GetDotted Domains

Viewing Thread:
"Looking Back on Retro Gaming"

The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.

Sat 16/02/02 at 10:39
Regular
Posts: 787
When you look back on old games you could say, "Haha, look at those terrible graphics. What a rubbish game!" And you may throw it away. But in my opinion you shouldn't do that. Having 'bad graphics' or being a 'rubbish game' is just the same as todays games in some cases. And sometimes old games can be even better than some of todays games, even with graphical faults. Here are some examples.

The reason I came up with this topic was because I was playing my old Game Boy last night and the game I happened to be playing was Donkey Kong, the 'first ever game' and I found out that it is one of the most addictive games I've played in quite a while. It may look not very good compared to the looks as seen on the PS2, X-Box and GC (no where near in fact) these days graphic wise, and the music and sounds aren't exactly like SSX Tricky songs and graphics, but think of what it was like for game makers back then, and think of how un-advanced they were from us these days. Games these days may boast about how good they look, but I can guarentee that this game takes longer to complete, and keep you more hooked, even in these days than a game like Luigi's Mansion. Go on! Take a look back at this game, it is worth it.

Other Game Boy features and games could be good too. The actually console wasn't that powreful at all, and it didn't use up much batteries. It was cheap too. But the reason that the Game Boy seemed to take out the Game Gear and Lynx was because of one game, Tetris. Tetris was a very, and I mean very addictive game. Everyone was hooked on it. It wasn't even made by real programmers. Just a few Russians that decided they would make some money on a simple, easy to make game. But Nintendo did buy and publish the game so they own the rights to it. Now THQ own the rights to develop it, but only for Nintendo consoles. Mario Land games were good too. They were just a small step up from the old Mario platformers on the Atari but that was a good thing for most people, because it turned out to be the highest selling series of games ever, until all the new games these days came along and dominated the console market.

A fact that some of you may not know. Mario and Donkey Kong both started out on the Atari. Even the Donkey Kong game in the paragraph above this had started on an Atari console. Some games, such as all the Mario Bros games (1, 2 and 3) on the Atari which were all excellent platformer games could still face up to platformers these days. Same with Mega Man, which was a big hit on the NES. The NES and Atari were the main source of platform games, good ones that is, and they are where platformed gaming really started. Platform games back then could beat PS2 platformers any day. (All 3 of them. :D)

Another thing that you may not know was, games consoles in the old age started out with joysticks, and not joypads, but they converted over to joypads because joysticks were harder to use during platformer games, which were the main attraction back then. There was an occasional fight sim pop up but games back then were mainly based on platformers. The NES had a couple of games from other genres such as Top Gun and Airworlf, both reasonable flight sims for the time, Duck Hunt and Will Gunman were both excellent light gun games, dated now but for the time were remarkable. So as you can see games back then could compare to today's games quite easily, some could even better them.

This whole topic isn't made to poke fun at cosoles and games of this generation not being as good as they are capable of being, but it is pointed at how good some old games can be, even if they do look really bad graphically, have faults, or play terrible music. So, if you have an old console lying around your house and you still have a few working games for them, then take them out and have a go. Go on. You'll be impressed!!

Thanks for reading, Afro.
Fri 29/03/02 at 13:28
Regular
"Link to the Future"
Posts: 719
I agree completely. The thing that made the older games so much fun was the challenge they offered. I remember busting my fingers to blisters just to complete one level on games like Super Mario World for the SNES (which i'm glad is being released on the GBA). The games these days, however good they might, be just don't offer theh same kind of challenge. It would take ages for you to work out how to do a certain bit then ages again trying to put it into practice. PS2 games hardly require any skill like they did back then, there is basically a big hand lighted in neon guiding you through the game. That just doesn't create the sense of achievment the old games did when you finally finished them.
Sat 16/02/02 at 10:39
Regular
"sdomehtongng"
Posts: 23,695
When you look back on old games you could say, "Haha, look at those terrible graphics. What a rubbish game!" And you may throw it away. But in my opinion you shouldn't do that. Having 'bad graphics' or being a 'rubbish game' is just the same as todays games in some cases. And sometimes old games can be even better than some of todays games, even with graphical faults. Here are some examples.

The reason I came up with this topic was because I was playing my old Game Boy last night and the game I happened to be playing was Donkey Kong, the 'first ever game' and I found out that it is one of the most addictive games I've played in quite a while. It may look not very good compared to the looks as seen on the PS2, X-Box and GC (no where near in fact) these days graphic wise, and the music and sounds aren't exactly like SSX Tricky songs and graphics, but think of what it was like for game makers back then, and think of how un-advanced they were from us these days. Games these days may boast about how good they look, but I can guarentee that this game takes longer to complete, and keep you more hooked, even in these days than a game like Luigi's Mansion. Go on! Take a look back at this game, it is worth it.

Other Game Boy features and games could be good too. The actually console wasn't that powreful at all, and it didn't use up much batteries. It was cheap too. But the reason that the Game Boy seemed to take out the Game Gear and Lynx was because of one game, Tetris. Tetris was a very, and I mean very addictive game. Everyone was hooked on it. It wasn't even made by real programmers. Just a few Russians that decided they would make some money on a simple, easy to make game. But Nintendo did buy and publish the game so they own the rights to it. Now THQ own the rights to develop it, but only for Nintendo consoles. Mario Land games were good too. They were just a small step up from the old Mario platformers on the Atari but that was a good thing for most people, because it turned out to be the highest selling series of games ever, until all the new games these days came along and dominated the console market.

A fact that some of you may not know. Mario and Donkey Kong both started out on the Atari. Even the Donkey Kong game in the paragraph above this had started on an Atari console. Some games, such as all the Mario Bros games (1, 2 and 3) on the Atari which were all excellent platformer games could still face up to platformers these days. Same with Mega Man, which was a big hit on the NES. The NES and Atari were the main source of platform games, good ones that is, and they are where platformed gaming really started. Platform games back then could beat PS2 platformers any day. (All 3 of them. :D)

Another thing that you may not know was, games consoles in the old age started out with joysticks, and not joypads, but they converted over to joypads because joysticks were harder to use during platformer games, which were the main attraction back then. There was an occasional fight sim pop up but games back then were mainly based on platformers. The NES had a couple of games from other genres such as Top Gun and Airworlf, both reasonable flight sims for the time, Duck Hunt and Will Gunman were both excellent light gun games, dated now but for the time were remarkable. So as you can see games back then could compare to today's games quite easily, some could even better them.

This whole topic isn't made to poke fun at cosoles and games of this generation not being as good as they are capable of being, but it is pointed at how good some old games can be, even if they do look really bad graphically, have faults, or play terrible music. So, if you have an old console lying around your house and you still have a few working games for them, then take them out and have a go. Go on. You'll be impressed!!

Thanks for reading, Afro.

Freeola & GetDotted are rated 5 Stars

Check out some of our customer reviews below:

Great services and friendly support
I have been a subscriber to your service for more than 9 yrs. I have got at least 12 other people to sign up to Freeola. This is due to the great services offered and the responsive friendly support.
Second to none...
So far the services you provide are second to none. Keep up the good work.
Andy

View More Reviews

Need some help? Give us a call on 01376 55 60 60

Go to Support Centre
Feedback Close Feedback

It appears you are using an old browser, as such, some parts of the Freeola and Getdotted site will not work as intended. Using the latest version of your browser, or another browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Opera will provide a better, safer browsing experience for you.