Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: candycanearter07 Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action Subject: Re: Lost Forever Games Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2025 21:10:12 -0000 (UTC) Organization: the-candyden-of-code Lines: 98 Message-ID: References: Injection-Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2025 23:10:13 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="69cd4be6317bfb96cff1c2eeebb1e794"; logging-data="3870216"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX181WJe/YC3EHw+LF0W3arlRy8vA9Tg6KzcraTjaugcb3w==" User-Agent: slrn/1.0.3 (Linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:HBphIz3CR6EF9X5TczTdeAYIfPg= X-Face: b{dPmN&%4|lEo,wUO\"KLEOu5N_br(N2Yuc5/qcR5i>9-!^e\.Tw9?/m0}/~:UOM:Zf]% b+ V4R8q|QiU/R8\|G\WpC`-s?=)\fbtNc&=/a3a)r7xbRI]Vl)r<%PTriJ3pGpl_/B6!8pe\btzx `~R! r3.0#lHRE+^Gro0[cjsban'vZ#j7,?I/tHk{s=TFJ:H?~=]`O*~3ZX`qik`b:.gVIc-[$t/e ZrQsWJ >|l^I_[pbsIqwoz.WGA] 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 is generated from /dev/urandom