Why does retro gaming appeal to you?

[ScOULaris]

Video games are an interesting medium in that they seem to cultivate a persistent and enduring interest in older titles as the years and even decades stretch on beyond their original release. While the internet has facilitated communal indulgence in nostalgic recollection across a variety of media and other avenues (e.g. movies, books, TV shows, toys, fashion, etc.), gaming stands out above the rest to me because of its "retro" scene. I'm not speaking to any kind of organized retro community, mind you, but rather the prevalence of people who continue to play classic games via either emulation or re-releases/ports to modern hardware. Classic games really seem to appeal to people from various walks of life and across a wide variety of investment levels in gaming as a hobby.

As someone who has always continued to play retro games alongside modern releases, I personally have many reasons for doing so. Sometimes it's finally playing highly regarded classics that I never got around to playing before. At other times I'm revisiting older games that I haven't played in a long while and enjoy a wave of nostalgia washing over me as I play through them again and allow the memories of when I first played the game to flood in. I'm a very nostalgic person in general, and having grown up playing videogames as one of my primary hobbies I feel that retro games help me connect to my past in a way that is both fun and comforting.

I do a lot of my retro gaming on a Raspberry Pi running Retropie, complete with a nice old CRT overlay for added effect.

But it's not just nostalgia. Retro games from the 80's/90's, for example, are products of a wildly different time in game development from what we're used to now. While the indie scene wasn't really a thing then, we saw a similar sort of Wild West, anything-goes approach to game development but on a bigger, more commercial scale. Since games were easier and cheaper to develop, we had talented development teams cranking out games at a rapid pace without the risk of investment being anywhere near as high as it has become with HD AAA gaming. Not only do I feel fortunate to have grown up during that sort of "golden age" of gaming, but I think that some of the game design ethos of those eras are still unique to their respective time periods. There are genres and styles of games present within the realm of retro gaming that are either under-served or completely neglected now. It's also fun to see how certain older games formed the gameplay foundations of modern titles or franchises that live on today.

I also really enjoy modern games that attempt to authentically re-capture the essence of the best classic games.

I know I'm kind of rambling, but I guess that's what I'm inviting you all to do as well. Retro gaming, if you're into it, will most likely appeal to you for a wide variety of reasons. Feel free to share your thoughts on the matter stream-of-consciousness style (as I did) along with anecdotes or other general musics on the current state of "retro" gaming as you define it. I'd also love to hear from the really passionate retro fanatics who have crazy collections of original hardware/software or are otherwise highly active in the community (e.g. running a retro gaming podcast, going to conventions, etc.).

 

[Moawe]

I think I enjoy playing retro games cause I grew up with an NES around the time the N64/gamecube was out,So along with playing mario 64 I was playing mario 3 . Nowadays I always play a retro game or two along with modern releases.I guess its cause I been doing it since I started gaming.

 

[Tryptobphan]

I don't really separate retro gaming from gaming in general since a good game is a good game. However, there are some quality of life aspects to modern games that I enjoy, but at the same time there are some game design choices that I feel were more accessible from earlier games.

But I will say, the game that I think shocked me the most is Phantasy Star 4 for the Sega Genesis.

I never played Phantasy Star 4 before until 2012 with the Sega Genesis Collection on PSP and played on the PS Vita. I grew up playing Final Fantasy and other series paled in comparison from my perception. As I played more games I realized there are other amazing RPG's not from Square Enix, too. But Phantasy Star 4 shocked me by how playable it is, easy to get started and progress in the game, and the still-cutscenes worked well to drive the adventure forward. The macro-system made battles go by so much quicker and removed the biggest tedium from most JRPG's, the battles.

For new retro-inspired games, Shovel Knight is easily my favorite. It has the game designs of old games like Mega Man but also has its own heart.

 

[Raw64life]

- Love old school JRPGs and 2D platformers, which retro systems are riddled with
- I turn on the game and 5 seconds later I'm playing
- Nostalgia

A few years ago I finally decided to abandon my original hardware and haven't regretted it. I transferred all my games from all my old systems along with my save files (except for the Dreamcast as I lost my VMU after swapping controllers with a friend who later sold the VMU, RIP) over to my PC and it's been great. Emulation is constantly improving and the condition of my original hardware and games isn't going to get any better. But I rarely go more than a few weeks without dabbling in some retro gaming. A lot of stuff still holds up today as sales of "Classic" consoles have shown.

