It was the last bastion of computer games. Sadly it to now has a limited selection. A few MMORPGS, a couple of shooters and a few copies of Civilization V.
I will always remember the tinge of excitement I felt going to the mall to look through the neat little rows of the latest computer games at the software store and the thrill of finding a new SSI title. After buying a new game I would head over to Chic fila and eat a chicken sandwich while reading the rules.
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Ketza
It was the last bastion of computer games. Sadly it to now has a limited selection. A few MMORPGS, a couple of shooters and a few copies of Civilization V.
I will always remember the tinge of excitement I felt going to the mall to look through the neat little rows of the latest computer games at the software store and the thrill of finding a new SSI title. After buying a new game I would head over to Chic fila and eat a chicken sandwich while reading the rules.
Ah well.
Ketza, my sons and I used to venture to the local Best Buy every few weeks. We had the same thrill(aka Chris Matthews Obama tingle) of anticipation. Recently I went to a Best Buy to grab a monitor I had to have right then. I ventured into the game section and saw what you did. But I think I am part of the problem. Years ago I started buying all my games online due to convenience and getting just what I wanted. Those days are over.
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"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman
Yes they are gone. There was a software store in the mall here(Littlerock) and it had wall to wall computer games. Now its all most all xbox. Wally World has shrunk theirs down big time as well.
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"Before Guadalcanal the enemy advanced at his pleasure. After Guadalcanal, he retreated at ours".
The first computer game I ever purchased was the SSI Guadacanal game. I played it until my AppleII would overheat and shut off.
I still remember buying it from Games and Gadgets at Colisueum mall in Hampton Virginia circa 1982.
Just like games and gadgets and SSI the mall is now gone as well. Torn down due to low occupancy.
I hate it when an era like no other comes to an end.
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Germany's unforgivable crime before the Second World War was her attempt to extricate her economy from the world's trading system and to create her own exchange mechanism which would deny world finance its opportunity to profit. — Winston Churchill
It was great in the early 90's when the computer stores were full and all the consoles of the time hit the bottom and were all going out of business. It looked like the PC was going to rule the roost for a long, long time.
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Argghhh...stop it!
The excitement of buying an SSI game (or many other games really) for my C64...The box. The manual. The free 'insert free thing'. The special 'smell' that the new game had when you first opened them back then (some people have told me it was actually from the disk magnetisers...god knows)...
Same went for the Amiga...
Same for early PC...
I still have the boxes, and manuals, and posters, and 'Moonstone/map/t-shirt/insert whatever else they stuffed into games'. My old computers still work. But nothing will beat the trek to the far off gameshop (there were none in western Sydney back then (early 80's), only a sunday market stall at the Mount Druitt markets (dead)...then the 'Gamesmen' opened...whole other story).
And then...holding that chunky box full of goodness in your sweaty palms, knowing it was full of content...
Sometimes I hate progress. Actually, I hate a lot of it now that I think about it. The commercial side at least
< Message edited by SapperAstro -- 2/20/2013 11:51:28 AM >
Yeah and some of the greatest games back then were 2 to 5 mb not 2 to 5gb+. My first real storage base hard drive was a 40mb one for my Amiga 500. I remember when you got a cassette tape and a floppy disk with your purchases from SSI. It scares me that 30 years have passed by so fast now. I lived in Phoenix Az back in the hey day of computer gaming and there were 8 malls to go to if you were looking for a particular item. I too remember the excitement and couldn't wait to get back home feeling to break into the boxes and load up the games and those lovely things called printed manuals you got with the games.
Sadly all too much of that and great feelings are gone now. Nothing feels new anymore. Nothing is really exciting anymore to purchase. There's no touchy feelly of the boxes and there's certainly hardly any printed manuals anymore. Digital has taken over and it's just not fun. I haven't bought a new game in a long time that made me feel like they did buying them back then. It just seems developers just throw stuff together anymore to keep up with the mainstream. Nothing stands out supreme or looks like something different from what we've already seen before. When I saw Sid Meier's "Railroads" my heart fell to the floor as that was the most childish ridiculously easy sugar coated remake of the best railroad strategy game I ever played "Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon". Too many of today's games are dumbed down and have some of the worst AI's (if you want to call them that) I ever saw and played against.
