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** Changes in game design can make a game age badly too, especially if it was made in the era where [[Nintendo Hard]] was the norm; many of these games contain design solutions which would now be considered ridiculously sadistic and unfair to the player...or weren't actually from the game at all, but from shortcomings in the game code/engine/system hardware.
** Controls. Playing many old-school controls can lead to a [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]] when played today, because we're so used to an unofficial control-scheme of standardization. Especially for some games like ''[[Ape Escape]]''. (mentioned below)
* ''[[Adventure (
** This applies for most Atari games. As [[
** Or, for that matter, the [[Atari 2600]] itself, which was [[Trope Codifier|the first commercially successful]] home console to store games on interchangeable cartridges (though the first console to do this was the Fairchild Channel F).
* With modern processing technology, it can be hard to believe that ''[[Myst]]'' was once one of the [[Scenery Porn|the most beautiful games on the market]]. The graphics aren't the only thing that haven't aged well.
* [[Role Playing Game|Console RPGs]]. The plots of many early ones seem to a modern audience more like textbook cliché storms. Or, at best, like they're [[Strictly Formula]]. By now, [[Final Fantasy I
** ''[[
** ''[[
** How about [[Final Fantasy I
* ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' created many of the tropes still used by JRPG's today,, to the point where the older games are often labelled 'archaic' or 'outdated', very much acting like the ''Seinfeld'' of JRPG's.
** The series has been doomed to almost-niche status abroad due to the following: long localization holdups with the 8-bit generation games rendering them either obsolete or in competition with the new 16-bit generation, the temporary foldup of Enix's American wing, and last but definitely not least, the game to break the genre in the west and define it, ''[[
* ''[[Golden Sun]]'' has a hatedom that has pretty much attacked the game for being a "generic [[Game Boy Advance]] RPG" - without realizing that there wasn't really that much else available on the [[Game Boy Advance]] at the time (''maybe'' in Japan). Considering that the Game Boy Advance was a new format in ''itself'', ''[[Golden Sun]]'' still had some rather detailed environments and perhaps the best use of the Game Boy Advance sound systems for ''a while'' -- it was perhaps one of the first games released ''on'' the format to actually ''use'' a lot of the potential technology it had, other than a few others like ''[[
* The original ''[[Half-Life]]'', being the first modern, highly scripted first person shooter with adaptive AI, now seems somewhat typical after being endlessly copied, ripped off and modified by just about every first person shooter that came after it.
* ''[[Hydlide]]'', originally released in 1984 for the [[PC 88]], was one of the first [[Action RPG|Action RPGs]] ever (along with ''[[
* The first ''[[
* ''[[Atelier Series|Atelier Iris]]''. In an odd combination of [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny]] and [[No Export for You]], when it ''finally'' came over to the U.S. in 2005. "So it's a standard JRPG with "alchemy crafting"?" While the "standard JRPG" bit is, well, [[Cliché Storm|not exactly false]] for ''Iris'', what a lot of Western consumers fail to understand in shrugging off the crafting system is that the progenitor of the ''Atelier'' series, ''Atelier Marie'', was the first JRPG to not only feature a very robust (in the case of ''Marie'', absurdly robust) crafting system, but was the first JRPG to feature alchemy heavily. After ''Marie'' and its sequel sold a quarter million copies each, you suddenly had alchemy coming out of the woodwork in Japanese pop culture and nearly every JRPG in the wake of ''Marie'' has featured some kind of crafting system. The problem is, due to some [[Screwed
* ''[[
** ''[[
** Among the PC gaming crowd, ''[[Halo]]'' itself may count as well. Most shooters nowadays have regenerating health <ref>Halo is one of the few that accounts for regenerating shields in its story; health is depleted separately in the first game and ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' and does not replenish on its own</ref>, let you carry only two weapons at once, use the weapon you're holding as a melee weapon instead of using a separate weapon that you have to switch to (e.g., a [[Half Life|crowbar]]), allow you to throw grenades without making you switch to them first, have enemies drop their weapons and equipment when they die instead of just having weapons pre-placed on the stage, etc. All of these elements were around before ''Halo'', but never all in the same game. ''Halo'' was all that in one game, ''and'' on a console. It was also the first console game to include networked multiplayer, which soon gave birth to online multiplayer.
