Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

99' from point of view of Polish mag CD-Action. From era where 1 month was better than last 10 years

Perkel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
15,801
CD-Action was my main way to find out about incline (in pre internet era) and they have this year 20th anniversary.

For this occasion they packed all their 1994-2006 in pdf format and shipped them on DVD which comes with this month mag. I had paperback most of those years ago but alas i lost them someway.

Started to read and holy hell some holyshit nostalgia overload, so many fucking good games monthly covered, so many fucking cool games shipped on their CDs (mostly awesome demos and some great full versions). So i made this pseudo article to cover that year from point of view of Potato mag.

=======================================================
=======================================================
january 99'
=======================================================
=======================================================

play music

Way to fucking start a year with a bang.

TR3, HalfLife, Carma2, Settlers 3, Blood2, Fallout 2, Grim Fandango, they could as well just print "WE GIVE 9 EVERYTHING HERE FROM NOW ON"

lLbq20J.jpg


Well, that was fucking amazing month ? I guess it will be hard to top it for rest of the year huh ?

.
.
.

Hell noo

=======================================================
=======================================================
february 99'
=======================================================
=======================================================

play music

K9RblHx.jpg


Fucking Baldur's Gate, Fucking Thief: The Dark Project, Fucking Myth2, Fucking but less known polish Pył, avp amazing preview and r squadron ! In one mag, all reviews ! All glowing like hot metal potato !

Also bonus super fun game Anno1602 review aka best Anno along with reviews of such small unknown games no one wanted to include in cover:

KingQuest8, MayDay, Abe's Exodus and Tresspasser





Ok surely after such two months there is no way march could be good ?











BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ WRONG









=======================================================
=======================================================
february 99'
=======================================================
=======================================================

play music


UoihWvj.jpg


Alpha Centauri, Sim City3000, Worms Armagedon, Close Combat 3 and fucking Apache/Havoc which was amazing simulator for its time all in one mag. Can't fucking put a finger here, literally years of gameplay in just one mag covered.

Also reviews:

Starcraft: Blood Wars aka best SC
Return to Krondor



Ok this is getting a bit ridicolous eh ?


So let's see what is next... lol....
NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS HALP











=======================================================
=======================================================
april 99'
=======================================================
=======================================================


play music


kKDI4Bn.jpg


HoM&M3 and fucking Call to Power. Literally another years of gameplay from just this month.
Also reviews:
Turok 2, Resident Evil2, Drakan



So each month month after fucking month megatons are dropping left and right.
Next on our megaton course is:

=======================================================
=======================================================
may 99'
=======================================================
=======================================================

play music

14BYist.jpg


X-wing, AvP and one of the best racing games ever Toca2. Fucking quality level is being kept month after month.
Also SHOGO review




After "lucklustre" may99 time to fuck shit up with:






=======================================================
=======================================================
june 99'
=======================================================
=======================================================

play music

xMWxPYS.jpg


JA2. Nuthing to add. Also worth mentioning Stonekeep full version. A bit old but fucking great at the time.
Also not on cover but games with actual reviews:

Rollercoaster Tycoon
Requiem:Avenging Angel
Warzone2100
StarSiege
Commandos:Beyond call of duty
....

Fuck me.... megatons everywhere.

Finally we arrive to issue which doesn't cover megatons.


=======================================================
=======================================================
july 99'
=======================================================
=======================================================


But this was because almost whole issue was dedicated to E3 99 which meant a lot of cool shit to read about incoming games, still... Both SW games were decent and SW racer was even fucking great imho (dat speed)

Ml2tY70.jpg


But it has also review of fucking great FPP/RTS Machines.
250px-Machines_Coverart.png


Ok after lowkey month in therm of reviews time to go back to megatons:








=======================================================
=======================================================
august 99'
=======================================================
=======================================================

play music


7dTkIPV.jpg


Mechwarrior 3, Descent 3, Airline Tycoon. Fucking great games. And for some fucking reason no fucking Hidden and Dangerous on cover despite review in mag....
and small game review called Discoworld Noir..


Time for next low key month:


=======================================================
=======================================================
october 99'
=======================================================
=======================================================

play music

jnRZrxG.jpg


Fucking Fallout 1 full version in mag (just few months after reviewing F2 !!!)

Soul Reaver best of SR series, Revanant great action based rpg, kingpin one of actually great FPSes and TA kingdoms, not as good as TA but still great game.

Heh "low key"

Ok year is ending there shouldn't be i think any megatons to cover ?

..............




......












......











FUCK NO















=======================================================
=======================================================
september 99'
=======================================================
=======================================================

play music
play music 2

dG4qbyo.jpg


SS2, AoE2 both legendary, Nox a bit less know now but still fucking great game, best R6 and quite good Shadow company.
And best of all they added to their full game list EarthSiege2 aka the best mech game.

