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Ok, there have been a couple of topics about old style games and the like, and this has got me thinking.
Nostalgia,
Is it all it’s cracked up to be?
I’d say no. (Playing Devil’s Advocate for a change.)
People of my age (25-30) when down the pub, will always end up talking about “the old stuff” like we’re old men round a fire.
We talk about kids programmes we used to watch, Saturday morning picture shows and computers.
Now, I’m aware that a lot of people here are under 20 and will have missed the birth of video games as we know them today.
Be grateful, for they were dark days indeed people. The 1st console I remember owning was an Atari. This big old wooden thing with cartridges you stuck in.
Ceefax graphics, and the most unwieldy joysticks you can imagine (except for Nightdriver which used paddle controllers).
Now, people are going to say “Come on, that was cool for it’s day”.
No, it wasn’t. I remember sitting there as a kid thinking “This sucks” watching a white line bat a white pixel across the screen to another white line, controlled by an equally crestfallen mate.
We would play for 30 minutes, put the Atari away and go outside to play Star Wars.
Then I got my spectrum. It had 48k you know. It was ok, the 128+2 was better (built in tape player!).
Then amiga and so on…
This isn’t a history of consoles, this is me saying that I enjoyed them for what they were, but I have no desire to revisit those games and console.
Why?
Because we’ve moved on now, we don’t have to play that crap anymore.
We have faster, bigger, more powerful crap to play and get bored with.
Looking back with fondness at the old gaming days, I think, is more a fondness for the halcyon days of youth, rather than an admiration for the games. (in my case).
I don’t want emulators so I can play Spectrum games on my PC.
That’s like buying a Ferrari, ripping the engine out and putting Flintstone power in.
Doesn’t make any sense to me, we’ve evolving and need to forget about the old stuff so we can move on.
I love the old spectrum games, but that’s more to do with loving my time as a kid.
I didn’t have to worry about a job, money, stress, inflation etc, simple days with simple pleasures. I hated being a kid at the time and wanted to be a grown up (oh if only I’d known).
So, now that I am an adult, I have no desire to revisit my days of staring at rubbish console graphics telling myself “It’s the gameplay that counts!”.
It’s not, it’s what we can do with the technology we have.
One last question though: In an age where we can clone animals, send emails globally in seconds and travel into space, why is Ceefax still looking like the old Atari graphics?
Nostalgia,
Is it all it’s cracked up to be?
I’d say no. (Playing Devil’s Advocate for a change.)
People of my age (25-30) when down the pub, will always end up talking about “the old stuff” like we’re old men round a fire.
We talk about kids programmes we used to watch, Saturday morning picture shows and computers.
Now, I’m aware that a lot of people here are under 20 and will have missed the birth of video games as we know them today.
Be grateful, for they were dark days indeed people. The 1st console I remember owning was an Atari. This big old wooden thing with cartridges you stuck in.
Ceefax graphics, and the most unwieldy joysticks you can imagine (except for Nightdriver which used paddle controllers).
Now, people are going to say “Come on, that was cool for it’s day”.
No, it wasn’t. I remember sitting there as a kid thinking “This sucks” watching a white line bat a white pixel across the screen to another white line, controlled by an equally crestfallen mate.
We would play for 30 minutes, put the Atari away and go outside to play Star Wars.
Then I got my spectrum. It had 48k you know. It was ok, the 128+2 was better (built in tape player!).
Then amiga and so on…
This isn’t a history of consoles, this is me saying that I enjoyed them for what they were, but I have no desire to revisit those games and console.
Why?
Because we’ve moved on now, we don’t have to play that crap anymore.
We have faster, bigger, more powerful crap to play and get bored with.
Looking back with fondness at the old gaming days, I think, is more a fondness for the halcyon days of youth, rather than an admiration for the games. (in my case).
I don’t want emulators so I can play Spectrum games on my PC.
That’s like buying a Ferrari, ripping the engine out and putting Flintstone power in.
Doesn’t make any sense to me, we’ve evolving and need to forget about the old stuff so we can move on.
I love the old spectrum games, but that’s more to do with loving my time as a kid.
I didn’t have to worry about a job, money, stress, inflation etc, simple days with simple pleasures. I hated being a kid at the time and wanted to be a grown up (oh if only I’d known).
