Robot

My (slightly premature) eulogy for Blockbuster Video and smaller, grimier independent video rental joints stirred up a bit of misty-eyed reminiscence amongst you ladies and gentlemen. Ah, but video store nostalgia is as wide as the Sahara; it can't be defined by a mere blog post. So let's try two!

The mere act of renting a game was pretty special. But one trait that was exclusive to the 8- and- 16-bit eras made for a truly unique experience that is quickly fading from Blockbuster's shelves: The game cartridge back-up battery. When you rented an NES, SNES, or Genesis game, you also took home the history of its previous foster parents.

In some ways, those stored save files were a welcome bonus. When you rented a game, you only had it for three to seven days. More often than not, the game of your choice contained a save file that was mere steps away from the final confrontation with the Big Bad. If you wanted to see a title's endgame and knew you would probably never be able to afford your own copy, it was a good way to see how the story wrapped up.

Of course, spoiling a game to such a degree also came with some pretty big downsides. My first play-through with Final Fantasy VI was on an SNES rental copy of the game. I made it to the town of Thamasa before my time was up. Before I returned the game, I decided to take a peek at the first save file, which had something like 60 hours clocked on it.

A personal observation: Seeing the World of Ruin for the first time without any context leaves a hell of an impression. I had no idea what was going on. On the plus side, I resolved that Final Fantasy VI was a game I simply had to own, even if I had to push over old ladies to raid their pockets for change. Sure enough, I acquired Final Fantasy VI and I managed to do it without pushing over any old ladies. Regardless, it was the best game purchase I'd ever made.

But what made previously-rented games especially interesting was the sport of character-naming. Some RPG fans are tragically born without a fun gene, and just opt to leave a character's default name untouched. Others have a very specific naming formula that's followed with each game; these might be inspired by family members, or favorite literary characters. Still others just opt for names inspired by drugs, sexual acts, or filthy words. That's probably why the aforementioned Final Fantasy VI endgame save file introduced me to "Bitch" (Terra), "Spliff" (Edgar) "Queef" (Locke) and worse.


Was I innocent of such acts? Well, was anyone? Though I've since outgrown using dirty slang as character names (honest), I used to baptize the heroes in the games I rented as offensively as I dared, because I knew somebody would be picking up the game after I returned it.

I emphasize "as offensively as I dared." As a kid, I never swore. So the names I came up with might have made a grandmother frown in disapproval, but not much else. When I rented Dragon Warrior on the NES for the first time, I named my hero "BARF." Oh Lord, save society from the primal minds of youth! Even my own mother lectured me about how shock-names weren't worth the effort unless you were going to go all-out and at least employ the F-word.

Technological progress has evolved video games rapidly, and that's a good thing. But sometimes it's necessary to look back at gaming's roots--however crudely-names those ancestors were.



http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9053979

Dudebro

I remember this happening a lot. I still remember someone named their save file Coinman in an RPG I used to rent. It stuck with me for some reason.

Tails

use that on sites too DB?

Kong

I had a fiend that named all of his characters "I Farted" so every time someone said his name it looked like this

"I farted, well you accept the mission?"
"I farted, I'll join your team."

Slime Slayer

I always used to name them random basic foods, bread, milk, meat ect. I have no idea why.

pieman124

Thats funny. That cna also be done on Pokemon.

Go " off a cliff. "

RU Joe

So it seems the general feeling is that Blockbuster is dead, and every time I hear it I can't believe it.
Now, I think I mentioned in another thread that here in Vancouver Blockbuster is alive and well and you still see people lined up to rent movies and games.
However, some stores have rented space to WIND {phones} so I guess they're kind of like a FIDO or a McDonalds' amalgamation.
{which I'm certain we've all seen by now - these 'stores within stores' that seem to be commonplace}
Certainly these alliances benefit both companies.

What was I saying?
Oh yeah, I wanted to say that when I would play a Role Playing Game like Dragon Warrior



I would use cute, elf - like names which I thought suited the character and the setting of the game itself rather well.
I know, it doesn't have the same 'shock value' as it would if I named my character something else.
But when I play RPG's, I really get into the game and try to imagine how the setting would look if it were real!

Yeah, I know it's nerdy - but I stopped short at putting on costumes while playing - except on Halloween.


Hey DB, it's Taloon's store!

Normdogg

Gotta miss the old days. That was a good article.

StarfoxFan2009

I still do name my rival shock names on the Pokemon games,

fenrir1887

Me, too. I still name my guys on Sword of Mana something off the wall or foul myself when I'm mad.

Dudebro

Are you asking if I use a name I saw on a rented game? I'm kinda confused.

I actually never really liked Taloon or his chapter in that game. It was cool and all but I just had no connection with him and I didn't care beyond getting past it. That Taloon game is awesome though. Would've been better as almost any other character but what's done is done.

Slime Slayer

Taloons chapter was my favorite, selling items to random npc's was hilarious.

Demon-Mask

Like this?

StarfoxFan2009

amongst other things... XD

RU Joe

Quote:
Originally Posted by JG
Hey DB, it's Taloon's store!

DB:
SC13:
SFF:
Good to see I'm not the only one to remember good ol' Taloon.
DB, I know that it wasn't the greatest chapter in the game, and that's the point in a way; that bit with the store seemed to go on forever.
Seriously, I thought there must have been something wrong with the game cartridge itself and it was locked in some kind of weird loop from ? overheating ?

ON I played, laughing and saying
'It won't stop, it just won't stop - Bwahh ha hah ha - Hey, what should I do now? Should I continue to play the game, or reset it - '

{my buddy, between gales of laughter
'NO, DON"T TURN IT OFF< Are you CRAZY? Do you know how long you've been playing this thing now?'

Me:
'Yeah, I know that, but LOOK AT IT - it's like, frozen or something...'

StarfoxFan2009

I also had a lot of fun naming other characters...

Dudebro

I'll give it that, it was certainly different. It's like the game tempo slows down to a crawl suddenly and the gameplay shifts. Like I said before it was cool but I do remember it being annoying and I was happy to see him in jail afterwards or w/e punishment happened, been a while. Just another reason that game is so good, it makes you feel something about the characters.

Tails

Like how you took Dudebro form your bro

Dudebro

So you are asking if I took some random persons username and started using it? I don't think you understand the story of my username if you're wondering about that.

Tails

Someone took their username from another user in a game. Thought it was you.

joz

Did anyone ever luck out and manage to rent the same game with your saves untouched?

Seahawk

I did, for both Super Mario RPG and Donkey Kong Country 3 back in the day.

Best day in a kid's life ever.

fenrir1887

I never did.