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E3 1999 - 20 years later

Green Yoshi

Green Yoshi

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Oct 27, 2017
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The E3 1999 was the first E3 I read about in gaming magazines. I only had a N64 back then but was also very excited about the next gen consoles .

It took place four months before the launch of the Sega Dreamcast in the US and ten months before the release of the PlayStation 2 in Japan. Nintendo announced the Dolphin but didn't show any games for it. Instead they showed Donkey Kong 64 and Star Wars Episode 1: Racer for the N64.

The most interesting games of the show were Soul Calibur, Gran Turismo 2000, Perfect Dark, Shenmue, Max Payne, Crash Team Racing and Unreal Tournament.

Freelancer got the award "Best of show" and "Best PC game", Black&White the award "Best original game" and Perfect Dark the award "Best console game".

I found an old Gamespot special on YouTube:
 
shinobi602

shinobi602

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Oct 24, 2017
8,330
Man, 1999 was 20 years ago...

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ClarkusDarkus

ClarkusDarkus

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Oct 27, 2017
2,723
And now we're playing Resident Evil in Virtual Reality. I have a 4K OLED but I struggle to accept I'll still be gaming on a tv 20 years from now as my primary.
 
HighspeedRefleX

HighspeedRefleX

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Feb 8, 2018
2,570
Things have changed. a lot. Gaming mags and some TV channels depending on where you lived, were really the main source of information and hype generators for most people back then and it has been fantastic.
 
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gofreak

gofreak

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Oct 26, 2017
7,734
This basically marked the beginning for me of having the internet and keeping up with gaming news. And finding Gaming Age (and GAF).

Oh my god, I'm getting old.
 
MonsterJail

MonsterJail

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Feb 27, 2018
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Waiting for an actual magazine about a month later to get all the hottest new screenshots

Or taping episodes of Cybernet (that I only remember being on TV at about 2am) to see if there were any clips
 

Deleted member 32374

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Nov 10, 2017
8,460
Whew lads, the late 90s early 00s aesthetic sucked.

This was a bit before my time as a video gamer, I didn't get an xbox until 2003, so no warm fuzzies.
 

Deleted member 32374

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Masterspeed said:
How dare you. The aesthetic was brilliant. They had so little to work with for 3D graphics and still managed to make some classics.
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Yes, I played American McGee's Alice years later, what a looker that game was.

Its everything in the video, from the clothes to the gamespot splash screen, haircuts, signage.... You can toss in Star Wars pod racer because that didn't age well.
 

TimPV3

Member
Oct 30, 2017
631
All those tube TVs, those poor workers.

Edit: Just finished watching. I wonder what happened with Dolphin's late 2000 release and their "real strong online strategy"
 
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Strafer

Strafer

The Flagpole is Wider
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Oct 25, 2017
29,360
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I was 12 in 1999.

Not sure what I was doing but watching E3 was not one of them. Probably outside being a prick.
 
eXistor

eXistor

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Oct 27, 2017
12,274
Good times, in the height of my gaming "prime" if you will (I was 18 then). Back when I could still muster up real excitement for games.
 
Annoying Old Party Man

Annoying Old Party Man

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Oct 29, 2017
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Jesus Christ, I was reading C&VG and EDGE like crazy (plus N64 Magazine). We are old guys, we need a hug :-(
 
Aftermath

Aftermath

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Oct 27, 2017
3,756
Man I was 17 back then, pretty sure I got a magazine with a VHS tape E3 trailers on it, prothe July or August issue never kept it though sadly.
 
Tokyo_Funk

Tokyo_Funk

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Dec 10, 2018
10,053
Man, VHS tapes to see game footage. Those were some times. We sure take things for granted now.

I remember seeing Black and White and thinking it was an incredible idea and given the legacy before it was expecting something great. Eeeeeh. It was ok.

Unreal Tournament was also great to see considering Arena shooters were the hotness of the time
 
ProtomanNeo

ProtomanNeo

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Oct 27, 2017
2,190
I had such an amazing time at that show! So many great memories. The energy at the show and in the city itself was just amazing. I was 21 then and even managed to get invited to a couple parties.
 