Beside those shit games there were also reviews of shit games like :

C&C:Tiberian sun (some indie hipster rts)
JazzJackrabit2 (literally 9999th platformer)
UnrealTournament (you kill people in this game, nothing new)
ShadowMan (walking simulator)
HardTruck (something like goat simulator)

bonus: soundtrack from HardTruck:

music 1
music 2
music 3

Hufff that was hot month !


But not all is well......... November is a bit shit


=======================================================
=======================================================
november 99'
=======================================================
=======================================================


I mean Battlezone cover ? YUCK

play music

mM6zYO2.jpg




Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Table of contents:

4Z2yRdg.jpg


AHHH just Homeword review, Driver and Re-Volt.................................. Wait the fuck up !
That is fucking amazing month too despite shitty cover !



Finally we arrive at end of the year...












=======================================================
=======================================================
december 99'
=======================================================
=======================================================


play music:


WjCgru7.jpg


In mag such garbage like :

GTA2
Earth 2150 (and E2140 full version)
Omicron The Nomad Soul
Outcast,
Gorky17....

=========================================================
=========================================================
 
Last edited:

grdja

Augur
Joined
Mar 20, 2011
Messages
250
Go fuck yourself, ok?

It hurts to remember how young I was, how games were awesome, and what great expectations we had of future.

And where the fuck is freespace2?
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
Whenever I read things like this, I wonder whether there are future generations who will look at, say, 2009 with the same breathless excitement. In 1989, setting aside some super important console games, there was Populous, Prince of Persia, SimCity, Warlords, Minesweeper, Quest for Glory, Mechwarrior, Space Quest III, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Starflight 2, Legend of the Red Dragon (this blew my mind -- there were door games in '89?!), and the Magic Candle. Would oldtimers quibble with your 1999 list by pointing out how many were sequels, etc.?

I don't mean to play devil's advocate here. It's just something I constantly wonder about. Like, to me, the defining adventure games were those of the 90s that used verb bars. But there are clearly people who are younger and feel just as passionately about the games of the 00s. And older people, even in my generation, who think the parser ones are the real deal. Is there a generation for whom King's Quest 7 is the defining game in the franchise? There are certainly people for whom Fallout 3 is Fallout simpliciter. (True story: while down at inXile for a writers' meeting, went to lunch at a nearby cantina. Barkeep says, "So what company are you guys with?" Me, "A computer game company, inXile." Him, "Oh, man, I love computer games. Fallout is my favorite." Me, "Oh? One or two?" Him, "Oh. Ah, I mean the one that just came out. I also liked the other one, in Washington." He's old enough to tend bar! And works next door to inXile!)

Obviously, it is also possible that each generation is more debased than the last and that every generation is right when they think the world and its people have gotten worse.
 

Neanderthal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 7, 2015
Messages
3,626
Location
Granbretan
Seems pretty obvious that games have got worse, fuck me look at Ultimas Underworld or 6/7, then ask somebody to replicate all them features in a modern game, they'd shit emsens an say it can't be done. Look at Elder Scroll abortions that have declined steadily since Daggerfall, decline is bloody real but swept under rug an denied. For me best year were probably 93.
 

Jasede

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
24,793
Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
Tell me about it. Waiting for Dark Souls 3 few months already with almost nothing to play....

And where the fuck is freespace2?

review literally next issue january 00'

hahaha enjoy your shitty console trash you weeb faggot
gtfo we only play real tru rpgs here take your mario shit and leave forever

I had to because this way, when the actual idiots see your comment, their remarks will have a lot less power. And you know I didn't mean it; From is one of the last bastions of good games.
 

Siveon

Bot
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
4,509
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Whenever I read things like this, I wonder whether there are future generations who will look at, say, 2009 with the same breathless excitement.
I can assume so. Looking at the bottom metacritic scores I see games such as Uncharted 2, Street Fighter IV, Minecraft, Dragon Age: Origins, etc. Games people today (obviously not on the Codex) tout as being great, groundbreaking whatever. The only difference would be instead of threads like this with magazine covers, you would see website headlines instead. "Man, remember when we still had webpages gaming newsites?"

I just want to see how my generation, and onwards, justify it. The 80s-90s were dealing with hefty strides in technology, whilst in the late 00s we were already starting to see those leaps stagnate and designers pushing for cinematics and what-not.
 