So, now that I am an adult, I have no desire to revisit my days of staring at rubbish console graphics telling myself “It’s the gameplay that counts!”.
It’s not, it’s what we can do with the technology we have.
One last question though: In an age where we can clone animals, send emails globally in seconds and travel into space, why is Ceefax still looking like the old Atari graphics?
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Goatboy wrote:
>> The Game wrote:
>> bumbing, it's a right game, and I love it!
> Er...thank you for sharing this with the group.
Ooh, my aching sides!
>> The Game wrote:
>> bumbing, it's a right game, and I love it!
> Er...thank you for sharing this with the group.
Ooh, my aching sides!
Oops... sorry...
That was meant to be bumping...
...I'm not gay... I hate them...
Game
That was meant to be bumping...
...I'm not gay... I hate them...
Game
The Game wrote:
, bumbing, it's a right game, and I love
> it!
Er...thank you for sharing this with the group.
, bumbing, it's a right game, and I love
> it!
Er...thank you for sharing this with the group.
The text services on Sky Digital aren't in the 'Ceefax' style that you so hastily condem, Goaty!
I don't think we'll see a new text service on terrestrial television until it becomes digital.
**************
As for the 'crappy old games' thing... you are soooooooo right!
Okay, so i'd still go back and play Mario or Sonic 2 again but anything pre-SNES / Mega-Drive is out. There were some classics on the NES and Maste System, but their sequels on the latter consoles were better.
I just dont see how ANYONE would take to playing 'pong' over MSR or Virtua Tennis! it's just plain lunacy!
Old games had their time and they did a good job of introducing us to games, BUT they're too old, my gran could program a better game now, typing with her nose, eating breakfast, whilst combing her hair.... okay i'll stop there but you get the idea.
We'll be playing one of FM's games soon enough.... well at least downloading it and telling him how crap it is... :)
Games now are so much more advanced and so much nicer to play.... the colours, effect, mapping, bumbing, it's a right game, and I love it!
Game
I don't think we'll see a new text service on terrestrial television until it becomes digital.
**************
As for the 'crappy old games' thing... you are soooooooo right!
Okay, so i'd still go back and play Mario or Sonic 2 again but anything pre-SNES / Mega-Drive is out. There were some classics on the NES and Maste System, but their sequels on the latter consoles were better.
I just dont see how ANYONE would take to playing 'pong' over MSR or Virtua Tennis! it's just plain lunacy!
Old games had their time and they did a good job of introducing us to games, BUT they're too old, my gran could program a better game now, typing with her nose, eating breakfast, whilst combing her hair.... okay i'll stop there but you get the idea.
We'll be playing one of FM's games soon enough.... well at least downloading it and telling him how crap it is... :)
Games now are so much more advanced and so much nicer to play.... the colours, effect, mapping, bumbing, it's a right game, and I love it!
Game
only problem with these old carts on the snes is that the battery memory thing is knackered. evertime i remove mario kart from my snes all the data is lost. do the N64 carts work in the same way? will i one day lose my completed Zelda game?
But do the bigger, better, faster games of today make you a better gamer? No!
While in Florida, I went to Disney's Pleasure Island, and they have a 'free' arcade (i.e. you pay an entrance fee and go on what you like as much as you like) with stacks of old arcade machines!
I used to be pretty good at Space Invaders and Defender. Having progressed to todays games, you'd think they'd be a walk in the park... but no.
I spent about an hour on each machine, and I was absolutely cr@p!
While in Florida, I went to Disney's Pleasure Island, and they have a 'free' arcade (i.e. you pay an entrance fee and go on what you like as much as you like) with stacks of old arcade machines!
I used to be pretty good at Space Invaders and Defender. Having progressed to todays games, you'd think they'd be a walk in the park... but no.
I spent about an hour on each machine, and I was absolutely cr@p!
I'll agree that most of the old games arent all theyre cracked up to be, admittedly to enjoy games in those days you sometimes needed a bit of imagination. However a load of games are still fun to play such as Strider, Shadow Dancer, MarioKart, Cannon Fodder, Streetfighter 2 and Sonic... the cream of the crop for their day, are still playable today.
