creepitz

@exQUIZitely you could create your own cartoon and print it out. so cool for a kid that likes garfield

@creepitz_ I don't recall the Garflied one, I just printed a crapload with the Print Shop :)

Do you remember designing your own letterheads, birthday cards, banners, and other custom-made prints in the 80s? We have long since entered the digital age, and print is slowly but surely dying. But there was a time once when having a printer felt pretty magical. I had "The Print Shop" (Broderbund) for my C64, and with it the Epson MX-80. Printing stuff (anything!) was exciting. Epson effectively dominated the dot matrix printer market with its affordable 9-pin printers, which were the de facto standard for personal computers. I can still hear it now: the 9-pin head whizzing back and forth across the paper, slowly advancing line by line. Printing a highly detailed page could be quite the lengthy ordeal... and if you used too many solid black areas, the paper would become quite soggy. Rookie mistake! Do you remember your first printer?

I think what really matters for an unforgettable classic is a combination of three things: clarity and elegance in design. a game should be easy to understand, but still have depth. strong hook (recognizability). something that sticks with you. a mechanic, a visual style, soundfx, music, or just a certain feeling. and of course innovation, but not too much. this can actually push people away. the difference today isn’t that these things don’t exist anymore, it’s more that they’re much harder to spot in an ocean of content. so currently it's really hard to create a real classic. aside from that for us old farts there never will be a legendary mobile or roblox game, but maybe for today's kids. I would at least wish it for them 😂

One of the most common counterarguments I hear against the greatness of retro games is: "You're just looking at it through rose-tinted glasses and putting too much weight on nostalgia" - or something along those lines. I disagree. The reason we still remember games that are 40+ years old isn't simply because we were young back then. There were genuinely a lot of great games in the 80s. They didn’t rely on flashy graphics, bombastic soundtracks, or massive marketing budgets. Instead, they were built on timeless concepts, born mostly from the creativity and genius of the early developers. These games were severely limited by the hardware and software of their time, which forced their creators to become pioneers - often achieving things that were considered impossible. On top of that, the core game idea itself had to be truly captivating to overcome the constraints of limited disk space and processing power. What we remember - and why we remember it - cannot be dismissed with a simple "oh, we were young." It's rooted in the creative genius and timeless design of those games. If you’re still not convinced, let me ask you a simple question: Twenty years from now, do you think more people will remember a random Roblox game from 2026 than classics like SimCity, Pitfall, Pirates, or Tetris? If it were purely nostalgia, then today’s teenagers will someday be able to name 100 great games from the “Roblox era.” I'll take any bet that won't happen. The reason we still remember Pac-Man, Pirates, Civilization, Elite, Maniac Mansion, The Sentinel, Defender, Space Invaders, King's Quest, or Ultima isn't just explained by nostalgia. They were incredible games with great, timeless concepts, designed by brilliant minds who pushed far beyond the technological limits of their era. If you can name even just 10 legendary mobile/Roblox games 20 years from now I'd be more than impressed.

@MuseumCommodore commando libya !

The most brutal Commodore 64 game?

@exQUIZitely first game I played on christmas eve with my own amiga. awesome!

F/A-18 Interceptor (1988) hit so hard back in the day, words can't really describe it. Ready for takeoff, buckle up, and make sure your sound is on full blast for this one!

@exQUIZitely play a while... play forever 🤣 I was seven years old and I think I never finished this game. maybe I should give it another try sometime.

Post a screenshot of a game that was driving you insane back in the day. If this image still causes you PTSD, then I feel your pain. That hangar was the definition of agony...

@StatsManX @exQUIZitely yes!

@creepitz_ @exQUIZitely Eagle Soft... was that the cracking group that also did Defender of the Crown? :)

There are very few things that have higher nostalgic value than the memory of The Print Shop (Broderbund, 1984). If you had a dot-matrix printer in the 80s, chances are you used this incredible publishing program. It allowed users to easily create signs, greeting cards, banners, posters, and letterheads using its built-in clip art, fonts, and templates. And if you were the curious type, I’m sure you printed an entire page in black just to see what would happen. In case you never did, let me tell you: it was both a nerve-wracking sound and a totally drenched, soggy piece of paper in the end. (Totally worth it!) Originally launched for the Apple II and later ported to the Commodore 64, IBM PC, and other platforms, it worked with any common dot-matrix printer. Its simple interface meant even 9-year-old me could figure it out. I made covers for virtually anything, from my father's toolbox to my mother's kitchen drawers. It sold over a million copies, and became one of the most popular titles of the era.

@exQUIZitely looks like someone brazenly stole the concept 😂

@creepitz_ Looks similar :)

@exQUIZitely I've played several submarine games before, but this was my first submarine simulation. finally, something more than just shooting! It was really fun back then. great game for it's time.

