Campfire Tales - RIP Those Gaming Staples of Old

Remember hauling your console and a bulky TV to a friend's house just to play multiplayer games? Or strategically deciding which save files to keep on your precious 8MB memory card? Gaming has evolved at a breathtaking pace, and along the way, many once-essential elements have vanished into obsolescence.

This nostalgic journey explores five gaming foundations that once seemed permanent but have crumbled beneath the weight of technological progress. From the chaotic joy of LAN parties – where friends would gather with controllers, snacks, and tangled wires to play Halo 2 until sunrise – to the tactile satisfaction of those bright red buttons on a Kempston joystick that made us feel like we were piloting spacecraft. We reflect on how physical game collections that once proudly lined our shelves have increasingly given way to the convenience of digital downloads, allowing us to remain "melted deep into the sofa" while browsing our libraries.

The console wars themselves have transformed dramatically. What was once a battlefield with numerous contenders – Spectrum, Amstrad, Commodore, Atari, Sega, and more – has consolidated into essentially a Microsoft-Sony duopoly, with Nintendo happily playing emperor from the sidelines. And who among us still remembers the strategic chess game of managing limited blocks on memory cards, a challenge that would baffle today's gamers as much as cassette tapes confuse young music fans?

What gaming elements do you miss from the past? Share your own gaming nostalgia and let us know which fallen foundations you wish had survived the relentless march of progress.

Let us know where we're going wrong....or, like, right...maybe.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Intro Music Welcome, dear listener, to whatever this
is currently untitled and, goingby the codename, you never get
those minutes back.
5 Video Game Foundations thathave Crumbled Away its back.
Five video game foundationsthat have crumbled away as video
games and the technologyassociated with them has evolved

(00:29):
beyond any expectations Iharbored as a wide-eyed video
game loving kid.
We have witnessed the demise ofnumerous aspects from our
beloved hobby.
Elements and hardware thatseemed irreplaceable, now thrown
to the wind to never be seenagain.
The constant push for new leapsin graphical prowess, scope of
world building and an ever moreintuitive online universe has

(00:50):
sent some of gaming's seeminglyimmovable objects off to an
early retirement.
What follows is a little jauntdown memory lane as we remember
those fallen warriors of videogame lore and legend.
The seeming rock-solidfoundations of a growing global
phenomenon that crumbled to dustbeneath the weight of advancing
technology.
Anyone for joysticks?
The LAN party.

(01:12):
If there is one aspect fromgaming culture that I will
always lament the loss of, it'sthe fabled LAN party.
Long nights of gathered friendsconsoles.
Old fat big back TV sets ofgathered friends consoles.
Old fat big back TV sets.
Wires strewn across alcohol.
Soap carpets or fizzy pop soapcarpets, depending on the age,
greasy snack, smearedcontrollers and the loud and

(01:35):
bloody hilarious embracing ofpure gaming indulgence.
It was magic.
At a time when the onlinebeasts of Xbox Live and the
PlayStation Network had yet tohatch, the only real way a group
of friends could play togetherwas to drag all their shit to a
willing victim's previouslypristine living room and turn it
into a scene resemblingApocalypse.

(01:58):
Now consoles In our case, thiswas the old and remarkably heavy
original Xbox.
Add in a couple of those fat oldTV sets, one of which was
usually perched precariously ona plastic lawn chair, a handful
of controllers, including someof those dodgy cheapo ones from
the local discount store thathad less control than a vegan

(02:19):
trying not to tell you they're avegan cheap alcohol, crispy
snacks and wires oh my god, somany wires.
The setup itself was an OCDsufferer's nightmare, but for
anyone with a love of socialgaming, it was pure heaven and
the only real option.
The game of choice back in theday was generally Halo 2,
occasionally Tiger Woods.

