What is something you loved, but they do not make anymore?

[dustybiker2]

They had one of these rigs from a stone pirate ship at a beach when I was young. Wish they had kept it up. They are so fun. I remember my 6th grade teacher going down it upside down and she was in her 60's. She was a riot. Can still hear her laughing.

It can be food, fun.. whatever comes to you.

[TheSpaceGnome]

Durable technology that lasts forever.

[dustybiker2]

It would cost more. They like making people replace equipment every few years.

[TheSpaceGnome]

Yeah i'll pass on that lol.

[TheSpaceGnome]

I still have a lot of older handheld consoles and computers, built to last they are :3

[dustybiker2]

My neighbor is like that too. But he knows how to keep them going.

[TheSpaceGnome]

I'm still in need of learning how to repair them and replace any parts, and eventually just build them.

[DJB72]

Common sense...

[dustybiker2]

Good answer.

[TheSpaceGnome]

Lmfao, some of us still held on to it, but it certainly isn't "common" anymore 😂

[dustybiker2]

That's the truth.

[DJB72]

Reasonably intelligent and articulate politicians as well...

[TheSpaceGnome]

intelligent would be having us vote on laws, not people.

[DJB72]

Intelligent would be restricted donations to politicians to a sensible sum. Say $50 per person and no corporate donations to individual or party.

It'd be interesting to see who's prepared to run under those rules...

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

SNES/Genesis video games. Some people homebrew games for these but major developers no longer target these consoles.

This was the golden era of 2D video games from my perspective. The hardware had a nice balance of freedoms and restrictions.

I really believe strongly in design restrictions to create superior designs. A lot of people seem to get excited by design possibilities (what we can do) and believe superior designs come from minimal restrictions, but I actually get excited by design restrictions (what we can't do) and believe superior designs come from many restrictions.

For example, take fantasy writing. If there are no restrictions whatsoever, I can conceive anything like a little kid: "a dragon with 14 heads that transforms into a unicorn and shoots machine gun bullets out of its eyes but is immune to both fire and lightning and it can time travel and it can travel through walls and and and..." That's not interesting to me as it has no restrictions. Interesting to me is a fantasy creature that is bounded by very strict and universal restrictions/rules that apply to everything in the entire world.

So the hardware restrictions of these 16-bit consoles of the era actually helped in my opinion to create a lot of superior designs and games. They took away a lot of freedom from designers in a good way in my perspective and forced them to design with some heavy constraints.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

A similar analogy that might be relatable for people who aren't classic video game nerds like me: architecture.

If we look at medieval architecture like cathedrals, the designers had to work with so many more design restrictions than we have today in the contemporary age of structural engineering and modern materials with skyscrapers and so forth.

Yet I often find medieval architecture so much more beautiful and I think because heavy restrictions often yield the most beautiful and cohesive designs.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

I think this is also the case with artists and style. The artists that have the strongest signature style to their art are also the most restricted. Like Agnes Cecile here:

Her style is entirely about bleeding watercolor. She never paints in any other medium: never acrylics, oils, gouache, pastel, charcoal, etc. All she focuses on for completed pieces is watercolor. On top of that, almost every piece is a human or animal subject.

So she's an extremely restricted artist as far as design. Yet that's what gives all of her works so much beauty and cohesiveness and makes it unrecognizably her work.

If she sometimes did landscapes in oils, sometimes very abstract works in acrylics, sometimes photorealistic works in airbrush, sometimes a cartoonist, etc, that would make her a very versatile artist with minimal restrictions but it would also make her works devoid of a strong stylistic element that echoes into everything she creates.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

This philosophy of mine even applies to people. A lot of people seem to think the most idealistic person is the person who can accomplish literally anything they set their mind towards. I find that an extremely boring idea. The most interesting person to me is someone with very human restrictions unique to them, and what makes them a beautiful person in my mind is what they manage to do with those heavy restrictions they're handed to them.

"Infinite possibilites" is the ugliest design idea to me. "Highly limited possibilities" is where it's at in my opinion: that's the spice and beauty of life.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

[*] [...] and makes it [undeniably, sorry] her work.

[dustybiker2]

I loved these old games. As someone gave us their old computer (as our first) and it had a couple on them.

Q for you..
Was that game in the movie Big a real game?

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

The Cavern of the Evil Wizard!

Unfortunately not, although they did an amazing job copying the style of the graphical adventure games of that time without text input complete with the 4-color CGA palette.

