Reasons for playing retro games

[nintara]

one reason that i haven't seen anyone mention here is filesize, when i feel like trying out a new game it's a lot easier to justify it taking up a couple gigabytes than having to free up 60 gb from my drive. this also applies to games i'm not actively playing or entirely sold on yet but that i might come back to in the future, it's a lot easier to go "i'll keep you around to see if you get good or just to say i beat you" to 2gb than to 100gb.

 

[CardcaptorEd2019]

I like playing newer games, but I do seem to go for older games most of the time. Part of it is that there is a vast amount of games to choose from that are older, especially if you include the repo or roms in general. Many of them can be incredible experiences that you would lose out on if you just stuck to new games.

I grew up playing many retro video games. I was really big into classic Mega Man growing up and the Mega Man series in general helped fuel me interest in retro video games.

I grew up not having many games/my family being not having much money, so emulators helped gravitate me towards retro games. Nowadays, I could buy many games with the many sales that Steam and Playstation has, but I'm still pretty selective in terms of what I'm gonna buy that came out in the last 10'ish so years.

 

[konatakonatakon1]

It's free
If you know where to find it, of course

 

[Mr. SyS]

Because sometimes they're just plain better.

 

[Castilho]

I will play any good game. "Didn't age well" is utter nonsense to me.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Hello all, thought I'd TRY and start a discussion so here we go...

Interested to know what reasons people have for playing retro games, is it nostalgia, money, hardware limitations or just personal preferences?
Personally I play both although lately I've started to lean towards the classics more even though I have a pretty decent PC. Currently playing through Resident Evil Code Veronica (Via Flycast) as I weren't able to play it properly when it was new due to several reasons.

I don’t really need a reason other than curiosity and a love of the hobby. I’ve been playing games older than me since I was young, having gotten a taste of the sixth generation during the tail end of the seventh, and wanting to know more. Series like Pokémon had large online fandoms in the early 2010’s who spoke candidly about the first, second, and third generations, which were all on older hardware. When I became a Sonic fan, it was through the classic games via the DS’ Classic Collection. While that collection is anything but perfect, it still introduced me to great games that hadn’t aged a day as far as I was concerned. In fact, their age made them more mysterious and mythical, as by that point they had already established much of their legacy, with an entire generation that had grown up on them and were eager to share their memories. I pined after retro games for years, getting NES games like Mega Man 3, Super Mario Bros., and The Legend of Zelda on my 3DS’ Virtual Console. At the Christmas of 2013, my family pulled a rabbit out of a hat and blessed me with Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Sonic Heroes, alongside GameCube memory cards. We had the controller for a while (that’s a story for another day), and while I loved playing these games on the Wii, I couldn’t help but want the hardware to match. When I saw a GameCube at a garage sale in 2014, I knew it had to happen. I plugged a GameCube through S-video into a CRT that we had bought for us kids at Goodwill for less than ten dollars, and for years that would be the center of my gaming life. We had newer consoles, yes, but I was just more interested in what had legacy already.

I’ve matured a lot since then, and still have a lot of maturing left to go (my list of SEGA dreams speaks volumes of that second point). I now am more excited than ever for current games, shockingly enough, as I finally have my own financial income and can pick and choose what I play. That said, I still play retro games more, booting up my Saturn and PS1 almost daily. I still have my good ol’ GameCube with me after all these years, and it’s since been joined by 12 other machines, all with their own games and stories that I have formed with them over my short but meaningful lifetime. It’s more than the games: it’s the memories. I will never forget coaching my friend to beat Punch Out!! Wii for hours on end. I will never forget the multi-hour marathon to beat the gorgeous Astal. I will never forget the excitement of playing Vib-Ribbon for the first time on real hardware, learning the chart for one of my own favorite songs. I will never forget stumbling upon Panorama Cotton via GenPlus GX on my Wii and absolutely being blown away by it, nor the amazement of discovering Donkey Kong Jungle Beat on the same console. I will never forget, just yesterday, the close battles I had in Fatal Fury 2 on the Genesis. All these memories I listed come from the last three months alone. This doesn’t even COUNT the decade plus that I’ve been collecting and playing.


Good games are good games. Good consoles are good consoles. Good emulators are good emulators. The memories we make with all the above are what give this hobby its soul.

