The worst was the passwords system and god forbid you lost your piece of paper that had them written down.
Me looking at the password I scribbled down the day before
1 or I or l
5 or S
0 or O
Oh GOD the letters and numbers system, and heaven forbid, symbols too.
I've optimized my writing style specifically so that video game passwords are entirely unambiguous.
This is probably why I passed my exams way back when. Handwriting today doesn't have to be legible.
i'm pro password system. bring 'em back. Imagine being able to back up your saves just by photocopying them and being able to share it with someone via fax.
This was me right before the final level in the Spongebob: Flying Dutchman game for GBA. One of these days I'll get my hands on it again and see the end properly.
When I was a little kid I was in this exact situation but for different reasons. The lady who babysat me and my siblings had a PS1 that had no memory card in it. She couldn't be bothered to buy a memory card because old. The PlayStation had one game and that game was crash bandicoot. If memory serves there might have been some kind of level codes that you could put in, but we never did for whatever reason. (The stipulation might have been that you get level codes after you complete an island, but it took us months to complete the first island). We just started the game over from scratch every time we turned it on which was every day after school and played the first level, second level, and so forth maybe getting up to the second island which is after the first boss. It really sucked the fun out of the game, and commiserating over it made that old lady super mad because she didn't understand why we weren't having fun or what saving was. The old game super Mario Bros 3 actually doesn't have any kind of saving feature and it's a game with about eight worlds. I remember as a little kid getting super good at the first three worlds, finding all the secrets, finding a bunch of warp whistles and stuff, and getting good enough to get to about the sixth world. What's nuts is I didn't realize but, the designers of the game made it to where that would be how it was played. These "Easter eggs" we're intentionally put in the game to get you through it because you weren't expected to finish it at one go.
I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Link 1:
Link 2:
I played through the first 1/3rd of final fantasy 7 like 5 times because I had no memory card
My husband just told me that when he was little, he didn't know there was a save feature in crash bandicoot until he revisited the game as an adult.
It's all a big scam! Games on older consoles had a save feature, this is just the game companies being greedy! I still don't know how Final Fantasy X ends. I got close once, but my dad turned off my PS2 when I had left it on overnight, but I wear this scar with pride knowing I stopped those greedy suits at Sony! After all, the PS3 had a save feature inbuilt without any memory cards. No need to thank me, real heroes do what is right because it is simply the right thing to do.
By the end of the PS2's life, memory cards were ridiculously expensive considering how much flash storage prices had decreased. Nintendo actually had an SD card adapter in Japan for GameCube, but it only worked with Animal Crossing or something.
That GC SD adapter only stored pictures from Animal Crossing, actually, not the saves.
