General

Thank you all for your replies, very helpful

They were tiny before in terms of both cpu usage and ram usage because of computing restraints. Back then you only had 1 gb ram total in computers to work with so certain things weren't possible. Then there couldn't be too many graphically intensive features since processors were nothing compared to today's. This has barely anything to do with how big the files of the game actually are. At worst a bad computer with minimal specs will take a while to load up because it will be slow in reading the wz files (hard drive speed and partially cpu speed).

The maps that were bigger back then don't have anything to do with how long the game loads or how laggy the game is while playing. The speed should be negligible. Nexon has it coded so that only map objects inside 1.5x your screen vision is displayed. I am not sure if this is now always done for the maximum screen setting though, but in the past if anything it will be less laggy because the screen resolution was lower.

So yes, if they went back to v92 it would work fine if they just reverted everything back. It shouldn't be a hard change at all if they actually have a v92 game data backup as well as the source code for v92. I feel like this is just another one of those threads that is asking for an old version of the game though. It's doable, just not really going to happen.

> if maple story was reverted back to how it was pre-bb... would it run on today's computers?
>

Yes. Space taken on the hard drive is not the issue. You probably meant to talk about memory and Maplestory does have a track record of using it inefficiently.

>Or do programs have to be much bigger than they used to be to be able to work today?
>

No. Size is irrelevant to whether a game works or not.

The increase is part of a continuous trend in which game developers cram more media (such as recorded voice lines) and larger texture files into their games.

There are exceptions, typically being indie titles. Transistor was around 2 GB. Far Cry 4 is around 30 GB. Both games were released in 2014.

As you can see, that's an entirely different discussion from what you asked.

Backward and forward compatibility issues most commonly arise from problems with the graphic driver, API, and runtimes. Then there are other problematic things that can make a game not work properly such as missing or corrupted files, disruption from an antivirus, firewalls,...the list can go on. File size is rarely problematic and it's more a nuisance when one is running out of space on the hard drive, but at least the most basic solution is obvious.

>it seems like it would easily be reverted to back then and run on our crappy computers today.
>

It's not easy. It's not just undoing the efforts of developers, but also players. Level 250 was not a feature a few years ago.

The crappy computer thing is people wanting the cheapest laptop money can buy with no consideration for bad it would be. The issue here is not Maplestory, but computers that are just flawed in every single way and people willing to spend so little on something barely functional. Twice on Basilmarket, people posted to Non-MS Tech asking why their new laptop was laggier than their old computer. I determined for both cases it was because they downgraded to systems with netbook parts. Netbooks are the crappiest of crappy computers. They run Maplestory poorly anyways no matter how well the game is optimized to use memory.

I... uh... well...What?

A bigger size has nothing to do with performance. Last I checked, the first optimization patch in KMS was recently released; it decreased the size of the client! Optimization generally results in a decrease in size, whether through simpler comparisons or some reference case being created. I can only imagine an increase in size occurs if there's a script that changes how graphics are rendered or memory allocations for multiple cores; essentially more demand is spread throughout the computer to increase/smooth performance.

https://orangemushroom.net/2016/04/16/kmst-ver-1-2-032-spring-project/