exQUIZitely 🕹️
@exQUIZitely • 15,214 subscribers
Not everything was better in the past, but I post about the things that were - mostly 80s and 90s games. I also created exQUIZitely, a retro quiz & trivia site.
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Exactly 30 years ago today, this legend of gaming history hit the shelves. On July 23, 1996, Grand Prix 2 was published by MicroProse. It was developed single-handedly by legendary game designer Geoff Crammond, who also created other classics such as The Sentinel and Stunt Car Racer. Happy 30th birthday, Grand Prix 2!
exQUIZitely 🕹️53,148 views • 1 day ago
My nephew was digging through the shelves in my gaming room and asked where I kept the "older games I played when I was his age" (he’s 15 now). I pointed him to the early 80s section. As expected, he didn’t recognize a single title (which definitely made me feel old) but for some reason, Lode Runner caught his eye. I told him it wasn’t exactly a “pretty” game in terms of graphics or sound, but that it was one of my all-time favorites back in the day. We fired it up, I gave him a quick two-minute tutorial, and before we knew it, we’d been playing for nearly three hours. I felt genuinely grateful and a bit sentimental. Faith in humanity restored, if you will. These old games, with all their limitations in graphics and sound, can still completely captivate a new generation. Lode Runner (Brøderbund, 1983), thank you for still kicking ass over four decades later.
exQUIZitely 🕹️21,887 views • 1 day ago
An average picture that you save on your phone or PC has a size of around 400 kilobytes. It doesn't do anything, it's just a static image. Now divide that by the factor 10, so you drop to 40 kilobytes. That's the size of The Last Ninja, developed by System 3 and published in 1987. I still struggle to comprehend, even in the slightest, how programmers back then did what they did - and the worlds they created with the limitations they had to work with. I was simply blown away by the graphics (isometric on the C64 with such an amazing level of detail - simply gorgeous) and absolutely mesmerized by the kickass sound. What Ben Daglish and Anthony Lees conjured up musically will forever be part of gaming history - an iconic masterpiece. 40 kilobytes man...
exQUIZitely 🕹️635,401 views • 3 months ago
Qbert (1982) is one of those timeless games that makes you wonder what they were smoking while designing it. You are controlling an orange, round-bodied, armless alien-like creature with a big tubular nose (maybe a snout?), two big eyes, and rather short legs. His frustrated "swearing" was pretty hilarious. When he dies or gets hit, a speech bubble shows symbols like @!#?@! with garbled synthesized sounds. A unique game in many ways and another example of how incredibly innovative early 80s games were.
exQUIZitely 🕹️30,548 views • 7 days ago
The most "claustrophobic" game ever? Descent (1995) is a first-person shooter developed by Parallax Software, notable for being the first FPS with fully true 3D graphics and six degrees of freedom movement. Players pilot the Pyro-GX spaceship through mineshafts on various planets, infected by a virus that has turned mining robots hostile. There you go, the whole story in one sentence! Movement is the game's hallmark: full six degrees of freedom allows free flight in any direction - forward/backward, left/right (slide/strafe), up/down, and 360° rotation - creating disorienting, stomach-churning zero-gravity combat. For someone like me, being claustrophobic, this was both tough to play yet highly fascinating. I feel Descent is an underrated game that got a bit lost in the shuffle of other great games around the mid 90s.
exQUIZitely 🕹️863,528 views • 6 months ago
Some of you will be old enough to remember this. Defragging - and it actually did serve a purpose. It was essential for optimizing slow, mechanical hard drives by rearranging scattered data into contiguous blocks. By doing so increased data load times (since the physical head of the hard drive didn't have to move that much). However, what I remember most was the almost hypnotical satisfaction of seeing all those little blocks flashing, being organized, and just "knowing" that it was good for my computer. In times when you fiddled around with autoxec.bat and config.sys, when every little Kilobyte of RAM mattered, and when hard drives were measured in Megabytes, not Terrabytes, the weekly routine of defragging almost felt like cleaning up your room.
exQUIZitely 🕹️536,794 views • 5 months ago
The last "modern" game I ever played was World of Warcraft, from 2004 to 2010, the end of Wrath of the Lich King. I know there were MMORPGs before (and after), but when the original World of Warcraft launched in 2004, it felt closer to "perfection" than any game before or since. Nothing has changed that feeling to this day. What changed was the game itself after the death of Arthas in Wrath of the Lich King. The original WoW felt so vast, so open, and so alive - it’s hard to put into words. There was no min-maxing yet, no speedruns, no parsing records, no gear score requirements. If you were really "pro," you connected with friends or guildies via Ventrilo. There was no WeakAuras, no threat meters, no Questie guiding you. You quickly learned that even the most expensive vendor gear was trash compared to quest rewards. You had to walk from Elwynn Forest to the Redridge Mountains - and if you dared peek across the river into Duskwood, the spiders there would one-shot you (I’m sure we all did that). The first time you equipped a green item! The first time you swapped it for a blue! And the envy of seeing someone with purple gear, omg! Saving up for a mount and the catharsis when you could finally afford one! The first time you entered the Deadmines, the foolish solo attempt on Hogger only to realize instantly it was a death sentence, stepping into Alterac Valley battlegrounds and being in awe of its size, wiping on Ragnaros again and again before finally killing him, and the sheer joy of celebrating together with your guild. The excitement and awe of entering Naxxramas for the first time, struggling to down Patchwerk, the teamwork, the slow progress, seeing Sapphiron dead on the frozen ground and being moments away from Kel’Thuzad… so close! It truly felt like a massive world - not just in size, but in stories. The announcement of The Burning Crusade and the Dark Portal appearing in the Blasted Lands; you couldn’t wait to walk through it. Then the ultimate climax when Wrath of the Lich King launched, eventually facing the most badass character in gaming history: Arthas. World of Warcraft was magic. Until it wasn’t. Just like Blizzard was once the greatest game studio of all - until they weren’t. Warcraft used to be tough, glorious and epic... now it's pink Disney fluff. Nothing has recaptured that feeling from 2004 to 2010. I wonder if anything ever will again. I sometimes watch the trailer of the original WoW. It still hits close to the (gamer) heart…
exQUIZitely 🕹️417,201 views • 5 months ago
Grand Theft Auto III turns 25 this year. It was the first in the series to switch to a 3D third-person perspective; the previous two used a bird’s-eye top-down view. It still blows my mind how epic it looks even now, a quarter of a century later. In 2001, this was one of most badass games of the year. The open world and the massive depth and scope were truly incredible. Also, how you go from Lemmings to GTA will forever be the biggest curveball in gaming history.
