If you could bring back one thing about retro games what would it be?

[Xan Krieger]

Looking back it seems the older games had a lot to offer that has for the most part been lost to time. Things like 8-bit music, limited saves, and a few other things I'm probably too tired to think of.

If I had to pick one thing though it would be how when a game was released it had to be a complete game due to the lack of an online service to provide patches. When you bought a game you knew it had been tested to make sure there were fewer if any bugs and you didn't have to spend time afterwards updating it (in some cases several times per week). Imagine that nowadays, if a game like Rome 2 Total War was released when it was done, not in advance only to need many patches later. If Dead Rising 3 didn't need a massive patch not long after launch. Sure it pushes back the release but it saves the consumer time.

What things from the past would you bring into the modern world?

 

[Strain42]

Hmmm...Honestly, I dunno if there's anything specifically from the games themselves that I'd want to bring back because it's not like we currently lack the technology to make old timey games anymore. Hell, a huge chunk of the app store market is loaded with great modern day retro games. Anything we want from games of yore we can still get...

But something I wish gaming culture itself would bring back are things like decent instruction manuals or stores like GameStop actually offering cool stuff when you pre-order like shirts, toys, or coffee mugs rather than just a code for a purple motorcycle with the GameStop logo on it.

...man, I used the word "like" a lot in that conversation.

 

[Xan Krieger]

Hmmm...Honestly, I dunno if there's anything specifically from the games themselves that I'd want to bring back because it's not like we currently lack the technology to make old timey games anymore. Hell, a huge chunk of the app store market is loaded with great modern day retro games. Anything we want from games of yore we can still get...

But something I wish gaming culture itself would bring back are things like decent instruction manuals or stores like GameStop actually offering cool stuff when you pre-order like shirts, toys, or coffee mugs rather than just a code for a purple motorcycle with the GameStop logo on it.

...man, I used the word "like" a lot in that conversation.

I do agree about the instruction manuals, guess they cost too much to make given how few people admit to reading them. Last game I got that had a somewhat adequate instruction manual was X3 Terran Conflict, of course it could've come with a thick hardcover book and I'd still be stuck. Also most games put all the time that would've gone to an instruction manual into their tutorials, sometimes to an excessive degree.

 

[LadyLightning]

Can't really pick just one. The Super Nintendo era was objectively better than modern gaming in all ways that matter.

1.) Intro level design that teaches the player the basics as a course of gameplay, rather than through tutorial popups (see EgoRaptor's Sequelitis video about the MegaMan X series)

2.) Real disadvantages to failure, including widely-spaced savepoints, potential loss of character stat progression (bring back level downs! XP debt is for losers! )

3.) Greater focus on story and characters in RPGs, and lesser focus on graphics (Seriously, we've got photorealism already. Stop pushing graphics and start hiring writers who aren't shit.)

4.) Finished games on release day.

5.) Expansion packs with entire new games' worth of content, or at least DLCs with more than an hour's worth of story, rather than bare-bones, overpriced DLC.

6.) The brutal, painful death of the concept of 'pay2win' freemium business models. It's not okay to sell power. Basically, Secret World good, Warframe bad. (in monetization, anyway. Warframe's gameplay is at least rather fun for a while)

7.) The measurement of a game's playtime in days rather than hours. Remember back when you could buy a brand new Super Nintendo game for $35, and it would still be fun next year? Sorry, but a $60 RPG with only 40 hours of story is not okay. And post-story bonus dungeons don't cut it, either. The story is over, you won. So why do you care about an extra dungeon? Basically, dungeons and loot should serve as stepping stones to progress the story, not the other way around.

8.) No voice chat unless players ~choose!!~ to use third-party VOIP software. Granted, a huge part of the reason why I don't like first-person shooters is because I'm bad at them. But an even ~bigger~ part is the other players who are given an avenue to constantly remind me of that fact, while simultaneously throwing sexual harassment and misogyny in my face.


Anyway. Sorry for the wall of text. There're plenty of things that weren't as good back then as they are now. For example, we have less in the way of artificial difficulty nowadays. We seem to have learned that, if something is only difficult because it happens faster than even the twitchiest FPS fan can react, that's not actually difficulty, it's just bullshit.

 

[ThatQuietGuy]

I miss the pixelated style. Like take a look at sonic 3 and then the sequel that came out, sonic 4. I prefer the, what is it? 32 bit style? It's seen a bit of resurgence in the indie market but nothing on say Metal Slug's level.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Going to the pizza place and playing much more advanced games for a quarter.

But something I wish gaming culture itself would bring back are things like decent instruction manuals or stores like GameStop actually offering cool stuff when you pre-order like shirts, toys, or coffee mugs rather than just a code for a purple motorcycle with the GameStop logo on it.

