Do you play games on systems that were 'before your time'?

[Znirk]

I'm 32, and I've been exposed to about 0.8 game consoles in my life so far: the family C64, which ran application software or our own BASIC experiments maybe 20% of the time

So, yes, there are a few C64 titles I occasionally revisit through VICE. Heart of Africa, in memory of all the time spent, dictionary in hand, trying to make sense of the English text. Killed until dead, for similar reasons. Space Taxi because ... eh, I guess you had to be there.

The only "games from the past" I seriously got into was that Infocom Masterpieces backlist CD. Most of these were actually published during "my time", but I only became aware of them much later.

I might be tempted to see what all the fuss is about with some of the "canon", the titles that the fans are still raving about today (and I expect I'll be forced to become a filthy pirate in the process, of course). I don't really expect to be hooked by any of them, but if there's anything you particularly want to promote, I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Prometheus]

I'm also a big Game King fan.

And where, precisely, is your Happy Killer avatar, good sir?

 

[OrR]

Um... Let me see... I just moved to a new PC, so I'm not quite set up, yet. Dang, I can't find it. Oh, there it is, on my bloody webspace! See, I'm back in my clothes now.

 

[carlos]

I was born in 1979 and my parents never had any money when I was growing up.
I did have an 8-bit Atari Computer and later a Master System that my Granddad bought for me when they were being sold cheap.

So, for me emulation is more about playing with the consoles/computers that I could never have as a kid -- I really wanted an ST, but obviously never got one, that is why Skeezix's work on the GP32 brought me here in the first place. Thanks Skeezix. I love playing Spectrum, C64, ST, Amiga, Amstrad, NES, etc., games because I get to try the games that my mate's used to rave about at school, classics like the Dizzy games through to stuff like Stunt Car Racer, all the games I saw in magazines and heard my mates' talking about but never played myself.

I'm now a Chartered Engineer now and my mates want to play with my toys.

 

[LastPucho]

(...)
So, for me emulation is more about playing with the consoles/computers that I could never have as a kid
(...)

I'm now a Chartered Engineer now and my mates want to play with my toys.

+999 to that... amen brother!

 

[Poem58]

I too grew up in a family that had little money. I was about 8 when we got our Atari 2600. and it had been out for a couple of years at that time (had to wait for the price drop). Eventually we had an NES and my parents had bought a Spectravideo SVI-328 from an import catalog called D.A.K. of course by then it was pretty much dead. Bought a gameboy (and different versions through DS) I bought a SNES when I moved away from home. Picked up an old turbografx and express (still sad I sold it away). I did have a N64 with just a couple of games for a short while. My last console was a Dreamcast. Of course I have a had a few computers but never used them much for games or emulation. Then I got a PSP. Thanks to coders like ZX-81, I was able to play my favorite 2600 games (I bugged him til he agreed to make the emulator (Yeah, I'm THAT guy if you read this ZX!)) but he ported so many other old systems we could never afford. I now I am hooked on loading up and trying out old games and it feels just like it did back then...wonderful.
With so many more systems able to be controlled with the Pandora I would have to say, despite looking forward to newly created material, that between ports and emu's I will spend probably 90% of my time in the past. (but always looking to the future)

 

[Blasphemer]

I'm 15 years old and I'm fascinated with retro games. The Sega Megadrive was the first console I played but I also used to play Doom and Duke Nukem 3D on PC when I was like 5-6-7 years old (I have very limited recollection of this but sufficient enough)

I have completed many SNES, NES etc. on emulators that would have been impossible otherwise, because of my age.

 

[joa]

Consoles before the PS1 had a much longer shelf life than the consoles we have today, The focus was more on gameplay too so i guess that helpe makes them timeless.

I was born in 1986, as a young child I played my brothers spectrum, then he got an amiga, I would read the mags (amiga format) after him and play it, That must of gone on for about 8-10 years until we got a megadrive.



