How many "retro-gamers" are here?

[Kyrian007]

I helped a friend fully restore a Ms. Pac-Man cabinet to like-new glory. I hold it's high score. I almost have enough parts to build the vector Star Wars sit-down box (with a comfier captian's chair instead of bench.) I've tried to get GOG to stock Noctropolis...

Yeah, retro rules.

 

[octafish]

I still have a C64 that I play Sid Meier's Pirates! on. Though I did just buy Sid Meier's Pirates! Live the Life from Gamer's Gate recently and it isn't too bad. Doesn't have the same charm as the original but I like it.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I've never liked the term "retro gamer;" it implies that you play old games for the sake of playing old games, like some sort of videogame hipster. I've always preferred the term "old school gamer," which describes someone who plays oldschool games, whatever reason they might have.


That said, I probably qualify. I was born in 1990, so I caught the tail end of the DOS era in PC gaming, and I cut my gaming teeth on an old Atari 2600, as well as the NES. I was truly raised on old games, well enough that I can appreciate both older and newer games as things of their time. Heck, thanks to one of the posters in this forum reminding me of how awesome it was[footnote]I have no idea how I found out about it in the first place, but I played it a fair bit back in high school[/footnote], I recently re-downloaded the original Starflight, which came out for IBM compatible PCs in 1986. I'm playing it honestly because there isn't anything else like it, aside of course from its sequel and a few other similar games, all of which seem to have been made by 1993 at the latest. Mass Effect was pretty heavily inspired by it, but it's not quite in the same genre.

That retro enough for you?

 

[Epona]

Yeah I play older games but I won't go back any further than the SNES unless I am playing the first Zelda game. I prefer the All Stars version of the NES Mario games though, always have. I have been playing video games since the Atari 2600 but I can't go back that far. The NES audio really kills my ears, what was that scratching sound?

The SNES brought Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Lufia 1 and 2, Breath of Fire 1 and 2, Final Fantasy 2 and 3, Chrono Trigger, A Link to the Past and list goes on and on. Super Mario 64 and Kart 64 are still great games and then we get into the RPG heaven that was the PS1.

I think RPG's lost their way in the PS2 era, Final Fantasy X took away free exploration and it's all been downhill since.

Sadly, the only good games exclusive to the Genesis were the Sonic games. Ecco the Dolphin was fun but way too hard and I quickly lost interest.

 

[darkknight9]

Atari 800 computer (Castle Wolfenstein), (Getaway) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKorcToRm7o
ColecoVision (Subroc), (Donkey Kong), (Q=bert), (Rescue in Gargamel's Castle)
Atari 2600, Sega Master System, NES, etc.

Hey! Getaway was wicked cool back in the day! (some people air guitar, I air cane)

 

[darkknight9]

duplicate posting

 

[darkknight9]

duplicate post is deleted

 

[Felstaff]

I'm the ultimate Retro Gamer. I was around when the very FIRST Call of Duty (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare) came out.

Spoiler

Heh. Jus' kidding. I barely remember some ZX Spectrum games (the ones that came on tape? Someone argued with me that Sinclair ZX's had disks, but I distinctly remember waiting for the tape to spool, GTA: Vice City-like) but gaming didn't interest me at the time (seriously; Amstrad's Flight Simulator was boring-ass shit). I only really got into videogaming when I got my grubby little mitts on an Amiga500 with Lemmings* and Pacmania. There exists a photo of me sitting proudly behind seven broken joysticks. We all played that machine to death. I still play my old Amiga games today, thanks to WinUAE (I really need an Android phone so I can play all my faourites mobilically). Emerald Mine in particular, is one of the most challenging puzzle games I have ever played. I still haven't completed it; it's so unforgiving. Other than that, I generally shunned Nintendo, aside from the GameBoy, and I had a natural love for the stereotyped Italian plumber, but not Zelda. (Only Ocarina of Time ever interested me)


*The best ever port of Lemmings and Worms was the Amiga. Every other port of those games sucked kangaroo cloaca.

 

[LittleBlondeGoth]

I'm one. But then, I'm also getting on a bit now.

I've still got my original Amiga 500 (Batman Pack, for those who remember) and 1200. Both still with all the cables. Both still in perfect working order. And at least one is hooked up to a TV. It's only a small TV because even I admit that the graphics look shocking on a 50" plasma, but here's the thing: The games for it are still good. Cadaver, Speedball II, Populous, Chaos Engine, Rainbow Islands, James Pond, Elite, Lemmings, Ultima V, XCom... I've still got all the games as well, complete with their manuals and bizarre code protection doohickeys.

In fact, I've never thrown away a gaming system I bought, or traded in a game. What if I want to play it again? And for me, the sign of a good game is that I will play it more than once. So I've still got the Amigas, the SNES, the GBA, the PS1, PS2, PS3, XBox, XBox 360... You get the idea.

And sorry, but the original Halo isn't retro. PS1 and XBox consoles are not old. Retro is 8 or 16 bit graphics. Retro is midi soundtracks. Retro is passing round copies of your favourite disks to your mates at school while sniggering about Leisure Suit Larry. And if you don't know what that is, you are not retro.

