cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ninja/post/22114
I get it. You hate “boomer shooter.” Why have people spent years using the term without checking with you, the consumer? Maybe you just hate the idea of remakes. Maybe you prefer to play the standards that boomer shooters are built on. Buying old hardware can get expensive so I offer a way to go retro without breaking the bank.
PCem, a vintage PC emulator, while no longer maintained by its original creator, remains highly usable. As the author is open to delegating maintenance to a new individual, it’s possible that updates may occur in the future. For Windows users, backwards compatibility support is robust, suggesting that existing Windows versions of PCem should operate smoothly for the foreseeable future. Despite a lack of recent enhancements, PCem’s existing binaries are reliable and accessible, offering an excellent option for those interested in PC emulation.
UniPCemu, another full PC emulator, originally developed for PSP but now available on multiple platforms including Windows, is also an active project. It provides near cycle-accurate emulation of 8086/8088 chips, with only a 4% discrepancy, according to the UniPCemu wiki. This makes it a promising choice for those seeking an accurate emulation experience.
DOSBox, another popular emulator focused on DOS-based games, is still actively maintained, with a significant number of changes accumulating in its development repository. However, new releases have been sparse, as the development team emphasizes ensuring minimal regressions before rolling out new versions. The existing releases, referred to as 0.74-x, are primarily focused on bug fixes and don’t incorporate any new features from the development branch. Nonetheless, the developers have plans for a new release in the future.
Contrastingly, DOSBox-X has a distinct focus and is subject to frequent updates. Originally aimed at enhancing fidelity for running demoscene productions, DOSBox-X has now expanded its focus to improving fidelity in general. This active maintenance and the unique value proposition makes DOSBox-X a worthy emulator for those interested in high fidelity PC emulation.
Moreover, MAME is worth exploring for PC emulation. Its developers prioritize accuracy in their emulation, making it another strong choice for enthusiasts. Other options such as WeeCee, an actual miniature PC, could provide an authentic experience within a modern PC environment. Despite its size, WeeCee is capable of running a wide array of speed-sensitive games proficiently, making it another viable option for those interested in vintage PC gaming.
#hardware #emulation #retrofps #boomer_shooter
- Rookie Level 1 Gamer: “They’re called boomer shooters because they’re old like baby boomers”
- Veteran Level 20 Gamer: “Baby boomers thought Doom was satanic, that’s a stupid term”
- Enlightened Level 60 Gamer: “They’re called boomer shooters because of the huge debt they owe to the original Doom modding scene and therefore “Boom”, one of the first limit-removing source ports”
Galaxy brain: “hehe boomstick go boom”
133+.pk3@geocities.ytmnd.com Level 80 gamer… :
“Who cares. My ego isn’t so delicate as to have my sensibilities offended by whatever the fuck you want to call it. If you think something like ‘MyHouse.wad’ is something that is for “bOoMeRs” (a.k.a. anyone old enough to know that it’s called a “VCR,” not a “VHS player”) then you’re the one missing out… not me.”I’m STEALING this and pretending I wrote it. You are a jeeneus and get all the interwebz points for the day!
who writes like this?
The guy he copied this other comment from
You have redeemed the term.
IDK why the OG FPS are now a considered subgenre
Modern shooters should be called “dumber shooters” or something like that instead, I mean, you are constantly told where to go, and what to do, level desings are extremely linear so you don’t get lost, puzzles are gone so you don’t have to use your braincells, there are no traps nor secrets, the actions is incredibly “childlish” (when your screen is filled with ketchup it means is time to stop playing the FPS and start playing hide and seek until the ketchup is gone) everything screams “our playerbase is too dumb to play videogames, so we have to handhold them like babies” it’s really hard to consider them even shooters
“IDK why the OG FPS are now a considered subgenre”
I don’t know why people keep thinking, saying, and implying this. The OG shooters are not being called “boomer shooters.” Modern games based on them are. I don’t know why the confusion.
Doom (1993) NOT a boomer shooter. Quake (1996) NOT a boomer shooter. Boltgun (2023) IS a boomer shooter.
Because that doesn’t let them shake their fist and tell the youths to get off their lawn.
I hate the “battle royale” shooters of today. My lawn is either always shrinking or moving. Terrible games.
Then don’t play them and let the people that enjoy them enjoy them?
That was a “get off my lawn, kids!” joke, not serious.
You missed the obvious joke in what was said, didn’t you… Do peoples lawns REALLY shrink and move?
can you imagine kids today trying to play Myst or Riven?
I remember just being absolutely stumped by Riven when I was 13. It was pretty to look at, but I had no clue about how to solve the puzzles. When I did finally make progress, the sequence would start again.