When the pandora is out I thinking of starting a thread of 'games you have to play' on each retro console. People post their favourites if any 1 games get's 5 or more +1,+2,+3,+4..replied then it makes the first page, Would certainly gives us something to talk about and play through together.

 

[Prometheus]

Um... Let me see... I just moved to a new PC, so I'm not quite set up, yet. Dang, I can't find it. Oh, there it is, on my bloody webspace! See, I'm back in my clothes now.

Haha, it was weird seeing you posting without it.

When the pandora is out I thinking of starting a thread of 'games you have to play' on each retro console. People post their favourites if any 1 games get's 5 or more +1,+2,+3,+4..replied then it makes the first page, Would certainly gives us something to talk about and play through together.

I would enjoy a thread like that - it sounds like a good way to learn of some gems that might have been missed, and I'm happy to share suggestions of my own, too.

 

[Dauric]

1976 here, not many consoles were "Before my time", and most of those were 'Pong'.

That said, there's a lot of games that I never had the chance to play and I'm looking forward to getting that chance with my Pandora. There's a number of PS1 titles that I recently got my hands on, ones that people tend to own and never sell, (Front Mission 3, Chrono Trigger and Cross) that I haven't had the time to play, but having them portable I can play them at my lunch breaks* or waiting in lines, or waiting rooms...

* or while I'm uploading record files to the company website. My job is "Push button.... zzzzzzz.....", But hush-hush, I'm supposed to be being productive...

---
I've gotten to the point that (graphic wizardry) != (good gameplay). That's not to say I have a tolerance for crappy graphics, you have to understand what you're looking at and enjoy looking at the screen (and enjoyment is a matter of personal taste and perspective), but all the new special effects and shader-obsessions just don't 'wow' me. This is especially the case when it becomes obvious that the production companies spent all their time on graphical elements and forgot to actually make a playable game (Rockstar I'm looking at YOU). There comes a point when you've seen the last hundred-billionth clone shooter that's only claim to fame is "More Realistic Graphics" than the iteration before it that one must yawn.

My own $0.02.

 

[Exophase]

Consoles before the PS1 had a much longer shelf life than the consoles we have today, The focus was more on gameplay too so i guess that helpe makes them timeless.

Really? SNES was introduced in 1991 (in America) and was pretty dead by late 1996. Genesis came out quite a bit earlier but seemed to die out earleir too. PS1 had many big releases from 1995 to 2000, and PS2 actually lasted strong from 2000 clear until 2007. NES did manage from 1985 to 1993 or so, but it had a slow start for the first few years while the market recovered. I would also argue that its games had the most general trend of improvement for any console, even though they never had dedicated general purpose processors on the cartridges like some SNES games did. ROM capacity shot up tremendously and various mappers added a lot of extra functionality.

 

[Esn]

There comes a point when you've seen the last hundred-billionth clone shooter that's only claim to fame is "More Realistic Graphics" than the iteration before it that one must yawn.

I don't care so much about "Realistic Graphics", but I'm a big fan of good artwork. Good artwork is not equivalent to realism or high polygon counts or any of that.

The wonderful pixel artwork in Rayman, for example, was a big part of the experience. Also, the landscapes in Lemmings give it a certain unique mood without which the game just wouldn't be as fun (for me).

Of course the game behind the graphics has to be good, but good artwork and design does tend to enhance my enjoyment of games.

That goes for music as well.

 

[Dauric]

There comes a point when you've seen the last hundred-billionth clone shooter that's only claim to fame is "More Realistic Graphics" than the iteration before it that one must yawn.

I don't care so much about "Realistic Graphics", but I'm a big fan of good artwork. Good artwork is not equivalent to realism or high polygon counts or any of that.

The wonderful pixel artwork in Rayman, for example, was a big part of the experience. Also, the landscapes in Lemmings give it a certain unique mood without which the game just wouldn't be as fun (for me).

Of course the game behind the graphics has to be good, but good artwork and design does tend to enhance my enjoyment of games.

