent a N64 or a Playstation if I wanted......

Yo I want to rent a Switch! Make it happen.

I miss instruction manuals.

Reading them on the bus home from the game shop and getting hyped was an integral part of buying games as a kid.

Kamil posted...

Can someone top my rent a system? I remember I could rent a N64 or a Playstation if I wanted......

Yo I want to rent a Switch! Make it happen.

Now that online console bans are a thing, i dont see rentals ever becoming a big thing again.

Manuals also gave the case a nice weightiness.

Made the whole package feel more substantial.

The_Wheelman1 posted...

Limited continues

Limited continues were a holdover from the arcade game mentality where the goal was to get the player to keep putting quarters in

It's frankly amazing that lasted as along as it did. There's no reason for a console/PC game you paid upwards of 50 dollars for to have limited continues...

Alucard188 posted...

Players guides aren't dead and buried - they just pivoted in their use case scenario. Now they're seen as a collectible alongside a favourite video game.

All I know is they do still make guides for Zelda games, but they're very much "collector" items and not really something one needs when the internet exists

pauIie posted...

demos are not completely dead

That's why I specified demo discs. Demos are still very much available in digital form.

Smashingpmkns posted...

Games never released unfinished prior to the Xbox 360

Hoshi Wo Miro Hito

Tyranthraxus posted...

Hoshi Wo Miro Hito

I'm not sure if that game was "unfinished" or if the devs just had no fucking idea what they were doing

I suspect the latter

Alucard188 posted...

Players guides aren't dead and buried - they just pivoted in their use case scenario. Now they're seen as a collectible alongside a favourite video game.

By who?

They pivoted straight towards the dumpster.

Smashingpmkns posted...

Games never released unfinished prior to the Xbox 360

Fight For Life on Atari Jaguar was only ~60% finished when the developer discovered that Atari stopped paying him salary. So he told Atari that they wont get the completed game until they paid him.
Atari said lol and released the unfinished version.
Anarchy Online version 1.0 was an Obvious Beta, to the point where the original version would effectively force you to reinstall Windows.
Virtual Lab on Virtual Boy misspells Nintendo, have speed settings that are wrong, and gives you passwords after every level. ...with no option to input them anywhere!
Gen I of Pokemon... so many glitches and mistakes, it was clearly unfinished.
Final Fantasy is at least possible to complete, but even the slightest look under the hood reveals that almost every system in the game has some kind of major bug in it. Among other things, the Intelligence stat does nothing (making the magic classes far weaker than intended), weapons use the wrong assignment for their crit tables, the Run command uses entirely the wrong values, no less than four of the game's spells either do not function or actually do the opposite of what they state, and the various Weapon of X-Slaying weapons lack their supposed properties.
Super Double Dragon is clearly unfinished, it even lacks an ending.

I read the instruction manual for Rocket Knight Adventures (Genesis game) last night and thought to myself, "Wow, they put some thought into this."

It's sad that we live in an era where we can't have instruction manuals because paper costs money, but we're a-okay with charging people for additional costumes, characters, or... the ability to win. (Yay.)

HylianFox posted...

I'm not sure if that game was "unfinished" or if the devs just had no fucking idea what they were doing

I suspect the latter

It was kinda both since the cutscene that leads to the final boss doesn't have a final boss.