 

[dimensional]

I do play retro games mainly ps1 and SNES games very rarely do I play earlier ones basically some Amiga 500 games and a couple of zx spectrum when the mood takes me. I also play a load of PS2 games but I wouldnt class that as retro yet however I do enjoy a lot of new games as well there have always been a lot more poor or average games than great ones and while you may accidentally buy a `bad` new game (because you dont know any better) you are not likely to go back and play a bad retro game,you will just pick and choose the best or at least the ones you really liked.

 

[Halceon]

*Raises hand*

I fondly remember unpacking my archives with arj.exe and a command line interface. I still mainly play things with DosBox.

 

[Nyaliva]

I am often more likely to play a flash game that's presented in a retro style. I think it's the idea that when the graphics are bad, there's been more emphasis on the story and mechanics, and perhaps the bad graphics are there for some artistic reason. But in terms of actual retro games, I love them, mostly because they DO have better stories and mechanics. I could play game and watch games for hours, and they don't even have stories or moving graphics!

I am a retro gamer, however I can understand other people being anti-retro, mostly because there are so many retro gamers who are only retro gamers to be snobs to modern gamers and assume all old games are inherently good, thus the anti-retro gamers would oppose this view, partially because it's wrong and partially to be snobs themselves. It's all about snobbery my good chap!

Anyway, something I find interesting is that in a few years, all our PS2/GBA/XBOX games, including those I adored when they were new, will be considered retro, and when that time comes, I will be a retro gamer with pride.

Then games like CoD will become retro and I will stop being a retro gamer for about a decade...

 

[Felstaff]

I've still got my original Amiga 500 (Batman Pack, for those who remember)

Indeed I do! [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.314435-F-you-game?page=3#12758069]

It came with New Zealand Story, too. I didn't get the Batman Pack (my bundle came with Phantom Fighter and Shadow of the Beast, plus the guy down my road had a modem and got a few about 1000 pirated games from Bulletin Boards) but my friend got it, and I was uber-jealous.

I remember creating a rudimentary disc-swapping device for my Amiga. This is due to owning Monkey Island with its, what, 7,345 diskettes?

 

[Felstaff]

Duplicate Post. I'll add something fresh here instead.

I still play every game I saw at the Future Entertainment Show in November 1992. Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins had just come out (or was about to in the UK) so there was a lot of Nintendohype. I came away from that show with a copy of Super Hunchback, but I remember crying (I was very young) because the box art was wildly different from the box art I'd seen in advertising. I genuinely believed I had a fake GameBoy cartridge. I convinced myself it was fake because there's this bit where you have to swim upwards by hammering the B button, and it just wasn't working for me. (Turns out I wasn't bashing hard enough). I remember there being huge excitement over the Jaguar and the Lynx and the CD-32 and whatnot. I was distinctly unimpressed with the "32 bit gaming!" games on offer. They weren't as impressive as the current crop of (16 bit) MegaDrive and Super NES games. I also met 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan, which began my love of wrestling games, starting with WWF Wrestlemania [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7e6DCdmeMs] on the Amiga.

What's the latest wrestling game the young hep cats are playing nowadays? My last experience was some WWE game on the PS2.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

The thing with retro-gaming is that it's now up-to-date gaming on mobiles.

Given I can play SNES titles on my HTC.

 

[individual11]

Yeah, I suppose that tag would fit me, I spend more time playing DOSBoxed games than newer titles, and am genuinely disappointed with the lack of challenge in modern games and the recent spate of cynical cash grabs on my favourite titles' reputation.
Big fan of older styled RPGs (Planescape:Torment, etc.) and Turn Based Strategy (Panzer General, XCOM, Jagged Alliance, etc.) so any similar new games either get played or followed with interest.

 

[LilithSlave]

I love my retro games and use to own an atari 2600 til my mom threw it out cause "girls don't play video games".

ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME?

I just. I just... I hate this world. I really do.

 

[rutcommapat]

I recently bought a PS2 so that I could see all the games I missed. Am I the only one who actually thinks the GTA trilogy on the PS2 actually holds up pretty well?

 

[TehCookie]

Depends on what people think is a retro gamer. My PS2 is my most played console even though I own all the ones form this gen, and some people see the PS2 as old. It's only last gen, I don't find it that old. Then again I still play my PS1, N64, and Sega Genesis from time to time so I guess that may qualify.

 

[LittleBlondeGoth]

Indeed I do!

It came with New Zealand Story, too. I didn't get the Batman Pack (my bundle came with Phantom Fighter and Shadow of the Beast, plus the guy down my road had a modem and got a few about 1000 pirated games from Bulletin Boards) but my friend got it, and I was uber-jealous.

I remember creating a rudimentary disc-swapping device for my Amiga. This is due to owning Monkey Island with its, what, 7,345 diskettes?

Yeah, Monkey Island was on a ridiculous number of disks. So was Steetfighter 2. And don't even get me started on the amount of disk swapping required for UFO: Enemy Unknown...

Used to love New Zealand Story with little Tiki the Kiwi. Never did manage to totally complete it though, or Rainbow Islands. I got close - so close! - but the last levels eluded me, especially Rainbow Islands. And there was none of this regenerating health malarkey, or checkpoints. Three lives and you're out! (Unless you got the secret gems and stuff)

I still reckon the Bitmap Brothers made some of the best games out there.