Today’s younger generations, that love getting stuck into slots gaming and video gaming, have the benefit of convenience through instant digital capabilities but it is arguable whether that compares to the excitement and anticipation older generations experienced in their pursuit of digital entertainment.
Before streaming movies and video games was even a distant dream, youths in the 90s looked forward to hiring video tapes to watch movies. And as for computer games, the launch date of a new game usually meant queuing up in electronics stores to hand over saved up cash for a floppy disk or later, a PC-ROM copy of the game.
While younger generations will probably never understand how these memories can be treasured by older gamers, they will also never have to experience the disappointment of technology failures preventing them from enjoying their gaming.
In the modern digital world where the gaming experience may occasionally be curtailed by a temporary drop off in internet connection, the idea of being hampered by constant game crashes seems ridiculous.
Yet, that was a regular frustration for gamers in the 90s and there were many more issues that could derail the fun of gaming when purchasing a PC game in the 90s. These are some of the common challenges that gamers experienced in this era:
Disk Errors
The excitement of feeding your disk into your PC quickly turned into dismay when being confronted with the heartwrenching message “Disk not ready” or “CRC Error – Installation Failed”. All types of reasons could cause these issues, from dust or fingerprints damaging the magnetic surface to sub-standard production. CDs were prone to scratching if not kept immaculately, so anyone who dared to not return the disk to its case and leave it out was taking a gamble.
Incompatibility Issues
Another issue that PC gamers in the 90s had to battle with was ensuring that their PC hardware and software was compatible with the game they purchased. With so many different models of PCs and games having different hardware and software requirements, it was often a gamble as to whether a game would work smoothly with the gamer’s PC. In many cases, gamers would discover that the specs didn’t match.
Sometimes, mice, joysticks or keyboards could be incompatible with certain games, meaning you couldn’t play at all.
Memory Running Out
Players often had to delete saved games to make way for playing new games as the computer memory was quite limited compared to today’s PC models.
Random Crashes or Freezes
Players in the 90s regularly faced the pain of random crashes part way through a game. Without the benefit of auto-saves, all game progress could be suddenly lost, turning gaming fun into frustration.
Lack of Reviews
Aside from the many technical issues that made buying PC games in the 90s a gamble, you never really knew how good a game was going to be until you actually paid your money and started playing it. You couldn’t watch video demos of games and there was a lack of gaming reviews and gamer forums where people shared their experiences of playing a game.
This meant that you would be buying PC games without much reassurance about the quality of the game. PC games were not cheap either, you would still be paying around $40 to $70 for a game that could turn out to be an epic fail. Games like Trespasser came with big hype but most gamers were disappointed with the bugs and outdated graphics.
Today, gamers, whether its slots or other types of iGames, can generally enjoy a consistent and undisturbed experience across all gaming devices. Even mobile gaming has been developed to provide a high-quality experience for everything from Roblox to slot games on sites like Impressario.
You also have the insights provided by review sites for all the types of games and devices you want to play, providing you with loads of important details about the site and the games available on the site to help you to decide which games best suit your preferences.
Incompatibility is no longer a concern, you might find some gaming options that don’t work perfectly with mobile devices but generally, game developers prioritize mobile users as there is such a high demand for playing from this device type. PC gamers will rarely experience game crashes unless there is a specific hardware issue rather than a game related problem.
The problems that gamers in the 90s experienced are hard to understand if you didn’t experience it yourself and for gamers who have continued their gaming passion over the decades, there is great appreciation for today’s game quality and consistency.