*** For the console players, it was the FIRST time ever being allowed to multiplay through local network, up to 16 players at a time; by hooking up tv sets and systems; network play over the internet was available since doom, but it was considerably harder to set up properly; Quake 3 Arena and Counterstrike predate true online multiplayer for PC by a couple of years; in fact, what really constitutes a seinfield is unfunny option is the SERVER BROWSER, it is unthinkable today to ship a multiplayer game without a server browser or online match up making system on consoles; but there was a time wher you had to manually search for games; and in that regard Halo was indeed the FIRST FPS on console to feature a robust match making system.
* ''[[Doom]]''. [[A Space Marine Is You]], demons, [[Foreboding Architecture|Foreboding]], [[Benevolent Architecture|Benevolent]], and [[Malevolent Architecture]], futuristic techbases... I've [[Seen It a Million Times]] already.
* ''[[
* ''[[The Sims]]''. The original game, ''without'' any form of mods or expansion packs seems quite dull in of itself. There's no form of direction to what you can do (And you don't ''have'' to follow your Sims' wishes, you know), several meters like "Comfort" and "room" that meant absolutely ''nothing'', you were rather limited in how much you were capable of doing compared to even a bare-bones ''[[The Sims 3]]'', and there was ''no'' aging whatsoever.
* ''[[Elite]]''. David Braben and Ian Bell's game was completely groundbreaking when it was published in the mid-80s with its open-ended trading/shooting gameplay and massive universe of stars and planets to the extent that it's still talked about with fondness by those who apparently spent hours at a time playing it back then. And yet to many who didn't play it in the '80s it's hard to see what all the fuss is about.
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** However; the game actually ''was'' praised for changing a couple things, such as how the game could be made almost unwinnable if you missed a key item (The Falchion) and with how many units were actually ''usable'' because in the original, only some units could promote.
** For that matter, a lot of ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' games - ''[[Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones]]'' was criticized as being "too short". While it is possibly the shortest game of the series (Seisen no Keifu aside, which compensates by having larger maps) it actually has about as much content as ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' normally does. It wasn't a case of Sacred Stones being short - so much as Blazing sword being ''longer'' than average. These criticisms weren't present for [[Fire Emblem Tellius]], which were shorter than Blazing Sword but still way longer than Sacred Stones. (But with less replay value outside of challenge or optional content in ''Radiant Dawn'')
* Point-and-click adventure games. Mostly due to a combination of [[Guide Dang It]], [[You Can't Get Ye Flask]], and GUIs becoming popular (and more easy to program) it can be a little hard for even some fans of these to pick up old Sierra adventure games such as ''[[Laura Bow]]'', ''[[King's Quest]]'', ''[[Space Quest]]'', and ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]]'', text games like ''[[
** And it isn't just the ancient parser adventures - even the most advanced of [[Interactive Fiction]] games get overlooked now, because who wants to ''type'' their commands in, after years of [[You Can't Get Ye Flask]] leaving a bad taste in peoples' mouths?
* ''[[Star Ocean]]''. This happened primarily to the first two games when they were each given an [[Enhanced Remake]]. The first ''[[Star Ocean]]'' game was actually, for the most part, ''drastically'' different in story than most other RPGs (with a few exceptions like ''[[Fallout]]'' and a couple ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' games who often used elements of Science Fiction) and the fact that this game was actually credited as the one that pushed the SNES's technology to the limit. People often criticized it as "There isn't enough Sci-Fi, there's magic so it's not Sci-Fi", "[[It's Short, So It Sucks]]", or "[[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]]" regarding the changes to their PSP versions. The plot for the first ''[[Star Ocean]]'' game is ''very'' similar to an episode of ''Star Trek'', and the plot for the second one (called a [[Cliché Storm]] by some reviewers who had played the PSP remake) was actually ''far'' more original for the time than it seems now. The entire skill system (which was actually pretty in-depth and thorough) is often ignored, and the amount of recruitable characters and somewhat complex recruitment-branches (giving some more replay value than the typical "You get these eight characters but can use only three or four at a time"-RPG) is considered just one part of a [[Cliché Storm]]. Let's also not forget that it was one of the first games that featured optional "Private events" to develop characters since the plot was written with only the required characters needing to be involved.
** However, some justified criticisms of the game are that it's an [[Obvious Beta]]; and the PSP remake doesn't really help it too much. It's possible to beat the main story in about 15-20 hours. For a handheld game, that's not bad, but compared to games like ''[[Pokémon]]'' or even ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'' that can take much ''much'' longer, it was criticised for being short. Then again though, it's worth noting that if you beat the game in about 12 hours, you probably missed a ''lot'' of optional content.
* ''[[
** Some of these were subverted by the [[Enhanced Remake|Enhanced Remakes]] the two had. (The Playstation version of ''Phantasia'' is considered the best version of ''Phantasia''.)
** For that mater, play many of the early [[Tales
* ''[[
** Another funny example are the people saying that Ghaleon is just another silver-haired pretty villain who is a result of developers trying to create another Sephiroth. Now take one look at the release dates mentioned above and try reading that again with a straight face... By the time people watched Sephiroth burn down Nibelheim, the exploits of the Magic Emperor Ghaleon were already five years old. And when he returned for round two? Three years old... and don't even get some of these people ''started'' on the rather effeminate looking Zophar (who really isn't that effeminate looking on the Sega CD until he absorbs the power of Althena) who is also considered another Sephiroth ripoff... despite trying to take over the universe of ''[[Lunar]]'' at least three years before Sephiroth did.
* Full-motion video. Many early attempts in the 90's are seen today as really, really corny. (Morgan Webb of ''[[X
** Not to mention, take one look at ''[[Star Wars: Dark Forces
* Voice Acting. Many classic games from the late 90's such as ''[[Silent Hill]]'', ''[[Resident Evil]]'', and to a lesser extent, ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' have some pretty [[Narm|Narmy]] voice acting by modern standards, but at the time they were considered revolutions in video game story telling. Indeed most of the best remembered video games of the [[Play Station]] Era where hits because of the then fresh and exciting "3D graphics, voice acting, movie inspired plots" formula.
* This was actually what one of the criticisms when the Sega Saturn version of ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'' came out. The reviewer found no problems with the game itself, he considered the localization of a game that was 3 years old already a wasted effort.
* ''[[Hydro Thunder]]'' has fallen victim to this. It's very hard to imagine how it was innovative when pretty much every aspect of it (outside of the boat racing) has been immitated (mostly very poorly) and used. Mention it to anyone who wasn't around or into the arcade scene in the late '90s and you'll be bound to hear a bunch of groans complaining how they've seen it all before.
* ''[[Metroid]]''. [[Samus Is a Girl]]. So what's the big deal? It's quite forgotten that the original was released at a time when female protagonists (or any female fitting [[Flat Character|any trope besides]] [[Damsel in Distress]]) in video games were essentially unheard of, even the trend of required token females in fighting games hadn't started yet. A rather dull twist today was one hell of a shocker at the time.
* ''[[Mortal Kombat]]''. The violence of the first game, and its depiction of digitized characters mutilating, decapitating, and just plain murdering each other with their Fatalities caused quite a stir during the [[The Nineties|early-1990's]] with both, players and parents. Nintendo caved in to the [[Moral Guardians]] when it came to "their" version of the game for the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super NES]], which had all the blood removed and some of the <s>Fatalities</s> [[Never Say "Die"|Finishing Moves]] changed, resulting in significantly less units sold than its uncensored [[Sega Genesis]] counterpart. Arguably, ''Mortal Kombat'' could be cited as the game that single-handedly created the ESRB. Nowadays, the violence of the ''Mortal Kombat'' series seems cartoony and tame compared to some of the more disturbing games released since the rating system has been established, such as ''[[Manhunt]]'' and ''[[Silent Hill]]''.
** ''[[Mortal Kombat 4]]'' specially suffers from this. While the game was nothing specially in the gore department, the use of swift good-looking 3D graphics made it a successful game. If you check the reviews of the time, it usually got pretty decent scores (6.5/10 to 8.5/10). Most people nowadays considere it a horrible game, forgetting that it was the first ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' 3D game not to hit the [[Polygon Ceiling]].
** ''[[Night Trap]]'' also helped cause the ESRB to be formed, or was one of the prime motivators. Seeing it now it's amazing to think of how it was supposed to be so offensive on the Sega CD. Of course, even then, there wasn't any actual violence (implied, not actually shown), and many of the things that were shown were so fantastical people couldn't ''possibly'' replicate it. (As it was filmed) However, the sex... oh boy... a girl in a nightgown that looked like something in the 50s. ''SCANDALOUS!!!'' (However, the game's biggest criticizers at the time were people who [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch|hadn't actually seen it]].)
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* ''[[Phantasy Star]]''. A lot of the tropes of JRPGs in general come from this series, including the mash-up of sci-fi and fantasy elements, customizing party lineups by swapping out party members, and the emotionally shocking but dramatically effective storyline deaths of important protagonists<ref> Technically, ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'' had protagonists meet their demise over the course of the story but they were the fourth party member and not any of the main three</ref>. Now it's all par for the course.
** It does technically hold onto one claim to fame, though it is unfortunately [[Broken Base|at home in the 'Dark Horse' of the original quadrology]]. And that is a branching storyline caused by marital succession. Granted, such a thing is probably a massive pain in the arse to script then implement, so it is no surprise few others have a constantly refreshing cast of characters.
** Most of the early Western RPGs (such as ''[[Heavy On The Magick]]'' on the European 8-bit computers, or ''[[Dungeon Master (
** Amusingly, early [[RPG|RPGs]] copied each other so much there was little effective difference between them: ''[[Dragon Quest|Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' were, if not the same, at least very similar thematically. Now, due to the proliferation of the RPG format, there are any number of different RPG genres. Which sort of makes it the reverse of [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny]]: earlier [[RPG|RPGs]] copied shamelessly, newer [[RPG|RPGs]] are much more diverse. Sort of. (The [[Hate Dumb]] for [[JRPG|JRPGs]] tends to point fingers at games that have mere similarities, [[Hypocritical Fandom|while ignoring their own similarities as "part of the genre"]].)
*** Early western RPGs were so mechanically similar that you could frequently import parties developed in other games. You could play ''[[Bards Tale]] 2'' with your ''[[
** How about a more straight example? ''[[Shin Megami Tensei I]]'' was one of the first major RPGs (another was ''[[SaGa]] 1'', also known as ''[[Final Fantasy Legend]]'') to include heavy Christian imagery and [[God Is Evil|cast God as a villain]]. It pre-dates ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' by three years, ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' by five years and ''[[
* ''[[Final Fantasy Legend]]'' has its leveling system (an improvement of ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'''s), which was improved in the following games, making it look rather old by comparison.
* ''[[Quake (
** Similar deal is with the graphics of ''[[Alone in The Dark]]''. Or ''4-D Boxing''.
* ''[[Street Fighter (
** ''[[
* ''[[
** Or, hell, even the original ''[[Super Mario Bros. (
*** Not to mention, platformers in ''general''. Look say... ''[[Ape Escape]]''. Nowadays, the game is plagued by [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]] and what is now considered terrible camera controls (in part because a standardized control scheme is "Right analog stick for camera, left analog stick for movement".) However, at the time, that game was a huge experiment in 3D control... as well as for the Playstation in general. For one, it was the first game to ''require'' the dual-analog controller.
* ''[[Tomb Raider]]''. Before this game most women in video games were [[Distressed Damsel|only there to be rescued]] or [[The Smurfette Principle|be sidekicks]] (sometimes both). In other cases where you could actually control a female character, she would only be an option to the main, heroic male lead character. Lara Croft started a trend of women becoming the sole [[Action Girl|protagonist in action games]]. The game was also praised for its detailed, realistic interactive 3D environment and use of set-pieces, which was groundbreaking at the time. Nowadays, the original game rarely gets the respect it deserves, and even then it's mostly the [[Fan Service]] that is mentioned rather than the many other things it did and the major part it played in establishing the 3D [[Action Adventure]] genre in general.
* The ''[[System Shock]]'' games, ''[[System Shock 2]]'' in particular. Despite being one of the most undersold games ever, never really moving beyond [[Cult Classic]], ''System Shock 2'' was a very well put together and innovative PC game. It was so good it has at least 2 [[Spiritual Successor|Spiritual Successors]]. Both ''[[
* The ''[[Tokimeki Memorial]]'' series as a whole, [[Follow the Leader|being the series which made non-H Dating Sims and Otome Games popular]], and [[Trope Codifier|having created or popularized]] a number of Romance and [[Harem Series]] tropes along the way, suffers from this nowadays. Especially notable in the case of ''Tokimeki Memorial 4'', the latest game in the series: it's generally accepted that it's on par, if not superior to the best episode in the series, the back-then groundbreaking and extremely popular ''[[Even Better Sequel|Tokimeki Memorial 2]]''; but it's mostly shrugged off by critics and gamers alike as "so [[The Nineties|Nineties]]" and "so old-school", being used by games such as ''[[The Idolmaster (
* ''[[Ultima]]''. [[Ben Croshaw|Yahtzee]] once described the series as "needlessly obtuse", which would make sense if there was anything better available at the time the games were released (which is only true for ''[[Ultima IX]]'' and perhaps ''[[Ultima VIII]]'').
** The early ''[[Ultima]]'' games were often described as "RPG/adventure hybrids" at the time, because they brought into RPGs such revolutionary elements as ''talking to NPCs'' and ''solving puzzles'' beyond "use key on door".
** It also was pretty much the first source of a [[Karma Meter|morality system]] in an RPG, in ''[[Ultima IV]]''.
** The ''[[Ultima Underworld]]'' games, along with ''[[
* ''[[Virtua Fighter]]'' is horribly bland if you've played any 3D brawler game that came later, yet words fail to describe how innovative and astonishing it was when it came out. Of course, the very name indicates that it was made to demonstrate something new at the time.
* ''[[Welcome To Pia Carrot]]''. The first game was made in 1995. Like many other [[H
* The original ''[[The Legend of Zelda (
** For that matter, [[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
** But still, the good things people say about ''Ocarina of Time'' and ''Majora's Mask'' kinda make up for it. Don't forget that ''Ocarina of Time'' is still considered the best ''Zelda'' game by many, and even considered one of the best games of all time.
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' evokes this trope in two ways: firstly, the speed which the eponymous Blue Blur ran through the levels in the first game in the series really seemed quite blistering to gamers of the day, even if nobody would think twice about it now. Also, in order to truly see the heavily promoted "edginess" of the character, you really need to be aware that when Sonic first appeared in 1991, the vast majority of platform heroes were promoted as squeaky-clean and cutesy. [[Mascot
** Actually, many fans nowadays feel like Sonic has slowed down in recent games.
* Logistics and diplomacy in a wargame. From the west came Virgin Interactive with ''Overlord'', ''[[MULE]]'' with trade, military pacts, and planetary bombardment, and from the east came Koei, with ''[[
* The ''[[Call of Duty]]: [[Modern Warfare]]'' series is a microcosm of this trope. When the Marine player character in the first game {{spoiler|is permanently killed by the nuke}} in "Aftermath", it was a huge break from other FPS games of the era. The fact that you {{spoiler|controlled a dying character in the middle of a nuclear blast zone (and had no say over whether he lived or died), and that all your efforts in the American campaign were for naught}} was a ''huge'' deal then, and flew in the face of conventional video game tropes. The sequel, however, does the same thing {{spoiler|3}} separate times, and for players who played ''MW2'' before the original, the effect of the "Aftermath" level is lost.
