retro gaming

[mogzillazarus]

does anyone? while the xbox is awaiting a new lung i dug the gamecube from the attic and am enjoying blasting tie fighters out of the sky despite being very rusty and when mini has gone to bed its a resident evil fest!

   theres also a dreamcast gathering dust at work i may have to rescue if the headteacher will let me!

   

[Slip de Garcon]

I've never stopped. As a rule, if I like a game I never stop liking it and keep returning to it. I'm still actively playing 90s games from time to time.

Not that keen on where gaming has gone of late (read: I'm getting old and you pesky kids confuse me) so it makes sense.

The non-back-compatibility of WIndows OS's is my personal nemesis.

[radiator]

As a rule, if I like a game I never stop liking it and keep returning to it. I'm still actively playing 90s games from time to time.

I wouldn't agree with that - I tend to find that only the absolute finest games of a given generation will still be worth playing a few years down the line. For example nowadays I find the vast majority of 8/16-bit games unplayable, or only fun for short 5 minute bursts, and it's only the likes of Zelda/Mario/Final Fantasy etc that are capable of holding my attention. Likewise with, say, the original Playstation - out of a library of hundreds (thousands?) of PSX games I'd struggle to think of more than ten that I'd still want to play now.

Imo games date far, far quicker than films and the like because it's an artform that is still evolving and mutating all the time.

Not that keen on where gaming has gone of late (read: I'm getting old and you pesky kids confuse me) so it makes sense.

Personally I find it very frustrating that most of the big 'hardcore' gaming franchises have become obsessed with the online/deathmatch side of things - I'm really into shooters like Halo and Gears of War but only for the increasingly side-lined Campaign modes and rarely touch the online modes as I find deathmatch games tedious.

Even so, I'm not sure your statement makes a whole lot of sense to me - gaming is so diverse now, there are so many platforms and experiences available I struggle to see how you couldn't find plenty to get your teeth into - I'm currently finding the iPhone a surprisingly rich games platform... It's also easier now than ever before to enjoy rereleased and remastered versions of old classics.

[WhizzBang]

I'm into Retro Gaming in a fairly big way and I hardly ever buy a game that is less than 2 years old (I make an exception for Mario Kart and Zelda as my wife loves both of these).

Part of the attraction is the fact that old games are dirt cheap, but I also like it that my gaming is not so influenced by the hype of the moment. Graphics rarely have a wow factor so i have to take each game on it's own merits.

[Jared Katooie]

I like...



but also..





and even...

[Slip de Garcon]

As a rule, if I like a game I never stop liking it and keep returning to it. I'm still actively playing 90s games from time to time.

I wouldn't agree with that - I tend to find that only the absolute finest games of a given generation will still be worth playing a few years down the line.

I should've qualified that with the fact I was always pretty choosy when they were new.

Personally I find it very frustrating that most of the big 'hardcore' gaming franchises have become obsessed with the online/deathmatch side of things

That's one of my major gripes. I was very into FPS until ~10 years ago, when it became clear that the game designers were making the games for multiplayer and adding a bit of single player almost as an afterthought.

Multiplayer just doesn't suit me, I tend to wander away from my PC and do other things too much. And I like winning!

[IndigoPrime]

I've written for about 60 issues of Retro Gamer magazine, and have a big love of old arcade titles and also some 8- and 16-bit games. Many don't date well, but the best of classic gaming is timeless: Robotron, Tempest, Defender, and so on.

[radiator]

That's one of my major gripes. I was very into FPS until ~10 years ago, when it became clear that the game designers were making the games for multiplayer and adding a bit of single player almost as an afterthought.

Multiplayer just doesn't suit me, I tend to wander away from my PC and do other things too much. And I like winning!

I think my issue with multiplayer is that I like to play at my own pace, and I tend to enjoy the exploration side of games, wandering round a virtual space at my leisure. I don't like playing the same levels over and over and over - an endless cycle of killing and respawning. It just bores me, and most of the other players are dicks. I like playing online co-op, but find it very difficult to schedule games, even with my real-life friends, and playing with randoms sucks because even then people are competitive and often just suddenly quit without warning.

There was an interesting article in Edge a month or two back about the steady advance of multiplayer and how a lot of developers are forced to include multiplayer in very unsuited games (Dead Space 2 was mentioned) - a total box-ticking exercise.

[dweezil2]

I loves a bit of the old retro gaming me!

3D Starstrike on my old Amstrad CPC never grows old neither does Ghostbuster on the Commodore 128.

Of the newer consoles, I still get a lot of joy of that most underated of all games systems- the Sega Dreamcast and with some great looking homebrew games still being released, it's still relevant.

http://www.redspotgames.com/shop/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=19

As for the Megadrive? Pure retro gaming bliss! You can keep your current/next gen consoles thank you.

[JamesC]

I still have a Megadrive and I love it! Games like Desert Strike are awesome. I still love the old Sonic games too - and the fantastically gory Robocop vs Terminator.

Actually if you have a Dreamcast it will play CDRs - you can get loads of 'collections' of retro games on ebay.  I was playing the MAME of the old Capcom 'Punisher' arcade game the other day.

[HdE]

Well me, personally... I'm disappointed. I lobbed aload of Playstation 2 games on Ebay this week, and apparently they're not nearly retro enough to attract the cool kids.

Of course, it could be the fact that a few of them are a bit poo...

I miss the days of the ZX Spectrum. I remember spending many happy hours in front of that thing. You just don't get games like Feud, Spindizzy or Head Over Heels anymore. They may have been simple, but the concepts were solid.

[Radbacker]

i love Retro gaming.  Some of the old Megadrive and SNES games are still outstatnding today both in gameplay and graphics (Gunstar Heroes still the greatest run & gun game ever).
I've got quite a collection of classic machines including Amstrad, Megadrive, Megadrive 2 + MegaCD, SNES, NES, Master System, Vectrexs, countless handhelds and lots of those sticks with the old games built in (C64 and a couple of CAPCOM ones).  They're all set up gathering dust but i actually do most of my playing with Emulators as its much more convinient than swapping plugs around to play a machine fro a couple of hours,.  Also got a fair bit of original software for most of the machines (i lack a decent selection of Mega CD games and half my AMstrad tapes dont load anymore:().

I also have a PS1, Sega Saturn, PS2, Dreamcast and Xbox but my problem with these machines (aside from the Dreamcast which still gets a play) is that most of the best games have been surpased by sequals and remakes on newer systems.  Old 3D graphics are ugly to the point of making alot of old games unplayable (PS1 and Saturn are particulary bad being the first generation of polygon pushing consoles, lots of polygon tearing and break up on the Saturn and that damn polygon folding on the PS1 just makes games damn near unplayable to me, not forgetting poor frame rates and dud controls on most early 3D games).

As for the current state of gaming, i really like alot of the download games out there (on Steam, PS network and Xbox arcade), and they suit my playing these days as i just dont have 50 hours to finish a game, download games are usually short and sweet.  The only full price games i invest time into is any new Total War game (Shogun 2 is sublime) and I'm a bit of a Battle Field - Bad Company fiend (put in over 250 hours in this sucker multiplayer which probably explains why i dont have time for many other full price games), however you can take your Modern Warfares and stick em the multiplayer is full of cheese and i just dont have the reactions to play it these days.  Plus any game where a six year old can kick arse is not what i'd call a good game (this is a true story, 6 year old younger brother of housemates Girlfriends son absolutly schooling a bunch of 16 year olds at Back-ops, couldn't beliebve what i was seeing).

CU Radbacker

[Rog69]

I like my retro gaming too, I have owned a number of systems in the past, I still have my Amiga and Spectrum knocking about and until recently I had a full size arcade cabinet running MAME (had to get rid of it when the wife got herself pregnant again and my playroom had to be turned into a nursery  )

I am in the early stages of planning a new MAME machine, (a half scale one partly for the kids to play on and partly because of space restrictions). I don't find myself regularly playing more than a handful of older computer games but I am a sucker for old arcade titles like Gyruss, Space Firebird and Space Invaders.

[Radbacker]

I had a full size arcade cabinet running MAME

this is my ultimate dream, i got an arsom game x dual arcade stick that'd fit perfectly in a cabinet (and an old dual core PC that runs maim fine) unfortunatly i lack the necesary carpenty skills to knock up the actual cabinet.  I have seen pre-built ones for sale but they're a bit pricey.

CU Radbacker

[TordelBack]

My primary gaming environment is a GBA emulator on my Rockboxed Sansa Fuze.  PuyoPuyo Sun owns my very soul.