Poll: Old school gaming

[teh_gunslinger]

It's the typical "You can't like it because I said so" attitude that's especially rampant on the internet.

Or he just doesn't see what's so special about it.
Neither do I, to be honest.

Objective based, class based multiplayer is hardly new. And after playing the game for a while, I just shrugged and turned it off. Other people might think it's amazing, and that's fine, but sometimes people just don't like a game, regardless of how popular it is. I thought the Goldeneye Source MOD was way more fun then TF2, personally. But I digress.

On Topic: I've been playing games for a long time. Ever since my dad brought home that Tandy 2500 from Radio Shack. My dad bought us kids Kings Quest 5 (The EGA edition), and we all loved it, but I was hooked. After KQ5, came Wolfenstein, Prince of Persia (The original, and 2nd best of the series), and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (The best Indy game to date, hands down).

But my big gaming love really kicked in 1997, with an unwitting purchase of what I consider the best game series ever: Baldur's Gate. I never heard of it before, but I liked the box art (Hey! I was only 13!) and the description on the back seemed pretty cool. So I got it. Probably the best entertainment purchase of my life so far. I still play the Baldur's Gate series today. If I ever get a new PC, it's the first thing installed, and it's never uninstalled.
Kings Quest, Wolf3D, and PoP let me know games were fun.
Baldur's Gate let me know that games could be fun, epic, engaging, and full of mystery and exploration.
Yup, I'm a fanboy.

Your BG story is a lot like mine, save for me being 15 or 16 instead of 13. To this day it's still my greatest joy to load up BG (or BG2) and set out on a new quest.

But I guess this thread is as good a place as any to ask something. Why do people talk about retro gaming? As far as I understand it retro games are most of the games I grew up with. And I still plat most of those games except the ones I don't have anymore or where the disk is broken. I still have my Commodore 64 and my Amiga and plug them in from time to time. But I don't consider myself a retro gamer just because I played Monkey Island on the Amiga in the early 90's and still play it today. I just play Monkey Island, that's it. I just grew up with those games, nothing more. And we had some good games back then. I'll also never forget my first time playing X-Com.

But I digress. My question was: what is a retro gamer?

Also: Prince of Persia on the Amiga was fucking awesome! As was Another World. And if only I had the money I would buy it from gog.com.

Edit: I forgot. About the TF2 thing. I never played the first one as I was busy playing CS 1.5 or whatever back then and doing death match in Duke Nukem 3d. (Yes, we still noobed around in that so much later). But from what I gather there is a tendency for the old TFC players to be pretty NMA like in their approach to TF2. (No nades!? Fuck this!). For what it's worth I've clocked about 300 hours in TF2 and I have no intention of stopping. I've had a LOT of fun and made some great friends on my regular server. But I suppose it's just not for all. That said, I find the whole "only if you're 14" a bit silly.
For me, a great thing about TF2 is the silly tone. God knows it can be brutal to be on the internet to play but it seems like the tone of TF2 mellows people out so there is a lot less trash talk. Or maybe I just play on better servers. In any case, it's sheer fun to play. That's the reason why the only multiplayer game I play is TF2. (Well, I do play L4D with my friends but that's different).

Oh, and for childhood games: We played a lot of North and South, Cannon Fodder and Moonstoneon the Amiga. Great times. As were all the hours spend on Wolfenstein, Rise of the Triads, Wacky Wheels, Dune and as I was a bit older Betrayal at Krondor on the PC.

 

[Proteus214]

Firing up my NES for the first time when I was 4 years old and playing Super Mario Bros. 3. Before then I had always just played it at my cousins' house, but then it hit me: this one is MINE!

 

[Baby Tea]

Also: Prince of Persia on the Amiga was fucking awesome! As was Another World.

Another world! Yes! I loved that game! What a great early game that's also an awesome piece of storytelling.
I went from that to Flashback, which was also pretty awesome.
Too bad 'Fade to Black' sucked.

My question was: what is a retro gamer?

Personally, I would think a 'retro gamer' would be someone who plays retro games exclusively. Some people just think that games were better back in the day (A view I think is terribly mislead), and they'd rather fire up Pong and Asteroid then Modern Warfare 2 or Mass Effect or something.
I wouldn't consider myself (OR you) to be retro games just because we like playing old games.
We just have a larger gaming pallet then those to would rather stay in the 'now'.

 

[BeeRye]

My first memories of gaming come from the old Amiga my dad had way back. I have no idea if he ever used it for anything beyond gaming (not that I ever saw him play a game, he's not into anything like that at all) or if he just bought it for me and my brother to play on. What I do remember though were the awesome games we used to have, like Basejumper, Zool, and Cool Spot. I used to play a huge amount of demos too, as my dad would come home with the Amiga magazine and I'd rip the floppy straight off and just play whatever was on it.