* The ''[[
* The original ''[[Battle Arena Toshinden]]'' was one of the most highly-rated games for the original [[Play Station]] when it originally came out. It was one of the most advertised launch titles for the platform in America, as well as the third game to ever get a score of 98% from ''Game Players'' magazine (the other two being the SNES port of ''Super [[
** Graphics-wise, they're comparible (with ''Toshinden'' arguably a notch above). Gameplay wise, ''VF'' and ''Tekken'' hold up. ''BAT''... doesn't.
* The ''[[
* [[Genre Savvy]] people are predicting this to happen to the original ''[[Defense of the Ancients]]'' because it was released on an engine considered "outdated". A lot of other early [[Multiplayer Online Battle Arena|MOBA]] games in general after other games like ''[[Demigod]]'', ''[[Heroes of Newerth]]'', ''[[League of Legends]]'' and ''DotA 2'' improved and played with the formula a bit more.
* The first ''[[Persona (
** If you think that the [[Literal Split Personality]] or the escapism are cliche, it's worth noting that you'd be hard pressed to find any more of that back in 1996.
* A couple of ''[[Super Mario World (
** ''[[
** Heck, [http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=showhack&id=1163 Rob-Omb's Quest] probably looks lousy today compared to other ''Super Mario World'' hacks, but around the time it came out, (many) people were impressed by the custom ''[[
*** Even the ''SMB3'' music seems bland compared to the custom music that can be inserted into a ''SMW'' ROM hack now.
** ExGFX? Well, although some people still like playing [http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=showhack&id=1040 Super Demo World: The Legend Continues], it still doesn't have all the ASM and custom music that newer ''SMW'' hacks nowadays have. It's still a great hack to play though.
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* [[Breath of Fire II]], for the Super NES. Compared to today's games, its mild swearing (a single "damn" and "hell"), explicit references to death, and religious themes (including a [[Corrupt Church]] and explicit references to gods) may seem tame; nonetheless, it was definitely [[Darker and Edgier]] than anything ever before seen on a Nintendo system.
* ''[[Resident Evil]]'' did for video games what ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]'' did for movies. Zombies. Used to be, zombies were about as common or less likely for one to encounter as the old 1980s stand-by enemies, the robot and the ninja. Then ''Resident Evil'' came along. Now-days, zombies are almost as ubiquitous in games as [[Crate Expectations|crates]]. Not to mention the entire shift in what a [[Survival Horror]] title even ''is''. These days, the genre is more focused on action, with combat being quicker and more frantic and story and level progression more fast-paced. This is a far cry from the "tank/turret-style" controls and complex puzzle-oriented gameplay of the first Survival Horror titles.
* ''Renegade'' was the first "belt-scrolling" [[Beat'Em Up]] and pioneered such features as throwing enemies. The Japanese version launched the [[Kunio Kun]] series, and the Westernized version was popular enough to get its own line of sequels. Even as a [[Beat'Em Up]] it gets little respect nowadays, likely in part because even the arcade version lacks the [[Co-Op Multiplayer]] that became a staple of the genre. [[Seanbaby]], describing the NES port as one of the "Top 20 Worst NES Games," claimed sarcastically that "there just weren't any other games involving guys walking around and fighting bad guys on the street." To a large extent, there ''weren't'': it came before such better-remembered games as ''[[
* Similar to ''[[Kaizo Mario World]]'', Fire Emblem ROM-Hacks. Mageknight404 mentions that Blitz Tactics Universe is really dated, but at the time was probably the best rom-hacks of ''[[Fire Emblem Elibe]]''. However, playing it now, you'll notice that the characters are ''obviously'' splices or edits, while some of the custom faces fall right into the [[Uncanny Valley]]. In addition, the custom music will seem out of place, the events will seem weird, there are glitches (Such as ''brigands'' with ''sword'' ranks) amongst other things.
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto III]]'' was massively controversial for the time, as it was the first game to popularize the [[Wide Open Sandbox]] genre. Many of the elements it is responsible for bringing into the mainstream would be copied ad nauseum over the next decade, making ''III'' look quaint in comparison.
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