Ye Ol' Loading Times Discussion *Click* *Beep*

[Scummbuddy]

As I sit here trying to re-install Windows XP, I had to use a Boot Disk to jump start the process. Not just one boot disk, as you would think it would be as they refer to it everywhere as "Put in the Book Disk at this point."

No! It's six boot disks. But that's beside the point. I'm really enjoying this right now. Not because my computer is on the verge of death, but the little tinker/clicking/loading sounds coming from my forgotten A:/> Drive. Oh, how I've missed these sounds. I was immediately brought back to a simpiler time. When adventure games came on 6 disks and nobody seemed to care about loading times or switching back between disks because the area you wanted to go to was saved on another disk.

And I've often thought as to how something like this could be implemented through AGS. It seems like its one of the only things that can't be emulated through AGS. Sure, you could have a silly pop up GUI that says "Please insert CD 12 into your CD tray" but it just doesn't have the same feel. The loading sounds for these 5 1/2" and this 3 1/4" disks were much cooler. So, I may be showing my age and definitly being taken over by nostalgia, but I do miss these sounds and their part in my gaming history.

[CodeJunkie]

Ah those good old Windows disks.  I've had to use the very same ones many many times until I gave up trying to work out why my computer kept destroying Windows and pretty much got a new one instead.

On topic though, I've always like the sound of floppy disks.  I grew up with an Amiga as a child and disk swapping was just part of the fun.  It's exciting when you've gotten further in a game than ever before, and you're prompted to insert the next disk.  There's something very satisfying about having a whole collection of disks for a game, it makes it feel like you've got your money's worth.  The Amiga drive made a more pleasant noise than a PC disk drive though, like a soft inkjet printer.  Of course floppies are so damned unreliable, I'm sure everybody has seen their favourite games stop working, and the stuttering from the floppy drive while you cross your fingers hoping that blowing on the disk will make it load this time.

[Hudders]

Ah, yes. I remember the days... 

We, (my brother and I), had a tempermental ZX Spectrum that wouldn't load certain games unless you stood outside the room, (or so it appeared to our eight and ten year-old minds).

[Radiant]

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=19990318

[lo_res_man]

back when the the big box actully was useful? I came into the field to late to really grow up with it,  but as an collector of old games I agree, the wiring of a cd always make me sweat. why? cuz once I had just bought riven, ( thank you radio shack!) BUT TOO LATE TO RETURN IT. and well, the third island cd suddenly sped up like a jet turbine, I opened the drive, but it shot out without slowing down,  the cd span in its tray, scoring the cd to uselessness, on the grainy plastic. I didn't get to play riven for 3 years, until I found a copy at a second hand store ( and thank YOU thrift stores!)

[LUniqueDan]

Back in time where my C64 1541 disk drive weighted 3 times my actual laptop, I do considered the fact that the 'flip' on it were a kind of extra button.
Not to mention that in many adventure games, that it's the Diskdrive sound who tell you that you achieved something at the first place, not the screen.

The feeling of 'Put[ting] in side two and push[ing] joystick button' is, I'm affraid, lost. Even if it was a cut scene, and in some part almost an art (remember Duke in GiJoe?) I tried a lot to emulate it last fall but failed.

Scummbudy : Yep - And to that point it's not nostalgia - it's melancholy. But your thread gave me the final justification I need to justify mazes in my game:
teasing by making the character wish that time past faster - growing expectation in their mind.

NEW
READY.
LOAD"$",8

[Steel Drummer]

but the little tinker/clicking/loading sounds coming from my forgotten A:/> Drive. Oh, how I've missed these sounds. I was immediately brought back to a simpiler time. When adventure games came on 6 disks and nobody seemed to care about loading times or switching back between disks because the area you wanted to go to was saved on another disk.

I think that you can actually alter your sound card to make the computer play those sounds for older games (I think you can do that via ScummVM). 

On-topic: I love downloading abandonware games and then realizing I can't play them because I don't have 'disc 42'.

back when the the big box actully was useful?

Do you mean the boxes that games came in? I hate how they have those puny little PC game boxes now. I had grown quite fond of the big boxes.

[Ghost]

Sure, you could have a silly pop up GUI that says "Please insert CD 12 into your CD tray" but it just doesn't have the same feel. The loading sounds for these 5 1/2" and this 3 1/4" disks were much cooler.

Would it be so hard to hunt the internet for a wav file, or record one at home? I actually had a little prog way back in 1985 that played the terrible, terrible (but yet strangely pleasant) sound of a needle printer each time you printed something.
I agree, though, I've come to miss that dry "ruddle-ruddle-ruddle" of a disk drive. I can still remember Phantasmagoria, a game that came on seven (?) CD Roms (in a time where people still firmly believed that the CD was the ultimate in data storage), and each disk change made me long for a sound other than just this tinny little "whrrrr".

Spoiler

But even with a better sound, the game would still have sucked.

[close]

[m0ds]

Nice idea, Scott. Have a feature on AGS that means you need to use disks Well, there is that "split EXE into x mb chunks" option, isn't there? I remember the days of waiting for things to load from discs. 3.5's were like gold back in the day However, I think with adventure games I just managed to avoid the loading times & installations using 3.5 discs. I only got a computer when CD drives were standard (back in 2000 ish) and so I managed to get all the games I wanted on CD. But regarding loading times, the fact it takes no time at all to load adventure games...is brilliunt!!!