I’d probably get bored and go play something different these days.
every once in a while, i’ll replay them, and I’m still amazed at what amazing games they are. Other games that still knock my socks off are Ultima Underworld I & II.
My ONE claim to fame is beating Myst in 19 hours of straight game play the day after it came out without reference material…
wow. took me at least a week and a half to beat that game once I finally was determined to get through it!
Uh… Just look at how wildly popular minecraft is, and all the mods they stack on top of it, and the ridiculous redstone contraptions they build. And they play the Portal games and so on. Somehow I think they’d be fine with Myst and Riven.
Kids don’t get dumber over time. Adults just forget what it was like to be kids and having adults look down their noses at you for your age.
comparing Minecraft to the Myst games is… heh… i’d like to see examples of where in Minecraft you’d have to decode a base-25 numbering system to beat the game or where any of the puzzles are as complicated to solve as the fire marbles puzzle in Riven. Musical patterns? Decoding hints in a different language? C’mon…
And I didn’t say the kids now are dumb. But today’s games sure are because today’s kids have the attention span of a gnat.
I’d suggest you look into some of what’s possible in Minecraft before dismissing it. The basics are simplistic, but the moment you start dipping into redstone builds you’re opening up an entirely different, entirely more complicated can of worms. Some of the mods available also expand that complexity greatly - Create, for example. It’s a different genre of difficulty than what’s offered by puzzle-based games, but I don’t think it’s possible to argue that there isn’t depth to it. Factorio’s another one which I’d name as offering significant complexity in the same vein.
I’d also note that Myst is almost generation defining in terms of its complexity. I’d be hard pressed to point towards many other games that were on par with it from its time (and I’m intentionally excluding some of the classic text adventures here, which were difficult in ways unfair to the player).
I’m not dismissing Minecraft. I’m just saying that comparing it to the Myst games is… a bad comparison.
I think it’s reasonable in that the same kids who get into the difficult, complex parts of Minecraft are likely the same sort who would enjoy something like Myst. You’re right that it’s far from a perfect comparison (two very different genres, after all), but there’s something in it as well.
possibly, although the old Myst games lack the sort of dopamine-inducing instantly-gratifying interactions that modern games do, so I suspect they’d quickly grow bored of it. And, as you mentioned, some of the puzzles, especially one in Riven, are almost impossibly hard. I remember, during a replay a few years ago, a friend once referred to it as, “like doing homework” when he saw all the notes I had to take regarding the puzzle codes and numbering system and mapping out the different Ages. And the reading… so much reading with all those journals. It’s not just the puzzles, but the amazing amount of patience it took to play the game and get through the story. and if you screwed one thing up way earlier, you were screwed. and you wouldn’t know how because it wouldn’t tell you.
those games were just in a different league.
Honestly maybe responses like this are why they’re called boomer shooters.
What modern fps single-player-focused game are you thinking of?
What modern fps single-player-focused game are you thinking of?
The single player modes of Call of Duty, Battlefield, Halo, etc. We can add some older games like Singularity and Titanfall to the list
There are not a lot of single player focused FPS, anyways, most of them are multiplayer games with a campaign almost nobody play anyways (since they can monetize the multiplayer modes). The genre itself started sucking when it became mainstream on consoles, they started being multiplatform titles so they had to be programmed with the limitations of the controllers, and those limitations affect the level and enemy design
Also: You obviously haven’t played BoltGun. It is the opposite of all of your complaints… and that’s just ONE that is.
I’m not critizising boomer shooters, I’m just saying games copying old shooters (Quake, Unreal, etc.) Should not be considered a subgenre, since they are copying the original formula
I’m critizising non-boomer shooters (think Halo, CoD, etc…) since they do lack everything I say
I have a problem with that reasoning. Quake copied Doom and Doom copied Castle Wolfenstein using your logic. They aren’t “copying” them. They’re paying homage to the graphical style and/or combat style they created. Your approach also seems to ignore the fact many have entirely new mechanics. Colas are a “sub genre” of sodas even though they copied Cokes formula… I think you’re being a bit absolutist without a reason.
What irks me is that it associates the genre with the wrong generation for the sake of being catchy. Should be “Gen-X shooter” if anything but I guess that doesn’t roll off the tongue.
One of my earliest memories is spontaneously picking up the phone to call a friend, hearing a bunch of modem screeching, then hearing my boomer dad cursing up a storm in the other room because I had probably just killed his Doom session. Some of the boomers were Dooming just fine! The younger boomers were only in their early 30s when it came out, it’s not like they were too old to adopt new tech at the time.
