An article about retro gaming from 1996

[Clippy]

So, I was reading some old gaming mags and came across an article about retro games and how they compare to what was new at the time. For those who want more details - these pictures are from the October 1996 issue of PC Zone, a British gaming magazine. I tried my best to make them as big as possible without separating them into 50 files and I think they came out alright but some of you might need to zoom in a little to be able to read the text. I'm sorry if that happens to be the case.

I find it interesting how the article's conclusion is similar to the sentiments most of us express today. Some things don't change much, huh. Either way, I wanted to see what you guys think.

BONUS: A silly Quake ad from the same issue

 

[Frickinfrik]

BONUS: A silly Quake ad from the same issue

Can’t have a gaming magazine without booba and hot women in it.

 

[Coon]

Yes those were the days But honestly, I haven't read such magazines for a long time, they've become too expensive and there's only weird stuff in them.

 

[Isegrim]

Donkey Kong cereal...wow...I actually ate some of that stuff and remember liking it.

The problem the articles mention are similar to our own. Except that everyone wants to make their own Fortnite now and want us to play there forever. At least back then, even shovelware was something you can own and play by yourself.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Magazines like these are really nostalgic to look at…man I feel old

 

[beefbowl]

Can’t have a gaming magazine without booba and hot women in it.

Boobs are cool, gamers like cool things. Hell yeah baby.

 

[ThatOneLum]

Super weird seeing gamers back in the day write about retro gaming during an era that is now considered retro.

Not as fuckin' weird as that ad tho
I'm honestly baffled that the advert really worked more than anything else.

 

[DrunkGecko]

i once cut out pictures in game manuals and taped them to paper and wrote entire articles to make my own nintendo power magazine
i wish i still had it

 

[ThatOneLum]

i once cut out pictures in game manuals and taped them to paper and wrote entire articles to make my own nintendo power magazine
i wish i still had it

ahh, back in the day when writing for a gaming publication was actually a desirable job

 

[qw90700]

TBH back then everyone said video game consoles ruined gaming because real gaming was in arcades.

Arcade logic is simple: Gameplay is based on fun and you have to survive. No story, no cutscene, you don't even know the name of the character you play as sometimes. There is just a goal and simple enough to understand but hard to survive. If you care you aim for highscore and that's it. However Nintendo ruined arcades with thier BS consoles and their games. And then $ony came and shit on it further. Relatively only decent arcade experience remained with Sega arcades.

Then video game consoles and their rubbish games came. You play Super Mario and he just jumps. Nothing fun about it. And then you constantly go to right and eventually it's barely a game, it's not fun.

In arcade the deal wasn't the goal, it was the gameplay. People enjoyed to survive as long as they can. Super Mario doesn't get fun at all. You just jump around and when you can't time it right you die lol.

And then there is Contra. You just shoot anything. No fun lol.

At least Sega Genesis did something else. In arcade games the visuals and music was kick-ass, but NES music and visuals was dull. So Sega Genesis captured arcade fun. NES games wasn't hard, they had no idea how to make the game fun so they ruined games with BS gameplay. The real fun was in Sega Genesis. The games were hard as how arcade games were. Music was kickass, SFX was wow, graphics were oww yeah lol.

And then PlayStation 1 came and things got more nonsense. BS character dramas, story, cutscenes, dialogues. Who would have known they believed SNES was hotshit and wanted to do something like that in 3D? And then they ruined arcade by insulting fun games that "it has no story" like it has to be, now enjoy your rubbish Death Stranding and walk from A to B just to watch 3 hours cutscene lol.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I always assumed that "Retro Gaming" conceptually began in the mid-00's after the introduction of the Seventh Gen when games became even more advanced and more often like interactive movies.

That was also why the XBLA and Wiiware/Virtual Console started a new trend of playing older games or indie games replicating the older style by being 2D or abandoned genres like platformers.

But I could somehow understand how older games were still seen in the late 90's with the firsts emulators and how the 90's as a whole had a massive technological gap in videogaming (remember that Wolfenstein 3D and Quake were merely four years appart) so this explains why a game from 1989 and a game from 1999 are almost like they were from 15 - 20 years apart.

