Before ~25 years ago, PC games were rarely patched, and if they were, you had to get a replacement floppy disk. Others would know better than I, but I think Xbox was really the first console with game patches? Maybe Dreamcast?
I remember being able to track down some update binaries or other patch-type files for some games in the mid-90s, either getting physical disks from friends or even downloading files from a BBS, but it was really widespread highspeed Internet that made patching feasible.
If you were releasing a game in 1990, you had to be SURE the game would work. There were of course bugs—always—but the game had to work.
I still remember being fucking enraged that Warcraft 3 TFT didn't even ship with its last two missions. They just assumed everyone who played the game must be in it for the multiplayer and therefore have easy online access.
That was only 20 years ago that it was still a problem. Because even well into the millennium most people were still on AOL and not in any state to download a full fucking file sized patch for a video game.
Its worse than it sounds. The final campaign is a pseudo open world RPG with 3 "missions" that can take 5-10 hours to fully explore and complete each.
So it launches with 1 huge mission for you to get deep into and start enjoying, only to then blindside you when you get on the boat that "oops we didn't have time to finish this campaign, give us a few months!"
And of course it was the canary in the coal mine of Blizzard's retarded politics baked into it too. Where Jaina's dad is "evil" because he was a veteran of the Old War and doesn't trust Orcs setting up a capital within a stone's throw of his nation after all the evil they did. So his own daughter betrays and murders him for her new Orc bf, because they said they were sorry and dindu nuffin because it was all da demons fault anyway.
I don't know about wherever you guys lived, but no one in any town near me had access to internet speeds that could download even a sub 100kb picture in less than an hour. On dialup where any moment you could lose it all.
So any size above 0 was a giant risk and struggle.
Before ~25 years ago, PC games were rarely patched, and if they were, you had to get a replacement floppy disk. Others would know better than I, but I think Xbox was really the first console with game patches? Maybe Dreamcast?
I remember being able to track down some update binaries or other patch-type files for some games in the mid-90s, either getting physical disks from friends or even downloading files from a BBS, but it was really widespread highspeed Internet that made patching feasible.
If you were releasing a game in 1990, you had to be SURE the game would work. There were of course bugs—always—but the game had to work.
I still remember being fucking enraged that Warcraft 3 TFT didn't even ship with its last two missions. They just assumed everyone who played the game must be in it for the multiplayer and therefore have easy online access.
That was only 20 years ago that it was still a problem. Because even well into the millennium most people were still on AOL and not in any state to download a full fucking file sized patch for a video game.
Here I was just praising WoW too. I never played WC3 and had no idea. I agree that's complete BS, man.
Its worse than it sounds. The final campaign is a pseudo open world RPG with 3 "missions" that can take 5-10 hours to fully explore and complete each.
So it launches with 1 huge mission for you to get deep into and start enjoying, only to then blindside you when you get on the boat that "oops we didn't have time to finish this campaign, give us a few months!"
And of course it was the canary in the coal mine of Blizzard's retarded politics baked into it too. Where Jaina's dad is "evil" because he was a veteran of the Old War and doesn't trust Orcs setting up a capital within a stone's throw of his nation after all the evil they did. So his own daughter betrays and murders him for her new Orc bf, because they said they were sorry and dindu nuffin because it was all da demons fault anyway.
Warcraft 3 patches were much, much smaller than patches for games are now too.
I don't know about wherever you guys lived, but no one in any town near me had access to internet speeds that could download even a sub 100kb picture in less than an hour. On dialup where any moment you could lose it all.
So any size above 0 was a giant risk and struggle.