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what parts of games are you nostalgic for (that isn't the game itself)

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for example, multi disc games, video game rentals, memory cards, cartridges, etc etc.

for me I miss multi disc epics, it always felt good to move onto a new disc after a massive cliffhanger, plus the sheer amount of discs can tell me I'm in a wild one.
but the last game to do that was the 360 version of wolfenstein the new order.
 
Menu themes always make me nostalgic (Wii, Gamecube, even the ambient sounds of the 3DS and the click of the Switch). There's just something about the ambience, the sense of being in a big space... I don't know how to describe it.
 
Arcades, manuals, game rentals, early Nintendo Power magazine (by early I mean before the "Play It Loud" campaign which started in 1994 IIRC).
 
I miss in older MMOs like Final Fantasy XI and the like where there weren't any waymarkers or arrows or anything to tell you where to go. You had to pay attention to what NPCs told you for directions and consult the map itself. I used to have a notebook just for writing down things. I'm sure this kind of game wouldn't really appeal to everyone though and that's okay.
 
I miss in older MMOs like Final Fantasy XI and the like where there weren't any waymarkers or arrows or anything to tell you where to go. You had to pay attention to what NPCs told you for directions and consult the map itself. I used to have a notebook just for writing down things. I'm sure this kind of game wouldn't really appeal to everyone though and that's okay.
Funny you mention FF11 when I was thinking of playing through the missions that will lead up to the 20th anniversary
 
Multi-disc games
While a rarity, games that included mini-posters or full posters in their packaging were always cool
Instruction manuals - mainly because they tended to give a brief intro of the player and story and sometimes would accidentally leave in early / unused stuff that is not present in the final game
 
More recently I’ve been missing memory cards, like the last console to use them as the main method of storage was the VERY early xbox 360 models, but then the external HDD came out. While the xbox series HAS a memory card, it’s a single one instead of owning 5 or 6 and you can do what it does without paying the 200 dollars just by getting a hard disk drive for 60 and plugging it in.
That being said the vita’s high memory card prices are a reminder of why they were phased out.
 
Multi-disc games
While a rarity, games that included mini-posters or full posters in their packaging were always cool
Instruction manuals - mainly because they tended to give a brief intro of the player and story and sometimes would accidentally leave in early / unused stuff that is not present in the final game
Funny thing you mention posters, as my physical copy of the indie game Cris Tales came with a poster inside, which I was not expecting. Last time I got poster with the game itself was either Project X Zone 1 or Skyrim but I don't remember exactly.
 
Manuals. So simple yet effective. They give you the basic rundown of the game and its controls. And if you ever put said game down for a while and came back to it and not remember all the controls having the manual really makes jumping back into the game easy.

Strategy guides. I love looking through strategy guides. While, yes, some games still come out with strategy guides, most have gone the way of the dodo. I especially love any commentary that are put into the guides, like a snarky remark about a certain boss or a bit of lore surrounding certain enemies. Plus, it made learning and remembering certain aspects of the games easier. I also love sniffing out any errors in guides, too, just for fun. Plus they often had nice visuals or other imagery that are nice to look at.
 
Strategy guides, the "secret base" feature in gens III, IV, and VI, game demos in magazines like the UK's Playstation Magazine, and clunky-looking 3D models.
 
i looked in here JUST to see if strategy guides were mentioned! it's interesting because i don't even think i've ever used them for the intended purpose which is mostly like walkthroughs and stuff. i would always read through them after i would beat a certain game just to see if there's anything i've missed, look at the pretty photos, things like that. good times. c:

i feel kinda bad that i didn't pay much attention to instruction manuals back then...
 
Back in the day, strategy guides written by third parties would often be referred to as “unauthorized.” That meant either nothing or that the guide was likely to be of lower quality or containing errors since it didn’t come from the official source (the developers). However, around the late 1990s, that became a marketing gimmick where these companies would portray their guides as having cheats or secrets which the game developers were somehow hiding from us all…because of reasons? I guess. So you’d get these guides with the words “TOTALLY UNAUTHORIZED” plastered on them in neon colors as if it was some sort of a limited time, possibly illegal deal.

It was kind of neat.
 
A more specific little thing from older games that I used to always appreciate: when the manuals would sometimes have a bit of extra backstory, expository comics, mini profiles on the game's characters, etc. tucked inside that didn't serve as much purpose as, say, giving you a rundown of the controls, but were still fun to read in your spare time. The last game I remember buying that still did the little "blurbs on the characters" thing in the manual was Sonic Colors.

Going to Blockbuster to rent games, too, before we could finally get our own copy - mostly Mario Kart Wii/Double Dash!! and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
And secretly staying up way past bedtime on a school night playing a GBA/DS game... though I was caught for that at least once.
 
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