What got you (or got you back) into retro gaming?

[Tiza]

Had quite an affinity to retrogames since my family was poor and I only had an Atari 2600 Jr back when the PS1 was already a thing, only got to play modern games thanks to classmates back in the day.
As for me returning to retrogaming, it was thanks to the PSP, the first console I bought with my own money. Just installed a CFW on it and the gates of emulation opened to me. I really thank the PSP in this regard, not only got to play lots of SNES and GBA RPGs, but also PS1, plus the PSP itself having a lot of RPGs. Nowadays I just play retro stuff (and steam games) on my AYN Thor.

 

[hazys]

I was downloading and emulating games from an early age because piracy's pretty common where I live. Around the late PS3/early PS4 era I became disenchanted with modern games and started looking backward. I discovered that I'd missed out on tons of consoles and games. Eventually I modded by consoles/handhelds and didn't look back.

 

[Michael Frank]

I owned one of those bootleg consoles with a lot of nes games pre installed on it as a wee lad, then i grew up, became aware of emulators, and the rest is history.

 

[CrunchXCrunch]

While I always had a nostalgia streak for certain eras, around Covid I went on a mission to dig deeper than ever before. I played and streamed the games I always heard about or wanted to try but couldn’t afford back then. I used to pour over countless gaming magazines and absorbed an encyclopedia of information about cool looking games. If not during lockdown, when? It was really a way to connect with others and discover together gems, and definitely some lesser known treasures too.

As a consequence I really got to dive into SEGA consoles, which I really missed out on growing up. I bought the hardware. I even restored a Sega Cd model 1.

I feel like I gifted myself permission to just dive in. It’s been great.

 

[-------]

I had a Pokemon GBA hacking phase I've played more hacks than ever before. That's how I got into retro gaming.

 

[NeonKnights]

I was an NES and Genesis kid, though I had been out of it for a while since the Wii. In 2017 I started playing Earthbound on my phone, and started going to the local retro game/hobby shop which was only one block away. I would go there every weekend after loading up on caffeine and would play their Galaga machine while listening to Rush on my ipod. It taught me that not all Galaga machines are the same, because some of them wont let you fire faster at the speed you press the button. If I find one of these machines I quit right away.

That year I also bought a single super famicom controller from Japan. Which was the only piece of my retro game collection at the time. I cleaned it while watching Tokido win EVO. The funny part about this is that because I didn't watch tv, or anything else besides youtube, I didn't hear about the switch until 2018. I have since collected most of the consoles I wanted, and have modded them myself, with the exception of my SCPH-1001 PS1, Atari 5200, Vectrex, 1-Chip SNES, Onboard E.E. PS3, PS4 Pro, and 360S (Corona).

It's really improved my soldering skills to the point that when I had to upgrade my Ibanez guitar, it was quite easy. I have also worked at a retro game shop since which has helped as well. I probably should have mentioned that. I really got into retro gaming during my abandonware phase around 2006-2009. I wouldn't say back into, because I never played most of those games when they were new. That was when I played all the old MS-DOS games I missed out on. Now many of those games are hard to find because of GOG.

 

[Princess Viola]

My grandparents were cheap as Hell growing up and since they bought me a Nintendo 64 back in 2000 for either my 4th birthday or Christmas (I was so young I don't remember which it was), they felt I didn't need any new video game stuff because 'you already have one' so unless I wanted to keep playing the handful of N64 games I had and nothing else, my only other gaming outlet I really had (besides RuneScape and flash games on the web) were emulators because my dogshit PC couldn't run anything else. Playing on emulators like ZSNES, Nestopia, Kega Fusion, and VisualBoy Advance were basically my obsession because what else did I have?

Oh and also when I was in 5th grade (10 years old), my elementary school did a thing where you could take tests about books you borrowed from the school library and you'd earn points based on the tests (with higher grade level books being worth more points) and once a quarter, your class would go to a room in the library where you could spend points on prizes. And one quarter, I had earned enough points to pick out a plug-and-play Intellivision console with like 15 games in it.

Now sure, nowadays as an adult, I know that thing was basically a NES-on-a-chip running ports of Intellivison games and wasn't accurate but that was legitimately fun as Hell to me growing up.

So I guess I've just always been retro gaming since I was a kid and never stopped, even now that I have a gaming laptop, I'll play retro games just as much as I play modern games or games that are older but not old enough to be retro.

 

[KrazyKoen]

I have always been really interested in older games and gaming history, probably because my dad is a child of the 80s to 90s and talked alot about the NES and SNES games he used to play to me as a kid. My dad is pretty staunchly anti-piracy so I was too for most of my life (wish I wasn't because I had a really shitty PC as a kid).

I played a few retro games through modern remakes and re-releases (That one fucking wall boss in Mega Man 2 made me actually cry as a ten year old, even with save states and rewinds). I got a gamecube from my grandparents when I was around 14 I think but never got super into it because good gamecube games are so damn expensive.

