I get it. You hate “boomer shooter.” Why have people spent years using the term without checking with you, the consumer? Maybe you just hate the idea of remakes. Maybe you prefer to play the standards that boomer shooters are built on. Buying old hardware can get expensive so I offer a way to go retro without breaking the bank.
PCem, a vintage PC emulator, while no longer maintained by its original creator, remains highly usable. As the author is open to delegating maintenance to a new individual, it's possible that updates may occur in the future. For Windows users, backwards compatibility support is robust, suggesting that existing Windows versions of PCem should operate smoothly for the foreseeable future. Despite a lack of recent enhancements, PCem's existing binaries are reliable and accessible, offering an excellent option for those interested in PC emulation.
UniPCemu, another full PC emulator, originally developed for PSP but now available on multiple platforms including Windows, is also an active project. It provides near cycle-accurate emulation of 8086/8088 chips, with only a 4% discrepancy, according to the UniPCemu wiki. This makes it a promising choice for those seeking an accurate emulation experience.
DOSBox, another popular emulator focused on DOS-based games, is still actively maintained, with a significant number of changes accumulating in its development repository. However, new releases have been sparse, as the development team emphasizes ensuring minimal regressions before rolling out new versions. The existing releases, referred to as 0.74-x, are primarily focused on bug fixes and don't incorporate any new features from the development branch. Nonetheless, the developers have plans for a new release in the future.
Contrastingly, DOSBox-X has a distinct focus and is subject to frequent updates. Originally aimed at enhancing fidelity for running demoscene productions, DOSBox-X has now expanded its focus to improving fidelity in general. This active maintenance and the unique value proposition makes DOSBox-X a worthy emulator for those interested in high fidelity PC emulation.
Moreover, MAME is worth exploring for PC emulation. Its developers prioritize accuracy in their emulation, making it another strong choice for enthusiasts. Other options such as WeeCee, an actual miniature PC, could provide an authentic experience within a modern PC environment. Despite its size, WeeCee is capable of running a wide array of speed-sensitive games proficiently, making it another viable option for those interested in vintage PC gaming.
Rookie Level 1 Gamer: "They're called boomer shooters because they're old like baby boomers"
Veteran Level 20 Gamer: "Baby boomers thought Doom was satanic, that's a stupid term"
Enlightened Level 60 Gamer: "They're called boomer shooters because of the huge debt they owe to the original Doom modding scene and therefore "Boom", one of the first limit-removing source ports"
What irks me is that it associates the genre with the wrong generation for the sake of being catchy. Should be "Gen-X shooter" if anything but I guess that doesn't roll off the tongue.
Modern shooters should be called "dumber shooters" or something like that instead, I mean, you are constantly told where to go, and what to do, level desings are extremely linear so you don't get lost, puzzles are gone so you don't have to use your braincells, there are no traps nor secrets, the actions is incredibly "childlish" (when your screen is filled with ketchup it means is time to stop playing the FPS and start playing hide and seek until the ketchup is gone) everything screams "our playerbase is too dumb to play videogames, so we have to handhold them like babies" it's really hard to consider them even shooters
Why are they being called "boomer shooters"? My boomer parents didn't want anything to do with them. The older millenials were the ones playing them. Most boomers don't even like video games.
Hmm, I guess I'm wrong but I always felt they were called boomer shooters because they're always full of over the top explosions and everything is always going "boom"
I think maybe the irksome thing is this is a retroactive label for older games. It's not how we got to know those games, and it sounds pretty dismissive of something we enjoyed and loved. smart_boy below has the right idea, reclaim the term, realign the meaning.
Honestly I never even knew people didn't like this term, wtf. It properly conveys the idea of an old-fashioned FPS game, with basic 3D graphics, many times based on 2D sprites. Me and all my friends play them, and we love them, and we all call it "Boomer Shooter".
I won't lie, I had to look at the comments and do a real quick search engine check to find out that the kids these days call the old FPS games "boomer shooter". One hell of a way to remind me about my age by calling me a boomer for liking my childhood FPS games :(
Look, I understand words meaning can change over time, but it’s one thing to observe this after the fact, and another to look at it while it’s happening and just say “I am fine with us changing the meaning of this word without offering a replacement term”. If “boomer” just means “old” now, what word do you use for actual boomers?
And of course, others have pointed out all the other reasons it doesn’t make sense to use this term. I feel like the only reason the term is catching non is because it kinda rhymes but not really. We might as well call them “greatest generation racing”. What’s that? It doesn’t make sense to refer to a shooting game as a racing game? I shouldn’t just arbitrarily use a term that means something else when we already have existing accurate terms we could be using? Interesting thought.