How did you used to discover new games before the internet?
I used to just go to my local video rental store and pick a game off the shelf that had interesting box art.

>>713807873 (OP)
friends showing me their games, demo discs, video game magazines

>>713808027
This and my friend had a modded PS1 so he would just call me to come over to check out a new game almost weekly.

>>713807873 (OP)
blockbuster or whatever dad got from the flea market

>>713807873 (OP)
Magazines and friends mostly.

>>713807873 (OP)
>How did you used to discover new games before the internet?
Gaming magazines.
Gaming TV shows.
Friends' recommendations.
Game discs.

>>713807873 (OP)
Older brother. He convinced me to buy MGS3 when I was like 10 and made me play the game.

>>713807873 (OP)
Word of mouth or boxarts. I didn't even know Nintendo Power was a thing

>>713808381
>*Demo discs.
FTFM, I suck dicks.

i read cheat game books and found games that sounded fun based on their cheat codes lol

>>713807873 (OP)
My cousin was a district manager at Eb Games/Gamestop and he would get me free games.

>>713807873 (OP)
Demo Discs, Game Magazines and friends in that order.

>>713807873 (OP)
They used to mail VHS tapes of game trailers then DVDs and demo discs straight to my house. Shit was sweet, that was back when gamers were the target demographic of video games.

Most magazines had directories of all their previous reviews so you had at least a vague idea of what a particular game was

>>713807873 (OP)
>pick a game off the shelf that had interesting box art.
That gave me a lifelong autistic obsession and more than one permanent fetish.
Super cool box though.

Video game magazines mostly, and occasional tv commercials. We also rented games at blockbuster to try them out before going out to buy it.

>>713807873 (OP)
I think the worst thing about magazines and no internet that zoomers dont appreciate is that you never learned that games were cancelled
I waited fucking years expecting BC to come out

>>713807873 (OP)
We saw cool advertisements for games on TV and in magazines

>>713807873 (OP)
I was subscribed to Nintendo Power, Playstation and Playstation Underground magazines
I all ALL demos ever on PS

>>713807873 (OP)
Gaming Magazines

It put me onto Scribblenauts and Zack and Wiki so I miss them dearly

>>713810117
>Ayrton Senna kart duel
Kino

>>713810117
I wish modern gaming journalism had cutaways of models

>>713807873 (OP)
Every weekend I'd ride my bike to the shopping center, buy a gaming magazine from the grocery store, buy some Chinese chicken wings, play some Metal Slug at the rental store waiting for the chicken wings, and rent a game for the weekend

>>713808381
you forgot renting games

>>713807873 (OP)
Gaming magazines and blockbuster

>>713807873 (OP)
Friends, Demos included with magazines, the coverage in those magazines and also the reputation of the devs. I had a pretty long list of devs I fucked with because of what they'd done in the past. That list is empty now.

>>713807873 (OP)
I used to rent them from the library
are nerds even a thing anymore? I got so much shit from people for reading and playing video games as a kid

>>713810995
Nerd became mainstream
Thanks, BBT

>>713807873 (OP)
I didn't. I used to go outside and ride my bike. I started gaming in the early 2000s when I was hit by a car.

>go to mall
>pick up videogame store flyer magazine from gamestop/EB games
>head to food court to look through it while eating some good ass pizza
>return when I've made my selection
that, and sometimes at night MTV2 would play video game clips with music over them sent in by people. There was a really good one with mr brightside over guild wars that got me to check out the game.

>>713811091
>I started gaming in the early 2000s when I was hit by a car.
That's what you get for riding your bike.

>>713811091
blud didnt look both ways, goofy ahh :skull:

>>713807873 (OP)
vidya magazines and vidya review shows

>>713811091
>normoid kid gets humbled
you love to see it

>>713810450
You just unlocked my memories of seeijg Chrome 2 in PC gamer
https://www.unseen64.net/2021/03/22/chrome2-techland-pc-cancelled/

I got a ton of mileage out of those jampak demo discs that came with pizza hut orders back in the PS1 days
>tfw couldnt play ape escape because we didn't have an analog controller forever

>>713809940
>VHS tapes of game trailers
I've only seen the consoles ones like for the Saturn or n64 release. They did once for individual games? I would love to collect these

>>713811965
They used to send me VHS tapes with two trailers on each one. I only got one or two but I remember one of them had Jet Force Gemini and DK64 on it. I think it was from Nintendo Power.

Magazines and worth of mouth.

I was a Nintendo Power subscriber and every so often my mom would surprise me with a Gamepro or Tips & Tricks from the store.

>>713807873 (OP)
Magazines and demos mostly.
>before the internet
For me that was before 97 and I was too young to give a fuck, I just played whatever my parents gifted me.

>>713811965
Nintendo Power sent out VHS tapes with goofy kinda skit based extended ads for their games. I remember I watched the Diddy Kong Racing and Star Fox ones over and over again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqz7T43HeIg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPsAoxLAhCk

I aint never 100% completing Diddy Kong Racing again though once was enough on that shit.