 

[gokusmacksmyds]

they're way shorter than AAA modern games and my ADHD ass cannot accept any game exceeding 40 hours in total playtime.

 

[moonbits]

old good, new bad.

unga

Game good.

bunga
*monki sounds*

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

bunga
*monki sounds*

Feels monke man , caveman reasoning still works in this day and age

 

[gokusmacksmyds]

-They are shorter (except JRPGs)
-I grew up with Piracy so my gaming tastes are like 2-3 generations behind the average Zoomer in their 20s
-I enjoy things from the past over the present most of the time since i always had an affinity on what came before i was born or what i missed out on.
-They just don't make them like they used to. (Im not talking about quality but instead style and philosophy)

even most of the older JRPG's are shorter.
I feel a standard length for big budget JRPG's nowadays is 80 - 200 hours.
Chronotrigger, FF I-IX, Shin Megami Tensei I, Breath of Fire IV, etc are all games you can beat in under 40 hours.

 

[Bacon Eater64x]

even most of the older JRPG's are shorter.
I feel a standard length for big budget JRPG's nowadays is 80 - 200 hours.
Chronotrigger, FF I-IX, Shin Megami Tensei I, Breath of Fire IV, etc are all games you can beat in under 40 hours.

I know but im a slow ass motherfucker, so a game that takes like 20 hours will take me 40-50. So even if FFVI is shorter than say, Xenoblade, the former will still take me far longer than the average non-JRPG retro game like Super Mario Land 2 or Donkey Kong Country 3.

 

[Bakuma1997]

one reason that i haven't seen anyone mention here is filesize, when i feel like trying out a new game it's a lot easier to justify it taking up a couple gigabytes than having to free up 60 gb from my drive. this also applies to games i'm not actively playing or entirely sold on yet but that i might come back to in the future, it's a lot easier to go "i'll keep you around to see if you get good or just to say i beat you" to 2gb than to 100gb.

As someone that in this years February got himself a 1 TB memory yet i had to uninstall games to make room for Resident Evil 2 REmake i second that

 

[MegaDrive1987]

As someone that in this years February got himself a 1 TB memory yet i had to uninstall games to make room for Resident Evil 2 REmake i second that

That's why I saved up for a 2TB SSD so I could forget about storage for a good while haha.

 

[WokiBakoki]

I just got done playing some classic MW2. I was playing on Hardened and fuck. They don't kid. Pop out of cover, 2 frames till screen is covered in blood. Retreat, wait, repeat. So tiresome before long. A lot of times I just didn't know where enemies are exactly. Without a thermal scope 90% of the time enemies blend into the background and you really gotta laser focus to pick them out. I find them mostly just from seeing where windows are. If every surface looked the same I'd of never escaped that Favela.

The reason I bring this up is because older games with there simpler graphics, are MUCH easier on the eyes. Modern games look excellent (DMC5 is a recent game I love and I'm always impressed at how good that looks). But older games have far more visual clarity. Less particle effects, less lighting tricks, simpler geometry in less dense environments etc. Things were just a little easier to digest and concentrate on. Certain games make my head spin while everything PS2 and backward is just fine.

 

[Sinmenon]

Some older games I play were either part of my childhood or games I wanted to play as a kid, and now I have access to them. Others I missed on those games for having different tastes.

There are other reasons, like how many older games somewhat respected my time better. It is different from the whole "I had a lot of time when I was younger", it is more like some games have pointless activities that only serve to extend the time and end up bloating the game. Sure, when an old game is grindy or unfair, it should be dropped and move on to the next game.

Another thing is that big companies don't take many risks with creative games, as they now take anything from 5 to 10 years to be made and cost an obscene amount of money. Speaking of creativity, many older games used their limitations in creative ways that ended up improving the final product.

Of course, there are bad old games too. Badly balanced games, poor controls, bad visuals, and bloated time. But at least you don't need to invest in a super expensive gaming computer or buy an overpriced console. Some older games, let's say, a SNES game? I can get an emulator running on my phone and play on the go.