 

[Simalacrum]

I'm not a particularly old school gamer... my gaming life pretty much started as 3D was becomming the next big thing with N64's and whatnot... not that I knew anything about the industry back then, I just liked playing the games (I've only really become more interested in the industry side of gaming this generation, infact)

I'm currently 19, and generally speaking I play the most recent games - God of War III, Uncharted 2, etc etc. That said, I do appreciate the value of older consoles and games... heck, I have an original Sega Master System II in my attic

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

I really enjoy old school gaming - in fact I have an old 486 I haven't bothered upgrading so that I can still play the golden oldies (Syndicate, Descent, Rise of the Triads, etc...). My first ever gaming platform was a ZX Spectrum, but I don't take retro gaming that far.

With Microsoft's seemingly never-ending war on backwards compatibility it's kinda cool to have an old PC knocking around that I can play Dune 2 or X-Wing on!

 

[Arqus_Zed]

When I was 4 years old, we were on vacation in Gerlos (Austria), it was the first time I went skiing.
In the hotel we stayed, they had this Pac-Man arcade machine...
It was heaven, each second of spare time I had in the evenings was spend behind that magical box.
One of the few thing I still remember from that long ago (well, that, and my grandfather).

Also, playing Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES at my nephews place, probably played more on it than he did...

Which also makes me recall the day I got my personal little console: a good ol' grey PlayStation, together with Spyro 2. Got it on the 6th of december, and I didn't even have a memorycard till 25 december. To make matters worse, my parents had set up a 'a half hour of play every evening'-policy.
Christ... In those three weeks, I rushed like a madman, trying to get one level further, to see what it was all about, just to lose it all again the next day...

Oh, how I miss those days.
*sheds a tear*

 

[He_Is_Legend]

You know, you'd think a retro gamer wouldn't drop a really stupid bias along the lines of "That game is cool for 14 year olds", considering they play more cutesy graphical games than anyone else. You know, games that other people say is for little kids.

Well, sorry for that. I guess that comment was out of line. I just seems really careless to post a thread on something that has been posted a hundred times before, and this is what I see as typical child behaviour I'm just really tired of people talking about a game that I really hate.

please prove me wrong and name other games that were out at the same time that were similar enough to earn tf2 the "generic" badge

Well, it's generic in the way that : you choose a side, choose a class and kill the other team. Each side has a specific colour, each class has a special ability and the killing... well. I have seen these things in "Alien Vs. Predator" , "Battlefield 1942" and the Battlefield series. To me it seems generic, and I would much rather play CS.

There are plenty of good, old games out there, and "Another World" , "Flashback" and "Prince Of Persia" and those kind of adventure games were always my favourites. I loved "Another World" and I thought the graphics were truly amazing for the SNES standard. "Flashback" is like a step in the right direction, so I remember playing this game alot aswell. I've heard of this game called "Black Thorne" for the SNES being a similiar game like "Flashback" and another vampire-themed game called "Nosferatu"(?) or something.

I remember good days playing "Street Gangs" with a friend of mine on the NES. Oh, the good times we had. The games are so simple, and it is truly amazing what good control schemes can do for a game. A=Kick, B=Punch, A+B=jump and add combos. Great game along with "Double Dragon" and of course "Super Mario Bros 3".

This is great! I want some more retro gaming moments from you

 

[Richard Hannay]

There was a lengthy period where it seemed like all my friends had consoles. I did not. My house was not a gaming-friendly one. However, one year my grandmother asked me over the phone what I wanted for Christmas, and when I gave an honest answer, it just so happened that neither parent was around to belay my request. They were a little shocked when I unwrapped the gift, but they had not the will to take it from me:

It was a brand spanking new Sega Genesis.

I was the only Sega-owner in the neighborhood. Everyone else had either an NES or an SNES. This uniqueness made my house a popular gaming venue until the 32-bit systems came along. I had a small collection of games, but I played each of them many times, a habit that has informed my gaming to this day; I'll replay a game that (I think) the average gamer would describe as having no replayability at least two or three times, often more.

Here is the collection, which I've ranked from least difficult to most difficult as I remember them:

? Sonic the Hedgehog: The first game I ever really mastered. The spinning special stages that often frustrated my friends when they attempted them were simply no match for my ability to plan for the effects of gravity.

? Sonic the Hedgehog 2: A superior game to its predecessor, and while I was capable of beating it, I was never as good at it as I was at the first one. Twelve stages was just too many! Fun fact: At one point, I rented Sonic and Knuckles and plugged Sonic 2 into it. I made it to the end as Knuckles, only to discover that the echidna could not physically jump high enough to reach the final Robotnik-bot's one vulnerable spot.

? Jurassic Park: You could play as Grant or as a Raptor. I mastered the Raptor, but my Dr. Grant was an inept buffoon, always tumbling off of cliffs and waterfalls.

? X-Men: I never beat this one on any mode other than easy (or "amateur" in the game's terms). This is because Amateur difficulty omitted Mojo's World from the levels. The level was on a countdown timer to exploding, and the only way to win was to perform a soft reset on the system to stop the countdown. I didn't learn of this solution until many years later, after the system was no longer in my possession.