- Rookie Level 1 Gamer: “They’re called boomer shooters because they’re old like baby boomers”
- Veteran Level 20 Gamer: “Baby boomers thought Doom was satanic, that’s a stupid term”
- Enlightened Level 60 Gamer: “They’re called boomer shooters because of the huge debt they owe to the original Doom modding scene and therefore “Boom”, one of the first limit-removing source ports” Credit to @smart_boy@beehaw.org
You said you were going to steal it and claim credit you liar!
I know, I thought I’d make sure credit landed where credit was due… Still stole it though.
Galaxy Brain: hehehe, boomstick go boom.
I would think that more older millenials were playing these games as kids than Gen-Xers were playing them as young adults.
Why are they being called “boomer shooters”? My boomer parents didn’t want anything to do with them. The older millenials were the ones playing them. Most boomers don’t even like video games.
I thought it was a reference to the phrase ‘Suck my boomstick’ which I think came from Duke Nukem.
Which probably lifted it from the 1992 movie “Army of Darkness”, starring Bruce Campbell:
Ash: Alright you primitive screw heads, listen up. You see this?
This…is my boomstick! It’s a twelve-gauge double barrel Remington. S-Mart’s top of line. You can find this in the sporting goods department.
That’s right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids,Michigan. Retails for about $109.95. It’s got a walnut stock, cobalt steel barrel, and hair trigger. Shop smart, shop S-Mart.
See also the movie Army of Darkness (Evil Dead 3) which predated Duke Nukem 3D by a few years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdkqagOUaPM
This is answered in the comments.
Ah thanks.
Hmm, I guess I’m wrong but I always felt they were called boomer shooters because they’re always full of over the top explosions and everything is always going “boom”
You boom and you shoot it’s right in the name
- Rookie Level 1 Gamer: “They’re called boomer shooters because they’re old like baby boomers”
- Veteran Level 20 Gamer: “Baby boomers thought Doom was satanic, that’s a stupid term”
- Enlightened Level 60 Gamer: “They’re called boomer shooters because of the huge debt they owe to the original Doom modding scene and therefore “Boom”, one of the first limit-removing source ports”
- GigaChad Level 80 gamer: “Who cares. My ego isn’t so delicate as to have my sensibilities offended by whatever the fuck you want to call it. If you think something like ‘MyHouse.wad’ is something that is for “bOoMeRs” (a.k.a. anyone old enough to know that it’s called a “VCR,” not a “VHS player”) then you’re the one missing out… not me.” Credit to @smart_boy@beehaw.org and @133+.pk3@geocities.ytmnd.com
You’re the man now dog!
I think maybe the irksome thing is this is a retroactive label for older games. It’s not how we got to know those games, and it sounds pretty dismissive of something we enjoyed and loved. smart_boy below has the right idea, reclaim the term, realign the meaning.
If you look at the comment where I highlight the fact it IS NOT that… Doom (1993) is NOT a Boomer Shooter. Quake (1996) is NOT a Boomer Shooter. Boltgun (2023) IS a Boomer Shooter. A CURRENT game based off of an OG FPS CAN be a Boomer Shooter. The OG game itself can not.
It would be nice if language worked like that, where the term remains precise as it propagates. But that’s not the case. Boomer Shooter is being used to refer to the old games, and that is how many of us were introduced to the term, as a reference to the OG games.
No, it’s not. For the third time: Doom (1993) is NOT a boomer shooter Quake (1996) is NOT a boomer shooter BoltGun (2023) IS a boomer shooter:
- Rookie Level 1 Gamer: “They’re called boomer shooters because they’re old like baby boomers”
- Veteran Level 20 Gamer: “Baby boomers thought Doom was satanic, that’s a stupid term”
- Enlightened Level 60 Gamer: “They’re called boomer shooters because of the huge debt they owe to the original Doom modding scene and therefore “Boom”, one of the first limit-removing source ports” Credit to @smart_boy@beehaw.org
Did you tell this to the kids who coined the term?
@MrEUser I just hate the term “boomer shooter.” Can we do away with that please?
Back in the day we used to just call them “Doom Clones”. If it wasn’t for Doom (2016) we could have gone back to that.
Considering it’s been in use for years, and I wrote an article on it, I don’t see it going away…
@MrEUser Well why’d you have to go and do that then? I’m blaming you for all of this.
It’s ALL my damned fault… Wait til you see this weeks articles. I’ll probably be thrown off the innertoobz.
it’s been in use for years
No it hasn’t.
Aren’t “Boomer Shooters” actually Millenial Shooters? That’s who played them when they came out.
Gen X: forgotten by our parents and everyone else
whatever
Looks like boomer is experiencing some semantic drift to mean ‘old.’
