EDIT: Seems dynamic music is back in style in some very recent games, many of which I haven’t really played yet. Good. wholesome

For me, it’s dynamic music, the kind that some games had that adjusted moment by moment to what was happening in the game.

The best-known example of this in the 90s game TIE Fighter, where the moment more enemy (or allied) ships showed up the music would have a little additional flourish to acknowledge the shift in battle. There were pre-battle tension tracks, battle music, complications of battle, grandiose flourishes for the arrival of enemy or even allied capital ships, and victory and failure music all ready to flow into the next seconds of the game.

A lesser-known but still excellent example of this was in Ultima Underworld and its sequel, where drawing a weapon had its own special “preparing for battle” tension music, getting attacked had a jump-out-of-your-skin joltingly sudden musical start that actually scared me as a kid when I got ambushed, music for battles going well, going poorly, victory and defeat.

I wish more games did those sort of second by second musical changes, but they’ve sort of fallen out of fashion for the most part. sicko-wistful

  • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    Cheat codes. They’re mostly just DLC and seasonal passes now.

    Game manuals. You used to have a short novella that came with the game. Some games like Wasteland 1, the manual was part of the game itself. Now you get jack shit.

    • PaulSmackage [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      I have so many video game manuals, mostly because i would rent a game, take the manual out, read it, put it down, and forget to put it back in its case. So now i have a bag full of manuals for games from shuttered rental stores.

      Also had multiple notebooks full of cheat codes, but i’m pretty sure everyone had those.