Product Launches
Physical Games vs online games
Giving away my age our generation started with games on cartridges. You would jam that box into your console and play for hours with no hassles. As the game play got more complex and graphics evolved, we moved over to PC gaming and this was with the old Vic20 and Commodore 64. You would get games on cassette tapes and we would wake up early in the morning and press play on the tape and start the reading of the game data. Fast foward 2 hours later and hopefully you had a playable game. Sometimes it would corrupt half way through as the tape stretched and then you had to start the process all over again, until the tape cassette was so stretched it would not read anymore. OG gamers would understand the hours of fun had playing the Rambo/Commando. This was coupled by the massive physical gaming arcade revolution where kids would hang out for hours trying to best each other on their favorite game and claim that top spot on the points leaderboard.
Then came the age of the floppy and stiffy drive format of games with more improved graphics and better longevity of the physical hardware, but limitations in terms of the content volume due to the storage capacity on these units. Some games required multiple “discs” to upload to play and again this all took time. This era didn’t last long with the invent of the Compact Disc (CD) and the ability write significantly more information onto this format = greater graphics and more game play scenrios. Finally, we evolved with the internet and access to faster line speeds to downloadable games and online gaming formats which means the physical copies became obsolete… or did they?
Something just smacks differently about owning a physical copy of a game, the nostalgia of inserting the disc and waiting for the main menu to load up whilst you plotted the demise of the end boss character. Being able to read the inserts and take advantage of code drops and special items in some of the game releases. There are obvious limitations in terms of updates and DLC’s (downloadable content) with the physical units, but this has been addressed through connection of consoles to the internet and some purchasable add-ons to the physical games.
So why this article? We will be adding a games category to our site and listing some physical games through our store. Hopefully you manage to pick up some classics and reignite those childhood memories.
Some of my notable gaming memories:
- Rambo / Commando – Commodore 64
- Diablo – early PC
- Tony Hawk Skate park – PS1 & PS2
- Need for Speed / Grid Ridge Racer
- Colin McRae Rally
- Doom – first multiplayer party game
