Old Games and You

[MurderousToaster]

I have spent a long time on the internet. Xfire tells me that I've spent 1,150 hours on games. And a lot of the time I've not been arsed to boot up Xfire at all.

But, amidst these modern days of Halo and Call of Duty, a strange misconception has arisen among the gaming youth that the age of a game is directly proportionate to how bad it is, unless it's what we call a 'classic' (See: Mario, Space Invaders, Pong). Yet they'd still opt to play Modern Warfare 2 in multiplayer again and again than sit down with an Atari 2600 and play an old game. This could be attributed to the fact that they don't care about older games, and I understand that.

The entire purpose of this is that Old =/= Bad. Whilst they will appreciate these games, and enjoy them, when it comes to Old-ish games, i.e games from a 1995-2006 sort of timespan, they instantly seem to think that they'll get far more value for money out of buying the latest Halo title. For example, a lot of current-gen gamers couldn't give a donkeys about playing the original Half-Life, despite it being fantastic and outclassing most recent games in all but graphical capability, not to mention even on an older system it will zoom along at about a billion frames a second.

Currently, it seems, gamers are more interested in things that their friends buy, and that their friends tell them to buy. If that 'one' friend who plays older titles advises them to take a look at it, they will say 'Yeah I'll look into that' but never will. Nowadays in gaming it seems like if it's not new it's not good and that if it's existed for any amount of time it's not worth spending money on.

I'm not saying that old games are the way forward. I'm just saying that perhaps, every so often, people should take a look back into what got gaming to where it is today, rather than simply looking at the here and now.


Follow me on Twitter? Please? I want there to be a use in posting on it, since the three people following me probably never go on Twitter anyway. It makes me feel loney.
www.twitter.com/murderoustoast


EDIT: Loney is a word. I made it up. I'm not changing it.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

I know i have gotten far more out of my snes and its games than any other consoles. I've had it for 13 years and still play it all the time. I lost my favourite game though.
If some kind hearted person would like to give me a copy or even sell me a copy of Plok for the SNES i would willingly find some way to have their babies

 

[Cherry Cola]

A few things.

Half Life is by no means superior to say Halo or Call of Duty. Half Life is awesome, but Halo and Call of Duty are modified version, with better controls and gameplay. It's a natural evolution of games.

The case of buying things your friends buy has always been the case. It's not something new.

Yes, you can always look back to older games. But when you do, you mostly find 2 things:

Nostalgia
Proof that gaming has evolved

I don't know where the Old=Bad argument comes in, I think most people realize that the old games where awesome in their time. But they don't really hold a candle to the modern day games from a technical standpoint.

Currently, many I know are freaking out (in a positive way) over Shadow of the Colossus getting a re-release, I and many others have downloaded titles like METAL GEAR SOLID and FF7 from PSN. We are already hailing a lot of old games as the reason for why games today are great.

OK, that's all I have to say.

 

[MurderousToaster]

I know i have gotten far more out of my snes and its games than any other consoles. I've had it for 13 years and still play it all the time. I lost my favourite game though.
If some kind hearted person would like to give me a copy or even sell me a copy of Plok for the SNES i would willingly find some way to have their babies

Despite me not being old enough to have actually been at the time of it, I loved the Sega Master System. It was brilliant, and I was able to overlook the fact that the A and B buttons were stuck on with sellotape, and my dad had a fantastic collection of games to go with it.

They sold it at a car boot sale without me knowing. Bastards.

 

[Cherry Cola]

A few things.

Half Life is by no means superior to say Halo or Call of Duty. Half Life is awesome, but Halo and Call of Duty are modified version, with better controls and gameplay. It's a natural evolution of games.

The case of buying things your friends buy has always been the case. It's not something new.

Yes, you can always look back to older games. But when you do, you mostly find 2 things:

Nostalgia
Proof that gaming has evolved

I don't know where the Old=Bad argument comes in, I think most people realize that the old games where awesome in their time. But they don't really hold a candle to the modern day games from a technical standpoint.

Currently, many I know are freaking out (in a positive way) over Shadow of the Colossus getting a re-release, I and many others have downloaded titles like METAL GEAR SOLID and FF7 from PSN. We are already hailing a lot of old games as the reason for why games today are great.

OK, that's all I have to say.

You are saying that because Half-life is Awsome these games are even better!

