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Name the first (in today's standards) 'expansion pack' / 'DLC' you played/bought in the 80s/90s

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
I believe it would be the Duke Nukem 3D Plutonium Pak. Dark Forces II Mysteries of the Sith would probably be the second.
 

Dr.Morris79

Gold Member
jaquette-syndicate-american-revolt-amiga-cover-avant-g.jpg
Got to be this. Unless there was something on the C64 I cant remember.
 

Nickolaidas

Banned
I loved It Came From the Desert, but never heard of this expansion that's a shame.

I'm sure i bought some expansions in the 90s but can't remember except for Ruins of Kurnark for Everquest.
Yes this one exactly
r4x2gn8.jpg
I love the elf's pose and expression in that cover.

"Nope, you're not sacrificing me to Lord Set, no deal, nuh uh!"
 
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KyoZz

Tag, you're it.
I was nine, and I remember playing A LOT Age of empires II: The Conquerors Expansion.
What a time for STR lover.

1581325047_age-of-empires-2-the-conquerors-poster.jpg
 
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Kev Kev

Member
I bought the +\- 70 years of life legendary edition in 1987, then purchased the musician expansion pack when I was about 7, and recently acquired the shitty Dad DLC now at 34 years old
 
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Matt_Fox

Member
I particularly remember Shadow Of The Unicorn on the ZX Spectrum as it came with a physical expansion pack, which added an additional 16K to turbo charge the old Speccy.
Va4KHOB.jpg
 
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NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Resident Evil Director’s Cut.

And I still feel like an idiot for it.
Way to waste money at a time when it was my parents buying me games.
RE was the first game I bought for the PS1. Loved it to bits, still do. Played it so many times.
There was absolutely no reason for me to buy the DC version, but I still wanted it, I got it, and played through Arrange mode a couple times. Then reality hit me, I’d wasted money on an extra mode that didn’t really add anything substantial to the original game. And fuck gaming mags, all of them, for saying that the DC would have the original color intro movie. It was a fucking lie. Imagine booting up the game expecting the very first thing you see to be the full, uncensored, color intro movie you’ve read about just everywhere, and seeing the exact same video you‘ve seen dozens of times in your “old” version of the game. What a scam.
 
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This whole thread is proof positive gaming was better back then. All these examples of "DLC" are better standalone products than any shit season pass features from the last decade.

Shout outs to:
Sonic and Knuckles
Doom and Quake episodes
Half-Life: Opposing Force and Blue Shift
StarCraft: Brood War
Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction
And all the other amazing 90s and early 00s games people listed. What a time it was to be a gamer then. Miss those days.
 
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EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
memcover.gif

Not a "game expansion"

4016596172_b59f6c0c41.jpg


Credible PS3 add on for the highly respected franchise Socom, it was more aligned as an update

"Today, we are very happy to announce the COLD FRONT downloadable pack for SOCOM: Confrontation. Loaded with new features and content, this pack brings a brand new snowy Eastern European area of operations into play with two all new maps and three classic SOCOM maps for 16 to 32 players. The classic maps are drawn from some of the most popular SOCOM maps of all time, each built from the ground up for the PS3!"

4015833465_6257a3070d.jpg
 

Fbh

Member
There was probably an earlier one that might have been bundled with the game when I bought it, but the first one that jumped to mind that I specifically bought after owning the main game was:
age_of_mythology__the_titans-2478668.jpg
 
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Kuranghi

Member
I think it was the first Quake 2 mission pack, perhaps the Settlers II Data Disk, but might just be memories of reading about it.

I remember sometimes (often?) Amiga 500 "sequels" were more revised/patched and expanded versions of the games so i suppose Super Skidmarks is technically a base game + mission pack/gold edition re-release. That would be my first I think if thats the case.

edit - Thinking about it its hard to pinpoint the first proper standalone mission packs I got, because they exploded in number in 1998.
 
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Bo_Hazem

Banned
b1141dede7ce1c01737dbbec6b660fde.png

Sonic 3 & Knuckles was literally what we hate about DLC. A single game broken at parts that are sold separately. This one was sold as two different games (at the price of two games of course).

They even tried to pass the whole thing as a feature along with the above superb looking logo. And we liked it.

The game was awesome nontheless.

Wow, and I thought it was a standalone game! So that's the first "surprise" DLC to me.
 

raduque

Member
I honestly can't remember anymore. I don't have my game disks here with me, so I can't go through them. Was Spear of Destiny and expansion or sequel? Maybe it was a Doom expansion pack.

I loved It Came From the Desert, but never heard of this expansion that's a shame.

