buggy releases aren't new.

[jiduthie]

I want all the new people[fags?] to understand that the history of software has been blighted with unfinished releases. Colonization, anyone?

I'm tired of everyone claiming that releasing what appears to be beta versions of games is the new shit. Darklands, anyone?

I remember my father coming home with a patch, after having downloaded it at work, on a floppy disk(the 3.5 variety) because getting it on our 14kbps dvorak connection(not the world wide web) would be too expensive.

Poorly QAed software is the name of the game. Only consoletards think that the old days consisted of bug-free software.

 

[Raapys]

There certainly were tons of buggy games back then to, but I'd say it's been reversed. In the olden days most games would work fine without a patch, while a few really needed it. These days most games won't work fine without a patch, while a few will. That's what all the launch-day patches are for.

 

[JarlFrank]

Some games are buggy, others are not. Back then making a buggy game was as bad as it is today, and just because bugs existed back in the good old days isn't an excuse for devs still making buggy messes. Since modern games usually have way less features and are way shorter, they should have less bugs, too.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

There are also, though rare, cases of old games that worked fine out of the box, and NEVER needed a patch during their natural lifetimes.

One such example is Star Control 2. There was an exploitable bug in it, but you actually had to make an effort to get the game to crash. Only with the arrival of modern operating system did there arise a need to "patch" the game.

A better example is Alley Cat. It took 20+ years for this game to stop working properly on PC's, and despite that it's still playable, 27 years after it was first released.

Games that did not work out of the box or were critically bugged upon release back in the day were doomed to be commerical failures. The first game I recall that was released with a "fatal" error was Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor in 1998.

 

[Pika-Cthulhu]

Pretty much what has been said above. Games today are sent off to gold with known bugs and they work on having patches ready for release day. With the internet so prevalent in todays society, having to patch on launch day is not thought of as something irregular, but par for course.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Oh, Alley Cat! The memories!

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

I want all the new people[fags?] to understand that the history of software has been blighted with unfinished releases. Colonization, anyone?

I'm tired of everyone claiming that releasing what appears to be beta versions of games is the new shit. Darklands, anyone?

I remember my father coming home with a patch, after having downloaded it at work, on a floppy disk(the 3.5 variety) because getting it on our 14kbps dvorak connection(not the world wide web) would be too expensive.

Poorly QAed software is the name of the game. Only consoletards think that the old days consisted of bug-free software.

What bugs did Colonisation have? I picked it up virtually on the day it came out.

Never tried Darklands because the consensus was "unfinished".

It was very rare for a game to have game stopping bugs before the internet was in full swing. Those that did failed utterly. The odd, usually amusing glitch was nothing to write home about.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

There are also, though rare, cases of old games that worked fine out of the box, and NEVER needed a patch during their natural lifetimes.

One such example is Star Control 2. There was an exploitable bug in it, but you actually had to make an effort to get the game to crash. Only with the arrival of modern operating system did there arise a need to "patch" the game.

A better example is Alley Cat. It took 20+ years for this game to stop working properly on PC's, and despite that it's still playable, 27 years after it was first released.

Games that did not work out of the box or were critically bugged upon release back in the day were doomed to be commerical failures. The first game I recall that was released with a "fatal" error was Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor in 1998.

Most old games never needed a patch. I mean early 90's backwards here. There are few games from the era that were critically bugged. The main one I can think of off the top of my head is Bloodwych for the C64, whereby on the disk version, you could never finish it. The tape version was fine however, and these days all the versions are ripped tape versions turned into disk images.

After this era, bugginess and then the internet has become a giant excuse for early releases and poor quality.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Games became more technically sophisticated, so they need more patches.

Sorry, no decline theory from me

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Games became more technically sophisticated, so they need more patches.

Sorry, no decline theory from me

So, if there was no internet, the game industry would be dead?

 

[Topher]

I've hardly ever patch any of my games and they all work just fine. The only game I've needed to patch in the last few years has been New Vegas.

 

[Metro]

I remember having to go back to the Electronics Boutique twice after buying Monkey Island 2 because the two copies I got had random discs missing!