Elder millenial here. Grew up on Doom and Quake.
Honestly I never even knew people didn’t like this term, wtf. It properly conveys the idea of an old-fashioned FPS game, with basic 3D graphics, many times based on 2D sprites. Me and all my friends play them, and we love them, and we all call it “Boomer Shooter”.
I spent 5 paragraphs (an entire article https://lemmy.ninja/post/19617) pointing out how ridiculous it is to complain about a name that has been used for years. I’d like people to focus on the titles, not the name of the genre… But, there are people that hold such strong opinions… I think the term is, “can’t see the forest for the trees.”
wait what’s stopping “arena shooter” from being used
The fact that we’re not talking about arena shooters would be a big reason.
Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 are arena shooters. Unreal (1998) and Quake 1 are not; Unreal and Quake 1 aren’t multiplayer focused.
One might say “arena shooter” has retroactively become a subgenre of “boomer shooter.”
I won’t lie, I had to look at the comments and do a real quick search engine check to find out that the kids these days call the old FPS games “boomer shooter”. One hell of a way to remind me about my age by calling me a boomer for liking my childhood FPS games :(
I am 90% certain it was never meant to refer to the generation that played it, but to the over the top action.
Lol yeah I figured, but the very first thing that came to my mind was the generation slang so I felt the unnecessary need to comment on it xD
I was thinking a game where you were just mowing down “boomers”.
This was my childhood. Doom, so much Doom.
I don’t see why people really hate on Doom, for me (16) it’s still a great game with tons of mods and also a great base game
Did I miss something? I thought Doom was the gold standard.
No, but i said it because people were complaining anout boomer shooters
Probably just because it’s held in such high regard by those old enough to have played the original when it came out.
Look, I understand words meaning can change over time, but it’s one thing to observe this after the fact, and another to look at it while it’s happening and just say “I am fine with us changing the meaning of this word without offering a replacement term”. If “boomer” just means “old” now, what word do you use for actual boomers?
And of course, others have pointed out all the other reasons it doesn’t make sense to use this term. I feel like the only reason the term is catching non is because it kinda rhymes but not really. We might as well call them “greatest generation racing”. What’s that? It doesn’t make sense to refer to a shooting game as a racing game? Interesting thought.
Yes alliteration is one reason. Boomer has meanings outside of “baby boomer.” Context matters.
I feel personally attacked
I was thinking of you when I wrote this ;) Have a great day, and go play some Doom.
Did you start in the DOS days? I miss how magical it all felt. Started on an Atari 2600. Got into Basic, Oregon Trail at school. Classic shit.
The first video game I played was on a neighbors 2600. I played on Colecovisons, ZX Spectrums, Apple II’s, and eventually PC’s. I learned to “program” in turtle logo on a C-64, BASIC on Apple II’s, and C on PC’s. Then I did radio repair in the Army, and when I left did wireless networking for a little company called Sprint BWG. Eventually I got in to Information Security and am now a Security Architect. I’ve come full circle playing an writing about retroFPS (I cause such an uproar when I call them Boomer Shooters). I wasn’t really in to them when they first hit the scene. I was “too sophisticated” of a gamer for them. Now, it’s fun to sit down and play a game without ads/microtransactions, anti-cheats, or dependency on other players. I go in, have a beer, and kick ass… or die… a lot…. Which can be just as much fun.
Sorry for the wall of text in response to a simple question.
No worries I don’t get many opportunities to hear these things. I started programming in BASIC, then VBASIC and eventually C/C++. Ended up going down the game development rabbit hole. Was a programmer and designer for a bit. The demands ended up being a bit more then I wanted and I pivoted to a freelance situation which at least allowed me to enjoy games again.
I remember the BBS days downloading (shareware) a game and playing it. I remember when quality games (Kings Quest, Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, Car Wars) were developed by <10 people. That’s what I like about this renaissance of boomer shooters. I’ve contacted several of the development teams with a list of questions. And surprisingly… They respond. I usually use the information they provide in my weekly stream on Tuesday nights at 18:00 MDT (stream.lemmy.ninja) while I play their game. These games are quality AND I get to talk to the humans behind them. It’s just a lot of fun…
Just the history and innovation behind Doom was fascinating. Having to wait a decade for a solid game is sad. I thought things were supposed to move faster as I aged?
Agreed. An example I like is Forgive me Father came out in 2022… and they’re close to releasing the follow up… And I think and may be wrong it’s a 4 person dev team.
Is that your Packard Bell monitor? That’s literally the monitor I had on my first computer
No. I don’t own a CRT anymore.
I didn’t realize it at first. 100% my first monitor