The original Silent Service by Sid Meier was an absolutely wonderful piece of art. For a game that was released in 1985 it is remarkably complex, with great graphics and sounds - the depth charges descending upon you still being one of the most tense moments for any gamer nerd back then. It sold close to half a million copies over its lifetime. An insane amount for a game at the time. It collected rewards left, right and center - the only thing that I would nitpick is the missing save option. But then again, maybe that added to the realism, you had one chance - that's it. I give it 9 out of 10. How did you find it back in the day?

@exQUIZitely yeah... I spent several hours on it, but never finished anything 🤣

Please tell me I wasn't the only nerd getting excited about the Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit (S.E.U.C.K.) back in the day? It was a popular game creation system developed by Sensible Software (Jon Hare and Chris Yates) in 1987. It let people (especially kids and hobbyists who couldn't code from scratch... aka me) create their own simple shoot 'em up games without needing to write any code. You could: Draw your own sprites like upur ship, enemies, and explosions, design backgrounds and scrolling levels, set up enemy attack waves, create sound effects and simple music, and also design title screens and high-score tables. I created a few "games" - did you ever give it a try?

40 years of Razor 1911! To celebrate this milestone, Razor published a ‘demo’, and asked me to help out with a logo. youtube.com/watch?v=2AnbYN…

@exQUIZitely I don't remember playing that, but of course I know jochen hippel... everyone should know the music from rings of medusa, chambers of shaolin, or seven gates of jambala. great musician!

Dragonflight (1990) by Thalion was a bit like a quirky Ultima. It had an absolutely outstanding soundtrack, composed by... no, not Chris Huelsbeck but Jochen Hippel, another one of those 80s/90s music artist legends. Ratings for this one were all over the place - some arguing that it was average (at best), others putting it on the same level as Ultima. Another popular magazine at the time gave it 12%, an abysmal score. In the end it became Thalion's best selling game at the time with 25,000 copies. Small by modern standards, but decent for a 1990s game from a German game studio. They went on to develop Amberstar and Ambermoon shortly after...

@exQUIZitely yeahhh... I think I spent more time watching the intro than playing the game itself. like you said... it's rather mediocre, but has an awesome intro 💥

One of the most badass intros of the 80s! I sometimes just let it run on repeat - the digitized speech, the kickass music, Psygnosis always had some of the best intros back then. Shadow of the Beast is another one that comes to mind... Blood Money, developed in 1989 by DMA Design (published by Psygnosis) is a pretty classic side-scrolling shooter. I don't remember how many times I have used this game's intro as a "hey, look how cool my Amiga is" teaser when showcasing it to friends. The gameplay is nothing new, and doesn't reach the heights of classics like R-Type, but it's still a very fun shooter, with different ships to choose from, weapons upgrade options and a relatively fair difficulty level. No need to reinvent the wheel - just execute a proven concept and don't mess it up. That's Blood Money in a nutshell.

@exQUIZitely yes, I do 👍

@creepitz_ Ohhh looks pretty neat, but never played it. Do you still have it?

I got a Game Boy for Christmas in 1990. With it came Super Mario Land (released in 1989). It was my first game and remained my favorite. What was yours?

@V3nti1at0r @exQUIZitely that's cool 🤟 I only have a signed cd from barry leitch with a funny dedication, but I never met him.

@exQUIZitely @creepitz_ Yeah. He still make good new music for Indie games. I met Chris in 2024 and got a few games signed. He was surprised that i had Tunnel B1 and Extreme Assault physical for PC in original big boxes. ;) Stupid me forgot to get the Star Wars games on GameCube signed...

Why this masterpiece was never ported to other systems boggles my mind to this day. Apidya is a 1992 shoot 'em up developed by Kaiko for the Amiga - and that's it, no port for any other system. You play as Ikuro, a warrior who magically transforms into a powerful bee after his wife Yuri is poisoned by the evil black magic lord Hexaä. Whoever came up with the idea to make the hero a bee... well, it certainly was unique! You fly insect-themed stages, from gardens and ponds to surreal sewers, you blast swarms (pardon the pun) of enemies, collect power-ups, and face bosses while seeking an antidote. The graphics were an absolute delight, with massive sprites and vibrant colors, and the music/sound effects (Chris Huelsbeck showing his skill) were simply brilliant. I still think Apidya stands out as one of the Amiga's most original and best shooters. Which brings me again to the question - how was this never ported elsewhere?

@exQUIZitely syndicate ! still one of the coolest cyberpunk strategy games ever made. the mix of strategy, tactics, and action still works well today for me.

Post a game that is at least 30 years old and hasn't lost much (or any) of its charm - in other words, a game that was great then and still is today. I will start: Lemmings (1991) by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis. It's 35 years old, still has that incrdibly adorable charm, the iconic soundtrack, and a timeless feel. No matter how often you have played it, it's still a blast to load it up again, especially when friends are around and you try to solve the levels together (the later ones are tough as nails). To this day I have a hard time thinking of many games that were more unique and had such an innovative approach. What game would you nominate?