TBH back then everyone said video game consoles ruined gaming because real gaming was in arcades.

Arcade logic is simple: Gameplay is based on fun and you have to survive. No story, no cutscene, you don't even know the name of the character you play as sometimes. There is just a goal and simple enough to understand but hard to survive. If you care you aim for highscore and that's it. However Nintendo ruined arcades with thier BS consoles and their games. And then $ony came and shit on it further. Relatively only decent arcade experience remained with Sega arcades.

Then video game consoles and their rubbish games came. You play Super Mario and he just jumps. Nothing fun about it. And then you constantly go to right and eventually it's barely a game, it's not fun.

In arcade the deal wasn't the goal, it was the gameplay. People enjoyed to survive as long as they can. Super Mario doesn't get fun at all. You just jump around and when you can't time it right you die lol.

And then there is Contra. You just shoot anything. No fun lol.

At least Sega Genesis did something else. In arcade games the visuals and music was kick-ass, but NES music and visuals was dull. So Sega Genesis captured arcade fun. NES games wasn't hard, they had no idea how to make the game fun so they ruined games with BS gameplay. The real fun was in Sega Genesis. The games were hard as how arcade games were. Music was kickass, SFX was wow, graphics were oww yeah lol.

And then PlayStation 1 came and things got more nonsense. BS character dramas, story, cutscenes, dialogues. Who would have known they believed SNES was hotshit and wanted to do something like that in 3D? And then they ruined arcade by insulting fun games that "it has no story" like it has to be, now enjoy your rubbish Death Stranding and walk from A to B just to watch 3 hours cutscene lol.

I don't know if you're trolling or actually never touched Super Mario Bros in your life.

Super Mario Bros as a whole changed how games were envisioned and added an actual progress with worlds rather than having more rounds with the same level but more obstacles or harder enemies.

Saying "you just go right and jump sometimes" is disingenuous at best.

 

[Zerpina]

@Clippy I love the fact that all the women are just the same woman in different poses and bikinis.
That's using your budget!... pay her for a few pictures and put Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V into overtime.
Also, very cool find.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Can’t have a gaming magazine without booba and hot women in it.

European magazines were a bit tamer.

And to be honest I don't understand the need to do that to sell a game...

 

[Zerpina]

European magazines were a bit tamer.

And to be honest I don't understand the need to do that to sell a game...

Well I never did either, but I understand it.
Sex sells, plain and simple, and as a lot of gamers were at that time horny young males, it makes sense from a business standpoint

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Well I never did either, but I understand it.
Sex sells, plain and simple, and as a lot of gamers were at that time horny young males, it makes sense from a business standpoint

I could even dare saying that plenty weren't exactly popular with girls so that's also a bigger selling point.

That may explain the popularity of "otaku aimed games" such as gachas with a 4K png...

 

[Zerpina]

I could even dare saying that plenty weren't exactly popular with girls so that's also a bigger selling point.

That may explain the popularity of "otaku aimed games" such as gachas with a 4K png...

Well Quake came out in 1996 (As well as the ad i would assume)
So at the time, most games were aimed solely at males. Yeah, because no one with boobs would be interested in brutal gore and violence. All of us Girls only like sparkles, ponies, and kittens.

So, the idea was to attract guys with hot girls in skimpy clothes, and it would be free word of mouth due to them showing their other gamer friends the ad.
They often forgot that some girls are in fact into girls and bloody brutal video games, no less.

 

[Dr.Kisaragi]

Well I love a weird old ad in magazine back in the day sometimes I'm jealous about things are cheap back in the day but now is expansive.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Well I love a weird old ad in magazine back in the day sometimes I'm jealous about things are cheap back in the day but now is expansive.

Remember to apply inflation to the equation.

 

[throughdarkness]

I love that they mention that games used to be developed by sole individuals in their dank basement where now (1996), the complexity and costs have gone up so much that a team is required, and innovation stifled. LMAO

 

[χKai]

And then there is Contra. You just shoot anything. No fun lol.

I've got a bone to pick with you; first-off, even the US Contra has an intro that goes into detail about fighting the invading aliens in the game's story, and the Japanese release further elaborates on it with a cutscene between each level.

