28th May 2011, 7:44 PM
Yeah, it's amazing the amount of work a lot of PC game makers would put into extras in those old games. Gabriel Knight 1 came with a full color comic book as a prologue, for example. Some console games did that too, but not nearly as often. Notable exceptions are Final Fantasy for the NES which came with a guidebook, map, monster compendium, and a couple other odds and ends. Earthbound came with a player's guide, done old school style. Today's player's guides are so dull. Earthbound's was done in the style of a really big newspaper, with headlines and all sorts of extra information and unique artwork.
Now that's not to say everything's bad. When it comes to "feelies", today's games really go over the top, for the collector's editions. Metal tins, figurines, coins of the realm, background books, art books, "making of" DVDs, soundtracks, there's a lot of nice stuff there, but only if you get the limited editions. That said, with a few exceptions, most of it really doesn't add to the game itself. A figurine is just going to sit there, as opposed to a cloth map.
Ya know it's weird. After all these years it still "feels" like I have my PC, even though in essence I've basically gone through 8 different systems or so at this point. Part of it is how all my data just keeps coming along for the ride, and it's always so subtle as the years go on and I upgrade one part and another. So, with that in mind, it shouldn't surprise me so much that I'm having to emulate the very system I'm playing, but it still does. Maybe at some point I'll pick up an Apple II or an Amiga.
Now that's not to say everything's bad. When it comes to "feelies", today's games really go over the top, for the collector's editions. Metal tins, figurines, coins of the realm, background books, art books, "making of" DVDs, soundtracks, there's a lot of nice stuff there, but only if you get the limited editions. That said, with a few exceptions, most of it really doesn't add to the game itself. A figurine is just going to sit there, as opposed to a cloth map.
Ya know it's weird. After all these years it still "feels" like I have my PC, even though in essence I've basically gone through 8 different systems or so at this point. Part of it is how all my data just keeps coming along for the ride, and it's always so subtle as the years go on and I upgrade one part and another. So, with that in mind, it shouldn't surprise me so much that I'm having to emulate the very system I'm playing, but it still does. Maybe at some point I'll pick up an Apple II or an Amiga.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)