Thursday, September 03, 2009

The More Things Change…

Well, if you're wondering what kicked off my videogame nostalgia trip recently, it was finding a torrent that had every single issue of my favorite Commodore64 magazine from the 80's.

I was reading an issue today when I noticed the letter's page sounded really familiar.

First up was a letter complaining about the amount of ads in the magazine and how disruptive they were.

Secondly was a letter complaining about how disc based games were taking over from cassette based games.

Thirdly, a letter from a Spectrum owner complaining about the number of 'C64 Vs Spectrum' arguments on the letters page.

That's right people, the computers have changed, but we certainly haven't.

These letters are from 25 years ago, and we're still arguing and complaining about the same things. Too many ads, having to change media formats again and getting overzealous about which platform is better.

Just change 'ads' for 'pop-ups', cassettes and discs to DVDs and Blu-Ray and Commodore vs. Spectrum to 360 vs. PS3.

Edit - Shortly after posting this, I looked at he next issue and found a letter complaining about the magazine no longer accepting ads for software designed to copy discs or tapes. After all, the letter writer bought a piece of software to back up all his games and just because software or hardware can be used for piracy doesn't mean it will be.

Who knew? Piracy was already killing the videogame industry in 1983!

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