Thread:Deathstalker666/@comment-1496755-20180827202615/@comment-1496755-20181022201627

I just remembered one particularly obscure intermediate version that I could check out - Quake 1.07. It wasn't released as a separate patch like 1.08 was, it's just something you get from an installation of SoA. Though sadly, this version surely won't offer any interesting differences aside from SoA support. Too bad we don't know exactly what was added/changed in these two versions - this could really broaden our understanding of the official mission packs.

There have been cases of games ruined by the developers trying too hard to please the fans. Blood 2 fell prey to this, relying way too much on the input of some focus group. Too bad...

Heh, imagine Skyrim's advanced engine, spewing a infinite stretch of semi-randomized land going on and on until you run out of RAM. That's pretty much what happened in Arena - I went forward until the terrain generation got bugged and turned into a "the Matrix has glitched" kind of weird mixture of things floating all over the place.

Of course we like modern conveniences. The CRT monitor was the bane of my existence, made even worse by my eyes problems (and its proximity to a window that faces south, so lots of sunlight coming in). I don't miss waiting for half an hour for something large to copied either. Oh, I remember the crack music - really funky. Some of them had cool visual effects too.

Hating games for the wrong reasons is a very common phenomenon, sadly. Like imagine a game that is pretty long (hours and hours of gameplay, especially if aiming for 100% completion) and offers all sorts of experiences throughout... and people hate it because the ending is pretty lacklustre. Okay, I know the ending is anti-climactic, but does that really invalidate the entire game that precedes it? There are many examples and they show how petty some people can be.

(sigh) And there was a time when your control over the computer could be so absolute that you could easily screw it up beyond any hope for repair. Not that this is something you'd want to do :P

Well, many of these cracks led to secrets, so this kinda justifies being hard to see. Interactivity was a thing back then, I think. Especially when you consider it in light of "this isn't just another Doom" - devs were trying to escape from its shadow by any means necessary. And very few shooters managed to do that, most notably Descent and Dark Forces, due to the truly unique innovations they brought. New technology was one good way to make something new without feeling like you were copying something previous.

Heh, I was recently reminded of a dark 90's movie that I really enjoyed years ago - Dark City (even its title is dark!). Look it up, if you ever get in the mood.

P.S. We have fully migrated to the Fandom domain. Yay, I guess?