Retro gaming and gamers

[Hey Joe]

Ladies and Gentlemen, as gaming becomes more mainstream I sense a great split within the gaming fraternity. On the one hand, we have the gamers that sense the possibilities of gaming and really dig the direction that its going at the moment, but there are also the people who scoff at the future and cloister themselves within the retro.

I'm talking about game snobs. The gamers that insist that a game that came out on the Atari is better than anything that current generation games can muster.

So, my questions are these. Do retro gamers revel in obscure titles as a way of reclaiming their identity? Before the current popularization of gaming, gamers were rank outsiders and now they're on the cusp of mainstream acceptance, so is this new position scaring people?

Do game snobs simply want to reclaim the space they had before, as the formation of their identity of 'hardcore gamer' was formed before current gaming trends? Or is it simply that retro games really do kick the arse of current games?

DISCUSS

 

[LV Solace]

I belive it's because technology was so limited, and graphics so amazingly poor, that the games needed good content, gameplay, and plot. Although i'm not going cloister (can that be a verb?) my self amung the retro, because I'll agree certain new games are good.

Very few if any games on the atari are better than anything out now. I wsn't alive then I wont comment, I dont have knowledge, and hooking a 2600 up to my TV would kill one or both of the people I live with.

I personally do hide in the older awesome games as part of my identity. all those old games, good memories of a time, where college wasn't looming in my face, I didn't have to worry about anything, didnt have to injure the creepy fan boys who leer at me when I walk into a gaming store loooking for an old SNES game, or people in general. I'ts like clerks 2 with Randal and the go carts.

And the popularization of gaming is annoying, not scary, but annoying. I liked it when I could say I liked games, as a person and was looked at wied, not looked at wierd cause I like games and have breasts.

I'll stand by the fact that my favorite retro games are better than most of the current sludge out here now.

 

[Graustein]

I don't think its a case of simply resenting the mainstream encroaching on their territory. It's got more to do with the fact that there's a whole new demographic for games, games that you don't need to have grown up gaming to be able to understand. Personally I don't see what's so wrong about this, I'm a firm believer in the Golden Rule of Fun for games, and I don't care if a game idea has been done to death or is pathetically simplistic as long as it's fun.

Anyways, yes, I do think game snobs (I love that term and will now use it at every opportunity) want to "reclaim the space they had before", but the issue seems deeper than just that. It's that this new demographic means games are being made that *le gasp* AREN'T for them! Hiding amongst the old games that predate this phenomenon can reassure them that they're still gamers and that gaming hasn't changed.

Oh, and to your last question, yes. I'm yet to find a modern RPG that beats Earthbound.

EDIT: Upon rereading that, it was very rambly and made little sense. Oh well, I'm tired, leave me alone

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Good old games is going to be nice old PC games fixed up to run on new PCs, if it takes off I would l happy to pay 5$ to get a game I had fully working on my new PC might even open up a new games to play as well. I am getting so sick of over priced shallow DRM broken new games I cannot take it anymore.....and don;t get me started on console titles tat now suffer from PC patch and install issues.... gaming is becoming a mess....

Graustein
Funny I have yet to see a modern RPG to beat FF4,PSH4,Lunar 1-2 Sega CD(the remakes were pretty but shtty), modern gaming is all about flash and whatever shallow tactic or scheme you can bukake a game in to make it more "sellable" and thus worth-less(less value) to anyone who is not a ADHD twitch gamer.

 

[Aries_Split]

1998 was the place to be for gamers.

 

[Graustein]

1998 was the place to be for gamers.

Sorry, I'd disagree entirely. In this day and age you can get all the fun games of olde AND play all the fun games of tomorrow - TODAY!

In other words, now is the best time, because old games are still available, plus the great new games that exist

 

[Aries_Split]

1998 was the place to be for gamers.

Sorry, I'd disagree entirely. In this day and age you can get all the fun games of olde AND play all the fun games of tomorrow - TODAY!

In other words, now is the best time, because old games are still available, plus the great new games that exist

No.

1998 was the place to be for gamers.

Simpler times then. Gaming wasn't such a mainstream hobby, and the companies we shelled out our money for hadn't abandoned us and marketed to the people who would beat us up in high school.

That and I had my first kiss that year.

 

[Whobajube]

I like games. That's it, haha. If it's fun, I'll play it. Earlier today I was playing Half Life 2, now I'm playing Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. Doesn't matter when it was made, or what it looks like (to some extent). I'll play it if I enjoy playing it.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Retro games had to fit into 4, 32 or 64K. That included the music. That means the good ones had to be GOOD.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary had a 10 GIG install. Now that's 10,000,000 K; and it's still not as fun as something like Elite; despite being a 1/3 of a million times bigger.

The problem is that most GOOD retro games (and there were some monstrosities as well) made use of every last bit; whilst today's games just throw memory and run-time away on lens-flares and other unnecessary bits; whilst not giving full time to actually playtesting them.

Musically, even the full orchestra of EQ2 doesn't quite evoke the same spirit as Monty on the Run, The Last Ninja or even Ghost and Goblins.

Sure, the newer games do a better job of atmosphere/realism; but I'd still say that the older games are more fun.

