Would you go back to the old days? (Current teenagers might not understand)

[Azurian]

Not unless I can take a whole arcade with me when I come back.

 

[ShotgunZombie]

The only real thing I miss from my childhood is the utter insanity (that still kinda made sense) of most videogames and cartoons...
Today's games are good, some are great but they just don't have that, ehh, how do I put this? They just don't have that feeling of being truly unique, you know. Take one of my favorite old games: Spyro the Dragon, in that one you were a purple dragon going through portals collecting various doodads whose best friend was a dragonfly that changed colors to show damage. No one games offer that kind weirdness anymore. Its the opposite for cartoons. I grew up on Dexter's Laboratory, Megas XLR, Samurai Jack, Duck Dodgers, Ed Edd n' Eddy and all manner of weird and awesome cartoons that in their own twisted way made sense. I don't see that in today's cartoons, they are weird to be sure, but they are weird for weirdness sake and I don't get it. Maybe I'm getting old, maybe it's just that I'm not a kid anymore but I don't know, cartoons just seemed better back in the day...

 

[Mad1Cow]

The only thing I wish is that kids stop concerning themselves about such adult matters all the time nowadays. I always hear 12 year olds talking like gangstas about banging such and such a girl with a straight face. We didn't worry about things like that when I was 12, we worried about whether snorting sherbet would give you brain damage. There's been a horrible shift in youth and everyone seems to have aged be about 5-8 years. I was having a political debate with my 4 year old nephew last week, that's how bad it is.

Other than that...not really. Let's just say, we wouldn't be having this conversation back then, in fact, I wouldn't be able to talk to any of you unless I got into stalker territory and found out where you live. We wouldn't have our strong, nerdy communities because we'd all be inside, fearing the buff boys. There is nothing in the 80's that would make me give up that...oh and I wouldn't have discovered anime either...NO WAY I'M GOING BACK MAN!!!

EDIT: With the kid thing in the 1st paragraph, I was meaning that as the thing I miss from the old days, in case it wasn't obvious enough...just sounded a bit off topic when I re-read it...

 

[Racecarlock]

Maybe I'm in a nostalgic mood or maybe I read too much marketing related decisions regarding games that I want to talk about this but, here goes.

Being born in the early 80s, it was amazing, this new thing called a Nintento came out, I could move a character around in a really weird environment that I used to dream about in bright shiny colors. I watched cartoons about a 13 year old teenager (Mighty max) who opened up portals to other places with a huge sword wielding barbarian, a know it all sage *cough* chicken *cough* to do battle with a bloody Demon who could conjure up Lava creatures.

Now all I see are cooperations running everything that comes out game wise, innovation is a dirty word for investors, main stream is something that became the norm once they could digest innovation and many... MANY movies suck because they want to be friendly to everyone and end up denigrating the generation that made space movies and fantasy movies POPULAR.(ok have a billion eggs you're bound to have a million bad ones in there)

I for one would gladly go back to having low budget games made by some guy in his garrage if only to not feel like a pawn in a massive chess game, forced to try and enjoy crap because that's all I'm going to get for the most part.

You've just grown up to see the industry for what it really is. The truth is that even back then it was trying the same shit. Nintendo had the zapper and the power glove and all of those other accessories. Yep, it has already tried motion controls. And they all sucked, especially the power glove. Cinematic games driven by QTEs? 3do and sega CD were all over that shit. Industry trends? Well, the NES has a hell of alot of side scrollers, doesn't it? And the atari 2600 sure has a lot of games that begin with "space" and are space shooters. People like to think that these are all new things, but some of them are older than we are. All you have to do to find this out is watch Angry Video Game Nerd. Sure, all his jokes are poop related, but delving into video game history and seeing it for what it truly is is what I think will be a big wake up call to not only the OP, but to everyone on here.

 

[TehCookie]

As much as I love older games, I wouldn't go back since I can still play older games and the few newer ones that seem interesting. Even if you love games when you were little I doubt you played them all so just look for the ones that you missed and play those. There are tons of recommendation threads on here that can help you find games you're interested in (though I will say please use the search bar first).