I only really got into collecting when my neighbor gifted his PS2 and his old game collection to my brother, but my brother is more into owning things than using them so after a few days it ended up in my room. I got really into playing it. So I found a retro games store nearby to start collecting and it's been a hobby of mine ever since :)

 

[BejitabroFZ]

Growing up I had a PS2 while my cousins had a GameCube, alongside their own PS2. Some of the games we had were compilation titles like Sonic Mega Collection or Metal Slug Anthology (I admittedly sucked at both of them, only ever being able to beat Sonic 2 and needing to resort to credit feeding for the Slugs). Then a few years later they got Super Smash Bros Brawl which has that Masterpiece mode where you can play demos of various NES/SNES/N64 games. I remember really being interested in the F-Zero one (which is literally just 1 lap on the very first track in the game before you're sent back to the menu, but it was still enough to hook me)

I never really returned to it I think. I've always had a preference for older games compared to modern games (sans. modern compilation titles like the Megaman collections, or the odd indie game every few years that catches my eye), and then as I got older I naturally gained an income (which I eventually used to buy my own GameCube) as well as discovering emulators/ROM sites, both of which allowed to me to discover an endless sea of games that flew right over my head as a kid, continuing to this very day

 

[FrootyLoopsSamurai]

Game Center CX in 2009 or so was what got me more into retro games. Watching Arino play weird games I've never heard of got me curious, and I always had a passing interest in games that I missed out on for systems I never had. I was into SNES emulation before then but only played a handful of games. I got a NES not too long after I started watching, and built up a decent library. Back then retro game prices were starting to go up, but the market wasn't quite as ridiculous as it is today. I also had a local game store I frequented before they got robbed and shut down. They cut me some good deals back then, and I miss them dearly.

I try to play on original hardware when possible. It just feels like more of an experience than emulation. Flash carts and ODE's make this a bit more feasible considering how inflated the secondhand market has become. I vacillate between newer and older games, but I've definitely been on a much stronger retro kick than I have in a while. It probably doesn't help that the AAA industry is imploding. Indies have some decent retro style games, but they don't feel quite the same as when older consoles were current.

 

[sambair]

Mostly because I'm old, there's maybe like 1 or 2 modern AAA games a year that hold my attention, and I've always held the belief that older games are still worth playing. My first console was an NES, and I've been into emulators since the Nesticle days.

Also, if I don't feel like playing a specific game, messing around with emulators and tinkering with old consoles is a good way to have a fun afternoon. I finally got a MiSTer, and just trying out all the different cores on that has been a blast. I love playing on original hardware, too, but that was kind of turning into a giant money sink.

I try to stream at least a few times a month, and I'm never going to be a pro, but it's fun to show off old games and have a rotating chat with an online buddy or two.

 

[DjQuick2008]

At the moment my V2 elite console.
Guy in our facebook group shows the goods.

The V2 Elite Gamer

I love my Retro Gaming and have purchased a V2 Emulation Console. Happy Days. Please take a look around and like and subscribe if you like what you've seen.Thanks.

www.youtube.com

 

[ellis]

good' ol ps2 and 3ds, and the fact im born in venezuela, long live to the polystation 720

 

[Amonguzmoment]

In 2010, I was pretty dissatisfied with the PS3’s library of ps2 games and found it lackluster in the musou department, even though i was happy playing Dynasty Warriors 7 and Warriors Orochi 3 when they came out, I got nostalgic for the older games.

This disappointment carried over to the ps4, which didn’t have GTA IV! Now that was a heinous crime. I got an Xbox series cuz it had GTA IV, but I still wanted more.

Later on I got a steam deck and an RG slide and the rest was history. Getting introduced to Linux and Android was a fun experience.

Another piece of nostalgia I had was the Kenji Yamamoto score in budokai 3, omitted in the HD release due to plagiarism scandal. They helped introduce me to a lot of music so I have a lot of sentimental value because of that.

I really liked older games, mainly those who were unknown and pretty niche those always had a lot of love put in them. Back when i only had a phone i'd browse the psp library searching for obscure games and found some gems myself! now that i got a pc i'm doing the same with ps2 games, recently found a game called "Beat Down - Fists of Vengeance" it's really worth trying it out! honestly this game is very ambitious and had some great gimicks like recruiting npcs, having tons of dialog and the fighting system of the game really reminds me of tekken.

 

[Disgaean]

Played on ZSNES, my boy and mupen64 when I was a wee lad and my brother had a Nintendo 64, a PlayStation 1 and an SNES.
Also modern games suck.

 

[dr grim]

got myself a snes mini. started to play it a lot then started to look at channels to improve it.

then i got myself back up in the whole retrogaming by getting myself a rapsberry and many games on many platforms.

 

[Kobu]

 

[TinRattler]

Never played anything after generation 6 consoles. Saw no point as I had kids to feed,bills to pay and life in general than buy new consoles but my youngest kids got a switch each when they came out but no interest in playing the switch. Just always stuck to all my old consoles because I'm an old dinosaur I guess