I love that movie although I appreciated it more as an adult than as a child.

[TheSpaceGnome]

This os one reason I like PC gaming, it still has lots of new "retro" style pixel art games popping up all the time, many of them are gorgeous and have amazing stylization to them despite using a very limited pixel count and mechanics system.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

@TheSpaceGnome I really like those! Some people think of retro-style as just outdated but I really think trying to match the hardware restrictions to some level creates a strong and consistent design language to the game.
https://youtu.be/HMpfceZTNpQ

[TheSpaceGnome]

I love pixel art.
Specifically when its much more vibrant in color and has a very charming and memorable look to it. My favorite is when pixel art is half way between snes and modern graphics, and has a glowy soft modern lighting and depth of field added, sort of like octopath traveler, but with much brighter and more varied color pallettes and about twice the pixel count maybe so it resembles a more CRT screen vibe with how they blend pixels together.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

@TheSpaceGnome I love the pixel art in Blasphemous so much.

[TheSpaceGnome]

Giant monster baby doom!

[TheSpaceGnome]

Here is an example of the blending I was talking about

[TheSpaceGnome]

CRT TV screens just really make pixel art look better in my opinion, its a shame they are so hard to find now.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

@TheSpaceGnome Much agreed. I don't always like the CRT-like filter some games put on though. I might just need to see a nice example of it. I tend to turn it off in the options.

[TheSpaceGnome]

I want the blending from CRT but I hate the scan lines, CTR filters always add those stupid lines instead of giving us the infinite contrast blending that made CTR look so nice.

[TheSpaceGnome]

I think the reason the CRT filters don't add infinite contrast is because flat screen tvs are not capable of it.

[NamerOfStars]

Weapons and Warriors.

Evidently, since basically every toy in the 90's fired balls or discs anyway, Milton Bradly said "screw it, let's make that a board game". This set (there were a couple of different versions, but nobody I knew had any of the others) had a castle, a catapult and a ballista, and the attacking side had the shield walls and rocks, plus a catapult and a cannon.

You could move your siege weapons up with your infantry, but of course, that made them harder to hit. The castle windows were linked to rubber bands, or just springs, and so were the shields and rocks, so if a ball hit them, up the guy would fly, and the castle walls would break apart.

This was the game that inspired me to build a catapult so I could launch snowballs, to do outdoor bowling. Unfortunately, the laws here in Illinois are surprisingly strict on siege weap- I'm not in Illinois. I'm NOT IN ILLINOIS ANY MORE HOLY CRAP! I can actually DO it now! Okay, snowballs obviously aren't going to happen, but water balloons or some such... Okay, my mind is racing. Thank you for bringing this back to my attention; I have plans to go and make.

[dustybiker2]

What about pumpkins? lol

[NamerOfStars]

In Miami, maybe, but here, that might still get me arrested.

[dustybiker2]

Oh darn.

[Daniela1982]

My most fun playground is gone!

[dustybiker2]

Hilarious 😎

[Xia1994]

I miss the care-bears toys they used to give at McDonalds with the happy meal order they actually smelled so good on the belly area, I remember playing with them as a kid and it was satisfying. Getting one now would be so nostalgic lol.

[dustybiker2]

These first came out in my childhood. I hold them dear, too. ❤️

[Xia1994]

@dustybiker2 🥰💞💞

[BoopBoopBeep]

Did they smell like McDonalds? If they smelled like chicken nuggies then I want to sniff the belly of these majestic beasts as well.

[Xia1994]

@BoopBoopBeep lol no they smell fruity or perfumy if that makes sense😂

[BoopBoopBeep]

@Xia1994
I dunno... I could still get down with some sniffage

[82lynx]

- The Apple IIe. It was the best thing about my third elementary school which mostly sucked otherwise. Try being uprooted twice before grade 3; fish out of water.

- 110 film; it has been revived but is not available locally.

- Analogue TV broadcasts

- Quality and simplicity in general.

[dustybiker2]

Good list.
100% agree on quality too. It has been forsaken for the almighty dollar.. having to replace items gains the companies who make said items more money.

[82lynx]

Thanks.

I get around it as best as I can by gathering and using older items, not to mention repairing them when needed, and I’ve grown wise to marketing tricks. For instance, so what if my 34-year-old curb find chest freezer and my 40-year-old microwave/convection oven aren’t the most energy efficient, or if my 48-year-old console telly doesn’t have the sharpest picture? The pollution created by scrapping those and building replacements that only last a few years tops would be far worse.