exQUIZitely 🕹️363,560 views • 4 months ago
Max Payne celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. You play as tormented NYPD detective Max Payne, whose wife and daughter were murdered by addicts high on the drug Valkyr. Framed for the killings, he launches a one-man war against the mob. Far more than “just” a shooter, Max Payne had a cool film-noir atmosphere with excellent cutscenes and a complex, evolving story. The slow-motion sequences always reminded me of "The Matrix", and the soundtrack greatly added to the dark, oppressive mood. It was a massive hit, selling over 4 million copies and had two sequels. Likely unfamiliar to younger gamers today, but those a bit older will surely remember Max Payne.
exQUIZitely 🕹️351,614 views • 4 months ago
Fun Fact: When Punch-Out!! first came out for the NES (1987), Mike Tyson was asked if he was able to beat himself in the game. He responded that he couldn't even get past Glass Joe. So remember, whenever you laugh at Joe's 1-99 record, the one person Glass Joe beat was Mike Tyson. Whether that myth is true or not, I don't know, but one thing is for sure - this was one of the most fun games I ever played. There are a few iconic games for the NES, and to me Punch Out!! is one of those. It was the classic "Ah, one more try" type of game, trying to reach that next level and ultimately fighting against Mike Tyson. Though a single-player game, this was the most fun when you had your friends around and everyone "being in your corner" cheering you on to get the T(KO). Good times!
exQUIZitely 🕹️439,763 views • 7 months ago
Did you play this one? Time for a trip down memory lane to the year 1991: Scorched Earth, the self-proclaimed "Mother of All Games," is a glorious shareware artillery game for MS-DOS, created by Wendell Hicken. Players command tanks on destructible 2D terrain, taking turns to calibrate angle and power for ballistic shots while also having to consider wind and gravity impact. You can customize various settings, making each game unique: gravity, meteor showers, and economies to buy wild weapons - from nukes and napalm to dirt bombs and MIRVs - plus defenses like shields. It supports up to 10 hot-seat players which was no small feat back in 1991! Its physics mastery and replayability paved the way for and inspired later classics like Worms, cementing its legacy.
exQUIZitely 🕹️391,496 views • 6 months ago
Black & White turned 25 this year. Developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Electronic Arts in 2001, the project was led by none other than Peter Molyneux. It is widely regarded as a textbook example of a game that was too ambitious for its time, resources, and team size. Still critically acclaimed and a cult favourite, it underperformed commercially relative to the massive hype surrounding it (and Molyneux’s name). The game combined god-game mechanics (influencing villagers and facing moral choices between good and evil), a learning AI creature, gesture-based controls, hand-of-god interaction, and a massive open world. This was groundbreaking in 2001, but it also pushed hardware limits too far for the average user. I’m not surprised it came from Lionhead Studios. Peter Molyneux had previously led Bullfrog, a team also known for innovation and ambitious games.
exQUIZitely 🕹️59,844 views • 28 days ago
Ghosts'n Goblins stands as one of gaming's most notoriously brutal titles. Sir Arthur endures just two hits before reverting to boxers, facing relentless demons, precise jumps, and a cruel twist: beat it once, then replay harder for the true ending. There is a still a dent in my old room at my parents house - almost 40 years later - where my good old Competition Pro joystick slammed into it after yet another rage-quit moment. The joystick survived, and the dent is a nice reminder of some epic gaming nights. I am quite certain that I am not the only one having lost their mind over Ghosts'n Goblins, whether at the arcades or on their home computer. Remember a rage-quit joystick throw from back in the day? If so, what game was it for you?
exQUIZitely 🕹️18,164 views • 8 days ago
Remember this crazy gem? MDK (1997) by Shiny Entertainment. You play as Kurt Hectic (what a name!), a janitor on the spaceship Jim Dandy, recruited by the eccentric scientist Dr. Fluke Hawkins to stop an alien invasion. Not sure what the developers were on, but sure sounds like fun. It's a mix between classic action shooting, sniping, platforming, and quirky/dark humor. Brilliantly different from other shooters, and an even more brilliant soundtrack!
exQUIZitely 🕹️30,027 views • 15 days ago