Yupp, that's basically what I meant. Half-Life is awesome, and games like Halo or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare are even better, all thanks to Half-Life.

 

[Pyotr Romanov]

You are right, and these words come from a 14 year old. Most of my friends cant be bothered to play or even acknowledge old games.

Exactly this. Thank you for summing it up for me, I'm lazy.

 

[Axolotl]

Yupp, that's basically what I meant. Half-Life is awesome, and games like Halo or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare are even better, all thanks to Half-Life.

That's just your opinion, I played Half-Life 1 after Halo and CoD and guess what? I play it more than Halo and CoD because it's a better game. Hell the FPS I play most is Doom 2 (which I only got in 2007 before you say nostalgia) because it has the best gameplay of any FPS ever in my experience. Sure it's worse on a technical level but that doesn't stop it being a better experience to actually play the game.

 

[51gunner]

Currently, it seems, gamers are more interested in things that their friends buy, and that their friends tell them to buy. If that 'one' friend who plays older titles advises them to take a look at it, they will say 'Yeah I'll look into that' but never will. Nowadays in gaming it seems like if it's not new it's not good and that if it's existed for any amount of time it's not worth spending money on.

Picked this paragraph for a counterpoint: I know I buy games to play online (Example, MW2). A lot of people buy things their friends buy so that they can play it with their friends. If you go back and play old games, your friends are going to have a hard time even finding a copy.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Yupp, that's basically what I meant. Half-Life is awesome, and games like Halo or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare are even better, all thanks to Half-Life.

That's just your opinion, I played Half-Life 1 after Halo and CoD and guess what? I play it more than Halo and CoD because it's a better game. Hell the FPS I play most is Doom 2 (which I only got in 2007 before you say nostalgia) because it has the best gameplay of any FPS ever in my experience. Sure it's worse on a technical level but that doesn't stop it being a better experience to actually play the game.

Well by my post, I did indeed mean that CoD and Halo where better from a technical standpoint. Perhaps I didn't state that clearly enough.

Also, maybe I should add "Novelty" to my list on why people play old games.

Oh well, it all boils down to what you want from the game. If more simplicity is your thing, sure, you can like that.

 

[MurderousToaster]

Currently, it seems, gamers are more interested in things that their friends buy, and that their friends tell them to buy. If that 'one' friend who plays older titles advises them to take a look at it, they will say 'Yeah I'll look into that' but never will. Nowadays in gaming it seems like if it's not new it's not good and that if it's existed for any amount of time it's not worth spending money on.

Picked this paragraph for a counterpoint: I know I buy games to play online (Example, MW2). A lot of people buy things their friends buy so that they can play it with their friends. If you go back and play old games, your friends are going to have a hard time even finding a copy.

Old games are easy to find. Steam, the Xfire store and even ebay make it so that you can find one very easily. Also my point is not that you should go out and buy ancient titles just for the purpose of doing so, but that a game being old should not be viewed as being bad. Would expand on what I've said but I just can't find anything to say in my head.

 

[Sephychu]

Yet they'd still opt to play Modern Warfare 2 in multiplayer again and again than sit down with an Atari 2600 and play an old game. This could be attributed to the fact that they don't care about older games, and I understand that.

Well, I don't know about you, but Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer is barrels of fun, and the vast majority of Atari 2600 games I've played sucked.

I do, however, get what you're saying. I still love my SNES.

 

[Kajt]

My favourite game on my PS3 is Mortal Kombat II.

Heh.

 

[MurderousToaster]

I agree wholeheartedly. In fact, I'd probably go a bit further. If gaming truly wants to excel as a form of entertainment, and even art, then we need to get people to appreciate the classics, and enjoy the old as well as the new. Currently, the industry has got itself into a process of hyping games to truly ridiculous levels until release, then forgetting about them within a few months and moving on to the next blockbuster release.

As I type this, Blade Runner is on the telly box. It's a film that's over 25 years old, yet it's still as popular as ever. I don't mean it's influential (though it is). I mean people still watch it as much now as when it first came out. Every other artform has classics which haven't just influenced everything that followed, they're still read or watched by millions every year. Citizen Kane's over 60 years old now, and it's still cited as one of the best (if not the best) films ever. Writers like Dickens and Shakespeare are more popular now, centuries after their death, than they ever were during their lifetimes. And they were both really famous while they were alive.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, we need to start making games that we can still play twenty, thirty years from now. Perhaps the graphics of games pre-PSX are too primitive too truly captivate people now, but with current graphics rapidly approaching CGI levels of eye candy, it's not a problem that need apply to modern games. With PSN and XBox Live offering downloadable classics, things are definitely looking up, but the industry as a whole needs to break out of this "NEW! NEW! SHINY AND NEW!!!" mentality.