 

[Deleted member 10629]

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

 

[mute]

I was around for a lot of these games but because I was a kid and had no income I either had to beg for games from my parents, go to a friends house, or just miss out. And I missed out on plenty. So today it is nice to go back now that I can and fill in the gaps. Also helps with the internet being much better informed in general. That and having grown up on them older games just have an appeal to me in general, due to stylistic or gameplay reasons.

 

[Hayama Akito]

I don't really separate retro gaming from gaming in general since a good game is a good game.

Click to shrink...

 

['3y Kingdom]

To me the most important factor is what you mentioned in your OP: that a lot of old games have characteristics, or are part of genres or design philosophies, that are rarely or no longer represented in the modern gaming market.

Technological uniqueness can also be a major factor. The DS/3DS' dual screen format will make that combined library much more interesting to revisit, simply because dual screen gaming seems unlikely to return in the near future.

But I mostly agree with those who refuse to draw a hard line between retro and modern gaming. It's all gaming, and in the end all what matters most to me is whether it's good or bad. And there are lots of really good games in every generation.

 

[BluePigGanon]

Half nostalgia, half the lack of bullshit. All the fat is trimmed in most retro games, there's no loading and intros and extended cutscenes and tutorials and voice acting and motion capture and pans across this lovely space a team of people spent a year rendering - you're experiencing gameplay in 10-30 seconds in most cases and that's what the experience is focused on.

I'm not an old man yelling at a cloud, I enjoy a lot of modern, full-fat games. But when you have 30 minutes and want to play something and get a fix real quick, nothing beats a couple levels of Castlevania or something.

 

[Araujo]

As quite a few pointed out already "They don't make them like they used to" actually applies here to some extent.

There are quite a few unique experiences that you just cannot get in modern gaming anymore. There is a ton of weird, fun, unique games... and it's a blast seeing the good, the bad and the ugly of it.

 

[Deleted member 12790]

Hardware is neat. It's like seeing a guitar played live vs listening to a recording. It's extremely neat for me to see hardware doing what it was made to do, and doing it well. I feel the same way about both audio hardware and video hardware.

 

[Zukkoyaki]

Because great RTS games don't really get made anymore. Plus many of the greats like C&C, Starcraft, Age of Empires, etc. aged beautifully.

 

[The Shape]

I guess I just love gaming.

Nowadays I look for amazing storytelling, acting, world design, level of detail, sound design, graphics.

But for retro gaming I just look for fun.

I guess I appreciate differently games of different times.

 

[Gakidou]

Idk, I feel like asking me why I play old games is like asking me why i'd read an old book or watch an old movie.
Like, good games are still good?
Sure there's tech advancements, old games are generally (though not entirely) more difficult, just like language has evolved and CGI has come a long way. Fidelity isn't beauty to me, and as someone who already knows how to play 'old style' games and appreciate the context of their time its probably easier for me to pick them up compared to a relatively young gamer.
But I don't consider myself as motivated by nostalgia as most people claim to be. I play old games that I've never played before just because I hear they're good and I want to discover.

 

[alr1ght]

Wide variety of genres. Not stuffed with padding/bloat like most modern games.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

Not really. I've lived through all of those generations, so there's not much I'd still care to play.

 

[Alienhated]

It's not about modern gaming being bad or worse, it's just that back then there were a ton of different things that don't get made anymore nowadays, both in gameplay and style, and dismissing this simple fact as "just nostalgia lmao" is pretty shortsighted.

 

[Deleted member 12129]

Nostalgia for me.

 

[Deleted member 6730]

I just like playing the hits, man.

 

[KINGOFSHIBUYA Ltd.]

Old good games are still good.
I like playing good games.

They're already out.
Don't have to wait.
It's just high quality hit after hit.

Also, I love the medium, and as an ambassador of the medium to many who are not familiar, it's great to have a wider example of high quality experiences to show them.
Preserving the medium's history, and accuracy of experience is also important to me.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

No-nonsense pick-up-and-play style with minimal filler.
Failure tends to actually have consequences, which gives meaning to success. Less content tourism.

 

[lordg]

it's simple, fun and catchy music.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Click to shrink...

Somewhat off topic, but I hate retro designs and packaging that say "Retro" on them. I know it's retro.

 

[Aters]

I don't know how gaming stands above everything else for "retro". Last time I checked people still learn and listen to music composed hundreds years ago.

 

[Dphex]

because it takes me back to my childhood and i love a good challenge. unfortunately most of the "new school retro styled games" are not hard enough. better to play the stuff from back in the days. also, i prefer a shorter game which is all killer, no filler. there are so many good games from the 80s and 90s...

many of todays AAA productions show you everything the game has to offer in the first 2-5 hours and after that it is repeated ad nauseam for another 50-100hrs...not a fan of that tbh.