Speaking of old TV sets, I also wish... scratch that, if cathode ray tubes were still made they would be coming from China. The Early Television Foundation has lots of new-old stock delta gun CRTs for cheap that the really old guys don’t want, but trying to get any of them across the border would mean a small fortune in shipping costs.

[dustybiker2]

My fridge was 40 years old. Only had rare quirks of screaming three times a year. It was still running when I switched it last year. It felt like losing a family member.

[DryGermanGuy]

Home computers, as they were called back in the day. Amiga, Atari, BBC Micro, Acorn, Sinclair… it was a lot of fun to tinker with these and learn about hardware and software.

[dustybiker2]

The big chunkie ones. 😎

[DryGermanGuy]

No! Most of those machines were quite elegant and slender:
en.wikipedia.org/.../...:Commodore_Amiga_A1200.jpg

[PBandJ_Nerd]

One thing I really love that you never see anymore is rainbow jello rings. These were perfect for picnics and cookouts. I loved jello when it was like this!

[adventurous-1]

mellow cup ice cream! yum. Hi eight tape machines, I had Hi eight videos of my wife doing things not for kids! Cum to think of it I had some super VHS tapes as well. She was very photogenetic and adventurous in our younger days.

[adventurous-1]

One thing I forgot to mention is the woodwork in older homes, its beautiful and took real craftsmanship that you don't see in today's homes. It's become a lost art form.

[dustybiker2]

This is so true. Quality in general. The people who had those carving and cutting skills have died out and can't pass it down even if people were interested in the trade. There are a few on youtube though. Not enough.

[EmmaMary]

@dustybiker2

Here in the UK Zip Wires seem to be appearing at a lot more venues.

[dustybiker2]

Would you try them?

[EmmaMary]

@dustybiker2

Been There, Done That and Worn The T-Shirt... Several times in fact!

[dustybiker2]

Oh good lol 😎

[Friendlybro79]

So I was going to say laser tag places. Then I looked it up and they have them still haha. I'm so excited. Now I just need to find out if a 44 yr old man laughing maniacally while tagging little kids is socially acceptable lol

[dustybiker2]

I vote, yes. 😈 lol

[Friendlybro79]

My nephews thought this was funny. They're young. I asked them if an old guy like me beat all the kids at laser tag is that funny? They said yes and said I'm still one of the kids though lol.

[lil_will_12]

random, but jacks pizza (not jakes, jacks is like the pre-made freezer pizzas) and they used to make thick crust pizzas which were so good, but then they just stopped making them 😞

[Miah04]

I don't think there is anything like that for me

[dustybiker2]

You're so young. 😇

[Miah04]

💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾

[Fuentes]

I don't think there is anything anymore that I care about that went away lol

[dustybiker2]

You'll drop something in our conversations one day.

[Surely]

Would my mother’s home cooking and fresh made bread and pies count?

[dustybiker2]

It does indeed, sir. Yes.

[Surely]

@dustybiker2. Just shows that you need to enjoy whatever life brings you when the opportunity presents itself.

[dustybiker2]

I agree 100%

[Lynx122]

You can go to a rope park there you can climb and slide like this swing off things etc. :)

[ab2shifty]

Honestly I was thinking for a minute, and I can’t think of anything 🤣

[dustybiker2]

lol Maybe it will come to you later. "Oh, I remember one."

[douride2]

A good pair of canvas high-top runners/sneakers.

[sirderpsalot123]

I can't think of anything

[dustybiker2]

Apply yourself, sir. No food? What about Jiff peanut butter breakfast balls... they discontinued those covid year. I went through depression. Like being cut off from acid.

[sirderpsalot123]

I'll come back to this lol

[sirderpsalot123]

and I'm glad you recovered from such a loss lol

[Charliefretz329]

You can still buy acid…

[dustybiker2]

@Charliefretz329 Don't rub it in 🤣

[Charliefretz329]

☮️ peace ✌🏻

[electromagnetic]

Easy Bake Ovens

[Charliefretz329]

Old pickup trucks

[dustybiker2]

Niiicr

[dustybiker2]

Nice*

[Charliefretz329]

Yeah 😢

[dustybiker2]

My friend had one as a teen. The seats were upside down egg crates.

[Charliefretz329]

Classic lol 😏