And Randall Monroe seems to agree: http://xkcd.com/484/

 

[oAmadeuso]

Part of it for me is nostalgia spending hours playing knightlore or Dizzy was great.
Sounds cheesy but games had more soul back then with the bedroom coders.
People made their games because that's what they loved doing.

Saying that I try to avoid playing them these days, as with most nostalgia it doesnt
always hold up in the cold light of the present. It's like the cartoons that were on when
I was a kid, got fond memories of stuff like cities of gold but I know if I were to watch them
again I would be bored stupid.

 

[GothmogII]

I like games. That's it, haha. If it's fun, I'll play it. Earlier today I was playing Half Life 2, now I'm playing Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. Doesn't matter when it was made, or what it looks like (to some extent). I'll play it if I enjoy playing it.

Too true. Games is games.

 

[RufusMcLaser]

I think there is a rather valid perception among "retro snobs" that the broadening audience for video games (certainly PC, but also console) has resulted in a lowering of standards. A bigger market is less discerning overall, which allows publishers to get away with lower standards and still make gobs of money. Joe Fratboy, the bête noire of gaming purists, isn't seen as being concerned with innovative gameplay or thoughtful dialog. He wants more Haloz. Everyone from Penny Arcade to Yahtzee has commented on this, so I'm pretty sure its not just me.
It's hard to argue the fact that some games are just timelessly fun. Super Mario Bros, Bard's Tale, X-Com, Panzer General, Duke Nukem' 3D, Civ, Bauldur's Gate, Sim City- these games have crappy graphics by modern standards, but nearly anyone can enjoy them.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

Tombi!2 is to me what Fantasy world dizzy is to Mr Croshaw

So yes I may be a Game snob but only because I don't like the current trend of style over substance.

We got the damn style down now give us some god-dammed substance

 

[Haliwali]

I love all my old Origin games just as much as Warhammer Online. A LOT! The only thing I cut slack to older games for is graphics, other than that I hold all games to the same standard.

 

[Theo Samaritan]

I don't know how to take the "retro" gaming scene. Myself, I was born at the very end of the 1980's, and yet I have deliberately bought into the older machines in order to familierise myself with the history of my passion.

And what did I find? Well in truth, addiction. I still have yet to find a modern game anywhere near as fun as some of those titles of old, and nothing nearly as addictive in a single player game at least. I remember spending £50 when shoving 10p coins into a Space Invaders cabinet! (One which I since bought for a fiver from the arcade in question, it broke down and were going to throw it out).

Older games also bring on some other decent side effects. I am addicted to chip tunes as well, and hooked the various computers of the era to my sound system in order to use their abilities. Making use of an 8-bit soundchip is even better when you have the full multi-gigaflop processing beast of moden computers powering it.

 

[Fire Daemon]

I think it's quite easy to look past of all the terrible games that we have had over the years. Not every game from the seventies, eighties and nineties was pure gold. In fact many are crap, especially from the seventies and eighties. A lot of the games from this era didn't have the room for detailed stories, impresive graphics or sound tracks. This means for a game in this era to be good, it needed good gameplay. Some games got fun and interesting gamelay down, Galaga and Pac-man come to mind here. Because these games where nothing but gameplay without any real substance the game was good. Everything it gave was great. Thats why we think the games where great.

If a game failed on the Gameplay side it was a bad game and hence forgotten. Today however, we have games being mixtures between high quality. Some games have a really good music score, but a lackluster story (Halo 3 I'm looking at here) while some have a great story but the gameplay isn't the best available (Half Life and others). Because of these advances in Technology it has become rarer and rarer to find a game that is all good.

While the popular games of yesteryear where all good, the good games of today are only good (or partly good) to a select group of people based on what they look for in a game. That is why I think people think older games are better then newer games.

Also the fans of older game most likely don't care for the improved graphics, story depth and sound so they may not care for games that give up gameplay for these factors.

Also nostalgia, lots and lots of nostalgia.

 

[Littaly]

Something I have noticed about... everything really (including myself) is that people enjoy talking about "the good old times", as if it was "before the dark times, before the empire". I guess it makes people feel superior and more respectable, at least that's how I feel every time I say "oh but you weren't around when...".

Also as it was mentioned in the latest Zero Punctuation (yeah I know echoing what Yahtzee says is lame) the nostalgia factor does a lot. A lot of old games are fun because you once enjoyed them, I love Star Craft, DK64, Mario Party and Golden Eye, not because they are my type of game, but because they are a symbol of being 10 and free from a lot of the things that plague me today. I recently bought a copy of the original Jedi Knight since I am a huge fan of the series and a friend told me it was great, but I ended up finding it horribly outdated and boring.

In a way we are all retro, or we will at some point be. I'm guessing that in 20 years I will rant on Internet forums about how the new virtual reality gaming where you can feel the pain as the bullets hit your body sucks the big one and how it was way better back when it was just motion sensory and nothing else.

 

[Random Argument Man]

If you mean back in the day, games were tougher. I still remember Battletoads and Contra. Remember contra? Oh and Ghost and Globins.....oh damn I hated you.

EDIT: Ninja Gaiden, I still can't beat the damn game on the old NES.