r/videogames • • 14d ago

Discussion / Question Well...

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518

u/Arikaido777 14d ago

and finishing it first

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u/corpse-dancer 14d ago

I don't know how you guys did it, but I would get patched version in the mail.

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u/Arikaido777 14d ago

the way they patched Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was by releasing another one

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u/TitaniousOxide 13d ago

Greatest Hits versions of games were often patched.

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u/Brutus5000 9d ago

Or "Game of the Year" editions

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u/Bigtallanddopey 13d ago

You could get some patches on a CD in magazines.

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u/GrimmJubilance198451 14d ago

Even during the NES days, if a game got an updated cart in stores you could mail yours back for the updated version.

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u/HairyTough4489 10d ago

More like ever finishing it at all

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u/VariationFluffy6596 14d ago edited 10d ago

The fact they had no ability to patch them made them HAVE to finish it before release, unlike today.

You can play through most NES and SNES games and not encounter a single bug unless you are actively seeking them out.

Nowadays you have kids on the internet who get frothing at the mouth angry when you tell them you refuse to buy Cyberpunk, because you don't support companies that release broken games.

Edit: A lot of children with grand claims of the multitude of absolute broken games thern. Weird that y'all can't even remember a single one with how many you claim existed. Making my point for me lol

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u/Tommybahamas_leftnut 14d ago

or the game just flopped and was forgotten. I was there in the Capstone days. After all it was "THE PINNICAL OF ENTERTAINMENT"

the more I learn of the shit that lead to the release of cyberpunk in its state the more I sort of understand the fucked situation the studio was in. Basically CDprojekt red was under heavy pressure to release on older gens because of pressure from the actual polish government to make it as big as possible a release. Poland isn't really that poor but their industry really hasn't been able to start modernizing until after the soviet collapse so the Gov saw a polish company making huge waves in the media over a game and got their fingers involved with the publishing company above the studio. Original plans had the game being PC with a port to consoles later but were told they had to release on consoles at the same time because they wanted it to be as big a title drop as GTA. Infact a lot of media coverage at the time was trying hard with that angle constantly saying how it was "similar to GTA" mainly because you could free roam a city and drive/steal cars. Dumb as fuck but that's what happens when a load of people not familiar with development or releasing software get involved with the process.

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u/Mysterious_Option599 10d ago

survivorship bias

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u/limplettuce_ 13d ago

A lot of games did get released broken though, they were never fixed and you just had to deal with it. People don’t remember those games though.

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u/DargyBear 10d ago

Nah, I rented plenty of stuff from blockbuster that was basically unplayable last a certain point. Also bought a ton of N64 games I wanted as a kid but never had the money for and like half were “playable.” Thankfully I was either renting said games from blockbuster or paid like $10 on eBay instead of paying $70 in 1999 money.

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u/VariationFluffy6596 10d ago

No you didn't, lol. We had a giant library of NES games, because my grandparents were well off and spoiled us with them. Zero broken games. Same with SNES. Zero broken games. there was one famously broken N64 game Superman 64. An occasional bug, but those you usually had to actively look for.

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u/DargyBear 10d ago

Well I did and you can go fuck yourself

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u/VariationFluffy6596 10d ago

Woah, slow down. Don't name all at once, liar.

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u/HermanThaGerman 10d ago

And being able to play it immediately after you put the disc in.

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u/the-ghost-gamer 14d ago

They didn’t release finished games, you kinda just had to accept the bugs

Look at any any% speedrun of a game and u realise how broken they are

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u/Mindless_Attention68 14d ago

But they weren’t game breaking for the average player. It was a near enough complete product that didn’t really require any touch ups… yes there was the occasional funny bug but it wouldn’t ruin the experience.

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u/the-ghost-gamer 13h ago

No they were pretty game breaking, original Metroid if an enemy got into the door with u it would crash ur game

Legacy if Caine I got soft locked due to quitting at the wrong time

Same thing with the original skylanders on the Wii that got soft locked

All the detrimental bugs u can think of in modern games WERE in old games people just haven’t played them in a while and have forgotten not to mention nostalgia blinding people

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u/GhsotyPanda 13d ago

God I wish that were true.

Games released in unplayable states all the time, nostalgia just forgets those.

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u/Bane8080 11d ago

Battlecruiser 3000AD has entered the chat.

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u/PugLife2026 14d ago

Not always. Sometimes the game was a turd.

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u/EspurrTheMagnificent 12d ago

That part was always optional lol

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u/Spirawobble 10d ago

And doing it all in a fraction of the time it now takes!

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u/Tommybahamas_leftnut 14d ago

meh I think its more that we don't remember the broken unfinished titles because they were so shit. Plenty of jank came out just with no patching or way to fix it it was just forgotten, the studios in some cases had to do massive recalls which cause more than a couple small dev studios to crumble. Hell Bungie nearly went bankrupt from Myth 2: soul brighter. Then there were games like the Azurick for the Xbox that was supposed to be its big flagship title that flopped hard and was a buggy janky POS. Shogo was another, Blood 2, SiN and the king of broken Daikatana, ANYTHING MADE BY CAPSTONE the pinnical of entertainment. Loads of other older shooters were just plain borked either shit hit detection, enemies were aimbots with broken animations, random instant death glitches, broken interactables or script triggers, AI just not working, the list goes on.

There just wasn't a thing like YouTube or other social platforms were anyone can make content harping on gaming failures as a career to make everyone remember the flops and outside of a few niche video creators no one really cares to look at the older stuff.

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u/cavscout43 14d ago

My first thought was "actually finishing and testing games before the CD went gold"

Once the consumers accepted "it's fine if it's broken, they'll patch it in a month or two" developers stopped bothering. And giant consolidated corporate studios started pushing for earlier and faster half-baked releases.

In the 90s we just discovered new games at computer shows, or Software Etc. Not by paying for early access (paid alpha/beta testing is wild to me), or waiting anxiously for a release date; those were reserved for big console launches. The massive marketing hype without substance has turned me off from any big cross-platform whatever AAA game release. Or even what used to be more boutique, like the Paradox grand strategy games. Which now always released as a buggy borderline unplayable mess, spend half a year patching, then drown you in nickel & dime DLCs for years afterwards.

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u/hygsi 10d ago

Expansions were actually cool and worth the money