 

[Theriise]

I do it for the love of the game!
Sometimes I wanna play 20 games at once, new or old,
Sometimes I want to hide away and play super secret games under my blanket that have been well loved since I was younger. (Kirby Pinball, Earthbound Mario Power Tennis and Poke Sapphire.)
I'm always looking for the new adventure. The crazy fun history of the industry, what people were thinking when they made the games or what had to change in translation. Like did you know that Tokimeki Memorial 3 was funded by an investment trust? (Kinda like kick starter but fans sent money to Konami in promise for financial return if the game took off.)

 

[sambair]

Good games never stop being good. I don't hate all newer games, but there's only maybe a couple new games a year I'm interested in. Also, I love messing around with old consoles in general. For the most part, a lot of new games are larger just for the sake of being large.

 

[Deleted member 526220]

I have no particular reason why I play retro games some are good some are bad it's just a matter of taste.

 

[What's His Face]

The vast majority of current day games are made by people who got their job due ticking a checkbox for HR/PR instead of being skilled at the job they're hired for. Yet no-one can understand why so many of these businesses are collapsing under their own weight. It's a mystery! They're making games, they should succeed and get filthy rich so they can retire in Portland or Montreal at the age of 25 like their parents did!

"What? The chuds want quality products? What does that even mean lmao! This is what they get, and if those w-w-w-w-wacist a-holes don't like it then they shouldn't buy it! La la la!"

"What!? The chuds aren't buying?! Why not!? I told them not to? So what!! Come back you... you... YOU W-W-W-W-WACIST A-HOLES!!! I wanna stop working!! Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!"

That not be exactly what's going in in 2010's & 2020's gaming, but it sure feels like it after browsing sites like Resetera.

 

[RetroCasual]

Hmmmm...

Retro games are something different to actual ones in art and style, with enormous variety and quality if you know what and where to search. In addition, many of them that were unplayable back then now got language localizations and QoL patches, new ways to fool the AI discovered over the years or even graphics updates through remasters and emulation that bring them to a new life.

Besides that, for example I could play the PSOne version of Street Fighter Zero 3 because of the nostalgia, even knowing that the console versions "to go" are the Saturn and the PSP ones... But when talking about a game that I couldn't enjoy in the past, if I can choose I'd never go to play Captain Commando for the SNES instead of the PSOne version or the original arcade.

In the end it's something very personal, but that's why I think that the nostalgia combined with the emotion to find or rediscover something fresh among the past are the most important factors to me in this affair.

 

[RebelofDaNeonGod]

Because there are a lot of good retro games and I wanna play good things, simple as

 

[Ne0Griever]

Very entertaining.

cynical reason: have you seen the incomplete/barely functional shite they release these days?

Non-cynical: It is part of the human nature to be curious about the past, you may want to know how the current games evolved from or perhaps you may want to see if the old games "hold up" today, you may even do it to discover games and genera's that might be extinct or almost extinct.

List could be longer, but the answer is the same. We love this electronic adventures in their many storage media and length.

 

[FrootyLoopsSamurai]

There are multiple reasons I play retro games. Number one which other people have mentioned is that there were a lot of games/systems I missed out on because my parents didn't want/couldn't afford to buy them.

I also prefer to play on original hardware when I can versus emulation because it's part of the experience for me. I am not above emulation, and I have flash carts/ODE's for most of my systems at this point. Mad respect to the emulation scene for keeping these old games alive.

The second reason would be that older games just tend to feel better than newer mainstream games that have been coming out. Older graphics have a lot more charm to them than newer ones imo. The low poly early 3d era of games is one of my favorites just because of how much stuff people were trying to do with a low poly count. These days, games have an insane amount of visual detail, and the more realistic art styles just kind of blend together for me.

Older games also tend to be a lot less bloated. I'm getting pretty tired of modern open world games and the huge amount of checklists/chores to do all over the place. And if they're not open world, then they're trying to be cinematic. I don't need a hollywood experience. I just want to play good games. The more constrained development cycles, hardware, and budget of earlier games just produced tighter experiences. Less people involved in development means games could skew closer to a singular creative vision that feels more crafted and less designed by committee.

I'll still get new consoles and play new games in whatever form they end up, but retro games will always have a place in my heart. Much like cinema and works of literature, these games provide a window into what things were like in the past. There can be a lot to learn and appreciate.

 

[Gafek Urslef]

They're fun. That's it.

 

[MajesticSiN]

I do it because I do what I want.