I spent a good couple of hours browsing very old games, downloading them and then trying to get them to work. Most were broken and corrupt. But it was fun.
Are you familiar with eXoDOS? It’s approximately 100GB torrent of 7000 games for MSDOS, configured to run out of the box—the torrent includes a few clones of DOSBox and similar software, each game already comes with a configuration that works, also manuals and maps, you just download the huge thing, start the UI and play.
I used to play computer games when I was younger; now I have less time to play, and also it is less fun when I cannot fully focus on the game because there are all kinds of worries and interruptions that come with having a job and kids. So I can no longer be like “I am going to play this game until it is completed, even if it takes the entire weekend”. But yes, there is also the part of “I have already seen most of it”.
My dopamine receptors are fried, I can’t just pick a game due to opportunity cost and I seek a greater hit of dopamine from the other options I have.
This sounds likely. Internet is insanely addictive.
When you play an old game now, it also misses the social aspect: no one else you know is playing it at the same time. So you can’t discuss the game, can’t compete, etc. Winning at something other people also care about was part of the fun.
But I think that at least 90% of the reason is internet. The vast amount of alternatives it provides (even if most of them are meh) makes it difficult to focus on one specific thing. Also, too many alternatives make it unlikely that you and your friends would choose the same thing.
Are you familiar with eXoDOS? It’s approximately 100GB torrent of 7000 games for MSDOS, configured to run out of the box—the torrent includes a few clones of DOSBox and similar software, each game already comes with a configuration that works, also manuals and maps, you just download the huge thing, start the UI and play.
I used to play computer games when I was younger; now I have less time to play, and also it is less fun when I cannot fully focus on the game because there are all kinds of worries and interruptions that come with having a job and kids. So I can no longer be like “I am going to play this game until it is completed, even if it takes the entire weekend”. But yes, there is also the part of “I have already seen most of it”.
This sounds likely. Internet is insanely addictive.
When you play an old game now, it also misses the social aspect: no one else you know is playing it at the same time. So you can’t discuss the game, can’t compete, etc. Winning at something other people also care about was part of the fun.
But I think that at least 90% of the reason is internet. The vast amount of alternatives it provides (even if most of them are meh) makes it difficult to focus on one specific thing. Also, too many alternatives make it unlikely that you and your friends would choose the same thing.