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

[skeezix]

I'm 36 (or 37 now? fraked if I know anymore , so pretty much all the game systems are 'in my time'.

But it does strike me as odd when I hear about people born in 1990+ (who could be 18 now for instance) who goof around on the C64 (before their birth) or even the SNES (they'd be too young to remember it likely? but then, SNES went prett ylong in the lifespan, so maybe it'd have been a fixture in their childhood if the parents were gamers.)

So my question is ..

Do people actually play games on platforms that are 'before their time'?

(ie: Inspired by people being 18 who are buying pandora/wiz for emulation of SNES, say. I'd imagine the C64 would be less adopted by those folks, but I can see SNES since Nintendo is still a big force, and since the games are still being re-released by N and so could be considered current, in a way..)

jeff

 

[PokeParadox]

Absolutely! :lol: Not so much now though, but I went on an emulation frenzy before the internet became popular and everyone decided they needed a computer in their homes...

I do like to add another retro computer/console to my collection if I see one at the right price/condition.

 

[lulzfish]

No.
I barely even play on game consoles that I own.

I value good gameplay, but there's not a lot you can do for gameplay on platforms that have so little processing power.
To this end, my GP32X signature is "I lay awake at night worrying that the Pandora's computational prowess will be wasted on emulating consoles I don't even care about"

It's true. I don't hate anybody for working on emulators, but I would much rather see native game engines and original games. It's like nostalgia, except people are putting huge amounts of effort into making it work, instead of making games that really use the Pandora to its full ability. Most kinds of nostalgia are just "well I don't really care", but I feel like emulation is actively wasting my time.

Does this make me a bad person?

 

[WizardStan]

The Intellivision was a couple years before I was born and was (and still is) one of my favourite systems of all time. The Intellivoice system was really cool, even by today's standards it's fairly impressive. "B-17 BAAAAAWMUUUUUR"

 

[hells_dark]

hell yes.

I'm 21 and I play a lot of mame games, and snes games

 

[Exophase]

Depends what you mean really. I didn't get an NES until 1993 (I was 10) when its popularity was waning, but it was very popular when I was younger than that. We also had a Coleco Gemini, an Atari 2600 clone. My family played it for some time, I think before I was even born. But by the time I was playing it, which was for maybe a year before I got the NES, it was long since abandoned. The machine broke sometime after that and I've only played games for it a bit here in there in commercial emulators and what have you. I guess you could say I played it after its time but I'm much more fond of the NES these days.

On the other hand, these days I mostly play games that I either haven't played back then or haven't been able to get that far in. Actually, I was pretty bad at video gaming back then, I'm a lot better now, even though I played much more then. I had a Genesis while it was still a pretty hot console, but got SNES closer to the end of its life. I also got a PC-Engine after games were coming out for it in the USA.

It's funny, even though I like getting into NES games these days I can't really get into NES RPGs at all. I didn't really start playing RPGs until I played SaGa 2 on Gameboy, then eventually various ones on SNES and Genesis. For a long time they were my favorite genre by far, in fact, they're pretty much all I played for PS1 and PS2. Interestingly, I can still play Gameboy RPGs without feeling bogged down (granted, there are hardly any), so I think for me having played at least some platform games while the system was still popular has helped a lot in their appeal to me now. I think NES games like in serieses Castlevania, Megaman, and Zelda are more appealing to me now than they even were back then.

 

[Exophase]

Does this make me a bad person?

No, but it does make you naive for thinking that there's a strong correlation between CPU capability and quality of gameplay. When most CPU resources, especially after a certain point, are dedicated solely to graphics and "realism" effects that have little to do with gameplay. There are exceptions, of course, but generally...

 

[danielpwnsricky]

why not? they're fun, a lot of them more so than more modern games.

@Exophase:
nes rpgs almost always include lots of level grinding and having no clue where to go.

EDIT: there is NO correlation between CPU and quality of gameplay. mother 3 was one of the best games i have ever played and it's made for the gba.

 

[PokeParadox]

I don't hate anybody for working on emulators, but I would much rather see native game engines and original games. It's like nostalgia, except people are putting huge amounts of effort into making it work, instead of making games that really use the Pandora to its full ability. Most kinds of nostalgia are just "well I don't really care", but I feel like emulation is actively wasting my time.