Ororo

Ororo

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Oct 27, 2017
2,242
I was also like 12 but I knew very well what E3 was thanks to the tv show Nintendomania and Club Nintendo Magazine from my country that always talked about CES, E3 since the first one etc. That show was ahead of its time and we got many episodes based solely on E3 content including the special episode where they showed all the booths and stuff.

Truly awesome stuff that no one else was doing at the time besides Nintendomania. I remember Jake Lloyd was at E3 and gave interviews about how excited he was to be in the game (star wars episode 1 racer), the DK Rap made its debut at that E3 as well, Pokemon Snap also got highlighted a lot there since Pokemon Mania was at full swing, Perfect Dark was talked about a lot and yeah hearing Dolphin for the first time got everyone excited, I remember talking about the dolphin on forums as a little kid.
 
Jimbojim

Jimbojim

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Jan 10, 2018
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It's weird that I never followed E3 really before 2004 considering I started gaming in 1987 at 4 years old.
 

Deleted member 17210

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Tokyo_Funk said:
Unreal Tournament was also great to see considering Arena shooters were the hotness of the time
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I spent much of the year highly anticipating Quake 3 but ended up liking Unreal Tournament way more. Both were great, though.

PC gaming was on fire back then for exclusives and best versions. And the upcoming Western release of the Dreamcast was also awesome. I had seen Sonic Adventure at a local import store by the time of this E3 and was looking forward to getting it.
 
Mupod

Mupod

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Oct 25, 2017
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In the early 2000s, I felt like the only thing in life I truly wanted was to be there in person and see it for myself. Closest I ever came was 2002-2003 when I was contributing to an upstart gaming website (that predictably went nowhere, I did actually get paid a little bit though). I wasn't quite delusional enough to think it was my foot in the door for the games industry, but I did think I could've wrangled it into a trip to E3. But of course the site owner couldn't afford to get someone there from Canada, and I sure couldn't pay my own way at the time. But if I had the funds, I probably would've done it.

Years of listening to Giantbomb talk about those times...logically I should feel like I dodged a bullet. All that time and money and I probably would've stood in line for hours to play a pre-release PS2 game or something. But it still seems like there was an energy to it I would've liked to experience.

Nowadays, I certainly could go if I wanted, but of course I have absolutely no interest in doing so. In this age where early access is everywhere and beta tests are preorder bonuses, it's hard to think back to a time where seeing a game early was something rare and special.
 
lunarworks

lunarworks

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Oct 25, 2017
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E3'99 was the first E3 I went to. I was covering it for the website I helped run, and it was an incredible experience. I remember seeing the PS2 prototype being shown off in some tacky pyramid, and Sega pulling out all the stops to try to prove that they were back.

I was in a pretty bad place at the time, so I did an absolutely terrible job covering it, but I learned quite a lot and met some great people.
 

Deleted member 17210

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Mupod said:
Nowadays, I certainly could go if I wanted, but of course I have absolutely no interest in doing so. In this age where early access is everywhere and beta tests are preorder bonuses, it's hard to think back to a time where seeing a game early was something rare and special.
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Yeah, the appeal is lost in the modern age. As a teenager, going to CES (a big deal for video games before E3 existed) was a dream for me but now I would be happy just to watch footage online.
 
tatotiburon

tatotiburon

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Oct 27, 2017
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Back in the day i read about E3 in a Nintendo Magazine and then Nintendo Mania came out and Gus Rodriguez was our man in the show, firts time i saw it in action

 
OmniStrife

OmniStrife

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Dec 11, 2017
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Man, Adam and Morgan... what legends, I still remember how hyped I was after their 5 / 5 review for Morrowing on X-Play.
 
AaronMT

AaronMT

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Oct 27, 2017
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Toronto
What wasn't obviously shown but would take the storm that year (at least on PC) was the release of a small little Half Life mod called Counter Strike
 
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