Also what may I ask isn't fun about Contra? It's fast-paced run and gun action with a variety of special weapons to acquire, and a plethora of interesting enemies that serve as hazards in many cases.

Sure the story may be short in comparison to many other games, but how exactly does that make it "no fun"?

 

[Clippy]

And to be honest I don't understand the need to do that to sell a game...

You know what they say, the looks of their women and the taste of their food turned the British into the best sailors in the world. Maybe that's the angle they were going for.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I've got a bone to pick with you; first-off, even the US Contra has an intro that goes into detail about fighting the invading aliens in the game's story, and the Japanese release further elaborates on it with a cutscene between each level.

Also what may I ask isn't fun about Contra? It's fast-paced run and gun action with a variety of special weapons to acquire, and a plethora of interesting enemies that serve as hazards in many cases.

Sure the story may be short in comparison to many other games, but how exactly does that make it "no fun"?

Also when I play a run 'n gun shooting at stuff is literally the only thing I want from it...

It's not a JRPG nor a narrative game. The Metal Slug series is just perfect about that because not only it looks gorgeous but the gameplay is frantic yet still easy to read what's going on (which is something too many modern run 'n guns are missing imo).

You know what they say, the looks of their women and the taste of their food turned the British into the best sailors in the world. Maybe that's the angle they were going for.

A bit rude as an expression but I'd still say that when I search games I'd expect to see games and consoles.

Or else the person would just grab a playboy or a random female clothing magazine if he wanted to see that kind of stuff.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were rules applied to those magazines after a while because of that kind of ad if the magazine isn't explicitly -16/-18 for the suggestive content in ads.

 

[qw90700]

I've got a bone to pick with you; first-off, even the US Contra has an intro that goes into detail about fighting the invading aliens in the game's story, and the Japanese release further elaborates on it with a cutscene between each level.

Also what may I ask isn't fun about Contra? It's fast-paced run and gun action with a variety of special weapons to acquire, and a plethora of interesting enemies that serve as hazards in many cases.

Sure the story may be short in comparison to many other games, but how exactly does that make it "no fun"?

While I like Contra Force as best on NES in run and shoot side scrolling genre games, but compared Arcade games since NES-era games are not a game for real which is the idea I wrote considering what this thread about and why game magazines back then had this idea to begin with.

So cutscenes and story is one thing killed arcade gaming, because it distorted the sense of what games should be. SNES and PS1-era ruined it further. Now they develop games like Death Stranding that there is no gameplay to begin with, but people just love to watch cutscene. So the issue is not walking, the issue is also mindless dull killing as how Contra games were and it's not fun IMO. Contra Force wasn't a game for me, it was a good tool for time wasting and IDK just relax lol.

Arcade games were played for fun, console games played to waste time, PC games played to experience something richer to waste time. Now it's more like people watch Netflix and watch "games" and that's it. No fun at all, they slowly erasing the gameplay too. Make your guy walk for half an hour, interract with objects, talk with NPCs and watch cutscene. Sometimes shoot people. Nonsense puzzles and here you go it's Uncharted for ya lol.

So what game I play for what changed naturally. I don't play games for "fun", I "play" games to experience whatever is interesting about them by not seeing them as a game.

For example, is Persona 4 a game? Not to me. Do I care? Nope. Why I "play it"? TBH this is like one of those interactive cinema games Konami released back then like Snatcher. Visual novels with adventure point and click gameplay. So what games are know is "advanced interactive cinema", not a game for me. Experience their story like a book, do whatever task to progress, and all. But it doesn't give me "game fun", it just give me the same fun I experience by watching a movie or reading a book.

Since PS2-era the game that has "game fun" is decreased and decreased further and died for good around end of PS3 generation. Rarely there were some games managed to have "game fun" like Metal Gear Rising and Persona 5 Striker, rest of them empty rubbish of a game but real "interactive cinemas" or 3D rendered version of FMV games lol.

Enjoy watching your new video games now lol.

 

[χKai]

While I like Contra Force as best on NES in run and shoot side scrolling genre games, but compared Arcade games since NES-era games are not a game for real which is the idea I wrote considering what this thread about and why game magazines back then had this idea to begin with.

