What made you 'go retro'?

[BillLoguidice]

isnt retro gaming also due to the fact that there are more games of higher quality to play overall, I dont think there could have been a retro scene around the Snes era, as things were too evolving, and with the current state of GTA 6, GT 6 and Mario Kart 8, I think the staleness is showing up the lack of imagination in modern games

 

I never liked this line of reasoning. If you were around since the beginnings of the videogame and personal computing industries, you can't help but remember being surrounded by endless clones, copies, and flat-out bad games. It only seems like there were mostly amazing games back then because those are the games most likely to be remembered and cherised, which is typical of nostalgia, i.e., mostly remembering the good stuff and minimizing the bad stuff.

 

Sure, there was a lot of innovation back then, but, being a new, fledgling industry, it was relatively easier to innovate. Now, with literally millions of games produced to date, it obviously becomes much harder to create something wholly original. And, while I love the past stuff without qualification, I'd argue that we're in a golden age of gaming right now. There is so much content and so much variety, it's absolutely stunning.

[godslabrat]

 

I never liked this line of reasoning. If you were around since the beginnings of the videogame and personal computing industries, you can't help but remember being surrounded by endless clones, copies, and flat-out bad games. It only seems like there were mostly amazing games back then because those are the games most likely to be remembered and cherised, which is typical of nostalgia, i.e., mostly remembering the good stuff and minimizing the bad stuff.

 

Sure, there was a lot of innovation back then, but, being a new, fledgling industry, it was relatively easier to innovate. Now, with literally millions of games produced to date, it obviously becomes much harder to create something wholly original. And, while I love the past stuff without qualification, I'd argue that we're in a golden age of gaming right now. There is so much content and so much variety, it's absolutely stunning.

 

 

I can think of a lot of innovative retro games... SwordQuest, ET, Taboo: The Sixth Sense, Lester the Unlikely... all of which are generally not that much fun to play. Certainly none of them have the "pick up and play" quality that is supposedly the hallmark of the time. Just because something is innovative doesn't mean I want to base my gaming time around it.

[cimerians]

 

Yeah, except Electronic Games was THE videogame magazine of record pre-Crash, so we don't necessarily want to dismiss what they established, which includes, among other things, the Easter Egg concept. I've been gaming for at least the same amount of time and I do remember generations being talked about then. Anecdotes, however, don't make anything true (or not). I gave you a clear example from an important historical text.

 

And again, whether it was referred to as "generations" or "waves", is besides the point. It's the same concept, i.e., a clear distinction between console cycles.

 

I read that magazine starting with the June82' issue. Terminology they coined is still being used today. Arnie, Bill, Joyce... they certainly don't get enough credit for pioneering a lot of what we read today in game journalism. IMO

One reason I'm playing more retro games lately is because of my hands (tendonitis). I focus more on turn-based stuff not much action stuff anymore. If you're a programmer for 20 years and a gamer something's bound to happen to your hands especially if you're not careful.

[Cynicaster]

 

I never liked this line of reasoning. If you were around since the beginnings of the videogame and personal computing industries, you can't help but remember being surrounded by endless clones, copies, and flat-out bad games. It only seems like there were mostly amazing games back then because those are the games most likely to be remembered and cherised, which is typical of nostalgia, i.e., mostly remembering the good stuff and minimizing the bad stuff.

 

Sure, there was a lot of innovation back then, but, being a new, fledgling industry, it was relatively easier to innovate. Now, with literally millions of games produced to date, it obviously becomes much harder to create something wholly original. And, while I love the past stuff without qualification, I'd argue that we're in a golden age of gaming right now. There is so much content and so much variety, it's absolutely stunning.

 

^^true

 

But I think another aspect of it is that in the old days, the game development teams were smaller and the products were less expensive to produce. Nowadays, most games have dozens (if not hundreds) of people working on them for long stretches of time. Lots of money gets spent, so if sales are lukewarm or poor, then it's a financial disaster for the publisher. I have to believe this reality puts downward pressure on the tendency to innovate (read: take risks), and encourages the rehashing of tried-and-true designs for "sure thing" profits.

