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

[jiansongwong]

I came from a completely different direction — spent over a decade in IT/project management, zero game dev background. But somewhere along the way, the modern AAA scene started feeling… exhausting? The 100-hour open worlds, the photorealistic graphics arms race. I kept playing them but wasn't really having fun.
Then I stumbled into the retro/pixel space almost by accident. Played a tiny indie pixel game one weekend and it hit me — this is what I'd been missing. Simple mechanics, tight gameplay, no fat. That got me digging deeper into the classics, the homebrew scene, even the open-source retro game community.
It completely changed what I play and how I think about games. Now I spend more time on 8/16-bit stuff than anything modern.

 

[sunsetfelid]

I've been playing with emulators on and off since around 2011 when I got my own computer for the first time, it was just a cheaper way to experience some games I missed or didn't get a chance to play when I was younger. I think it's been really fun watching emulation evolve. I remember a time when Nintendo 64 emulation was like, there were a lot of games that you just couldn't play smoothly or at all because of like, how they coded the games to run, like with Banjo-Tooie's puzzle overlays, and now N64 emulation is so commonplace, so easy, it runs on the cheapest 3rd party handhelds you can find, though lacking the control stick oftentimes. It's pretty amazing.

 

[CouchCactus]

I got into emulation after I finished Persona 4 on a cousin's PS2. I didn't have a PS2 of my own, so it was the first time I sailed the seven seas. Good times! :)

 

[ShinnAsukaYESTaylorSwiftNO]

Probably the N64

 

[TruthandConsequence]

I have an off and on type thing going on with what games I'm into, especially because for as bad as the industry is today, there's still stuff I want. But, recently it was playing a few matches of Crash Tag Team Racing with my homeboy on my CRT and PS2. Made me want to replay the series. Haven't 100% the PS2 Crash Bandicoot games in a while and haven't played the fire GBA games in a looooooong while, so I'm gonna tackle that in between new releases.

 

[tht009]

My first system at home was a Playstation but there was also an NES at my grandma's house, and even though those games came out before I was born I still thoroughly enjoyed them. Once I discovered I could turn my computer into any retro game system with an emulator I just never stopped retro gaming. Since then, many "modern" systems have become retro, so those games count as retro gaming now too. Xbox 360 still counts as "modern" to me even though it was 20 years ago. I guess that means I'm old now.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Growing in a place and time where updating myself to gaming wasn't easy, had to resort to my trusty Gameinis until 2008, where i got my first Emulator, even after i got my own PC and room ten years ago, i was so used to retro gaming that i hardly cared for the most recent ones

 

[RetroRover]

I started playing my backlog, then a few years later I came to the realization that nearly all my collection is composed of games that are now considered retro. From there, I found it easier to go backwards in time to find good games than to keep up with the barrage of new games, hardware upgrades and new consoles. I may go back to regular gaming one day, but I'm in no hurry. For now, the retro corner is really comfy.

 

[Haruna_Kamijo]

I've always been into emulation.

Recently though I got into a gacha game and got really obsessed.

I blew my entire steam summer sale budget trying to get a certain character and I ended up not getting him.

Afterwards I just felt this strange wave of disgust and shame. I immediately quit the game.

I've realized modern games with predatory tactics absolutely mess with me in a bad way and decided I'd take a break and stick exclusively to indies and retro games for a long time.