 

[fluffydelusions]

Not really. I've lived through all of those generations, so there's not much I'd still care to play.

Click to shrink...

As an 80s kid, this is me.

 

[lunarworks]

A well-crafted game is fun no matter how old it is.

Also, there's plenty of games I missed out on the first time around.

 

[lasthope106]

Nostalgia. Sometimes I want to replay a game that I have fond memories off. There are also a lot of hidden gems that never got any spotlight or I plainly just missed. For me it's mostly SNES era. PS1 stuff hasn't aged well. I guess at this point Halo: CE can be considered a retro game. And now that makes me feel old.

 

[Flevance]

I really do appreciate the simplicity of retro games in days where I have little time to play, you can just jump right in the action, finish a level or two during a quick break and have your fun

Their simplicity is also part of their charm, even if I had plenty of free time I'll still enjoy games such as Celeste/The Messenger a lot

 

[catpurrcat]

The plug and play aspect. No bloat and no loadtimes (16-bit and lower).

Look at that recent Chrono Trigger thread. Like, the opinions there weren't wrong but when you consider that the artwork, music, and accessibility are a combination rarely matched these days, it's crazy that a 20-year game still holds up.

Part of what makes the Switch so appealing is it's suspend-resume play mode. No tv boot up, no hdmi handshake, just pick up and play. So much potential as a retro game machine.

 

[Dphex]

I don't know how gaming stands above everything else for "retro". Last time I checked people still learn and listen to music composed hundreds years ago.

Click to shrink...

because gaming is a relatively new medium when compared to music or movies. we have the first real big retro wave going on since the end of the 2000´s. retro gaming is now bigger than ever with conventions like gamescom housing entire retro sections, dedicated retro game stores, those "mini classic" consoles, parents showing their kids the games from the 80s and 90s. nowadays we have "game studies" in universities which also relies a lot on the history of games.

the country where retro gaming was always there is Japan, they have those retro game stores for a long time, the west is now there where Japan is for a long time. in the end a good game is a good game, no matter the graphics and it seems Japan understood earlier that it doesn´t matter how old a game is, you can still have a lot of fun with it.

 

[bionic77]

Nostalgia is part of it for me, but it is the least part of it. Because I will occasionally find some old game I never played before and immediately fall in love with it. For example, I never had a Neo Geo growing up and honestly until very recently my only exposure to the system was Metal Slug 1-3 and some Samurai Showdown games. I just got to play Windjammers and Neo Turf Masters recently and I absolutely love both of them.

One of the biggest appeals for retro gaming to me is how fast you get into a game. Wind Jammers is a great example. It was fun 10 seconds into playing it the first time. No load times, no introductions, you are just thrown right into whatever the fuck that game is. It is also hard and you have to continue to get better over time and learn new skills, but it all seems to happen quickly.

You rarely get that immediate sense of immersion in most modern games.

Don't get me wrong. I love modern games too. And i would argue they give you a deeper level of immersion, but it just like two different type of food. You can't eat anything all the time. You have to change it up every once in awhile. But no matter the type of food if it is done well it always tastes good.

Back to retro I am much more likely to replay an old school game than a modern game. I can get through Contra in 25 minutes and experience all it has to offer. A small AAA game today probably takes 6-8 hours. That is just not as appealing to me if I am replying a game again.

And also the challenge makes it so much more satisfying to beat an older game. If I don't play Mega Man 2 for an extended period of time that game will kick my ass. Whereas with most modern games I often never even see the game over screen. You don't feel like you overcame much to beat them. But you feel like a true fucking badass if you can beat Contra without using the konami code.

 

[Red Liquorice]

A lot of mainstream modern games just don't do it for me. Since last gen I've almost completely ignored AAA gaming, all the monetization was a huge turn off in a space where I had already all but lost interest. I've never really had any interest in online competitive gaming and no interest in FPS, so there's a huge part of modern mainstream gaming for the past 20 years or so that just doesn't appeal to me, but that doesn't mean I don't still love playing games.

There's still so many older games I still want to play and play again.

 

[impact]

Lack of good modern 2D games mostly.

The Celeste's and SMB's only come so often, most indies pale in comparison.

 

[low-G]

Usually it's the case of many old games being better than modern games.

Last night I was playing the old Star Trek DOS adventure games with the voice acting of the original Star Trek cast. There's literally nothing like that today.