I'm sure i bought some expansions in the 90s but can't remember except for Ruins of Kurnark for Everquest.
Yes this one exactly
r4x2gn8.jpg
I have a small statue of her. It looks exactly like the artwork. Man, even the statues were better back then. It came with a special edition of EverQuest, which I never really played.
 

Isa

Gold Member
While I've probably played a few C64 expansions, the first console titles I recall would be Sonic & Knuckles and Street Fighter Turbo and Championship Edition. The first pc expansion I bought would be Mechwarrior 2 Ghost Bear's Legacy. Mercenaries was also great but I received that for my birthday. The first pc expansions I'd played were friend's copies for Wing Commander and similar such ilk.

There are definitely some great titles in the thread and really shows the potential of what gaming could deliver, as well as potential downfalls that currently plague gaming these days. The disparity between new quality content for a fair price and cut content pre-release(which I know varies and is more conspiratorial) to be sold later as expansion passes, not to mention the swathes of overpriced cosmetics and season passes is absurd.

Looking at the Everquest expansion also got me. I sincerely miss the days when great artists like Keith Parkinson graced covers and adverts. Handsome warriors, lovely maidens, creepy monsters and villains. Hell my gf noticed the theme of Leon saving Ashley in RE4 which I've been playing lately. I miss saving the princess ala Mario. Also playing as the heroin is cool too. I guess my main gripe is that when I was younger from childhood to teen and adult, what I imagined gaming would become didn't quite pan out. The gfx are there but the art(direction, style), stories(concepts, writing), and gameplay(evolution, innovation) just have not wowed me. I'd almost say the success of the gaming industry has been a double edged sword, attracting entities that would rather stifle innovation for monetary gain rather than deliver experiences that are more ambitious and greater than what's come before, whilst kowtowing to outrage mobs.
 

BigBooper

Member
Command and Conquer Red Alert Counterstrike is the first that comes to mind. It was good, but not as great as the second expansion, Aftermath.
9I85bVT.jpg
 

nkarafo

Member
Wow, and I thought it was a standalone game! So that's the first "surprise" DLC to me.
Yeah, they first released Sonic 3 and then Sonic & Knuckles on a special cart with a connector that was meant to connect with the Sonic 3 cart. They marketed it as two games connecting to make a big one. But the truth is both games seperately are much smaller than Sonic 2. It was meant as a single game but the rom was getting too big or something.

Problem is, they messed with the original level order. Originally Ice Cap of Sonic 3 was after Flying Battery of Sonic & Knuckles. Thats why Sonic comes from the sky at the start of Ice Cap, and he was supposed to ride a broken door from Flying Battery, not a snowboard.

This was actually much cooler than what we got and there are some mods and hacks that fix this and brings the original vision back. Try Sonic 3 Air on PC or Sonic 3 Complete on the real console or emulator.
 

amigastar

Member
This one
I know its not an expansion in a classic way but anyway
the N64 Rumble Pak expansion.
url
 
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Mowcno

Member
First expansions I remember playing as a child would be Age of Empires: Rise of Rome and Rollercoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Yeah, they first released Sonic 3 and then Sonic & Knuckles on a special cart with a connector that was meant to connect with the Sonic 3 cart. They marketed it as two games connecting to make a big one. But the truth is both games seperately are much smaller than Sonic 2. It was meant as a single game but the rom was getting too big or something.

Problem is, they messed with the original level order. Originally Ice Cap of Sonic 3 was after Flying Battery of Sonic & Knuckles. Thats why Sonic comes from the sky at the start of Ice Cap, and he was supposed to ride a broken door from Flying Battery, not a snowboard.

This was actually much cooler than what we got and there are some mods and hacks that fix this and brings the original vision back. Try Sonic 3 Air on PC or Sonic 3 Complete on the real console or emulator.

Nah played those to death back in the 1990's, so won't touch that filth in 2022. If nostalgia hits a few minutes of gameplay on youtube cuts it fir me or listening to those creative soundtracks. I simply can't stomach old games.
 

Armorous

Member
Probably would be Warcraft 2: BtDP
Close second would be Starcraft: Brood War
Third is Everquest: Ruins of Kunark
 

alf717

Member
I bought a ton of expansion packs back in the 90's which one was first? I can't remember but the firsts to come to mind were Battle Tactics and The Core Contingency for Total Annihilation.
 
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Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
Wolfenstein 3D: Spear of Destiny Episode 2

It made everything blue.

8854ea3f65b16fc404113c11f1ede10de4b1a061c4c36d21c875d2289c0546a1_product_card_v2_mobile_slider_639.jpg


Though, the first one I actually bought for myself was the first Rollercoaster Tycoon expansion. Good times.
 
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