[Keatah]

^ Yes ^

 

While that is the situation with all these billion dollar productions - the solution is simple. Take less risk, invest less. I don't like huge sprawling games unless they're simulations with lots of physics, an open world, and user-generated "DLC". Think add-on planes, secenery, airports, and weather for flight simulator. Or add-on instruments, ships, planets, and graphics for Orbiter. Stuff like that.

 

Player packs and statistics for yearly releases of sports games is nothing but a turn-off for me. Same for things Warcraft or Eve or any of those commerce games. The absolute farthest I may go (toward a commerce game) is SimCity or a virtual airline. Even then VAs are kinda corny and dumb.

[Keatah]

 

I never liked this line of reasoning. If you were around since the beginnings of the videogame and personal computing industries, you can't help but remember being surrounded by endless clones, copies, and flat-out bad games. It only seems like there were mostly amazing games back then because those are the games most likely to be remembered and cherised, which is typical of nostalgia, i.e., mostly remembering the good stuff and minimizing the bad stuff.

 

Sure, there was a lot of innovation back then, but, being a new, fledgling industry, it was relatively easier to innovate. Now, with literally millions of games produced to date, it obviously becomes much harder to create something wholly original. And, while I love the past stuff without qualification, I'd argue that we're in a golden age of gaming right now. There is so much content and so much variety, it's absolutely stunning.

 

Minimizing the bad stuff is not only a function of memory & nostalgic good-times. There were other moderating factors at work. Having been a kid when videogames (VCS Intellivision Channel F) first came out, I had the luxury of crap-filters already put in place for me. I suspect this would go for many others too. Consider:

 

1- I learned about games through EGM and TV advertisements. This meant I learned about the better and more popular things.

2- I had extremely limited budget. Basically what parents/allowance and summer helper jobs paid. This mean I had to pick and chose games carefully.

3- By virtue of a company's budget, small companies which weren't as well known, didn't take out big-time ads.. And thus tended to stay off my radar.

4- Discovery was by word-of-mouth, good and bad. And also by wandering through the stores. Retail shelf space was still a limiting factor, especially compared to the amount of BS on the internet today. Especially!

 

Naturally none of this applied to the Apple II. All I had to do was snap my fingers and the bigger kids would give me games if I did their outdoor chores for them like raking the leaves or hauling the garbage curbside. Or emptying the grass catcher bag on the lawnmower for them while the mowed.

 

---

 

The golden age can continue on for a long long time. But I will say there is more crap today than there is than good stuff. You really have to pick your way through a lot of the material. Sometimes it's better to simply let time do it for you. Or even stick with what you grew up with and its direct descendants.

 

Some of the detailed simulation "games" I play with on the PC have been evolving since the turn of the century. That's nearly 20 years! And that's a damned good benchmark.

[Tanooki]

I'm wondering, if you started out playing these games in the day, but kept doing so, could you ever really have 'gone retro' or is this for the younger members born in the late 90s/00s? Or could one interpret it as you're so fed up with how the gaming industry treats the consumer these days you've basically told them to F off with your wallet and just bailed out and went backwards in time to find a more enjoyable harassment free type of gaming?

[BillLoguidice]

I'm wondering, if you started out playing these games in the day, but kept doing so, could you ever really have 'gone retro' or is this for the younger members born in the late 90s/00s? Or could one interpret it as you're so fed up with how the gaming industry treats the consumer these days you've basically told them to F off with your wallet and just bailed out and went backwards in time to find a more enjoyable harassment free type of gaming?

 

To me, games today are awesome and games back then were awesome. Since old and new is fun, why not enjoy both? Same thing with me and collecting and using old computers. What used to be fun or interesting for the most part is still fun or interesting. It would be like the equivalent of not wanting to read books or listen to music older than the 2000s. It just doesn't make sense to be so limited.

[Keatah]

3. My Wife

 

This last reason is probably pretty unique to me, but it's also the most important reason that I decided to go retro. Without sharing too many personal details that she might be uncomfortable with, I can say that my wife loves playing video games but due to a physical disability she is unable to hold a traditional game controller and has to use arcade stick controllers for everything she plays. She's gotten quite skilled with her arcade sticks (she's the only person I know who can easily beat Doom on Ultra Violence difficulty with an arcade stick) but it does limit the number of systems that she can play games on. Anything that requires dual analog stick controls is out of the question, since arcade stick controllers are single stick digital input only devices, so the most recent system that she can play games on is the original PlayStation; as it was the last system to use all digital controls before dual analog stick controls became all the rage.

 

For a long while after we got together I continued playing modern systems, but the more time went on the worse I started to feel about playing and spending money on systems and games that she couldn't enjoy too. As much as I liked my Wii, 3DS, Xbox 360, and PS3 I always felt guilty about playing them, because they were systems that the love of my life couldn't play. She never complained about me playing modern systems or anything like that, she was always really cool about it and never seemed to mind, but in spite of her reassurances that it was fine I never could manage to shake that feeling of guilt every time I played a game that she couldn't.

 

So, a couple years into our marriage and when I just couldn't take the guilt anymore, I decided to sell off all of my modern systems and games that the misses couldn't play. It was a little hard to let go of a few of my favorite modern games but ultimately I know it was the right choice and I've never regretted it for even a second. I'm much happier now knowing that if the misses ever wants to play any of the games in my collection she can, and that alone was worth going retro for.

 

Not necessarily:

 

Mine is just as picky, but for different reasons. Sometimes being difficult just to be difficult. While not having physical limitations she might as well be gaming like so. She's a big proponent of all these physical aids such as Autofire, ergonomic joystick bases and handles, taking eye breaks every 15 minutes.. Buttons with X amount of throw and a certain kind of tactile bounce. Things like that, so the effects on a gaming session are all one and the same.

 

She says holding a stick in the same position every session isn't natural. And slapping the fire button is just as bad, hence every controller she plays with has to have Autofire. I had to custom make controllers for her. The Tempest knob is too small and she claims it puts this weird lateral force on your finger joints. So I rigged up a panel with a bigger knob to make her happy.

 

Classic Nintendo controllers are hand-cramping, and I can agree on that. Just as bad as my vintage Gravis Gamepad for the PC, made in the 90's. But god only knows what she'll complain about next, so I keep the workshop warm and ready to build any custom controller conceivable, past, present, and future.

 

She demands these mods and custom controllers - I swear - just to irritate me. Like the Discs-of-Tron knob can cause nail and cuticle damage, ohh bullshit. So I had to make something where there is a gap between how far down she can push it before it stops, thus leaving more open space between minimum travel and the panel faceplate.

 

Going retro through emulators helps ease this immensely because of the wealth of configuration options available in such an environment. The 555 timer and ipac board have become best buddies of mine. Arcade Controls and Ultimarc are at the top of my favorites bookmarks. And on and on it goes.

 

One of these days I'm going to put an Atari 400 membrane at her workstation!

[+adamchevy]

Boredom

[Keatah]

Maybe I should start a thread about games with fancy graphics but bleh gameplay. Vectron for Intellivision, and Dragon's Lair on everything, come to my mind as the most offensive "graphics over gameplay" that I can recall.

 

Dragon's Lair on the Microvision.. That's the ticket!

[Keatah]

I had emulators on my PC in 1999 before it was really considered mainstream and then had a modded Xbox with emulators. My brother went retro before I did though. I was talking one day with him about the Amiga and how I always wanted one. He brought one over to our moms house on somebody's birthday and we played some games. At that point I realized I missed my old Tandy 1000 HX and reminisced on how I used to program it for hours as a kid. I'm a professional developer now and wanted to try my hand at it again so I downloaded dosbox and did some programming in C and assembly. Next time I saw my brother he had a mint condition Tandy 1000 HX waiting for me. That was where it began. I started looking into mods immediately and realized my retro passion was in modding and buying modded retro systems with modern hard drives and other peripherals.

 

Then I started watching YouTube and it all went downhill from there. I moved from Tandy to another Tandy to Amiga to another Amiga to an Atari st before getting into consoles. Now I'm collecting portables like the game gear and Lynx that I always wanted. I owned a game gear but never liked the display so I'm buying a McWill modded one now.

 

Well, yes, it would do that.

 

I rather avoid most of youtube's retrogaming content. A lot of it is shill. A lot of it is over biased and sucking up for review points. Most is just blither blather of vain (like to hear myself) people and their kids playing games for no other purpose than to get subs.

[Flojomojo]

Most is just blither blather of vain (like to hear myself) people and their kids playing games for no other purpose than to get subs.

Which is SO DIFFERENT from your lengthy rants!!

[Newsdee]

Korean and Chinese handheld emulation consoles first arrived

The GP2X had a great comnunity. Shame that they stopped making them, and also that big fiasco with the Pandora production.

[0078265317]

Q: What made you 'go retro'?

 

A: That's all we had at the time.

[Tanooki]

 

To me, games today are awesome and games back then were awesome. Since old and new is fun, why not enjoy both? Same thing with me and collecting and using old computers. What used to be fun or interesting for the most part is still fun or interesting. It would be like the equivalent of not wanting to read books or listen to music older than the 2000s. It just doesn't make sense to be so limited.

I see where you're going with it, but would someone really be all that limited? I'd argue probably not. Unless someone is so bloody loaded with cash, no kids or perhaps even a wife bugging them...free hours every day to just blow their wad, time and effort on video games there are some real limits already there. Sure back in the 80s and 90s, we didn't have a 100000 games to choose from or anything near that. We have so much choice now even if you're 12 or 42 you can easily narrow in to just a system or two, or a generation and have more crap to find, buy, and truly appreciate and explore in your few free hours each day or few days. Also is it really even possible to be as you said cutting yourself off? Short of being some kind of luddite odds are someone has a tablet, phone, or computer that can play games. Even if you were a staunch 2600 or NES guy and poo poo anything later than the mid 80s 8bit stuff, odds are you'll find a handful of something fun to piddle time and money on with other capable devices too.

[Keatah]

Which is SO DIFFERENT from your lengthy rants!!

 

THAT'S RIGHT!!!

 

Most of my rants are carefully measured between prose and verse, designed to educate, inform, and induct the newbie into the world of emulation.

 

Blahh blahh blalallalbbalalahhh lalla lalal lal la la..Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi. Aenean vulputate eleifend tellus. Aenean leo ligula, porttitor eu, consequat vitae, eleifend ac, enim. Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus. Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreet. Quisque rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam rhoncus. Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque sed ipsum. Nam quam nunc, blandit vel, luctus pulvinar, hendrerit id, lorem. Maecenas nec odio et ante tincidunt tempus. Donec vitae sapien ut libero venenatis faucibus. Nullam quis ante. Etiam sit amet orci eget eros faucibus tincidunt. Duis leo. Sed fringilla mauris sit amet nibh. Donec sodales sagittis magna. Sed consequat, leo eget bibendum sodales, augue velit cursus nunc, quis gravida magna mi a libero. Fusce vulputate eleifend sapien. Vestibulum purus quam, scelerisque ut, mollis sed, nonummy id, metus. Nullam accumsan lorem in dui. Cras ultricies mi eu turpis hendrerit fringilla. Blahh blahh blahh.

[Keatah]

Sure back in the 80s and 90s, we didn't have a 100000 games to choose from or anything near that.

 

Realistically, all things considered, I'd get a couple of new cartridges every month. And I believe that to be rather generous. This was back in 1977-1982.

 

 

[Flojomojo]

Realistically, all things considered, I'd get a couple of new cartridges every month. And I believe that to be rather generous. This was back in 1977-1982.

 

Those were weird times in many ways. No money, all the time in the world, maybe a few cartridges a year, trading with friends, discovering arcade games when out and about. What a time to discover and really focus on the relatively few titles that were out there.

 

Nowadays I have almost infinite money by comparison, very little time, no discovery while out and about, but crap tons of information about games on the device in my pocket, which also has tons of games I like.

[BydoEmpire]

Like many, I just never stopped enjoying the games I grew up with. Somewhere there's a picture of my playing Asteroids on the 7800 in college - even though I had a 386 pc, a Genny and a SNES. I liked buying boxes of 2600 games at garage sales and getting some of those games I wanted but couldn't afford when I was younger. I kept up with modern gaming until the 360/ps3/wii era. It was the first time I didn't get each major system (I had a wii & 360), and over the course of the generation I don't think I bought a single full-price 360 game although I still enjoyed and played it. I liked the Wii a lot, and I did spend a lot of time with that. After my son was born I had much less time for gaming, and I just prioritized my precious little free time differently. I have absolutely zero desire to spend time with modern games. Haven't bought a modern system. I did play a couple of D&D games via Gog.com in the last few years, but that's largely because I'd been travelling for work a lot and had my laptop with me.