News papers, magazines, TV commercials, word of mouth, game stores in the mall.

>>713812773
Toys R Us did one of these for Pokemon. It ruined my life forever.

>>713807873 (OP)
I asked for Final Fantasy for Christmas because of a full page ad in Nintendo Power. It was probably September or October when the ad came out so I had to wait months to actually play the game. I tore the ad out of the magazine and just looked at it. i was a weird little fucker, also Final Fantasy blew my tiny little mind.

I grew up in the middle of bumbfuck nowhere so I relied on gaming mags and a mom and pop rental place. The nearest blockbuster was 40 minutes away.

But my local library had the internet and so I got to start using gamefaqs and shit in late middle school.

>>713813039
>50 cents to print out your autistic Jarpig breakdown from the library

Soul.

>>713813220
Did you have to sign up to use the computer and have to get off every 30 minutes too?

Gamepro magazines, in US. God, i miss the 90's, just for the videogame magazines

>>713807873 (OP)
Gaminformer magazines. I actually found out about fortnight from one of the last ones they printed. There was also e3 and YouTube.

>>713812396
when your library was scarce you really played whatever you got no matter how trash. It wasn't so bad. Beat looking at my boundless library of amazing games and feeling bored and empty.

>>713810450
I wanted those illbleed and rent a hero ports for the Xbox so badly...

>>713807873 (OP)
I learned to read and understand scoring.

Glover 64 was my first educated purchase. I love this game more than Banjo Kazooie. Hasbro released such a banger and the ost is one of the best in that era.

>>713812957
>i was a weird little fucker,
nah I kept reading the same video game magazines over and over till knowing it by heart day dreaming about all the amazing games that was showcased

Game magazines, rentals and whatever my parents could afford.
Thankfully a lot of kino games went down to 20 bucks, you know back in the day when games and consoles actually went down in price as they got older.

>>713807873 (OP)
>I used to just go to my local video rental store and pick a game off the shelf that had interesting box art
Yep, exactly this

Demo discs
in store playing setups
friends
magazines

>>713807873 (OP)
>How did you used to discover new games before the internet?

Game magazines at the grocery store.

>>713807873 (OP)
Same, just walked in and looked for anything interesting. I think I only ever actually owned like 3 SNES games, 3-4 N64 games, maybe 4-5 PS1 games. I'd basically be renting games on a weekly basis.
Granted I also had the internet, but didn't even know about Gamefaqs til 2004, so mainly played flash/shockwave games and shit on Jagex's site like RS1, flea circus and that well drop game. Also found some shitty MMO list and was jumping from one shitty F2P MMO to another.
I vaguely remember playing some isometric MMO with a farmer skill (one plant being cherry blossom trees?) and player shared fields, and I'd venture into this later town with these high levelled floating brown flesh tentacle balloon monsters nearby so I'd keep luring them over and watching the NPC guards fight them and slowly die over time until a mod showed up and told me to stop.
Fun times.

>>713807873 (OP)
>I used to just go to my local video rental store and pick a game off the shelf that had interesting box art.
this, but also I mostly didn't choose games and was stuck with hand-me-down games until the ps1 generation, so I had a list of franchises I knew I liked, and thus based my first choices based upon those.

>>713811051
>Nerd became mainstream
And then they got on HRT.

>>713807873 (OP)
Magazines, commercials, demo discs, sometimes mailed promos, rentals... Also, there was a period of time where I was just grabbing cheap PS1 games up from time to time because they were dropping in price so quick even while the console was current. Additionally, there was a time period where I would just buy whatever Squaresoft made. Bushido Blade, Einhander and Xenogears were all blind purchases made on the brand alone.

>>713807873 (OP)
magazines and tv commercials

>>713810621

>>713807873 (OP)
Gaming magazines and real life friends

>>713807873 (OP)
I loved reading vidya magazines every month, also gaming focused tv shows had previews of new games.
Rental store had new games.
I watched E3 every year since the early 2000s.

>>713807873 (OP)
>I used to just go to my local video rental store and pick a game off the shelf that had interesting box art.
Same

>>713808381
Man, Super Power existed here as well, in my language, along with a lot of other gaming magazines. I still have some laying around, and I wish I could actually buy all of them brand new to have the full collection. It's kinda nice re-reading some of them.

>>713810450
Not quite the same but I remember IGN saying Grandstream Saga for PS1 was based on a manga called Kros
I searched so fucking hard for that manga and I'm now 99% sure IGN just made it up for no reason.

>>713808381
I very rarely bought any games from demo discs, I just played the demos over and over. I lived in a small town and the selection at the local store was limited, I could never seem to get hold of the really cool games I had demos for. Had a demo of Abe's Oddysee for instance, must have played it over 100 times, never played the full game until I discovered Ebay many many years later.

>>713807873 (OP)
magazines, word of mouth, net cafes, stores, tv and other ads
but it was mostly just word of mouth

>>713807873 (OP)
Basically SONY telling me and my krew what games are kewl, what to buy, think and say.

>>713807873 (OP)
Big cheap bin at crazy mikes video