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I remember going back to Software ETC because the brand-new release day copy of Diablo 2 I bought was too buggy (Wouldn't recognize the disc drive on one computer, wouldn't recognize the video card on the other) and exchanging it for Deus Ex.

 

[Zed]

No, all the games I played before 2000 were flawless. The bugs added charm.

 

[KalosKagathos]

No, all the games I played before 2000 were flawless. The bugs added charm.

Especially those fatal bugs in QfG 4. Good times, man, good times.

 

[Yeesh]

There are also, though rare, cases of old games that worked fine out of the box, and NEVER needed a patch during their natural lifetimes.

One such example is Star Control 2. There was an exploitable bug in it, but you actually had to make an effort to get the game to crash. Only with the arrival of modern operating system did there arise a need to "patch" the game.

A better example is Alley Cat. It took 20+ years for this game to stop working properly on PC's, and despite that it's still playable, 27 years after it was first released.

Games that did not work out of the box or were critically bugged upon release back in the day were doomed to be commerical failures. The first game I recall that was released with a "fatal" error was Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor in 1998.

What today's youngsters don't understand is that back in the days before the internet, you just didn't patch your games. I mean, I'm sure it was possible for some of the elite, but keep in mind THAT THERE WAS NO FUCKING INTERNET. I didn't even know there was such a thing as patches in 1989. It just wasn't part of the landscape the way it is now.

So I'd say that it was not at all the rare case when an old game worked fine out of the box. It was the norm. It fucking just had to be.

On the other hand (and I say this as someone who obsessively patches to the latest version), the truth is games working fine out of the box is pretty much the norm today too. People just bitch a lot more now. There's a big difference between bugs and game-breaking bugs. Every game has bugs.

 

[commie]

I've hardly ever patch any of my games and they all work just fine. The only game I've needed to patch in the last few years has been New Vegas.

You obviously don't play many games released these days.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

So, if there was no internet, the game industry would be dead?

Quite ironic, isn't it

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I remember a time back in early '96, when a cybercafe opened up here in Iceland. I knew of a website, The Patches Scrolls, that was my first and only stop for my first visit to that cybercafe. Fortunately they had one computer with a ZIP-drive, so I used that to download over 50 MB of patches for various games that I owned... and still own today.

Before that, I was lucky enough to get some of the "important" patches on the cover discs from PC Format. A good example was the V2.12 patch for Ultima VIII. That allowed me to finally finish the game.

Of all those patches, most were just cosmetic or improvement-fixes. Some added new content, and only 1 or 2 of them fixed game-stopping bugs.

 

[SCO]

I quite like the SHAS bug in the thief games. For those not in the know, SHAS stands for "sudden heart attack syndrome" and happens whenever garret steps on some geometry that was never meant to be and whose eldritch touch make him go "Aaaaaahhhhhhh" and drop to the floor, quite dead.

Completly appropriate when robbing a tomb full of undead.

 

[jiduthie]

What bugs did Colonisation have? I picked it up virtually on the day it came out.

I don't remember exactly what the problem was to be honest. If i remember right, the problem was getting it to run under '95, although why we couldn't just boot the command prompt and run it from there I don't remember. The switch from dos based windows towards nt based created quite a few problems for games though, in general. I always laugh when I hear people complain about post-nt compatibility problems.

Master of Magic was also pretty bad, so was the 7th Guest. I remember Mechwarrior being tricky to run, but that might have just been the system requirements.

You're right though, that alot of buggy games didn't generally do well after being released, which might be a legitimate difference from today. Anyway, whether you choose to categorize them as "unfinished" rather than buggy, or point out that those games didn't do well, all I meant to say is that this has always been a problem. When companies start making a habit of it, I'm looking at you Obsidian, people have a right to be angry, just not nostalgic.

 

[Jigawatt]

Games became more technically sophisticated, so they need more patches.

Sorry, no decline theory from me

So, if there was no internet, the game industry would be dead?

If all those facebook users had no reason to own a PC... how glorious the gaming landscape could be! :singletear: