Why do you like retro gaming?

[Tsukasa]

I like it because of the efficiency that was necessary to get anything useful done, as well as the fact that I don't have to worry about it being obsolete before I open the box.

[Lord Thag]

Well, I like 'retro' gaming because a good game is still a good game, outdated graphics or not. I never stopped playing river raid because ace combat came out, you know? Also, I think the focus of gaming has changed. Games now are more experiences than games in the original sense, which is fine, but classic games are just that: games. They are not epic, 20+ hour masterpieces of interactive cinema and story. Don't get me wrong, I loves some of the newer games, but they are not really games in the old sense of the word. Pac Man is a game. It's simple, fun, and challenging. The depth is in the gameplay, not the presentation. Most newer games have deeper presentation, and more shallow gameplay. Also, a lot of older games do not pull their punches in terms of difficulty too. There were a lot less set 'genres' of games back in the day too. Individual creativity came into play more.

[minorleagueguy]

...it keeps me off the streets

 

minorleagueguy

[joeybastard]

Old games had to be fun to play because the systems were limited. Granted there's lots of terrible games on the VCS but the brillant ones are REALLY brillant. For my money there is no game on any modern system that is as fun as Kaboom or HERO for this reason. Great gameplay that doesn't require a 200 page booklet to get started or has 9 hours of cutscenes describing my motivation for killing the bad guy. He's the bad guy, kill him. That guy is dropping boms, cazthc them or blow up. There are guys trapped in a mine, rescue them. Simple, fun and challenging.

[vdub_bobby]

1) Cheap

2) Fun is fun. A game is still fun even if it is 20 years old.

3) I can play Frostbite for 20 minutes once a week and have a good time. I gave up (temporarily, I hope) on Zelda: MM because for the same amount of time I can't do anything: I forget what I'm supposed to be doing, forget where things are, and don't have time to figure it out again before I have to go to bed/take care of my kids/go to work.

 

There are 100s of old NES, 2600, Genesis, SNES, N64, and Dreamcast games that would give me hours of fun that I have never played and I can pick them up for $5-$10. And that's just the systems I own. Why drop $200 for a new system and one game, even if I had $200 to throw around, when I can get 30 games for that price that will give me more fun, hour for hour, than that one XBOX game (or whatever). Not that I don't wish I had an XBOX too.

 

In a fantasy world I'd have time and money to buy an XBOX, a PS2, a GameCube and a bunch of games for them AND I'd have time to play all those games, plus spend time with my family, go to work, fix my car, fix up my house, etc. But in the real world cash is tight and time is tighter.

 

So I play, and enjoy greatly, the games that I have and the games I can pick up for cheap and play in the brief moments of time that I have to myself.

 

It's a good life

[Lord Helmet]

Classic games pretty much rock...I find that more and more I dislike the newer games...I must be getting old. For the first time I am considering not getting the new systems at launch...

[Lord Thag]

I dislike most modern games (but not all) for a couple of reasons. One, they're pretty much all 'me too' clones of something else. For every Halo, you get 15 'halo killer' knockoffs that suck. Ditto GTA. 95% of modern games are clones. Two, as mentioned above, it usually takes hours of your time to get anywhere on a newer game. Old games give you more bang for your buck timewise. Plus, the older games tend to be more intense than the newer ones, and require your total focus to play. Some new games are like this, but not many. I don't hate ALL newer games, but I only buy one or two a YEAR that I actually will keep and play again.

[mister_pal]

1.Fun

2.Fun

3.Fun

4.Fun

5.Fun

See it's pretty simple .

[ozatariprincess]

I like retro gaming, simply because the game play is better

[ubersaurus]

Because a game is a game, and an age distinction isn't worth making.

 

If I feel like playing a game that isn't Halo 2, a Zelda, or something else, a nice quick game does wonders.

[StanJr]

fun

nostalgia

simplicity

 

 

[AtariAger]

fun

nostalgia

simplicity

 

 

 

... !...

[+Cafeman]

Old games had to be fun to play because the systems were limited.  Granted there's lots of terrible games on the VCS but the brillant ones are REALLY brillant.  For my money there is no game on any modern system that is as fun as Kaboom or HERO for this reason.  

 

My thoughts exactly!

 

My favorite games of all time are still from the 80's. On 2600, River Raid, Kaboom!, HERO, and Enduro are the epitome of great gaming. In today's lengthy games, who has time to really replay them and find every little nuance like we did with, say, Joust?

[wrldstrman]

I like the fact that you can find a old 2600 game that has been stepped on thrown around buired in a box covered with dust and20 years later when you find it you can clean it off and play it..Seems like disc games you drop them on the carpet with the face down while taking them out of the case newly bought they scratch and become worthless...

[Vic George 2K3]

Not that I think everything produced in the previous eras of videogaming were great, but there are some real gems that can stand the test of time no matter how long ago they were produced.

 

I think the coolest thing about retro-gaming is that there are some dedicated souls in the here and now producing games for the older systems that we either wanted to see back then or had never thought would ever be made for that kind of system.

 

Kind of a shame that game companies want to bury the secrets of their game systems away from aspiring homebrewers when they move on from one generation of game systems to another.

[Brad2600]

I play/collect vintage games because:

 

1. They're fun

2. I didn't have as many 2600 games as I wanted when I was a kid

3. They're better for your reflexes than modern games

4. They're cheap to acquire (to some extent)

5. Nostalgia

[sku_u]

I like them because I can pop in a game, play it for 20 minutes and get my gaming fix. Try doing that with Everquest or Half Life.

[Philflound]

Thag hit it on the nose. I think it takes longer to load a new game than it does to play a classic one.

 

Phil

[Artlover]

Simple & Fun.

[BydoEmpire]

As a programmer, I think it's really interesting and amazing how much fun they could cram into 4k, with such limited horsepower. I still play lots of new games, and I enjoy them, but classic games are fun because they're just games (like Lord Thag said in his first post). A test of skill. They also exercise your imagination more than newer games, which is kind of fun.