Yeah… We had the internet and great gaming mags with decent guides.
Gamefaqs introduced me to “100%ing” (the FF7 maxed party, all items, full set of master materia), before games tracked it themselves.
We had it pretty easy in the 90s and 00s; it was also fun as hell.
What is this? Lol. I’m a Millennial and I had access to the internet most of my life. I used it to look up stuff on there when I was lost.
If you want to make fun of Zoomers you don’t have to make stuff up. Let’s try some now:
Despite being obsessed with the gym, Zoomers have higher obesity rates, lower overall health and poorer diets.
Despite being connected more than any other generation they have the highest rate of loneliness and a fraction of the friends other generations had.
Despite growing up with more technology more accessible than ever before they have a lower computer literacy rate than boomers.
Terrified of a phone call or interpersonal situation.
OK, we could just say, scared shitless of anything more threatening than a kitten, and even then they gotta study the situation.
And these are the same people screaming for revolution?! “I, I… might have to raise my voice a bit! Or I might attend a march with 10,000 other people and hide in the back! Don’t fucking make me do it!”
Nah, by the time millennials were old enough to use the internet, it was already there. Speaking as Gen X, I recall the days when you could just get stuck in a game and never figure it out. Or you’d call a pay-per-minute phone number or hope a magazine would cover it.
Or you had a friend who’s brother’s friend’s neighbor somehow knew what to do, probably because they called the help line.
You can tell this meme was made by a Gen Z/Alpha gamer because games generally didn’t used to measure ‘completeness’ since that’s primarily measured today by trophies/achievements.
Sure, some games might have shown a percentage on your save file and of course you could find/complete everything in a strategy guide, but even those might not have shown absolutely everything including but not limited to Easter Eggs.
Edit: I grew up with a Sega Genesis, Gameboy, and eventually PlayStations.
Doom, Duke Nukem 3D and Wolfenstein3D used to have a level complete screen where it listed how much you explored of the level, how many secrets you found, enemies killed and so forth.
The only one of those I got to play was Wolfenstein3D and I didn’t necessarily explore it much because I only got to play it thanks to a pretty awesome computers class teacher at my school.
Ok so edit the above
Back when I attended school in year 7-9 we would have the demo of Unreal Tournament 99 and Return to Castle Wolfenstein on the computers and sometimes after school we got access to the computer lab and I got to have my first multiplayer experiences there
Later in trade school, in network class, we would build a network during school hours and game AOE II on it after the lessons ended.
Believe the original Metroid gave you a completion % after defeating Mother Brain.
Games didn’t have their own completion metrics; but we still used the term “100% completion” to refer to beating the game, and any and all side objectives if the game had any.
Um excuse me, if one was talking to GenZ/Alpha you would need to translate it or they wouldn’t get it
And, Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga all the way back on the GBA had completion targets along with the earliest FF games I can remember I think
ETA: Oh and Chex Quest/Doom also had a level end screen that showed how many hidden areas and collectables you found to
Had internet long, long before GBA came out
Yea, but not everyone had it or had reliable access
Well to me, this meme reads like someone assuming Internet was needed to 100% a game, while, at least for me personally and the games I played growing up, 100% just wasn’t really a thing. I either beat the game, i.e. beat the final boss/level, or I didn’t.
I even remembered hating achievements and was somewhat let down when they added trophies in a PS3 patch. I never liked the idea of ‘achievement hunting’ as I felt it detracted from the fun of the game. I find myself doing some of this still today, though I can’t help but feel like if they didn’t exist, I’d be happier.
Though to be fair, I never grew up with a Nintendo or anything beyond a Gameboy Color, not did I play many RPGs, including FF. The closest I can think of is collecting all the Pokemon in the first gen games (never owned any others). But of course, that required multiple versions of the game and multiple Gameboys and/or friends.
Today however, RPGs are some of my favorites and games are an entirely different experience.
Yea, that’s the joke, because Z and Alpha grew up in a gaming world where they could get a 100% completion video guide on their flavor of app an hour after release so they would assume you need internet to 100% a game and so to encounter someone who didn’t would be impressive (orrr they’d just go “Well duh your games were soo simple 100 years ago” who knows with these dang kids)
Tbh achievement hunting of today is annoying and practically useless, idk the old games that did it pre achievement usually had some flair with it IMO
Lol back when games were simpler, they were harder because one of the few ways they could make a game harder was to reduce the amount of leeway you had from needing to do pixel perfect moves.
Plus a lot of older games didn’t even have save points, so you either beat it in one sitting, left it on and hoped the power didn’t go out or no one else wanted to use the system.
Oh and arcade games were often tuned to let you have fun for a bit then suddenly get way harder so you’d lose and need to put quarters in if you didn’t want to start over from the beginning and ports to consoles often kept these mechanics. I remember noticing the pattern in mortal Kombat, where I wasn’t very good at the game (in hindsight) but could consistently win one match only to lose the next one, continue and repeat until I ran out of continues.
GameFAQs was founded in 1995 ya filthy casual
If you didn’t select which Final Fantasy guide to use by the quality of their ASCII art you’re not a real g*mer.
I remember getting a hint guide book. It’s have the particular issue in red letters and a white background. Under it was a red box with the answer obscured by the red box. You’d use a red filmed decoder to hover over the red box and then read the answer.
Then at one point game companies had a 900 hint line. I finally used it once. I kept on dying and seeing the death cut scene. So I’d pause and reload. And die again. I swore I had the right answer. Finally, I gave in and called the hint line. First and only time. Turned out when you solved the puzzle, it started the same as the death cut scene and then something happened and you make it through alive.
ooof
Upvoted for interrobang.
I was never big into strategy guides, but tips & tricks mags like Nintendo Power were so much fun. My favorite wacky Easter egg was if you enter the Nintendo customer service telephone number from the bottom of the console into the code entry field in Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, you’d get a busy signal.
I still have some of my original NES game booklets, including the one for Link. I kept them in a plastic bag so they’re all mint! I keep the Doom 64 booklet in my office space for fun.
Gen-X gamer here. I remember calling phone numbers for hints
I feel ya. Fuck me, we had to call a phone number for time and temperature.