So cutscenes and story is one thing killed arcade gaming, because it distorted the sense of what games should be. SNES and PS1-era ruined it further. Now they develop games like Death Stranding that there is no gameplay to begin with, but people just love to watch cutscene. So the issue is not walking, the issue is also mindless dull killing as how Contra games were and it's not fun IMO. Contra Force wasn't a game for me, it was a good tool for time wasting and IDK just relax lol.

Arcade games were played for fun, console games played to waste time, PC games played to experience something richer to waste time. Now it's more like people watch Netflix and watch "games" and that's it. No fun at all, they slowly erasing the gameplay too. Make your guy walk for half an hour, interract with objects, talk with NPCs and watch cutscene. Sometimes shoot people. Nonsense puzzles and here you go it's Uncharted for ya lol.

So what game I play for what changed naturally. I don't play games for "fun", I "play" games to experience whatever is interesting about them by not seeing them as a game.

For example, is Persona 4 a game? Not to me. Do I care? Nope. Why I "play it"? TBH this is like one of those interactive cinema games Konami released back then like Snatcher. Visual novels with adventure point and click gameplay. So what games are know is "advanced interactive cinema", not a game for me. Experience their story like a book, do whatever task to progress, and all. But it doesn't give me "game fun", it just give me the same fun I experience by watching a movie or reading a book.

Since PS2-era the game that has "game fun" is decreased and decreased further and died for good around end of PS3 generation. Rarely there were some games managed to have "game fun" like Metal Gear Rising and Persona 5 Striker, rest of them empty rubbish of a game but real "interactive cinemas" or 3D rendered version of FMV games lol.

View attachment 90061

Enjoy watching your new video games now lol.

Ohhh, I get it.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

While I like Contra Force as best on NES in run and shoot side scrolling genre games, but compared Arcade games since NES-era games are not a game for real which is the idea I wrote considering what this thread about and why game magazines back then had this idea to begin with.

So cutscenes and story is one thing killed arcade gaming, because it distorted the sense of what games should be. SNES and PS1-era ruined it further. Now they develop games like Death Stranding that there is no gameplay to begin with, but people just love to watch cutscene. So the issue is not walking, the issue is also mindless dull killing as how Contra games were and it's not fun IMO. Contra Force wasn't a game for me, it was a good tool for time wasting and IDK just relax lol.

Arcade games were played for fun, console games played to waste time, PC games played to experience something richer to waste time. Now it's more like people watch Netflix and watch "games" and that's it. No fun at all, they slowly erasing the gameplay too. Make your guy walk for half an hour, interract with objects, talk with NPCs and watch cutscene. Sometimes shoot people. Nonsense puzzles and here you go it's Uncharted for ya lol.

So what game I play for what changed naturally. I don't play games for "fun", I "play" games to experience whatever is interesting about them by not seeing them as a game.

For example, is Persona 4 a game? Not to me. Do I care? Nope. Why I "play it"? TBH this is like one of those interactive cinema games Konami released back then like Snatcher. Visual novels with adventure point and click gameplay. So what games are know is "advanced interactive cinema", not a game for me. Experience their story like a book, do whatever task to progress, and all. But it doesn't give me "game fun", it just give me the same fun I experience by watching a movie or reading a book.

Since PS2-era the game that has "game fun" is deacreased and decreased further and died for good. Rarely there were some games managed to have "game fun" like Metal Gear Rising and Persona 5 Striker, rest of them empty rubbish of a game but real "interactive cinemas" or 3D rendered version of FMV games lol.

Enjoy watching your new video games now lol.

Dude, you sound like a massive purist who thought that movies should've stayed silent and in black & white or that music should only be done with physical instruments.

Also by telling us: "cutscenes and story is one thing killed arcade gaming, because it distorted the sense of what games should be." you're implying that videogames should only be about arcade experience without ever allowing the medium to evolve or try new things?

It was already getting some staleness with how things were more pretty yet were fundamentally the same thing. This is also what console gaming is currently having which is why we should see a next step. VR could bring a new way of enjoying game but are still not as accessible to people.

You sound like that gaming shouldn't have become mainstream.