 

With older games I can get in and have fun in 10 minutes with no expectation of having to spend more time to get it or make it worth it. The quick, arcade experience works for me. It's fun. If it wasn't I wouldn't do it.

 

Different strokes for different folks.

Edited February 17, 2017 by BydoEmpire

[Cynicaster]

 

 

With older games I can get in and have fun in 10 minutes with no expectation of having to spend more time to get it or make it worth it. The quick, arcade experience works for me. It's fun. If it wasn't I wouldn't do it.

 

 

 

Exactly what I was going to say.

 

I can't name a single game from the last few years that I truly enjoy, but that's largely due to a lack of familiarity with recent games--ignorance, basically.

 

While I do have a strong distaste for many modern gaming tropes (constant updates, complicated controls, loading times, lopsided emphasis on online play, pop-up tutorials), it's not like I harbor this belief that "all new games inherently suck" or anything like that. I'm sure I'd enjoy some of them, but I just don't have the desire to step into that world because of the time commitment required.

 

As it is, I'm lucky to find a few hours a week to play the retro stuff. How am I ever going to find a few hundred hours to play Witcher? I have no desire to make anything else in my life suffer to make room for that. It's kind of like my policy on junk food--if I eat it I enjoy it, but I don't want to eat it and get fat, so I don't keep it in the house. Out of sight, out of mind. I feel I am able to maintain a much healthier relationship with electronic games by keeping them simple and suitable for quick/short sessions, and that is where retro gaming really shines.

[+adamchevy]

 

Exactly what I was going to say.

 

I can't name a single game from the last few years that I truly enjoy, but that's largely due to a lack of familiarity with recent games--ignorance, basically.

 

While I do have a strong distaste for many modern gaming tropes (constant updates, complicated controls, loading times, lopsided emphasis on online play, pop-up tutorials), it's not like I harbor this belief that "all new games inherently suck" or anything like that. I'm sure I'd enjoy some of them, but I just don't have the desire to step into that world because of the time commitment required.

 

As it is, I'm lucky to find a few hours a week to play the retro stuff. How am I ever going to find a few hundred hours to play Witcher? I have no desire to make anything else in my life suffer to make room for that. It's kind of like my policy on junk food--if I eat it I enjoy it, but I don't want to eat it and get fat, so I don't keep it in the house. Out of sight, out of mind. I feel I am able to maintain a much healthier relationship with electronic games by keeping them simple and suitable for quick/short sessions, and that is where retro gaming really shines.

This describes exactly how I feel about it. For me I try and spend my time with my wife and kids. When the kids are in bed, and if my wife and I don't have a mutual interest in a TV show or have anything we want to discuss. Then I usually have an hour or two to play video games. Although, I think you can get burned out on any kind of activity, even retro games. I'm hoping the upcoming switch console and Zelda(which feels retro to me) can help bring some current gaming excitement back to my life. Edited February 17, 2017 by adamchevy

[Cynicaster]

This describes exactly how I feel about it. For me I try and spend my time with my wife and kids. When the kids are in bed, and if my wife and I don't have a mutual interest in a TV show or have anything we want to discuss. Then I usually have an hour or two to play video games. Although, I think you can get burned out on any kind of activity, even retro games. I'm hoping the upcoming switch console and Zelda(which feels retro to me) can help bring some current gaming excitement back to my life.

 

 

Yeah, "after hours" is when I get all my gaming in as well.

 

As for burning out on retro games, I don't feel like I play enough for that to happen. The only times I feel a bit of burn-out are the few days immediately following travel for work, because when I go on business trips I spend a lot of time playing emulators on the airplane and in my hotel room.

[dj_convoy]

Speaking for myself, I never believed in getting rid of old games when new ones came along.

[Nebulon]

If I wasn't already retro, THIS would certainly convince me to go retro in a big way:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB1Zy7nA_Hc