(02:39):
The intense battles that playedout in standard definition as
friend fought friend across awonderfully brutal battlefield
will live long in my memory.
The arguments flung,accusations about watching each
other's screens, about havingthe shitty controller and about
the game just basically beingbullshit were wonderful and
hilarious in equal measure.
Evening became night, and nightrolled sleepily into the light

(03:02):
of a new day, whilst, under theglow of burning light bulbs and
jaggy graphics, our merry bandfought on bleary-eyed and a
little drunk.
Then the sands of time quicklyshifted and this vision was
buried beneath the dust.
The LAN party has all but gonewith the online gaming
revolution.
In fact, for myself it hasreached extinction.

(03:22):
Yet, despite the new shape ofmultiplayer gaming, I will
always believe the video gameworld is a little bit greyer and
a little less friendly for thedemise of the LAN party.
I'm always happy to embrace newtechnological leaps, but there
are also things I will forevermiss, although on the plus side,
my carpets have never beencleaner.
The joystick Not just thejoystick, the Kempston joystick.

(03:45):
I have no idea why this hasstuck so vividly in my mind when
I barely remember the make ofany other electronic or
technological device I'veencountered over the years.
But there was something about.
The old Kempston Joysticks, ofcourse, are still knocking about
and great euphemism still, butwhere once they were the key to
unlocking other worlds, now, atleast in my own world.

(04:05):
They have gone the way of thedinosaur, however, I do still
miss them and dinosaurs.
For a kid, these controllerswere magical.
They were a sign that thearcades were entering the home,
and this was immensely exciting.
The joy from four littlesuction cups on the base to hold
them in place when the actiongot frantic this really sounds
dodgy.
A couple of beautiful, brightred buttons that simply screamed

(04:27):
PRESS ME.
A trigger right for the pullingon the stick itself and, in
some cases, another red beautyof a button sat on top.
The thing was incredible.
The joystick was about the mostapt name device I ever knew.
It felt as though we were inthe cockpit with a joystick.
Oh god, here we go again.
It was real and it was perfectfor the escapist mind.
It was a bit shit, though, forDaily Thompson's Decathlon, but

(04:48):
that's not worth worrying aboutnow.
Instead, let's remember thegood days when frantic wiggling
didn't detach the thing from itssuction and grip and send you
flying from your seat in a blurof intense motion and shock.
I can't put this out on apodcast.
I no longer miss the joystick,however.
The modern day equivalent is athing of beauty and offers more
control over these games thanthe old faithful could ever
muster, but there was a momentin time where these things were

(05:10):
the pinnacle of gaming power.
I grew up playing games on ajoystick and it seemed like the
most natural thing in the world.
But, like so many otherelements of gaming history, the
idea now seems almost alien tome, although there will always
be that time when this coolestof gaming controllers had the
aliens running for their lives.
Physical copies of games.
Now, I know this is a long wayfrom being a thing of the past

(05:36):
currently, but the ground isdefinitely shifting.
I personally bought a PS5Digital and Xbox Series S,
neither of which can take a disc.
I originally approached theidea to deliver games straight
to the hard drive of the consolewith deep scepticism.
I loved my games collection,the boxes stacked high and wide
on the shelves emphasising justhow serious I was about playing
video games.
I enjoyed the tactile nature ofphysical games, the artwork,

(05:57):
the shine on the disc and thenew game smell.
There was, and still is,something cool about having
games in a physical state ratherthan a digital one.
However, my viewpoint hasaltered considerably and I can
only base my changing views onmy own.
Goddamn laziness.
As great as a physical gamecollection is, it is nothing
when compared to being melteddeep into the sofa, scrolling

(06:18):
through a digital collection,making decisions about what to
play without so much as movingthe air in front of us.
It is bloody lovely.
I've reached the point where Iwill sometimes not even bother
playing a game because it wouldmean going to the shelf to grab
the disc.
I mean, who wants to deal withthat?
Digital downloaded games aresuperb.
The fact that we now have toinstall games from discs to play

(06:39):
them anyway means argumentsregarding hard drive space have
become redundant and the reasonto pick up physical copies of
games is dwindling further,still to the point.
I personally cannot rememberwhen I last bought a physical
game, but despite that, I willstill always browse these games
if I walk into a game shop orwander by, and I will always

(06:59):
remember with fondness the massranks of my Xbox 360 and PS3
collection towering overeveryone who entered our home.
I will also endeavour to seekout a candle that comes with new
game scent.
That is my holy grail.
Multi-console wars.
The battlefield of the consolewars is ridiculous and littered
with the carcasses of numerouspretenders to the throne, all

(07:21):
marched in on a fanfare ofexpectation and hope, before
succumbing, usually to the factthey had forgotten to populate
their all-conquering aspirationswith anything resembling an
army of games.
For a kid growing up when videogames were becoming an ever
more powerful media platform inthe home, it was an exciting
time.
The console wars, or thecomputer wars as they began,
were not the two horse race weknow today.

