|
So, I'm sure many have heard this before - the older generation harping on about how tough it was during their days. This blog is no exception and is inspired by the many "killing esports" threads, people complaining about streams, money in esports, etc. Many don't realise what an era that we are now living in and how our predecessors have struggled to give us the easily accessible entertainment we have now. I present to you some of the struggles that I went through to even watch/play/learn starcraft in the years gone by:
Back in my days...
1) There was no TL.net. I followed pro BW news from an amazing website called www.broodwar.com (if you click on it now, it's much different from what it was previously). Anyone remember it? I would follow the site everyday to catchup with the latest news and VODs. Then one day, it suddenly died (around 2001-2 maybe?) and with it, I slowly stopped following BW.
2) I watched BW vods using a 56k modem (!). I had to use a recording software called hinet recorder in order to record them from the stream and then watch them later. I had many many of these vods (a few CDs) but sadly I've lost them all. My internet at that time only allowed me to connect for 6 hours continuously. I had to calculate whether the VODs would finish recording in the amount of time I have left.
3) In between, I watched VODs in uni. But the number of computer terminals was limited (so, of course I can't use them if others are waiting for one) and bandwidth was terrible in peak hours. So, I had to come in to uni early to watch. I remember watching a hour long game (Grrrr vs some korean where the korean went 2-stargate carriers in a island match!).
4) For those that were present during the era, no one can forget the boxer dropship-era. BW at that time was very primitive but boxer's magical micro during those times were a sight to behold. I remember an epic boxer vs yellow game where boxer was dropping all over the map. And he must've been not mining at one stage.
5) Strategies at that time was very bad (no replays till patch 1.10!). When you and your friends played games of BW, it was low quality (but entertaining!) and it wasn't until much later that the modern macro concepts were developed.
6) My first multiplayer SC game was through a 14.4k modem (!!). At that time, playing through LAN was quite rare.
7) Pro-gaming at that time was a very foreign concept. The scene of scores of people cheering 2 players playing a game in an arena was strange, yet intriguing and exciting. Esports has much to owe the people who preservered and built the industry to where it is now.
 
|
Oh man, the modems. All the games of Brood War you can play for the cost of one city call! A common occurence was my classmates' moms and dads picking up the phone 
My country was, however, was a bit different than yours... most people didn't have computers outright, so most of the multiplayer games were played in our equivalent of PC bangs at the time. By the time most people got their own home computers strong 56k modem technology had already set in! Good times, good times...
|
Actually it was no replays till patch 1.08
I worked briefly for scnation.com and we connected to a "test server" with a beta version of 1.08. I remember sending our gfx designer a version of photoshop via ICQ with a 56k modem. Took about 14 hours.
|
I remember those days, ...the pain of connecting to battle.net from India on 56k lol...and finally when I got through I used to get booted out because I had 6 sticks of red lag! -_-
Ultimately the solution me and my friends used to play was the call the other guys phone and then use that to play. We were total noobs and used to have 2 hour turtlefests, which we would save and continue the next weekend! :D The first lan game I played was at a cafe, sometime around 2004 or so.
|
Lol...I remember when I would play over the direct phone connection with my friend - the option that only let you connect with one other person.
I also had dial-up internet back then that let me connect for a measly two hours continuously. It was also free through my dad's work, though...haha.
OH MAN THE OLD DAYS.
|
People complain way too much these days....
|
Back in THOSE days were when real money and real legends in eSports were born. John Carmack giving his Ferrari to the winner of a Quake tournament? One million dollars for the winner of a Painkiller tournament? That was not the exception, that was the norm. And it went on for a couple years. If you look all those big names up today, many of them took the money and became very successful businessmen. Prime example obv Fatal1ty, but the Xfire guy too. Many more run successful businesses, just look them up on Google.
|
who doesnt remember "1vs1 only dsl" games on battlenet or earlier "only isdn" etc etc ^^
sometimes when i miss the old days i remmeber the lag
|
On October 24 2011 21:52 CoR wrote:
who doesnt remember "1vs1 only dsl" games on battlenet or earlier "only isdn" etc etc ^^
sometimes when i miss the old days i remmeber the lag
lol yes, 1v1 only dsl was the shit 
|
wew here in my city, we had this Korean PC bang who had legit Blizzard games. We would play D2, WC3:RC and BW over legit B.net. that was back in 2002, it's name was Arisol. God, I miss those days when fast maps and back when I've been playing WC3:RC, I would rush noobs with archers and micro against other races because they all had melee starting units .. kinda like how 2 gate rushes .. 2 AoW and a PotM for a hero with searing
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