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

Classic game design still has its own appeal -- they're still uniquely fun.

Despite the overwhelming APPEARANCE of retro game visuals, I generally don't think many indies kinda nail the same controller feel with their games. I mean, I still LOVE a lot of modern indie titles, but only a few like Shovel Knight feel like they legitimately evoke real retro gameplay -- many seem to have modern game design and classical aesthetic.

Like, to me, nothing feels quite like Megaman X, for instance. There's a tightness and response to the controls that just hasn't been evoked much in modern games. I don't lament the state of modern games one bit, I just think that classic/retro games still feel unique enough to hold appeal. I love devices like the NES and SNES Classic for that exact reason.

 

[KtotheRoc]

These games still have value. They are still enjoyable.

That, to me, is the main reason.

 

[Bradford]

I love gaming history and design theory, so I love to go back to play old games I missed. Some of my favorite games of all time are "older" or "retro" things I've played recently, long after their "prime".

I am a sucker for scanlines, interlacing, crappy RF artifacting and shit too so, when I use retroarch I play that way. I do have a TV set up for my retro consoles, but for the ones I don't have I use a similar retroarch config to the one in the OP.

 

[Pyro]

I guess it's cuz I'm also a bit of a history nerd? I like going back to old games and seeing how they're different, getting glimpses into what used to be game design or discovering brilliant mechanics/features that seemed to have been forgotten.

And not to make you feel old OP (considering the screenshots you used) but as someone who was born in '95, PS2 is retro to me.

 

[IronicSonic]

I really like to experience gaming without all the bell and whistles that came since PS2 till today. Just a good control, good levels and fun.

Also I was hardware collector but the convenience is winning today. I got rid of my CRT :(

I like some current games aswell, but mostly the more "game-y" of the bunch.

 

[CopperPuppy]

Because a lot of those games are still simply great regardless of their age or any perceived change in standards.

 

[Spacejaws]

For me I feel some of it is definitely nostalgia but others examples are a bit like an appreciation for something simpler and at other times, with the limitations, developers had to be inventive or have their games shine in other ways like soundtrack or artwork. I've started playing Dragon Quest for the first time and I think those limitations allow the player to use their imagination more. You see threads where people messed up in their minds what the art looked like and I think that mentality is deeper than just the aesthetics things. The old school designs asked us to kinda meet them half way and imagine what these worlds and quests and characters were like. These days the technology is there to simply show you and it kills the magic sometimes.

Sorta silly comparison in my head but I still feel more excited by the mine cart chase in Temple of Doom, knowing all the silly tricks behind it, than I do at the temple crumbling in The Crystal Skull and I think the difference is with the CGI stunts they are so proud of it they give it to you in full view, no mystery or concealment and it looks lame. The mine cart chase they knew how it looked and had to concealed it a little, used the cinematography to mask it and it works better imo cause your imagination works with it. There's a mentality of that 'this is what we can do, how can we make it look great' rather than 'this is great how do we show it off as much as possible' which literally can 'leave nothing to the imagination'. L

It's a hard thing to describe those are kinda my thoughts on it other than simply enjoying them.

 

[TwinsUltra64]

Everything, today we have more of Shiny graphics and Interactive Movie. I still play modern games, I just stay away from games that try to mimic movies.
I still stuck with the idea of Videogames should be Videogames and Movies should be movies.

 

[AudioEppa]

I got like 5% nostalgia for old video games, but I don't have and will not buy a old system just play them. I prefer modern and look forward to future games that will cater to my preferences more.

 

[Dogui]

"Retro gaming" doesn't simply appeal to me, it's just that i don't discriminate old and new stuff.

I will play a 1987 run'n'gun after a 2018 Metroidvania after a 2003 Jrpg and wouldn't give much of a shit on what's considered retro or not.

 

[KORNdog]

Simplicity and a laser focus on fun.

I got back into some of my older systems lately and i'm struggling to find the motivation to go back to current gen when I know it's filled with the likes of RDR2 and it's endless bloat.

 

[Chivalry]

No long loadings, lots of experimentation, no microtransactions and other bullshit.

 

[RedSwirl]

I've started to separate discriminate between old and new stuff less and less as time goes on honestly.

 

[super moustique]

Because I love games :P

And if you don't go retro, you can't play Onimusha 2/4, Shadow Hearts 1-3 or Trauma Center !

 

[sschol]

I play retro games because I enjoy them, but more than that I like to play them to gain a greater understanding of games in general. Especially when it comes to things like difficulty and design philosophy I feel like I gain a lot playing retro games.