Winter Olympics: Lillehammer '94: I invariably beat my friends at this came, which is to say they finished last in every event while I finished second to last. This game proved to be an un-scalable mountain.

 

[AboveUp]

You know, you'd think a retro gamer wouldn't drop a really stupid bias along the lines of "That game is cool for 14 year olds", considering they play more cutesy graphical games than anyone else. You know, games that other people say is for little kids.

Well, sorry for that. I guess that comment was out of line. I just seems really careless to post a thread on something that has been posted a hundred times before, and this is what I see as typical child behaviour I'm just really tired of people talking about a game that I really hate.

I'll forgive you... If only for mentioning Flashback later on in that post. I have a lot of fond memories of that game. I remember the entire family sitting in front of the SNES trying to figure out what to do next.

I guess that's why my aunt also loved Oddworld so much. It's the same line of gameplay and awesome immersive story telling that FlashBack had, only one generation later.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I'm 18 and I grew up with the SNES. I will play with my SNES until it dies. My sister, who is older, grew up with a NES and I've played a few of them as well. I enjoy new games and the new graphics/possibilities they present but at the end of the day I'll end up replaying Star Fox or F-Zero... I'm not a fanboy, honest.

 

[child of lileth]

As far as the poll goes, I'm in the 20-25 vote.

I think one of my favorite memories was back when I was like 3 years old, and finally made it to the first Bowser in Super Mario Bros. by myself. I died and got a game over pretty soon after that. lol

 

[Astra Dan]

I'm 32 and my first gaming experience was with a Radiofin console (Pong, essentially!), then a Dragon 32 (Andriod Attack, Cuthbert Goes Walk About) then a Commodore 64. I remember being really chuffed we finally had a mainstream computer I could walk to the shops and buy games for! When we had the Dragon we had to go to games shows and computer fairs to fins anything for it. Then of course the Amigas took over form there. I didn't get a console till the PS1, then the 2 then I switched sides to the Xbox 360.
My main favourite games in the '90s on the Commodores were side view shoot-'em-ups and platformers; Turrican 1 & 2, R-Type, Amalyte, Denaris etc. Now the technology has progressed I pretty much only play first or third person shooters; I've just finished Metro 2033. I love to explore as well as shoot stuff, so I adore games like Fallout 3 and the Half-Life series that let you go at your own pace and have a good poke about.

 

[FinalDream]

(I'm 22) I was lucky, I grew up with PC and a PS1. Wouldn't want it any other way!

 

[Valdsator]

I'm in the 9-15 range, and I grew up playing Duke Nukem 3D, Wolfenstein 3D, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, all that great, mature, stuff.

Even today, I play Wolfenstein 3D (recently beat Episode 3), Duke Nukem 3D, and even old games that I've never played before. I bought the Quake pack on Steam, frequently play some SNES and NES games, have tried (and plan playing more of) Daggerfall, and I love exploring the times that I've missed.

I barely play TF2 by the way.

 

[Entropyutd]

I chose 40-40 because I assumed you meant 36-40

First ever console, I can't remember the name, but it was some Atari clone with pre programmed Pong clones, Tennis, Squash, Football, then doubles versions of said games.

Memorable retro games.

ZX Spectrum
-----------

Target Renegade: Co-op with a friend, great times
MatchDay 2: Soccer, great fun.
The Double: An incredibly in depth soccer management game

Commodore Amiga
---------------

The heyday of retro gaming for me.

Championship Manager:
Sensible World of Soccer:
Frontier:
and Oh so many more.

 

[He_Is_Legend]

Alot of good memories.
When I think back of all the hours I spent in front of our old TV playing my brother's NES, It makes me feel glad that I was born in the mid 80's and had such a great gaming childhood.

The early 90's were when thegaming community and retail really kicked off and started becoming a buisness. It's a shame I didn't get to play these really old consoles (Dragon was mentioned and some others), but my time was the cannonizing time for the gaming industry. My friend had one of those consoles which looks like an old PC with giant, floppy discs which you inserted into a disc slot that was separat from the screen, which only had a couple of colours. I would really like to get a hold of that machine and those discs because they were really fun, but I didn't understand English one bit back then...

"Flashback" was a great game, and It certaintly was more "understanding" than "Another World". Those games are pretty sweet. Yes! "Oddworld" for the Ps1. Haven't really played it, but I remember it being much fuzz about it actually.

Well, there could be a discussion, but right now, I'm just interested for the people of the world to share their gaming history with me

Keep em coming

 

[Sable Gear]

I'm 17, and I grew up with an N64 and a SNES. I loved the simple platformers; Kirby's Dreamland, and Super Mario World 3. I was a master of Bust-a-Move '99 on my 64 and a friend of mine got me hooked on Zelda years back. I still revisit my N64 games regularly (though I lost access to the older system when I moved out of a previous home, long story there).

I think my best moments were just figuring out something new or an easier way to do something, or (now anyways) remembering a trick I had previously forgotten. No specific examples I'm afraid...