I loved going to Babbage's as a kid/teen. PC gaming was so different and more varied back then. All of these different genres and weird little experiments with big, colorful artwork and amazing screenshots (usually of the cinematics). Plus, all of the literature and tchotchkes that were included, helping to establish the atmosphere of the game. Of course, there was often some annoying copy protection, but that was easily defeated.
Brick and mortar stores became mundane and physical media cumbersome to me long before the death of each, but I loved coming up in that era where a couple of 5 1/4 or 3 1/2 disks held such magical worlds.
Hey during the disc era of games you actually got stuff with the game that as it has already been said helped set the tone of the game. Also you usually got a manual. Yes thats right boys and girls a manual. That is a book that taught you how to play the game. I know that at oner point after this golden age of gaming they did put tutorials in games but those are few and far between nowadays.
Devil's advocate:
Where I live, the internet is... unreliable AT BEST. With speeds that top out at a whopping 7 Mbps on GOOD days. That is, on days when I can even get connected. Having a physical copy is much fast and much easier than dealing with a nearly non-existent internet.
I feel for you my friend. How is your cell service and using your phone as a hotspot? Also, have you looked at Satellite based services with speeds up 30MB? That's faster than the fastest DSL they offer in my area which tops out at 25MB.
Cell service is almost as bad. But I only use a pay-as-you-go phone that doesn't allow connections for hot spots. Not to mention, all plans are rate limited here, with overage charges that kick in if you download too much so those are off the table. I have been looking at Starlink, but with that ridiculous deposit they're asking for and the fact that they just lost like 20 satellites, it'll be a while before I see that active, or can even afford it.
Devil's advocate:
Where I live, the internet is... unreliable AT BEST. With speeds that top out at a whopping 7 Mbps on GOOD days. That is, on days when I can even get connected. Having a physical copy is much fast and much easier than dealing with a nearly non-existent internet.
I know this ALL to well... :P We live out in the middle of nowhere so we have had to deal with incredibly unreliable and slow internet. If you've ever heard of Xplornet (it's a Canadian company, I think). But we recently got that Starlink and it's 100x better than what we've had. Both in reliability, and in speeds. If that's an option for you, I'd highly consider it.
Devil's advocate:
Where I live, the internet is... unreliable AT BEST. With speeds that top out at a whopping 7 Mbps on GOOD days. That is, on days when I can even get connected. Having a physical copy is much fast and much easier than dealing with a nearly non-existent internet.
I know this ALL to well... :P We live out in the middle of nowhere so we have had to deal with incredibly unreliable and slow internet. If you've ever heard of Xplornet (it's a Canadian company, I think). But we recently got that Starlink and it's 100x better than what we've had. Both in reliability, and in speeds. If that's an option for you, I'd highly consider it.
VERY curious about your starlink experience. The ISP out here is the ONLY one out here that offers internet. Maybe if I get enough back on my tax refund, I'd really like to order starlink, but what has your experience with it been? How is your latency and do you hit any deadzones/dead times with satellite coverage going in and out?