There once was a time developers/publishers loved what they were doing, now they just love making money and taking away our rights as customers (first sale doctrine) reselling old software, etc with all this digital stuff
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Rtwfreak:
quote:
I too remember the excitement and couldn't wait to get back home feeling to break into the boxes and load up the games and those lovely things called printed manuals you got with the games.
Wait to get home to open the box?? Were you mad? I had my box open 10 seconds after getting in the car. I just had to look at the disks and manual.
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"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman
There used to be a computer shop a couple of miles from me that had all the SSI games,used to go there as often as I could,eventually I must have bought every game they sold .Now the shop's gone,SSI's gone and my old 8 bit computer's gone,I miss them all.Old fart? yep guess I am.
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quote:
ORIGINAL: reg113
Are we all a bunch of old farts or what?
Get off my grass, kid!
And turn down that noise you call music!!!
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"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman
Wait to get home to open the box?? Were you mad? I had my box open 10 seconds after getting in the car. I just had to look at the disks and manual.
You hopefully were more smart than me. I always unboxed games in my car, in order to smuggle disks and manuals in a newspaper while simply threwing empty boxes in the boot and forgot them. Everything went well until my GF once took the car ...
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Lützow
quote:
ORIGINAL: parusski
Wait to get home to open the box?? Were you mad? I had my box open 10 seconds after getting in the car. I just had to look at the disks and manual.
You hopefully were more smart than me. I always unboxed games in my car, in order to smuggle disks and manuals in a newspaper while simply threwing empty boxes in the boot and forgot them. Everything went well until my GF once took the car ...
Oh man, I have not thought of the days when I had to sneak games in the house for a long time. I did the exact same things. LOL.
< Message edited by parusski -- 2/20/2013 10:43:06 PM >
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"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman
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Joined: 5/8/2000 From: Jackson Tn Status: offline
quote:
ORIGINAL: Ketza
LOL Sneaking was so much better then hearing: "you spent 40 bucks on what?"
Yeah, those were the days. Now that we can afford the games though, I still don't tell her about ALL the games I buy. These days she just looks at me with pity.
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"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman
LOL Sneaking was so much better then hearing: "you spent 40 bucks on what?"
Yeah, those were the days. Now that we can afford the games though, I still don't tell her about ALL the games I buy. These days she just looks at me with pity.
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"Before Guadalcanal the enemy advanced at his pleasure. After Guadalcanal, he retreated at ours".
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Titanwarrior89
For me at least....the Board wargames are still producing some outstanding titles.
Very true, in fact I'd say board wargames are in a renaissance right now. More than that actually, we are all getting more time and more money on our hands and it turns out that these games are great for us in our later years.
I think this period is even better than the old days.
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History began July 4th, 1776. Anything before that was a mistake.
Babbages and Software ETC were where I bought my PC games in the 1990s. Then I discovered Best Buy. What a place! Aisle after aisle of PC games. Their prices were the lowest around and every week they had a big sale that would bring their prices even lower.
I can't remember when Best Buy started reducing their selection of PC games. But that section of the store shrunk dramatically ever time I went to shop there. I finally quit shopping at Best Buy altogether. The store I spent so much money at has been gone for quite some time.
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Greybriar
Babbages and Software ETC were where I bought my PC games in the 1990s. Then I discovered Best Buy. What a place! Aisle after aisle of PC games. Their prices were the lowest around and every week they had a big sale that would bring their prices even lower.
I can't remember when Best Buy started reducing their selection of PC games. But that section of the store shrunk dramatically ever time I went to shop there. I finally quit shopping at Best Buy altogether. The store I spent so much money at has been gone for quite some time.
I miss those days.
You are right about Best Buy in the day. I believe they started reducing PC game inventory just 7-8 years ago. We could Google, but that's extra effort.
_____________________________
"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman
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Joined: 5/8/2000 From: Jackson Tn Status: offline
quote:
ORIGINAL: Greybriar
quote:
ORIGINAL: parusski
.... We could Google, but that's extra effort.
Naw, this is a forum thread, not a research project. I was just reminiscing.
Thank God research is not needed for most folks, like SLAAK, warspite1 and EVERYONE ELSE.
_____________________________
"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman
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