Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00 Come on, seriously, give me the poster. I don't know Mikey word on the street is you're a rat
00:05 Yeah, we don't do business with rat. Welcome to mojo plays and today we're taking a look at 10 things kids today
00:13 Will never truly understand about gaming in the 90s. Enjoy your luxuries now kiddos
00:19 It wasn't easy back in the old days before we begin we publish new videos all week long
00:24 So be sure to subscribe to mojo plays and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos
00:29 Try before you buy
00:33 Admittedly demos are still a thing today
00:45 Steam often promotes upcoming games that have demos available in their Steam next fest
00:50 Events PlayStation on the other hand locks them behind their subscription service on PlayStation Plus
00:57 Classy but back in the 90s. We had the pleasure of obtaining
01:00 Demo discs discs that contain small slices of upcoming games
01:06 This practice would carry on for another two generations after this but there was something special about
01:11 PS1 demo discs from the intro videos to behind the scenes looks at game development and convention floors to even secret trailers
01:19 You always got a good taste of what was coming to the console through interactive CD samplers
01:25 Jam-pack in PlayStation underground simply downloading a demo just isn't the same as these compilations were
01:32 Testing the video games difficult thing to do fun in our pockets
01:38 Handheld gaming has sort of been phased out of the gaming space
01:47 Yes, we do have the switch the Steam Deck the ROG Ally and the PlayStation Portal among many others
01:54 however, none of this was real handheld gaming back in the 90s
02:00 We had Game Boy Game Boy Color and well
02:04 That was about it
02:05 Not too many kids with Neo Geo pockets or Sega Game Gears and the technology at the time was ultra
02:12 Limited many games that were coming out lasted about 30 to 60 minutes on average
02:16 But damn did these consoles have a crazy battery life a Game Boy Color could run up to 10 hours
02:23 Almost five times the battery life of a ps5 controller
02:27 Yes
02:28 We are aware the system was doing less than what DualSense is doing
02:31 But still you got way more game time out of it without being tethered to a cable back then
02:37 However, it is worth mentioning that if you got too negligent on the charge
02:42 You did have to wind up being tethered to a cable at least up against the wall next to a plug outlet
02:49 Oh those were the days
02:52 *Game Boy Music*
02:54 Time for a shopping spree
02:56 At Circuit City's Memorial Day weekend like this VCR with remote just
03:01 $144.97 today
03:03 It's almost hard to find a good video game store GameStop only ever sells new games and sidelines older titles to their online
03:10 Store and many retro game stores have unfortunately had to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and most folks now
03:19 Buy games from online stores or third-party sellers on sites like eBay or Mercari
03:24 Back in the day, there were five key stores
03:26 Everyone went to for their games Circuit City, Best Buy, GameStop, EB Games or the motherlode
03:33 Toys R Us
03:35 Toys R Us was a huge deal in the gaming space as some companies would have the retail chain distribute
03:41 promo videos for upcoming games
03:44 And if you weren't buying games you were most likely heading to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video to rent them
03:50 Even though it was a somewhat niche market at the time
03:53 It at least felt like nerds were getting some assortment of options to go buy our games at
03:57 Wreak more havoc with the hand cannon
04:00 Get it when you pre-order Rise of the Tomb Raider only at GameStop
04:03 Play, trade, save, repeat
04:05 Rated M for Mature
04:06 Playing with limited power
04:08 Hey Einstein, I'm on your side
04:10 Hey Einstein, I'm on your side
04:14 Folks behind you, am I getting close?
04:16 At one point it was kind of tough to learn every secret glitch exploit strategy and what-have-you in a single game
04:23 Sure, you could always resort to the manual but to get help you had to almost actively seek it
04:29 Nintendo once had helplines where you could call a phone number and ask for assistance if you ever got stuck in a game
04:35 These agents would have full charts of maps and secrets to point you towards
04:39 Almost a total x-ray at the ready for players who might be stuck
04:43 You could also go out and buy strategy guides or subscribe to gaming magazines that might have cheat codes for various games hidden inside
04:50 And if you couldn't afford any of the aforementioned options, you just had to trust whatever word of mouth came your way
04:56 Nowadays, every secret is spilled the second a game drops
05:00 There's just no more surprises anymore
05:03 When games attack
05:10 No, it cannot be
05:13 Now this is one aspect of 90s gaming that we do not miss whatsoever
05:18 I'm speaking from personal experience
05:20 If you didn't watch my Crash Warped review from a few years ago when we were doing retro review
05:26 I actually nearly hurt myself with a D-pad
05:30 Honestly, we have it so good today with controllers that have the right amount of pressure to execute inputs and fit comfortably within our hands
05:39 What was so bad about controllers in the 90s?
05:41 Well, have you held an N64 controller?