I'm lucky that the C64 was the first computer I had, admittedly games before then werent as much fun. The C64 had bionic commando, outrun, Dizzy and a number of good titles...only 8 colours though, so a little imagination needed but the playability was there.
A note on emulation, well its fun to download those old games for a while for nostalgia...but you cant always get that nostalgic feel unless you have the old console and the pad it was meant to be played with.
MarioKart on the SNES is a prime example..I havent found a decent emulator for the PC, which means Im lucky to have a SNES and a the original game to play....A Timeless classic.
I'm lucky that the C64 was the first computer I had, admittedly games before then werent as much fun. The C64 had bionic commando, outrun, Dizzy and a number of good titles...only 8 colours though, so a little imagination needed but the playability was there.
A note on emulation, well its fun to download those old games for a while for nostalgia...but you cant always get that nostalgic feel unless you have the old console and the pad it was meant to be played with.
MarioKart on the SNES is a prime example..I havent found a decent emulator for the PC, which means Im lucky to have a SNES and a the original game to play....A Timeless classic.
Mekas rant, entitled Why I Emulate:
I've emulated most of the platforms that I own.
Not to look back at history, more often than not, it's unfinished business!
When I downloaded a Sega Master System emulator it wasn't so I could say "I wasn't even 10 when I played this" I downloaded Phantasy Star so I could bloody well finish it after all of these years!
My NES emulation is the same, I never finished Zelda 2, so I'll do it in my spare time. I have to do it, I hate leaving a good game unfinished!
Admittedly I did download Fantasy Zone 2 just so I could play it again, but that was because the ending was the most amazing thing I had ever seen at the time. It had a real effect on me, and though I'm sure it wasn't the first time such a twist has been used, it was the first time I'd seen it!
Basically when you reach the final level, you have to beat all of the level bosses again in order to see who the leader of the evil forces is. When you finally face them, you see that it is a mirror image of your own character! I thought that this was amazing! When you defeat him, you get to see that your character was in emotional turmiol during the initial war, and defeating the forces of evil in the first game, as a result of this your character was split in to two seperate characters, one that had all of the bad feelings, one that had good.
I thought that was wonderful. Seeing this ending again was much like reading an old book again, or seeing a favourite movie. Mind you, it wasn't the gameplay I was after in this case.
I've tried playing some of the games considered 'classics' but if you haven't previously played them yourselves then the magic isn't there, it's just a game that seems bad by todays standards.
But I emulate games on the SNES and Megadrive that I've never previously played (deleting them after 24 hours, of course) and enjoy some of them thoroughly. But then, they aren't that old.
I've emulated most of the platforms that I own.
Not to look back at history, more often than not, it's unfinished business!
When I downloaded a Sega Master System emulator it wasn't so I could say "I wasn't even 10 when I played this" I downloaded Phantasy Star so I could bloody well finish it after all of these years!
My NES emulation is the same, I never finished Zelda 2, so I'll do it in my spare time. I have to do it, I hate leaving a good game unfinished!
Admittedly I did download Fantasy Zone 2 just so I could play it again, but that was because the ending was the most amazing thing I had ever seen at the time. It had a real effect on me, and though I'm sure it wasn't the first time such a twist has been used, it was the first time I'd seen it!
Basically when you reach the final level, you have to beat all of the level bosses again in order to see who the leader of the evil forces is. When you finally face them, you see that it is a mirror image of your own character! I thought that this was amazing! When you defeat him, you get to see that your character was in emotional turmiol during the initial war, and defeating the forces of evil in the first game, as a result of this your character was split in to two seperate characters, one that had all of the bad feelings, one that had good.
I thought that was wonderful. Seeing this ending again was much like reading an old book again, or seeing a favourite movie. Mind you, it wasn't the gameplay I was after in this case.
I've tried playing some of the games considered 'classics' but if you haven't previously played them yourselves then the magic isn't there, it's just a game that seems bad by todays standards.
But I emulate games on the SNES and Megadrive that I've never previously played (deleting them after 24 hours, of course) and enjoy some of them thoroughly. But then, they aren't that old.
most of the games on the old consoles are crappy yes, but there are few that still give the latest titles a run for thier money. Sensible world of soccer on my amiga 600 is still one of my most played games.
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