Yea. While we're at it, can we go back to used game prices from before they gouged the market.

 

[LadyLightning]

I miss the pixelated style. Like take a look at sonic 3 and then the sequel that came out, sonic 4. I prefer the, what is it? 32 bit style? It's seen a bit of resurgence in the indie market but nothing on say Metal Slug's level.

The Genesis and Super Nintendo were 16-bit systems. The Genesis had the late arrival of the 32X, which had a 32-bit CPU, and the Sega Saturn was actually 32-bit as well.

 

[krazykidd]

Game over screen. Remember back in the day, when you could LOSE at a game. Hell the closes thing we got to a game over now a days is the " YOU DIED" message in darksouls.

 

[Keoul]

I'm having a hard time choosing either them being a complete game or a resurgence of pixel art.

In the past no one made DLC because it wasn't possible and the game was less buggy and felt more complete over all. These days paying 60+ dollars for a game on the release date means a buggy game and terrible regret as later on people will be able to pay 50 dollars for a patched version of the game with free dlc.

Pixel art is just a personal thing, I really like the art from the GBA era, man those games looked awesome.

Spoiler

 

[TrevHead]

Highscore systems. While some modern games still use score, I believe more AAA's should use it, and I don't mean collectables or A-F ranking but a good old fashioned numerical highscore that's on pinball tables and shmups.

Highscore imo is the best way to ad alot of depth to simple games, it's what turns a simple game about shooting space invaders into formulating complex strategies to maximise the most optimal highscore in each level. And the great thing about score is that it scales well for casual players as the average person can just use simple strategies and still end up with a respectable score compared to players who ignore score all together and just played for survival.

Also it lends itself well to gamerscore and achievement whores, much better than collectable shite that infects AAA's anyway.

 

[Squilookle]

Can you specify the threshold of how old a game has to be before it qualifies from this? Most of the stuff I miss is less than ten years gone...

 

[Colt47]

The quality of game production has increased, but the part that seems to need improvement is level design, especially in the AAA industry that has defaulted to linear corridor runs. What we need a return of is the idea of a level being designed around being traversed in intuitive ways. Quake II and Quake I had levels that a player could run circuits around in. Arcanum, Icewind Dale, and Baldur's gate also had some areas that were about exploring locations that had multiple interconnected rooms.

This kind of level design lends to the games long term replay-ability without requiring someone to have to waste resources reinvigorating it with DLC or mini-adventures. Then again, it seems like the AAA industry wants to kill replay-ability in their titles unless the player pays something to replay it.

 

[Mister K]

Well, if I were to pick one... Oh, got it! You know how you could unlock different costumes for character(s) by doing tasks, rather then buying them with cash. This I want.

 

[Llil]

FMV games or at least FMV cutscenes. Sure they had some really cheesy acting, but that is part of the charm. Besides, with modern games we could potentially get some really cool ones.

Loco Cycle had an FMV intro, and maybe some cutscenes as well (I'm not sure, I haven't played it), but as far as I know, that's the only one. More of that, please, and not just in silly comedy games.

 

[Shymer]

I would reintroduce a 5 minute loading time with a loading screen slowly built over an initial minute and then coloured in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0EfycbDhiw

It certainly made you appreciate the game when you finally got there.

 

[josemlopes]

I guess that part of the process where they did a lot of whatever the fuck they wanted. It was sort of a mixed bag where some games were really good (Doom 1 and 2) and then others really bad (Daikatana) but at least they came from a focused group that knew what they wanted to make instead of something that just grabs the popular mechanics and mashes them together. Not all games do this now but when the stakes were lower it was more common to see more off the wall games (indies somewhat fill that role but even then a lot of them are just Super Mario with a different skin).

 

[Arean]

A lot to choose from, everything from competent, demanding difficulty curves to a focus on substance over spectacle.

If I have to choose one, I'd like to see Developers finishing products *before* they release them. I have a pretty poor internet connection where I live, due to bad infrastructure in the neighborhood, and nothing is more jarring than buying a new game on release day, bringing it home with that New Game tingling, and then have to wait for an hour for the day 1 patch.

This is only a personal gripe of mine, and many don't have the problem if they have a decent DL speed, but it irks me that day 1 patching and DLC's have become the accepted norm at this point.

 

[Strazdas]

I would return the complexity of design they used to have. remmeber when you could tinker with every nook and cranny of your game in stuff like Alpha Centauri or the old Xcom. when you could see the complex mechanism behind the game AI turn, when "more realistic diaster response" was more important than always online in Sim City.
I would bring that. attention to make games good, not just shiny.

 

[Nimcha]

Less hand-holding. Let me figure out gameplay for myself without dictating how to play and punishing me when I go off the beaten path.