I’ve got a stack of the C64 diskettes though I’m not sure they all work. I also didn’t receive them new, just inherited them with the computer around 1987. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo as I dumped them on the floor and the lighting isn’t great in this room.

I had completely forgotten the “hundreds of games on ONE DISC” bit that went with shareware. It’s such a different world to consider - those days when I’d go to Radioshack to buy a random, cheap game that I knew would probably be bad but wasn’t sure HOW bad, or I’d rely on my uncle to pass along floppy disks of stuff…

Shareware was basically my childhood. I never actually bought the full versions of Duke Nukem (2D), Commander Keen, Crystal Caves, Wolfenstein 3D, etc, but I played the hell out of their first episodes.

True.

Sadly, as an adult it seems the shareware is the only way to play them now.....

*cries in “Invasion of the Mutant Space Bats of Doom”*

Oh yeah, in 1993 (ish) my local mall had a kiosk that only sold shareware disks for, from what I recall, about $5 to $10 a pop. I’m pretty sure they were repackaging demos or straight up pirated copies. 

Yeah, I’ve been an insider for years and as I’ve become less and less concerned with FOMO, I’ve been considering dropping out of the program. It’s neat seeing the updates earlier, but I have weird bugs with apps not launching all the time and it’s just annoying. I also hardly ever participate in their surveys, so it’s…

I was interested in what that would look like so I googled it, I think saying this had generic lettering undersells this thing!

Wasn’t it just a plain silver disc with Halo Reach printed on there with generic lettering? I know printing them with actual artwork probably would have cost them more for something they were handing out free. I still have my disc somewhere at home.

I remember that free copy of reach. I still have that disc somewhere, it was hilariously generic looking. I remember people were making special cases for it.

Yeah, I’d probably recommend Beta to most users interested in this program. I was in Skip Ahead for a while and went back to Beta so I would get fewer updates and bugs yet still get stuff a little early. The Alpha stuff IS interesting, but as you say it does come with more issues.

Word of warning. I’ve been in Alpha, and then Alpha skip ahead since those rings launched. If you are invited, make sure that you understand that you are truly in for bugs that will affect your experience using the Xbox. You might lose audio for days, or not be able to use your favorite app. Also make sure you have a…

Man, if they can figure it out on the dock, then every existing Switch owner just got an update by buying a new dock... that’d be sweet.

Would this be in the dock?

DLC is something about Game Pass that definitely confuses me. Are people just supposed to purchase DLC for games that may disappear? I know that Microsoft owned games won’t likely ever be removed, but obviously not all pass games are permanent.

As first noted by sports blog Defector,

The knockoffs they sell at Dollar General are WAAAAY cheaper and taste just the same.

I never got into the God of War series for a variety of reasons, but the fact that you had to button mash just to open a damn chest drove me absolutely crazy. Why?!

Finally, he will no longer be dogged by claims that he’s not a Real Gamer

Super Hot take:

The single greatest recent option, at least in console games is DISABLE BUTTON MASHING, which allows you to hold down a button. I absolutely DESPISE button mashing. It’s bad for the controller if you’re not careful, you can drop it. Some games (looking at you Yakuza 3) require mashing a trigger, which is the worst…