That goes for music as well.

I'll completely agree here. Good art, and creative and innovative visual design go a long way with me. That said there's only so many WWII shooters I can stand to look at, and when their developers are claiming to be the better choice because of X graphics technology, or Y atmospheric haze engine, neither of which make them look all that different, I have to walk away.

That said, The artwork can be brilliant, but if the gameplay is bad/boring enough, then I have to ask if the cost in my patience is worth the effort to see it.

 

[Letalis Sonus]

I'm 18 and bought a C64 in February this year for 20€. But this one wasn't used, it was factory fresh, absolutely untouched (pic). It lay around in the chemistry rooms in my school for exactly 20 years. So I bought it (spending a bit money for our trip later this year) and made me some equipment (adapter for S-Video & audio output, an XM1541 cable for writing D64 images onto 5¼" floppies with the 1541-II floppy drive and OpenCBM, 2 modified PC gamepads).

I really enjoy it, there are many interesting and addictive games, but I really need some joysticks, it is horrible to play Armalyte longer than 15 minutes with a gamepad, your thumb joints start to hurt like hell :lol:

 

[Prometheus]

Also, the landscapes in Lemmings give it a certain unique mood without which the game just wouldn't be as fun (for me).

Lemmings is also a great example of squeezing a lot of personality out of the available pixels, too - I find that that adds a lot to that particular game, as well. As a friend of mine once pointed out to me, Bubsy the Bobcat was enormously hyped for having a ton of animation frames and speech samples (which as we know was regarded as a feat back then), but he never achieved the level of personality and presence on-screen of a single, tiny little Lemming.

 

[rmm2131]

Wow do I feel old. No wonder I am so crotchety sometimes. When I was young we didn't have video game systems to play or computers or cable TV to watch. We went outside with the fresh air and sunlight and built things, seeked in the woods, or played ball after school was done. So there wasn't any public released video games before my time. The only video game system I played with though was something my grandfather picked up somewhere later called Telestar. I looked on wikipedia and it says the thing was new in 1976. Thought it came earlier, but I remember it had paddles to play pong, an addictive little treasure. Maybe it even had a light gun. That was long ago. I remember it spent time out briefly on Thanksgivings for a couple of years and was mildly fun.

I never followed the game scene closely, but the Atari 2600 had Asteroids and Berserk which I grew to like for a time after it was popular. I thought the cartridges were clever for being able to hold "so much" game in such a small thing. Those controllers were fun to use as well. I now have several of the game roms on my computer that I play with Stella.

Family and friends had Colecovision, Intellivision, Vectrex, Odyssey, C64, old sports handhelds from Coleco, Gametime Watch(such a cool thing), all good memories.

 

[atomicthumbs]

I'm 17 and a retrogaming/retrocomputing enthusaist

I want a PDP-8

 

[Asmo]

None before my time either! Had an original Pong console, which I was obliged to use on an ancient black & white TV that overheated after 30 minutes of play. Incredibly, 30 minutes of Pong wasn't enough, back when Dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
Still have almost every system I came into contact with since!

 

[Nailz]

Born in the summer of 69' so I was around for pretty much all of them. Started with Pong at my best friends, then got my own 2600, best friend got an intellivision, kid across the street got a Colecovision which blew my mind! Commodore 64, then a Nintendo which for me was the biggest thing ever. Still my favorite platform aside from MAME.

 

[klikklak]

Well I'm a '77 and I'm actually not very much interested in pre-c64 machines. Maybe it's because I had an intellivision and got to use spectravideo and those didn't make me impressed. But C64 had a wonderful library and also the msx to a lesser extent. Maybe I'll give atari2600 a go since it also had some excellent arcade games (not that I've tried really), but those I prefer to play on mame in any case.

EDIT: There were however big gaps in my education, in particular atari and much of amiga, and all the consoles before playstation (1, never had a 2 or 3), so I'm very interested in learning about these. And like people said, hand drawn artwork ftw!