Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: Lost Forever Games
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2025 21:10:12 -0000 (UTC)
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Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 16:27 this Thursday (GMT):
>
> Game preservation is becoming increasingly popular; the restoration of
> old games, not only making them available for sale but ensuring they
> can be played on modern hardware. It's been GOG's modus operandi for a
> while, but other publishers are increasingly realizing that it's a
> potentially profitable way to make money off their back-catalog. It's
> good for gamers too; there are some ancient classics that haven't been
> seen by gamers in decades, and deserve another chance to shine. 
>
> But it occurred to me --whilst thumbing through the back pages of an
> old copy of "Computer Gaming World"-- that there is one genre of games
> that will /never/ be preserved and, in fact, seems likely to be
> forgotten forever. And that's the world of PBM/PBEM games.
>
> Now, while it is likely some of the regulars here at least know about
> these games, a lot of modern games might have no idea what those
> initials even mean! (It stands for "Play By Mail / Play By E-Mail).
> Before the Internet, it was one of the only ways to play multiplayer
> games without physically lugging your Commodore-64 to your neighbor's
> house and using a null-modem cable, or squeezing two or more onto a
> computer keyboard. With a PBM/PBEM, you'd get a status update of the
> game (usual a photocopy of the 'game board') and a selection of moves
> you could make in your turn. You'd fill out the appropriate form, pop
> it in an envelope, and send it off to the bloke running the game. Said
> central dispatcher would enter your moves into his computer, then send
> the next player an updated copy of the game status, and the game
> proceed round-robin through each player until the turn was complete.
>
> It was slow, it low-fidelity, often arbitrary in options and results,
> and it often made Infocom games look impressive with their visual
> fidelity. But if you wanted to play against a group of people from
> around the world, it was usually your only alternative. The games were
> comparatively cheap too. Sure you might find similar options with a
> BBS Door game, or if you were in university... but the rates for
> either of those in the 80s and early 90s could be exorbitant! PBM/PBEM
> games were cheap in comparison (although still not THAT inexpensive.
> Rates of $5 for initial set-up and $2 per turn were common).
>
> Because they relied on proprietary software --often run by a single
> individual-- there was no wide-spread distribution of the game code.
> When the companies running them went belly-up (even by the early 90s
> they were a dying breed) no attempt was made to preserve the code.
> Even if there was, these games often didn't run on home micros, but
> ran concurrently with other games on re-purposed PDPs and other old
> mainframes. And even if they could be preserved, they aren't something
> you could easily run on your own. So a lot of the games are just gone
> forever.
>
>      (Technically, the PBM/PBEM genre isn't completely dead*; 
>       in fact some modern games still include a PBEM option! 
>       But all those services advertised in the back pages of 
>       gamer magazines are lost) 
>
>
> Which is a shame because --while they weren't very good-- they were a
> part of gaming history that deserves to be remembered, and it seems a
> shame they've been tossed into the dustbin and forgotten. 
>
> I tried PBM games a couple of times; one was a role-playing game of
> some sort, another was a strategy title. I didn't stick very long with
> it because it was just so limited in options and the responses were so
> trite and arcane that it didn't seem worth the cost. Sure, the idea of
> multiplayer gaming was neat, but since you weren't really interacting
> with the other players it didn't feel much different than playing
> against the computer. Maybe some PBM games were better, but the ones I
> experienced quickly put me off the concept. 
>
> Do you remember PBM games? Did you ever try one of the services? Did
> you RUN one? Is there any hope, you think, of preserving the software
> from this lost era of gaming?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> * here's a list of active games
>  https://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/pbm_list/all4.html


Hey, thanks for the list!

As for actually playing them, I tried to play some PBEM Chess with a
friend a few months ago, but it kinda fell apart since neither of us
were good at chess lol.

also i think i played one on ham radio once?

The idea still fascinates me though, it has the same kind of appeal as
TTRPGS. Being able to control and play a whole videogame by just writing
some words down and sending them off to a gamemaster is such a cool
idea, and I really wish it caught on more.
-- 
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom