Holy Crap! Digital Press is Poppin!

[Retromangia]

Hey gang,

LONG time member here. Registered all the way back in 2007. I remember browsing these forums all the time at my first real day job :).

The people here were fantastic, such a great community. But I could of swore there was a time however when tumbleweeds rolled through these parts. I honestly can't remember exactly when that was, as I haven't been here in forever since it slowed down. Did everyone migrate from Nintendo Age or some other forum that shut down?

Anyhow, enough waffling from me. It's great to see this community bounce back, and these forums alive and well again.

I know where I'll be spending a lot of my productivity time now :)

[gbpxl]

I got banned from Nintendo Age years ago and once that happened I started posting here a lot more. I used to always post on Game Rankings' message board but a lot of people stopped posting there including a lot of the people I liked so I stopped being active there. this is one of the few message boards left where it's neither dead nor so active that your words just get lost in the wind

[Aussie2B]

Welcome back! :)

I can't say I noticed an influx after Nintendo Age closed. We're a lot slower compared to in the '00s, but we're still kickin'.

[AdamAnt316]

I've never been a prolific poster, but I've been lurking here just about continuously since 2005. DP has had its ups and downs over the years, but like a certain battery mascot, it just keeps going, and going, and going, and going, and..........

[InsaneDavid]

Same, still lurking.

[SpaceHarrier]

About half the time I type out a response to something here, I don't actually end up posting it, but I still pop in fairly often.

Had no idea Nintendo Age was gone.

[gbpxl]

theres at least five other threads that start with the phrase "holy crap" :-O

[Niku-Sama]

wait, nintendo age closed?

when did this happen?

[Aussie2B]

A few months ago, I believe. The last few posts in this topic touch upon it: https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?173461-Opinions-On-Nintendo-Age/page14

[zektor]

I haven't logged in for years until tonight. Much less forum categories than there were a decade or so ago ;) I also see Joe hasn't posted since 2014. Anyone know how he is doing?

I miss the old crew. When I used to moderate the Emulation sub-forum (that was a really long time ago!) I remember the funny April fools pranks we used to play on the members :)


Where has the time gone...



BTW: Found my first emulation related post to kick off those forums back then...talking about system 22 emulation on my beefy Pentium III:

https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?44-Namco-System-22-emulation!


Nearly 18 years ago...wow...

I was actually here longer than 2002. There was some sort of forum update or migration around that time and I remember my post count was reset which was a bummer. But IIRC I became a member here around 1998 or 1999. Before that I came from Retrogames.com (Atila) and Dave's Video Game Classics.....man I am getting old :) . Now I am on AtariAge mostly....but my username there is "eightbit" and has been for the past 10ish years.

[Aussie2B]

Welcome back, zektor :) I miss all the old regulars too. I see a few on Twitter, but for the most part, it feels like everybody disappeared into the ether.

Wasn't the forum originally on ezboard? It's a bit before my time (though I was aware of the forum and would read a thread here and there a little while prior to my registering), but I think that's what I've heard.

[fergojisan]

Welcome back, zektor :) I miss all the old regulars too. I see a few on Twitter, but for the most part, it feels like everybody disappeared into the ether.

Wasn't the forum originally on ezboard? It's a bit before my time (though I was aware of the forum and would read a thread here and there a little while prior to my registering), but I think that's what I've heard.

I think EZ Board is right. I was getting the DP zine in the 90s and tried the EZ board out once and didn't understand it. I stuck to Usenet until 2002, when this board made more sense to me.

[YoshiM]

Holy moly....there's some virtual faces I haven't seen in a loooonnnng time.

Zektor: I saw Joe at Midwest Gaming Classic in 2018. He looked pretty good and was doing alright. He laughed at the DP jersey I was wearing and couldn't believe my shirt was still intact after all these years! He's on Facebook and from what he tells me some of the old guard is on there as well.

[TonyTheTiger]

I feel like there's a point where people notice there's just not a whole lot left to say. A decade is forever in Internet time and you just kind of run out of things to talk about on top of the overall drop in popularity of forums as a venue for online communication in general.

[mailman187666]

I've been lurking for a long time, but don't post as much as I used to. This was and sometimes still is a great place to learn the ropes about old school game collecting. The rarity guide helped me out a shxt ton way back when. Kind of similar to what TonyTheTiger said; a lot of knowledge about gaming has been discussed and documented and google searching can net you a lot of answers. Classic game collecting in the mid 2000s, only so many people were doing it, so the information about it wasn't as abundant online. DP had the answers though. The classic gaming/collecting scene has changed quite a bit since then as well. Mostly just got way more expensive lol.

[mailman187666]

theres at least five other threads that start with the phrase "holy crap" :-O

I just browsed one of them, and someone mentions how Keio Flying Squadron Sega CD at $170 was a crazy high price.

[jb143]

Now just imagine if all those lurkers started posting again.

I just happened on this at the bottom of the forum page,

Most users ever online was 17,575, 12-30-2019 at 06:00 AM.

That was just mere months ago.

[gbpxl]

Now just imagine if all those lurkers started posting again.

I just happened on this at the bottom of the forum page,


That was just mere months ago.

yeah I never understood that. though if the forum became too active, you wouldnt even be able to keep up

[Aussie2B]

I kinda doubt anybody bothered to read every single post back in the day, but it was good because then people could come with a variety of different focuses and find enough topics that were relevant to their interests and just ignore the rest if they so chose. We don't have that kind of wealth of choice now, nor do we have a wealth of different outlooks weighing in on topics. We used to even have enough activity to warrant section-specific mods, so the mods could laser-focus on the type of discussions of greatest interest to them.

I don't really know what's up with the crazy number of active users. I know they're like 99.9% guests, rather than registered members. Like right now, we've got 863 users online, but only 2 are actual members (one being myself). I guess it's just huge amounts of bots?

[YoshiM]

)I guess it's just huge amounts of bots?

The DP Servbot multiplied while no one was lookin'.

[DeputyMoniker]

About half the time I type out a response to something here, I don't actually end up posting it, but I still pop in fairly often.

Had no idea Nintendo Age was gone.

Yeah, just about every time I type out a reply, I just end up deleting it. Still lurking, I guess.

[jb143]

Yeah, just about every time I type out a reply, I just end up deleting it. Still lurking, I guess.

Heh, I remember your avatar from one of the Christmas contests years ago. I can't remember what mine was though.

[Aussie2B]

What was it called back then? DP 12 Days of X-mas or something? It was always fun seeing the forum full of Christmas-themed avatars. And of course it was awesome when we'd have like 40 people participating in Secret Santa. Granted, with that many people, there was usually one bad apple, though the rest of the forum would step up for anybody who got stiffed. As scummy as it was, my husband and I still joke about the broken Mortal Kombat for GBA, haha. It's like the quintessential crappy gift.

[jb143]

Yeah, 12 Days of DP Christmas sounds right to me. I couldn't remember if the avatar contest was part of the 12 day's contest, but it probably was. I actually won the grand prize when I was a new member and it's one of the reasons I stuck around. I sorta felt obligated, haha.

[ncman071]

yea this site is probably my favorite general site for retro games and systems. the community here is great...between this site and dreamcast-talk...i have been members of both since around 2005...i haven't posted as frequently as i used to but my collection was growing and now has kind of leveled off and i was getting most of my info from this site during those years. I will always be at minimum a lurker here and always appreciate the members on this site

[TheGam3r]

Been on here since i was 13! I got an email last night from the forum wishing me Happy Birthday and i decided to login for old times sake, i'm still alive don't worry!

[alec006]

Been on here since i was 13! I got an email last night from the forum wishing me Happy Birthday and i decided to login for old times sake, i'm still alive don't worry!

Same here only 14 years old, wow 2005 was 15 years ago, I was on Windows XP SP2 with a 17 inch CRT monitor, could get an NES for a very reasonable price on eBay and here usually via a money order, and newest console on the horizon was the Xbox 360, I swear I don't feel old :roll:

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

I was talking to a coworker the other day about the gaming sites that we used to take part in. Logged in today for the first time in a while and saw that I had a PM inviting me to participate in the Secret Santa last year. Whoops. A little late for that one. I do very little gaming anymore. I am actually working though the LRG physical release of Fernz Gate on the PS4. Definitely a twist on the "basic" RPG story line.

[Niku-Sama]

i miss the mesetta

[Aussie2B]

It's nice seeing all the familiar faces in this topic. :)

[TheChristoph]

There was some really wacky drama around here a few years ago over moderation or something, and I stopped coming (and it seemed like a lot of other people did too). I landed here from a random link and wow, activity!

[Greg2600]

i miss the mesetta

I'm still not sure what they were!

[ReaXan]

Same here only 14 years old, wow 2005 was 15 years ago, I was on Windows XP SP2 with a 17 inch CRT monitor, could get an NES for a very reasonable price on eBay and here usually via a money order, and newest console on the horizon was the Xbox 360, I swear I don't feel old :roll:

SP2 with 17 inch monitor was that life for me back then too lol

Overall this place has a great mix of gamers from all walks of life. I learned alot and had alot of great discussions over the years.

Digitpress was the spot to be even before collecting or retro gaming became a new norm.

[Baloo]

There's been so much drama on these boards over the years, that it's a wonder this place is still standing with posts. I don't buy or sell video games anymore though or collect, so I don't really come on here. I stay active on Sega-16 forums.

[Massimiliano]

I come every now and then to click the "new post" thingy and it's so sad to see so few new messages...
I remember that around 2006, whenever you would login here and click on the new post button, you would get 20 pages of stuff to read if you didn't come for two days, those were great times !
Trully miss the golden age of Internet boards where debate could last for weeks/months sometimes years. Now it's all about those crappy social network, fast written stuff, fast read, fast forgotten.

[TimTendo]

I'd been aware of this site for a long, long time prior to 2011, but that just happened to be the year I finally stopped being a lurker and make an account. In that time frame, I made a grand total of maybe 20 posts at most? It's so surreal to me to think that even though I personally feel like I joined pretty late into the community's lifespan, the time I finally actually joined is pushing a decade now. Time sure flies, even for us quiet lurkers LOL

I would try to promise being more active, but it's hard to guarantee anything these days. I suppose it doesn't matter much if I stick around or not, but it always feels nice to be a part of a community. Internet forums feel so archaic these days, but maybe that's a good thing.

[YoshiM]

I'd been aware of this site for a long, long time prior to 2011, but that just happened to be the year I finally stopped being a lurker and make an account. In that time frame, I made a grand total of maybe 20 posts at most? It's so surreal to me to think that even though I personally feel like I joined pretty late into the community's lifespan, the time I finally actually joined is pushing a decade now. Time sure flies, even for us quiet lurkers LOL

I would try to promise being more active, but it's hard to guarantee anything these days. I suppose it doesn't matter much if I stick around or not, but it always feels nice to be a part of a community. Internet forums feel so archaic these days, but maybe that's a good thing.

:: waves hand" :: ack....who cares if a forum is archaic? I'd rather read a forum I can search back to its beginnings than lose stuff on Facebook. In fact, forums are the only bits of "social media"I interact with.

[TimTendo]

:: waves hand" :: ack....who cares if a forum is archaic? I'd rather read a forum I can search back to its beginnings than lose stuff on Facebook. In fact, forums are the only bits of "social media"I interact with.

Word, couldn't agree more really. The sense of community is so much stronger on forums than any other kind of social media, even if you're like me and barely say anything!

[Niku-Sama]

then post more dudes

[DeputyMoniker]

Heh, I remember your avatar from one of the Christmas contests years ago. I can't remember what mine was though.

Ha, somebody remembers. I've tried finding the old thread but I haven't had any luck.


As scummy as it was, my husband and I still joke about the broken Mortal Kombat for GBA, haha. It's like the quintessential crappy gift.

I remember that incident. Good times.

[Baloo]

I thought it was that someone gave just a sole copy of Mortal Kombat II for Genesis to someone? I seem to remember that as well as a gift.

Coming here makes me nostalgic, especially the site design. Love the black on red. (No, seriously.) All DP needs now is an 88x31 button that you can use to link people to here.

Maybe one day Web 1.0 will make a resurgence. I can't stand Social media.

[Jorpho]

I can remember it was September of 2010 when the big technical hiccups hit the board. My life was going through some big changes at the time and the loss of something so familiar might have affected me. It's undoubtedly impressive that it managed to pull through and endure – my contributions to the old Classicgaming.com forums have long been obliterated, and likewise the-underdogs.org, and I don't think the xkcd forums are coming back.

But I feel a little weary of Internet commentary in general these days. Maybe I'm getting old and don't have the patience that I used to, or maybe people out there are just a lot nastier now. Certainly, I haven't done any physical game trading in years.

I came by here today because I was looking for an old post I might have made somewhere about some old Windows 3.x Internet software I used to use whose name presently escapes me. (Was it SmarTerm? ETA: It was Softerm Plus! Thanks, eVolt (https://browsers.evolt.org/browsers/archive/softerm-plus).)

[Aussie2B]

But I feel a little weary of Internet commentary in general these days. Maybe I'm getting old and don't have the patience that I used to, or maybe people out there are just a lot nastier now.

I totally feel you on that one, both in the weariness and the wondering of how much is a matter of my own perspective versus objective reality. I definitely have a lower tolerance level for childish behavior (from myself included) than I did back in my 20s, but on the other hand, I do think online discourse has genuinely gotten nastier, more divisive, and more negative on the whole. When I think about, say, trolling, what I saw a 15-20 years ago was mostly playful ball-busting. These days, it's often straight up bullying and harassment, stuff with real-life consequences even. Thankfully, this forum is still mostly spared of the ills of modern social media, but even here I feel the atmosphere is less positive than it used to be.

[YoshiM]

We had some nasties years back but typically the denizens of DP blasted them out in some form or another (the "Gary Shandling" manuever seemed especially powerful, each troll post followed by a response of "Gary Shandling", which drove the troll nuts).

[Bighab]

I've been here since 2002. I rarely post although I'm more active on Gametz or Video Game sage forums. it's fun looking back at past for sale threads and seeing how cheap(compared to now) I was selling games for. I like that Gametz has a record of all my trades too. I've been fortunate to have picked up pretty much everything retro I'll ever want. I enjoy lurking and reading new threads.

[Jorpho]

How is GameTZ these days? My days of physical trading largely came to an end after I encountered a colossal jerk there a few years ago. I would name him, except he has my physical address and I would half-expect him to swat me or something.

[Melf]

I don't post anywhere near as often as I used to, but I do pop in every so often to read the most recently updated threads. I do miss the old days of forums. Social media is total garbage.

[Bighab]

How is GameTZ these days? My days of physical trading largely came to an end after I encountered a colossal jerk there a few years ago. I would name him, except he has my physical address and I would half-expect him to swat me or something.

It's slowed down quite a bit like most forums have. You've got me curious as to who the jerk was lol. I remember trading with you in person like 15 years ago

[Bighab]

I don't post anywhere near as often as I used to, but I do pop in every so often to read the most recently updated threads. I do miss the old days of forums. Social media is total garbage.

I too miss the old days of active forums. I'm not big on social media at all myself

[Gameguy]

Yeah, 12 Days of DP Christmas sounds right to me. I couldn't remember if the avatar contest was part of the 12 day's contest, but it probably was. I actually won the grand prize when I was a new member and it's one of the reasons I stuck around. I sorta felt obligated, haha.
I'm pretty sure my first post here was to reply to one day of the Christmas contest, and I won that day's contest. I would have registered sooner but I'm always nervous of registering accounts online. The avatar contest was part of the 12 day contest, it was always holiday themed.

Besides the annual Christmas contest there was also a monthly contest here where 1 second of video game music played and you had to identify which game it was and possibly which console too. It doesn't seem like anybody remembers this contest even though it ran for years back when the forum was really popular.

[InsaneDavid]

Been on here since i was 13! I got an email last night from the forum wishing me Happy Birthday and i decided to login for old times sake, i'm still alive don't worry!

OMG! Digital Press' favorite son!! He has returned once again... the end times ARE upon us!

(Seriously though, it's pretty awesome to see so many people returning to say hi in this thread)


I remember I won the 12 Days of DP X-Mas avatar contest with an animated GIF of Santa from the title screen of Santa Claus no Takarabako for the Famicom Disk System. I don't remember exactly what the physical prize for the day was but there was also a prize of like 350,000 Meseta - kept me in the top five until it was discontinued.

[calthaer]

I feel like there's a point where people notice there's just not a whole lot left to say. A decade is forever in Internet time and you just kind of run out of things to talk about on top of the overall drop in popularity of forums as a venue for online communication in general.

Kind of feels like this for me. Back in the 2000s, modern gaming was a lot more like classic gaming. The GBA was still a viable system, and even the Nintendo DS was pretty "classic". I have no interest in whatever Nintendo's new system is - I can't even remember the name, honestly. Switch, that's it, right? Most of my gaming right now is on PC, downloadable - Steam. I still have some old-school games to get to on my consoles, but it's few and far between.

There are just too many amazing games coming out these days to spend too much time on my retro systems, and I think my gaming tastes have changed. I'm more a fan of turn-based games, RPGs with good stories, and somewhat less interested in "twitch" gaming (platformers and whatnot). Part of that is the fact that the formula seems a little tired ("been there, done that"), and if I'm going to play any platformer, why would I play Cave Meatsplat Knight IV (costs only $5 on Steam) as opposed to running through Contra again...or trying to beat Contra IV for the DS, which I still haven't finished?