Soulcucker

Savant
Joined
Jul 22, 2015
Messages
235
Whenever I read things like this, I wonder whether there are future generations who will look at, say, 2009 with the same breathless excitement. In 1989, setting aside some super important console games, there was Populous, Prince of Persia, SimCity, Warlords, Minesweeper, Quest for Glory, Mechwarrior, Space Quest III, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Starflight 2, Legend of the Red Dragon (this blew my mind -- there were door games in '89?!), and the Magic Candle. Would oldtimers quibble with your 1999 list by pointing out how many were sequels, etc.?

I don't mean to play devil's advocate here. It's just something I constantly wonder about. Like, to me, the defining adventure games were those of the 90s that used verb bars. But there are clearly people who are younger and feel just as passionately about the games of the 00s. And older people, even in my generation, who think the parser ones are the real deal. Is there a generation for whom King's Quest 7 is the defining game in the franchise? There are certainly people for whom Fallout 3 is Fallout simpliciter. (True story: while down at inXile for a writers' meeting, went to lunch at a nearby cantina. Barkeep says, "So what company are you guys with?" Me, "A computer game company, inXile." Him, "Oh, man, I love computer games. Fallout is my favorite." Me, "Oh? One or two?" Him, "Oh. Ah, I mean the one that just came out. I also liked the other one, in Washington." He's old enough to tend bar! And works next door to inXile!)

Obviously, it is also possible that each generation is more debased than the last and that every generation is right when they think the world and its people have gotten worse.

There are always going to be people talking about decline, though 97-02 are the years I consider the best for gaming. It is pretty funny reading through old posts on rec.games.video where people were talking about the dumbing down of games in 93, little did they know... I have always seen 2004 as the start of the great decline (around the release of Deus Ex 2) and I say that as someone with a taste for popamole.

2004 is also when games journalism started rapidly going downhill because of the rise of online journalism. Magazines going downhill caused a lot of the old time editors, critics, and journalists to leave the industry. In this vacuum the new games journalism movement was allowed to grow and writers educated in the modern progressive academy filled the vacancies of the old timers rather than enthusiast.

Just looking at these covers and seeing the games that were being promoted at the time it is impossible to deny the decline.

covers1.jpg
 

Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
Patron
Joined
May 13, 2009
Messages
27,087
Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
Whenever I read things like this, I wonder whether there are future generations who will look at, say, 2009 with the same breathless excitement. In 1989, setting aside some super important console games, there was Populous, Prince of Persia, SimCity, Warlords, Minesweeper, Quest for Glory, Mechwarrior, Space Quest III, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Starflight 2, Legend of the Red Dragon (this blew my mind -- there were door games in '89?!), and the Magic Candle. Would oldtimers quibble with your 1999 list by pointing out how many were sequels, etc.?

I would. :smug:

But there's another point that warrants further emphasis which was a huge deal in 1989, kind of a thing in 1999 but utterly irrelevant in 2009, and that's the evolution of games from being abstract geometric shapes on a screen, to life-like über-real (and bloated) CGI cinematic extravaganzas.

Look at the titles MRY mentions. Only one of them is a game played from the first-person perspective (Mechwarrior) and it's also the only game to feature (very primitive) 3D graphics. Almost all of these games don't use more than 16 colours and many of them had to make do with the PC Speaker for sound and music.

This is how Prince of Persia sounded to most of us back then:


Some of these games is simply pointless to play without players having sat down and read the manual. Try playing the original Populous, Simcity or Warlords without the manual, you'll look dumber than those 'Teenagers react to old tech'-videos found on YouTube.

I could go on with stuff like this, like how most of these games only portray the game through a 'window' of the screen while a static overlay/UI fills up the rest of the screen, how mouse usage was minimal and typing in commands was the norm. But let's move on.

Let's jump ahead to 1999.

Games can now sport millions of colours, have gotten true 3D environments nailed down...but need to work on smoothing those sharp edges. Sound has long ago reached 'multimedia' quality, but is only starting to meet the same standards as cinema systems sported at the time. Games can go full-screen without batting an eye and mouse control has not only become standard, but is used in very creative ways in many games. The keyboard, although still used, is now kinda sitting in the backseat of gaming as games are slowly exploring the new possibilities offered by more powerful hardware by being simpler and spouting simple controls. Some may call this the 'dumbing down' of games. Fair enough, but I think it would be unfair at this point, and to better explain this point we'll jump ahead to 2009.

Games can still sport millions of colours, true 3D environments have been around forever and various models can be very detailed and life-like. Lighting has seem drastic advancements, but sound hasn't advanced much in the past 10 years, it's now on par with home cinema systems. While Keyboard + Mouse still lives a good life as the primary game controller, console controllers are starting to creep in as a viable alternative to playing games...and it's there that we start to see the biggest problem. In 1999 we saw simple games being made with simple controls but sporting awesome visuals. In 2009...it's still the same. Simple, shallow games with even simpler control schemes than in 1999 are the norm, the de facto standard. Simulators like Mechwarrior are an uncommon sight, and space exploration games even less so. God-sims like Populous, SimCity and Warlords are still around, but they only come in real-time. And 9 out of every 10 games are sequels.

The undeniable truth is, that something went very very wrong sometime during the 1990s and this Wrong has since then spread into all of gaming and turned almost all of it into the same generic, bland, banalshitboring games being released over and over again. And while there have been some awesome advancements in gaming (UI and interface and virtually no need for reading manuals anymore) there are some things that have not only stagnated, but actually regressed. Mike Singleton tried to make a living, breathing world in 1989 where a rag-tag band of survivors had to fight off an invading army in a real-time setting. Midwinter was the ambitious but somewhat bizarre result of that vision, as Singleton had to cut many corners to make it all work on 16-bit computers. Midwinter could easily be remade today to make that vision come true. It would be something on a scale similar to GTA5...but instead of the technology impeding the vision, it's the lack of vision that prevents it from happening.

Back then programmers dared, they dared to be stupid and dared to think outside of the box. Sometimes it would work out, sometimes it wouldn't. Nowadays you only see fractions of that daring-do in the Indie scene, and even there it's a rare sight as everyone seems to only be in it for the money and attention. Elite wasn't made to make Bell and Braben rich, they made it to see how far they could stretch the limits of the BBC Micro's capabilities, to see how far they could go.
 

Farage

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Feb 17, 2014
Messages
596
You know what i really liked about these magazines was the smell.
Just something about that plastic+paint smell - was like cocaine to my 10 year old self
 

Destroid

Arcane
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
16,628
Location
Australia
It's funny how these threads pop up every few years. Late 90s had amazing titles, I think 97-98 were better than 99 though.
 

panzertoter

Arcane
Joined
Oct 13, 2010
Messages
628
Location
Poland
CD-Akshun peasants <<<<<< Secret Service masta race <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< GAMBLER ubermenschen
 

rohand

Cipher
Joined
Aug 20, 2014
Messages
592
Location
Planet Escape
You know what i really liked about these magazines was the smell.
Just something about that plastic+paint smell - was like cocaine to my 10 year old self

Went back to some of my own old magazines from the 90's and indeed man, that fucking smell
 

80s Stallone

Arcane
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
796
Location
The Bunker
www.kultcds.com features a lot of German pc game magazines from the 90s.

"My childhood" in some ways, but for fuck's sake, some of those magazines are horribly written and many articles and ratings are just :retarded: in retrospective.

And it becomes clear that most of those "previews" were written by people who have never actually played those games, just reprinted screenshots they got from the developer/publisher (often fake) and turned those press bullet points into text. Awful!
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Messages
2,430
CD-Akshun peasants <<<<<< Secret Service masta race <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< GAMBLER ubermenschen


To be precise:
Secret Service>Top Secret>>>>>>Gambler>>>>>>Reset>>>>(..)>>CDA

CD-Akshun won market battle because of full version of games on CD, not of actual magazine content. Now they can rule but mainly for lack of competition in the age of decline.
 

Baron Dupek

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
1,870,765
Yeah, I bought 2-3 CDAs in 2015 for full games, couldn't read magazine at all. I rather read shampoo instruction on the throne than CDA.
Went back into my old collection and guess what - it's not much better. Totally mixed bags.
Wish I got more cash to buy other magazines.... or not, they weren't available in my kiosks anyway...

You know what's funny? The fact that console gaming magazines are way better when it comes to text these days. In the PC centric country, where only Sony is relevant but expensive as fuck, M$ remind himself about potato once every decade and Nintendo products are imported from Germania because it does not exist on their maps, even though they love Chopin.
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,156
Ah, gaming magazines. I do remember how in the early days these were awesome, early Micromania and Computer Hoy were the shit... Until these too declined (at least those I mentioned from my country). They no longer give physical disks with boxes or anything, these cheap bastards.
 
Joined
Jul 26, 2015
Messages
1,350
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Yeah, I bought 2-3 CDAs in 2015 for full games, couldn't read magazine at all. I rather read shampoo instruction on the throne than CDA.
Went back into my old collection and guess what - it's not much better. Totally mixed bags.
Wish I got more cash to buy other magazines.... or not, they weren't available in my kiosks anyway...

You know what's funny? The fact that console gaming magazines are way better when it comes to text these days. In the PC centric country, where only Sony is relevant but expensive as fuck, M$ remind himself about potato once every decade and Nintendo products are imported from Germania because it does not exist on their maps, even though they love Chopin.
Console magazine subs are also expensive as fuck, like 5-7 times more expensive than the normal 'give me a $20 bill' subscription.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom