What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

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stupidget
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What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by stupidget »

As the title suggests, I was wondering what games, if any, you're better at now than you were over 30 years ago?

I've just had a go on Penetrator (fnar fnar) and I got further than I ever did 37 years.

Games such as WANTED:Monty Mole have far more appeal now as I tend to take time playing them rather than just rushing in, dying several times, and thinking 'well this is crap'.

Don't get me wrong I'm still utterly w*nk at Uridium and I doubt anybody could be any better at Jack and the Beanstalk than they were BITD :lol:
Last edited by stupidget on Tue Oct 01, 2019 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by Joefish »

Never looped Manic Miner before, but I can now.
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by stupidget »

Joefish wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 2:18 pm Never looped Manic Miner before, but I can now.
Do you think that's because you now plan for each screen, whereas back in the 80's we'd just dive in and just try and get to the end?
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by RWAC »

I can't think of a single game that I'm better at now. I don't have the patience I had as a kid which certainly doesn't help.
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by stupidget »

RWAC wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 2:55 pm I can't think of a single game that I'm better at now. I don't have the patience I had as a kid which certainly doesn't help.
Blimey, as a kid I had zero, zilch, nada patience. I was the kind of kid that if the game didn't grab me in the first few screens/minutes then it was cleary rubbish. A fine example is Forest of Long Shadows, which was a type-in in Sinclair User in '86. I spent ages typing this game in, managed to get it to work after rechecking and correcting my errors to only think 'well this is all very boring isn't'. I've played it quite a few times since and it's actually a great little rogue-type RPG.

I remember my spoiled mate getting Thats the Spirit by The Edge (his parent bought him at least 2-3 games a month!!!) and being incredibly underwhelmed, but again I've played it since and quite enjoyed it.

The other side of the coin is Fairlight. I loved this when it was released and me and another mate (I did have more than 2 mates by the way) would spend hours playing it. When I tried it the other day I just found the controls too fiddly and the whole thing too slow.
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by Joefish »

Joefish wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 2:18 pmNever looped Manic Miner before, but I can now.
stupidget wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 2:52 pmDo you think that's because you now plan for each screen, whereas back in the 80's we'd just dive in and just try and get to the end?
Not really - you always could level-skip. Mainly it's because it's a lot quicker to LOAD in an emulator and have a practise!
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by spider »

Wanted Monty Mole is actually something I can get a few screen in whereas BITD I could not get more than a couple of screens if that. Usually fell of something resulting in an repeated death syndrome.

Manic Miner, yes I'm a lot better at it now than I was back then. Occasionally I'll still make a mess of something like Menagerie though whereas what were 'difficult' screens back then I don't have any real bother with these days it seems, well not much.

I'm worse at Tech Ted however! The 48K version. I could get three or four tasks BITD now I can't get more than two before I give up! :D

Things like Chronos/Penetrator sightly worse I'd say, along with 'complex puzzle' like Herberts Dummy Run or perhaps twisting it a bit more Locomotion or Deflector, I'm worse at.

Summary for me being I'm a fair bit better at straightforward platform games but worse at games that need either huge brain input or reactions, mind you the latter point I'm not convinced on as some platformy games -do- need fast reactions.

Isometrics, I only really liked KnightLore and sometimes MoleculeMan (you can't complain for 1.99 for a 3D game!) , although the former I could only ever get 2 or perhaps 3 objects if I was lucky and they were well placed, the latter I spent more time with the editor they provided. Was not keen on Cylu/Chimera had both of those BITD too. Pretty sure I've still got one of them that came in the slightly enlarged plastic moulded box thing that Firebird used to supply sometimes.
Last edited by spider on Tue Oct 01, 2019 3:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by Ast A. Moore »

stupidget wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 3:15 pm Blimey, as a kid I had zero, zilch, nada patience.
Heh. I was the other way around. I could spend days on a Spectrum game (by keeping the machine on overnight) to finish a game I liked. Nowadays, I rarely can spare more than ten or fifteen minutes for a game (with a few exceptions). I don’t think I got better at any game over the years. Granted, I can now find and finally read the description of the many bootlegged I had (and had no idea how to play them). So, that’s a plus.
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

As to arcade or sports games, I have the feeling that I was better then that now. I've never considered myself a skilled player, anyway.

For example, in the skeet shooting event in Hypersports, I always got 100%, with the 'Perfect' message and the shooter winking; now I can hardly shoot any skate as I see too many ones appearing at the same time from both left and right! :lol:
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by RWAC »

spider wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 3:45 pm Wanted Monty Mole is actually something I can get a few screen in whereas BITD I could not get more than a couple of screens if that. Usually fell of something resulting in an repeated death syndrome.
See, I've completed Wanted Monty Mole but I wouldn't have the patience to do it now, as I'd get frustrated at keep having to play through the same screens over and over.
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by toot_toot »

I recently bought the compilation “Stars on the 128k” and I managed to complete Yie Ar Kung Fu (with the extra stages) without losing a single life. Maybe it’s because you don’t need lightening fast reflexes to do it, but I remember never even completing the 48k version 30 odd years ago!
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by Morkin »

Manic Miner - still can't complete without POKEs, but get further now than I ever used to.

Atic Atac - never used to complete it (don't laugh), but have been able to finish it consistently in recent years after learning the map a bit. Not sure I've completed it as the wizard yet though.

Escape - managed to escape the maze at all 5 difficulty levels in , don't think I ever did that in the 80s.

Gift from the Gods - recently got close to completing, just needed one more shape to complete the game but it was getting excruciatingly difficult at that point, and I died...

That's about it though. Definitely had faster reactions and more persistence when I was younger... :cry:
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by spider »

Gift/Gods and Shadowfire, a friend back then was really into both of these although I tried them briefly they never really appealed somehow at all. I have tried them since but not really felt any better about them! :D

One Man / Droid , I was not that good at it back then nor Ant Attack either but now I'm useless at both, the latter especially I struggle to rescue more than two! And that's on a 'good' day. :D
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by animaal »

Glider Rider. I beat it in recent years, but back in the day I didn't even really know what to do.

In my case, the Internet was a great help, seeing other people's efforts, and descriptions of the best tactics. I know we had magazines back in the day, but I think there are far better supports now.
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by spider »

animaal wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:58 pm Glider Rider. I beat it in recent years, but back in the day I didn't even really know what to do.

In my case, the Internet was a great help, seeing other people's efforts, and descriptions of the best tactics. I know we had magazines back in the day, but I think there are far better supports now.
Ah I only tried that for the first time this year or last year. I'd not bothered to read any instructions :oops: but remembered it was reasonably well liked BITD, needless to say I did not have a clue what to do, or how to get off the ground! :mrgreen:

Game help yes I agree. There's a reasonable chance there could be an .rzx if you need a bit of a push in the right direction without watching it all or the TipShop for assistance or indeed this or other forums where there may be a topic or three already covering the game and if not someone is highly likely to be able to help if a new topic is posted. :)
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by Ralf »

Renegade.

Now I'm able to complete it in about 25% of cases. Or maybe 33% of cases. In the 80s I have never completed it.

I remember for the long time I wasn't able to complete level 3. I tried to fight the big female boss at a close range
and always it was a disaster ;)

Then one day I got my "aha! moment" and learnt to walk away from her and give her a flying kick when she was running.
Level 3 became easy.

But the next level it was knifers and the guy with the gun. Here I always failed. Either I attacked the boss and got stabbed or
attacked a regular guy and got shot.

Now I can do it. Sometimes. Actually Renegade is more a game about strategy them quick reflexes. In the last level you
have to manouever everybody so you have that short moment to knock down one enemy. And you do them one by one,
leaving the boss for the finale.

I guess as a gamer I have now worse reflexes but am more planning and patient than before, when I was a kid.
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by toot_toot »

animaal wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:58 pm Glider Rider. I beat it in recent years, but back in the day I didn't even really know what to do.

In my case, the Internet was a great help, seeing other people's efforts, and descriptions of the best tactics. I know we had magazines back in the day, but I think there are far better supports now.
Yes, there’s definitely more help these days!

The big thing with the Spectrum was that the games you had were often copies (and sometimes copies of copies of copies!) meaning you had no instructions at all. You can see that the game magazines new this, because they would often give guides that were essentially retelling the instructions to those poor people with only C90 copies of the game! A good example was the Aliens map being printed in a few of the magazines, the game was impossible without it!

But the other thing was that even if you did own the game, usually the instructions were non existent beyond what the controls were and maybe a short, but very elaborate, back story to setup the game itself. I owned Glider Rider and it was still very cryptic what you were supposed to do from the instructions! Then you had the extreme of Ultimate’s games having a very simple poem and that was it!

I’m sure it was part of a plan to try and make a game last longer, there was certainly a lot of trial and error with games, but the irony was that once you’d worked out how to “crack it”, games sometimes could be completed in under 20 minutes. One of the most ridiculous games was Monty is Innocent. I could never complete is back then, but now there’s a “long play” video where it’s completed in 2 minutes!!!
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by uglifruit »

I'm much better at Ant Attack now. It might have been the controls (oh how I'd have liked that hack with absolute directions, rather than rotational ones back in the day!). But now, even with the original controls, I've gotten far more people rescued than I did back as a kid.
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by toot_toot »

uglifruit wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2019 9:46 am I'm much better at Ant Attack now. It might have been the controls (oh how I'd have liked that hack with absolute directions, rather than rotational ones back in the day!). But now, even with the original controls, I've gotten far more people rescued than I did back as a kid.
Is there a direction control hack for Ant Attack? I can't seem to get a hold of a snapshot (the page that seemed to link to it is now defunct) - http://www.icemark.com/dataformats/mirr ... Attack.htm

If you've got a copy then it would be much appreciated (and it maybe should be hosted on here too!)
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by PeteProdge »

Earlier this week I played day 1 of Daley Thompson's Decathlon, just to see about getting an animated GIF out of a running scene. I ended up finishing 1st on the podium, which never happened back in the day. Maybe it's the knowledge that my PC's keyboard can easily be replaced if I knackered it (I still have spares lying around), whereas a real Spectrum is a much more precious thing.
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by R-Tape »

PeteProdge wrote: Sun Oct 06, 2019 10:05 am Earlier this week I played day 1 of Daley Thompson's Decathlon, just to see about getting an animated GIF out of a running scene. I ended up finishing 1st on the podium, which never happened back in the day. Maybe it's the knowledge that my PC's keyboard can easily be replaced if I knackered it (I still have spares lying around), whereas a real Spectrum is a much more precious thing.
I'd never play a button masher on my real speccy these days for this very reason. I worry enough when playing shmups with a debounced fire key. However 30 odd years ago the thought didn't occur to me.

We played DTD as a group, and the best button masher was a lad called Paul. The keyboard was safe from him — his fingers seemed to subtly vibrate faster than the eye could see.
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by Ralf »

Maybe it's the knowledge that my PC's keyboard can easily be replaced
I was going to write something like this before... Modern keyboard is more comfortable to play than
Spectrum keyboard. And you know that it won't break. And if it breaks it's cheap to get a new one.

Spectrum keyboard on the other hand was fragile. Everyone knew stories that it has some delicate membrane
and some friend had a Spectrum and at some day a few of his Spectrum keys stopped working. By a pure
coincidence it was usually the key that he used for fire ;)

Yes, you could play with a joystick. But I'll tell you something personal, I could never master a joystick. Keyboard
just allows for more precision, at least in my case.

Today you can happily bang on a keyboard and nothing happens. Unfortunately for most of us it came to late
when our most intense gamer days are over.
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by uglifruit »

I was overjoyed at the ZX spectrum dead flesh keyboard, having come from a zx81! I remember trying (after reading about it) to use the wheel of a toy car, rolling over the zx81 surface to register keypresses more reliably!
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Re: What games are you better at now than you were 30 odd years ago?

Post by zxbruno »

Like others in this thread, I'm worse. I don't have the time nor the patience to play my old favorites the way I used to, and don't give newer games a chance. I think this will change once I retire.

When I discovered the Spectrum in 1987, all my uncle's games were in "backup" 60 mins tapes. :mrgreen: There were no instructions and part of the excitement and fascination involved discovering which keys to use and what to do in the game. I had no idea what Kempston was and some games had no redefine keys option. For an 11 year old, spending time figuring out games was fun. By the early nineties I was a serious Spectrum user and only played a few games, but I'd dedicate hours to each game. I also remember appreciating type-ins even if the games were very simple. It didn't matter if it was BASIC or M/C or a game with a bit of both. It was interesting. Nowadays I work 8 to 10 hours per day plus overtime and side jobs, and by the time I'm home, my Sinclair hobby consists of reading forums. Playing games? No energy for that.
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