Does this make me a bad person?

You must realise that people that write emulators do it because they want to write an emulator. They are not wasting your time, because they never had any intention of making a game. They want to write their emulator.

On a similar note, I could not and probably never will write an emulator, because I have too much fun developing my own games.

 

[lulzfish]

Yeah, I can't tell people what to write.
Well, I could if I had a lot of money to get rid of quickly, or if I was in charge of a sandboxed platform like Apple is.

 

[Thegerg]

I'm 18 now when i was 4 playing snes was basically all i did... I diden't do anything at school so they started giving me ADD pills, i diden't have ADD i just diden't care, just wanted to get home and play more snes

 

[(naw)mcx]

I'm 15, and I started off with the Atari 5200, went on the SNES, then the PS1. All behind time, so yes, I do

 

[Bosbeetle]

I dont think I have ever played anything that is older than the msx and thats from 80 and I was born in 81 but we had a msx so I have to say no.

 

[Wookiee]

Like skeezix I'm 35 so most of the games aren't before my time either. But I didn't get to have ago on all the arcade games that I would have liked too, or didn't get a copy of all the console or home computer games that I would have liked too. Heck I had a C16 (still have it!!) and later a Acorn Electron neither were the coolest of systems.

Now through the Pandora I will be able to explore the world of games more fully, whatever their original platforms.

 

[bzar]

I started off with a C64, and don't usually play games made for systems older than it. Some arcade games are an exception though.

 

[Kyosys]

I remember when we were young we'd play on my father's old atari 2600. But yeah, I do. Someone once criticized me for mentioning games that came out before I was born under the list of my favorite titles, which I think is really stupid. Just because it was before my time I'm not entitled to play the game? Why?

 

[modred11]

But it does strike me as odd when I hear about people born in 1990+ (who could be 18 now for instance) who goof around on the C64 (before their birth) or even the SNES (they'd be too young to remember it likely? but then, SNES went prett ylong in the lifespan, so maybe it'd have been a fixture in their childhood if the parents were gamers.)

So my question is ..

Do people actually play games on platforms that are 'before their time'?

That's exactly my age & year of birth actually, and I'd definitely play any old consoles if I had them. I'd especially love to have the Super Mario games again, it's been forever since I've played them. But apart from that I don't really know of any older games I'd want to play, which isn't to say there aren't any that I'd like, I just don't have the experience to know which ones are good.

Meanwhile, I'd happily play games from the N64 (like the 007 games), the original Myst, and like Wolfenstein 3D has been my favorite FPS since I played it as a youngin' (err... younger-youngin'). But yeah, if I could legally acquire emulators for older systems and some games for 'em I'd definitely have fun playing them.

*checks wikipedia* So I guess I don't really play games from before my time really... Hm.

I definitely agree that the processing power of the system doesn't decide (or greatly effect) the quality of the gameplay though.

 

[fiveseven]

My first console was a NES, which came out the same year I was born. I also played around with various older computers (Spectrum, C64, VIC20 and a friend's BBC Micro), but that mainly consisted of programing, rather than game playing. I suppose my main reason for picking older consoles back then was cost, a second hand NES for £10-£20 was much better value than a playstation for £100.

Today, I play pretty much anything from NES to XBOX360, although having recently bought a psp, I tend to favour older games at the moment.

I haven't really touched any of the old computer emulators, as my main fascination was with the hardware, and seeing it all working and what it could do. You don't get that with an emulator.

 

[kloplop321]

I might play some dos games once in a while
Though it is more or less stuff that was made when I was 3 or so

 

[lulzfish]

I'm thinking of like Shadow of the Colossus, where the graphics and high processor requirements were part of the game's style. There wasn't much eyecandy besides the shader bloom [which they freaking abused <_< ] but actually climbing on the colossi and taking them down just isn't something you can any way besides a full 3d perspective, and it would be very lacking without the fur shader.

I do like 'gameplay', but there's only so many styles of gameplay you can have with older systems, and I want to see at least decent graphics while I'm playing.