 

[imnot]

From what i have seem most games from the 80s looked like shit :/
Tetris is cool though!

 

[Shraggler]

I was going to write a longer reply, and I may yet later, but I will say that I miss the 8-bit music from the cartridge console days.

 

[The Hero Killer]

If I went back in time the only thing I would do differently is probably not play games much at all. That way I could actually have a social life while growing up instead of just attempting to have one now, while at the same time having to deal with responsibility constantly kicking me in the sack.

 

[Akytalusia]

people still make indie games. if you want to take a break from all the big budget stuff for awhile, noone's stoppin' ya.

 

[DarkRyter]

"Movies suck, cartoons suck, games suck. Blah blah past was better, blah blah"

Grass ain't greener on the other side.

Grass. Grass never changes.

 

[Meggiepants]

Seriously? Are you seriously saying you prefer this:

To this?

Or maybe you are saying you prefer this:

To this?

I also lived through the 80s. I kinda recall just as many crap games back then as we have now. There have always been crappy unoriginal games. There will always be crappy unoriginal games. The thing is, we only tend to remember the good ones, because those are the ones we played the most.

I would never want to go back to the days when stories in games consisted of saving the princess from the monster, or go back to the days when the challenge of a game was a well timed B button jump, and nothing else. I enjoy the new level of complexity the modern game has brought with it, as well as the evolution of the video game as a story telling medium.

I don't know if it is possible for me to disagree more with the idea that video games were better then than they are now.

 

[Babitz]

Gaming became shit when it became friendly to not-nerds.
Except for maybe The Witcher 2 (didn't play it yet), no good RPG's have come out in a while. Well, Dragon Age: Origins was decent.
Shooters are boring and shit nowadays as well. Can't wait until we get over the whole brown-cover-regen trend.
Games with good humor also don't exist anymore. Except for Magicka, of course.

Games from the late 90's and 00's are my favorite and I've played most of them in the last few years so it's not nostalgia.

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

Take off Nostalgia glasses, look to future.

You can still enjoy the best games of those days, without having to wish for a time machine.
If these new games bother you, then don't buy them. There's good stuff nowadays, if you know what you're looking for.

 

[Nazulu]

I would prefer to be born back in the 50s but the 80s would be great too. Everything today in the media is pretty much shit or not good enough to bother with. I would miss the internet though, and the meme's, and MLP. Rose tinted nostalgia you say, You can go stick that meme up your ass.

If I think about completing high school again more then I will probably change my mind.

 

[MuppeTeN]

I don't think low budget is the word, but i would like some games to be more innovative. Maybe done by a garage guy, or a AAA studio, but something new, not an FPS or something already done, but something Really original.

I was born in 88, but played through Atari( My older brother) to nes--- until wii and xbox360, and i always find myself replaying Megaman x1 or megaman3 from the NES every weekend. even if i have Black Ops, or Fifa right there besides me.

 

[Blackpapa]

Seriously? Are you seriously saying you prefer this:
...

To this?

...

Or maybe you are saying you prefer this:

...

To this?
...

Not quite, but close.

To be honest, meganmeave, I prefer this:

to this:

By a long fucking shot.

 

[Vault Citizen]

I watched cartoons about a 13 year old teenager (Mighty max) who opened up portals to other places with a huge sword wielding barbarian, a know it all sage *cough* chicken *cough* to do battle with a bloody Demon who could conjure up Lava creatures.

Thank you so much! I watched this once as a child (I may have had a video of it) and I was thinking about it the other day but I could not for the life of me figure out what it was called.

Now I just need to remember the name of that movie with the guy with the silver sword, a villain with an almost identical sword and an evil woman whose magic was defeated when someone stole a red gem from her crown.

Edit - I did a search for the cartoon and found it. It was called Blackstar.

 

[dyre]

Hell no. If anything, I'd want to move further into the future (that is to say, at an accelerated pace). I can always go back and play old games, and I won't have to deal with dial-up.

My favorite game is Baldur's Gate 2, but get this: I can play that right now, with faster loading times and more mods than ten years ago. And now, I can also play The Witcher 2, Mass Effect, and I can look forward to Deus Ex: Human Revolution. So screw the past.