The other part of it is that the platformer formula has changed. I am not sure exactly how, but I have the impression that it's geared these days far more towards the "hardcore" twitch gamers. Ever since Cave Story, everyone seems to have these idiotic areas where there is a U-shaped tunnel of spikes and you have to use a series of mid-air dashes and controlled falls / jumps to get through it. Feels stressful; no thanks.

I'll stick with Civ VI, Skyrim, and some of the other games I've been playing over the last few months. But then - no one really talks too much about Civilization VI here, so...

I did re-play System Shock 2, and that reminded me of the time Ed Oscuro and...I can't remember who else? We went through it multiplayer together, sometime back in the mid-2000s. Now that was good times.

EDIT: I guess the other thing is that my personal avatar is gone. I miss it. I'm not sure it does or does not affect the frequency of my visits? But every time I do come back I do wish it were here. It lives on in Steam and Discord and other platforms, though.

[Aussie2B]

I feel like middle ground gaming has somewhat disappeared, especially in the indie scene, where it never really existed to begin with. Everything is either for the "git gud" crowd who want games to play like Kaizo Mario World or designed for younger gamers who complain about games being "Nintendo hard" even when they barely put up any challenge.

[YoshiM]

@calthaer: didn't you have that image of a bard from an old computer RPG (Bard's Tale I wanna say but I could be very wrong)? You could always add it back in.

There's always things to touch on in regards to retro, depending how expansive you want to get. Atari Age is still jumpin', so you can't say everything retro has been said. I'm wondering if people who used to frequent here drifted over there for their primary "retro" fix and don't want to do double post duty?

Personally I don't do The Facebook or dem dere Tweeter or the Insta-pot-gram or whatever. These ol' forums are specific with an audience that's into the medium that the forum is about. The stuff we post about, to a certain degree, stay here and can be found with a search. Can't say that with the modern social media stuff.

[jb143]

Personally I don't do The Facebook or dem dere Tweeter or the Insta-pot-gram or whatever. These ol' forums are specific with an audience that's into the medium that the forum is about. The stuff we post about, to a certain degree, stay here and can be found with a search. Can't say that with the modern social media stuff.

I poke around Twitter a bit and one thing I've noticed is that there's a whole generation of people just now getting into retrogaming that havn't heard all the stories, and frankly, could use the education.




The other part of it is that the platformer formula has changed. I am not sure exactly how, but I have the impression that it's geared these days far more towards the "hardcore" twitch gamers. Ever since Cave Story, everyone seems to have these idiotic areas where there is a U-shaped tunnel of spikes and you have to use a series of mid-air dashes and controlled falls / jumps to get through it. Feels stressful; no thanks.

I don't remember Cave Story being that bad, but I just finished Celeste and its basically an entire game of absolutely nothing but that. The one plus is that games these days tend to have infinite continues, otherwise I would have given up after the first few tries.

[calthaer]

@calthaer: didn't you have that image of a bard from an old computer RPG (Bard's Tale I wanna say but I could be very wrong)? You could always add it back in. Yes...I did - that's exactly it. How do I do that? I've been trying to figure that out. Every time I go to select an avatar, it makes me pick from a gallery of pre-selected images. Maybe I'll give it a second look.

[Aussie2B]

If you go to Settings and then Edit Avatar you can select to use a custom avatar, either by entering a URL or uploading it.

[Robocop2]

Its been ages for me but life kinda got in the way and I like to pop in here now and again for nostalgia sake honestly

[calthaer]

If you go to Settings and then Edit Avatar you can select to use a custom avatar, either by entering a URL or uploading it.

I must just be missing it, then - maybe it's right in front of me somewhere and I can't see it. That exact place in settings only gives me an option to select from a set list of avatars ("Joe's Camera", "Cauterize", a couple of others) or to say "Do Not Use an Avatar". No place / option for a URL.

[Baloo]

Reading the posts even from 10 years ago, which was not DP's heyday has me nostalgic for an internet before social media. The forums really were popping then and there were a lot of fun times on here. I interviewed Joe for a college assignment years back. Even though we are all just faceless aliases, I must say I did make some friends on here that I got to meet in real life and have some good times with. Hope that many of you have the same fond memories as well.

[udisi]

*waves

[Cornelius]

*waves back

[JSoup]

https://y.yarn.co/eb4986ea-0740-4d20-bd53-3c5d1ca650a9_text.gif

Replace "you two" with "ya'll".