05:44 The analog stick on that thing was able to cut up people's palms if they played Mario Party
05:50 As for the PS1 controller, the D-pads were so rigid and hard that it could cause blisters
05:56 Gaming hurt back in the day
05:58 We're glad kids will never have to choose whether to finish Crash Bandicoot or Wimp Out because of potential hand trauma
06:04 But good lord, thumbs of steel were developed from that age
06:09 *Sounds of a car crashing*
06:14 Saving lives, gouging prices
06:17 *Music*
06:23 Saving required more effort on the player's part than games require today
06:27 We are so lucky to have auto-saves in almost every game we play
06:32 And many games even give the option to manually save if we really want to
06:36 But in the 90s, most games did not have such luxuries
06:40 The ability to save your game was often delegated to specific checkpoints
06:44 So, if mom and dad were getting ready to drag you to the mall or some family cookout
06:49 You had two options
06:51 One, rush all the way back to the last checkpoint you remember
06:55 Or two, suffer, power off your game, and prepare to redo whatever progress you lost before the last checkpoint
07:02 Needless to say, this could be super annoying at times
07:05 And yes, you could go and grab a memory card
07:09 If only they were more widely available back then
07:12 Many forget that there was an era where PS1 memory cards were hard to come by
07:17 It was pretty bad back then
07:19 Welcome to Town Square, Spyro
07:21 Being the weird kids
07:24 *Spyro barks*
07:26 It is kind of weird to us how video games have become such a widely accepted hobby these days
07:35 Sure, there are still some stragglers who think games are toys
07:38 They're for children
07:40 They cause violence
07:41 And gamers are basement dwellers
07:43 However, that kind of thinking was much more common back in the 90s
07:47 Parents and educators often looked down upon playing video games
07:51 Often calling it a waste of time
07:53 Politicians were at the ready to get games banned
07:56 And argued about how it incites criminal behavior
07:59 Without any concrete evidence outside of specific anecdotes
08:02 And if any kid found out you played video games
08:05 You were sometimes treated worse than how D&D nerds were treated back in the 80s
08:10 Nowadays, you just get picked on for playing certain types of games
08:14 Or simply owning a particular console
08:16 Different reasons for mockery, all trivial to a ridiculous degree
08:21 Times have changed and yet they haven't
08:24 I'd like to buy this game, please
08:32 Right, over 10,000 videos
08:34 Three evening rentals, so no rush, no hassle
08:37 Fax check-out, 24-hour quick drop return
08:40 Open late every night
08:42 We know we already talked about game stores a little bit ago
08:45 However, we want to focus on something more pressing in the modern world
08:49 Availability
08:50 The 1990s didn't have the options to buy games digitally
08:54 Every game was only ever released physically
08:57 Forever preserved unless the cartridge or disc was battered and broken
09:01 You want the game? Go to the store and buy it off the shelf
09:05 These days, physical games are coming in fewer and fewer batches
09:08 As digital sales grow ever more
09:11 Physical copies are now becoming a rarity
09:13 And it has been having an effect on game preservation
09:16 A game can easily get delisted
09:18 And become lost to time if something as simple as a copyrighted song
09:22 Pulls its license from the developers
09:24 At the world's biggest video game store
09:26 I wanna be a game
09:28 Back to basics
09:30 An obvious difference in 90s gaming is in the technology
09:38 Online gaming didn't have as much prominence back then
09:41 And even on PC, it was a bit of a hassle to set up an online game
09:46 As for VR gaming, that was a pipe dream that could only be experienced
09:50 At a place like Disney Quest
09:52 A video game amusement park that featured a VR Aladdin game
09:56 You and your friends could compete in
09:58 Speaking of pipe dreams, motion controls and touch screens
10:01 Weren't brought to fruition yet
10:03 But you wanna know what's really depressing?
10:05 There are kids today who don't even recognize a game controller
10:08 Because they've been playing games that utilize touch screen controls
10:13 (Grunts)
10:15 (Grunts)
10:21 Room for experimentation
10:24 Perhaps we're looking through rose-tinted glasses
10:32 But the era of Nintendo 64 and PS1 was a time of creativity
10:37 Not every game was a surefire hit
10:39 But saturation was definitely under control
10:42 Developers were trying all kinds of neat ideas
10:45 Playing with hardware in various ways
10:47 From the controller to pushing technical limits
10:49 To simply trying new concepts for games
10:52 Let me put it this way
10:53 You are never going to see a game like
10:56 Vibraman, Intelligent Cube, or Parappa the Rapper in the 2020s
11:01 And if you do, it's most likely coming from an indie developer
11:05 Not Sony, not Activision, not Xbox
11:08 Maybe not even Nintendo
11:10 Say what you will about some 90s classics not aging good
11:13 Looking at the biggest titles of that decade
11:16 They definitely seem more interesting than the abundance of live-service games
11:19 We've been subjected to in recent days
11:22 But enough of me rambling
11:29 What do you think was the best or worst aspect about 90s gaming?
11:33 Let us know down in the comments
11:35 And don't forget to subscribe to Mojo Plays
11:37 For more great videos every day
11:40 Mojo Plays is a production of Mojo Publishing
11:43 Copyright © 2018 Mojo Publishing All Rights Reserved
11:46 Mojo Publishing
11:47 Copyright © 2018 Mojo Publishing All Rights Reserved
11:49 (upbeat music)
11:51 (upbeat music)