Nostalgia - Quote from Jon Van Caneghem....

[Queen Hera]

The Heroes III game has 65,000 colours and fills an entire CD. I had over 30 people work on the project: programmers, artists, voice actors, and level designers, and it took us 18 months to finish".

Excerpt from Heroes III Restoration of Erathia Manual..

[Kalah]

Oh yeah - a whole CD ...

Reminds me of Baldur's Gate ... that came on a bunch of CDs!

I can clearly remember that it drove me nuts switching discs all the time ... and that I was really thrilled when the DVD-ROM replaced it.

[Tress]

Back then everything was way different.
KB was made by handful of people. mm1 was made solely by JVC.
Nowdays you need much more people as people are used to good stuff. You cant give 15 man game and hope it sells unless it's something catchy like angry birds.

I can clearly remember that it drove me nuts switching discs all the time ... and that I was really thrilled when the DVD-ROM replaced it.

Not only that but back then 1 of 5 disks almost certainly will get scratched or be poorly red in 1st place. Even if my BG copy wasn't entirely legal(in fact there was no way of getting legal even if I wanted to), replacing it was hell as cd burning devices cost fortune, and torrents to make backup copy(in fact internet was not as available even if there was place to get it from) wasn't exactly popular back then. Daemon tool weren't popular either.

[Avonu]

Oh yeah - a whole CD ...

Reminds me of Baldur's Gate ... that came on a bunch of CDs!

Phantasmagoria anyone?

BTW - HoMM1 was (well, these "unofficial versions") on 4 to 8 disks if anyone still remember them.

Excerpt from Heroes III Restoration of Erathia Manual..

Meanwhile with Ubisoft and other companies on charge we currently have no manuals at all.

[Tress]

Meanwhile with Ubisoft and other companies on charge we currently have no manuals at all.

Its not like ones that 3DO gave away was of any help. They basically gave same info as tutorial(there was completely zero in depth information aside from short back story, which should be pinned ingame to behin with.)
Also I think Ubi gives some pdf's away with their games, not that they are too useful

[Avonu]

But compare HoMM3 or HoMM4 official manual to HV or HVI "manual" (several pages in pdf file hard to name manual at all) - even if H3 manual lacks many things, it still has a lot of information and also heroes, units, skills and spells tables.

[jeff]

Its not like ones that 3DO gave away was of any help. They basically gave same info as tutorial(there was completely zero in depth information aside from short back story, which should be pinned ingame to behin with.)

Perhaps not as much for gameplay, but when doing a map I am constantly referring to them for statistics and other items.

[Aelanor]

I remember playing MM1 (maybe a later one) and calling for support once when I was in a dungeon.

The guy who answered was great, he asked me which dungeon I was in, and then told me I could either apply a patch, or to leave as is so I could take advantage of an easter egg. He then told me to map out the whole room, because the pillars spelled JVC.

Then he told me he WAS Jon, and we chatted for a while. What a super nice guy!

[BoardGuest808888]

He he he... by that time, that 65 K colors was the real sell for everyone.

[Bones_xa]

I remember playing MM1 (maybe a later one) and calling for support once when I was in a dungeon.

The guy who answered was great, he asked me which dungeon I was in, and then told me I could either apply a patch, or to leave as is so I could take advantage of an easter egg. He then told me to map out the whole room, because the pillars spelled JVC.

Then he told me he WAS Jon, and we chatted for a while. What a super nice guy!

Wow that is an awesome story!
If its even actually true.


I think that back when JVC was involved with making the games there was a lot more passion and love for the what they were doing. Thats why they turned out so great.
Now sadly in today's day its basically all about just getting a product out there to sell.

[darknessfood]

I actually reínstalled HoMM3 last week. It's just one cd (in my case, the complete edition from the huge Ubiset, next to the original of course), but it's one cd of greatness!

[Angelspit]

I can clearly remember that it drove me nuts switching discs all the time ... and that I was really thrilled when the DVD-ROM replaced it.

And next week Halo 4 will ship on two discs. Here we go again.

[Qurqirish Dragon]

I can clearly remember that it drove me nuts switching discs all the time ... and that I was really thrilled when the DVD-ROM replaced it.

And next week Halo 4 will ship on two discs. Here we go again.

Unless Bluray becomes standard in games, you're right. If it does, then we have a few more years of single-disc titles (My computer has a Bluray drive, so I'm ready for it)