I totally agree. These days it's hard to come by what would be classed as a classic game, as most are just played, forgotten, move on. With the exception of some more 'cult' style games which I would certainly class as modern classics (See: Most things by Valve).

 

[Bloody Crimson]

My friend is a Nintendo fan, he has the Wii and such, but he still keeps his first system: The NES. Then he also got a Gamboy Classic [the black-and-white one with red buttons] and I think maybe an N64.
I really regret giving away my PS1 and N64 away now...they had such good games. Oh well, my Gameboy Advanced SP will always be with me.

I didn't get into the older stuff regrettably...I got into gaming around 8 or 10 years of age, and my first system the Playstation. I have full respect for older games, because they made it popular, these new titles like MW2 is just keeping it up there.

 

[atv_chic_18]

I still have my first classic Gameboy, and Gameboy Color. My brother has the Atari and the NES and then he has the SNES also. I still have my first playstation and the first generation playstation 2 from back when they were hard to find. They all still work too. I'll always love the classic original Mario Brothers and Donkey Kong... the list goes on.

 

[BlackIronGuardian]

Just downloaded Warhammer 40k: Final Liberation. I have to say, it is one fun fucking game.

 

[DragonsAteMyMarbles]

I do still have a soft spot for games that are older than my little brother - if my worrying fixation with the old 2D Final Fantasy, Mario, Sonic, Monkey Island and (slightly younger) Pokemon games is anything to go by.

Currently playing Fallout 2 far too much.

 

[Hiphophippo]

A few things.

Half Life is by no means superior to say Halo or Call of Duty. Half Life is awesome, but Halo and Call of Duty are modified version, with better controls and gameplay. It's a natural evolution of games.

The case of buying things your friends buy has always been the case. It's not something new.

Yes, you can always look back to older games. But when you do, you mostly find 2 things:

Nostalgia
Proof that gaming has evolved

I don't know where the Old=Bad argument comes in, I think most people realize that the old games where awesome in their time. But they don't really hold a candle to the modern day games from a technical standpoint.

Currently, many I know are freaking out (in a positive way) over Shadow of the Colossus getting a re-release, I and many others have downloaded titles like METAL GEAR SOLID and FF7 from PSN. We are already hailing a lot of old games as the reason for why games today are great.

OK, that's all I have to say.

You are saying that because Half-life is Awsome these games are even better!

Yupp, that's basically what I meant. Half-Life is awesome, and games like Halo or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare are even better, all thanks to Half-Life.

I'm afraid that's opinion good sir or ma'am. I find both far inferior to Half Life.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Ah when the young kids of today get into their 20's/30's they'll be sitting in the exact same position you are now wondering why the young kids of the day don't want to play Halo or Call of Duty or whatever.

 

[The Madman]

I've bought 4 new games this year... and around 12 older games either via STEAM or GOG.com for my computer.

So yeah, methinks I'm a fan of the classics. And for those that scream 'nostalgia nostalgia' in their no doubt comically high pitched voices, I say simply this: Sometimes, just sometimes, the old games really *are* better than their newer counterparts in everything but visuals. It is true. Ultima for example was exploring open-world gameplay with 'living' inhabitants long before Oblivion came along (And did it worse, but prettier I might add). There are things many older games achieved which have yet to have been done properly ever since. Why? Because most modern games are a multi-million dollar investment taking hundreds of people thousands of hours to complete, most of that effort focused squarely on graphics, whereas developers as few as 9 years ago had the freedom to experiment and try out new concepts without bankers and investors staring over their shoulders ever step of the way.

Just how the gaming scene has evolved I suppose. I wouldn't say it's worse, there are plenty of amazing new games out today... it's just, older games often have this 'adventurous charm' which modern games lack. Pity!

Which reminds me, GoG is having a sale on the Heroes of Might And Magic series. If you've never played HOMM3, you are missing out. Go buy it, now.