(07:42):
Where now we have microsoft andsony fighting like gladiators
in the arena.
Nintendo sat back like someroman emperor eating grapes,
happy with their lot in life.
Once upon a time we were thrownoutlandish, new tribes marching
into the console wars in themisguided belief they could
topple the giants.
Spectrum, amstrad, commodoreand Dragon marched against one

(08:06):
another at one point, although,as I remember, dragon realised
they had left the gas on andbeat a hasty retreat.
The kids took sides and pledgedallegiance to the flag of
whichever computer their parentshad bought.
And then came the consolesAtari, nintendo, sega, even
Philips challenged for the topspot.
And again, as a kid, it wasamazing.

(08:27):
There was nothing quite likethe excitement of pouring
through the latest gamingmagazine gaming magazines
remember them and finding imagesand specs of a newly touted
entrant in the console struggle,the Atari Jaguar facing off
against the Super Nintendo andthe Mega Drive, the Sega
Dreamcast looking like a realcontender, like Sam and Frodo on
the way to destroy the powersof darkness, only to be crushed

(08:48):
under the ever-increasing powerwielded by Sony's Sauron and
their PlayStation.
And then the arrival of thesuperpower financial army that
was Microsoft, to prove agenuine threat to Sony's
newfound dominance, under thedeath of Sega and the retreat of
Nintendo to that place up inthe gods.
Watching the action, the wholething has become something of a

(09:09):
blur for me.
Now I only know that I did wanta Philips 3DO and I wanted an
Atari Jaguar and the Sega MegaCD and all the other bits that
went on top of a Mega Drive tomake it look like it'd been
created in Scooby-Doo's kitchen,and the fact that everyone was
pushing everyone else to gofurther with their tech was
joyful for the bystander.
Now we don't really have aconsole war anymore.
Sony and Microsoft have theirown spaces to play and fight and

(09:31):
by and large they are nearidentical.
Nintendo are off doing theirown thing.
The chances of anyone beingbrave or foolish enough to enter
the fray with a new consolethat can be taken seriously at
least seems beyond the realms ofpossibility, but for a while it
was the greatest war that everraged, pointless of course, but

(09:52):
pretty damn great all the same.
Memory cards Ah, the memory card.
Here we have a little slice oftech that will confuse young
gamers in a way that a cassetteconfuses young music fans.
Yet not long ago, these littlesquare, unassuming bits of
plastic were absolutely crucialin getting anything out of your
games, or at least in not havingto go and do the same goddamn

(10:14):
section of a game every time youbooted up the console.
And using the memory card, whatthis was?
As strategic as any of thegames that populated the era.
What to keep, what to remove,how best to utilize the limited
number of memory blocks was aconstant conundrum.
Throw two or three cards intothe mix.
It was time to form Mensa.
I will always remember the joy Ifelt when hearing the original
Xbox would ship with a built-inhard drive.

(10:36):
I believe it.
It was mere 8 gig, but at thetime that felt as big as the
universe.
Suddenly, the woes of smallmemory card storage lost memory
cards, corrupted data on memorycards was disappearing into the
distance.
The portable storage solution,and only solution, if you plan
to actually finish any of yourgames was breathing its last,

(10:57):
and I for one was happy to usherit into the junkyard in the sky
.
It seems a lifetime away nowthat we were so reliant on such
storage options, but because ofthe unrelated pace of technology
, it was really only a fewconsole generations ago.
The kids today don't know thebond, do they?
Lucky sods.