Why do we play old games

[Dark Fact]

Okay, I stand corrected.  However, the general attitude of gamers that I found regarding the number of hours for game time tends to be pretty arrogant.  They think that once they're done with the game, it's not worth their time again, ever.  If you're going to buy a game, buy one that offers you the best replay value.  I'm not saying you should buy one game and stick with it for the rest of your life, just buy a good library of games that will offer you good playtime and good replay value. 

[gundarN]

I play both old and new games. I'm pretty sure in 20 years time people will have fond memories of the "retro" PS3 (although they have yet to release any truly great games for it, although Virtua Fighter 5 might stand the test of time).

Newer games tend to be more play and throw away than older ones that were designed to keep you coming back for more, very few new games don't have a save feature which encourages you to complete it, and because it took you 60 hours to do it, the thought of doing it all over again makes you ill. All the 360 games relying on XBOX Live will be almost unplayable once Microsoft discontinue the support and infrastructure around them. Same goes for Sony.

I have to say though, my Japanese PS2 is one of the finest retro consoles you can buy and I can see myself buying and playing games on that for a long time, regardless of the number of dimensions involved.

Another factor for me is that I work long hours and have a family, old games are better at providing a quick fix to fit in with my lifestyle.

[kenomac78]

i prefer both old games and new. 2d and 3d  are bth fine but  i just cant stand games that you have to stop and have everything explained or walked thru for you every 5 minutes, and it seems to happen alot more with newer games, which happen to be 3d,  which is why i am gugingly playing thru zelda the twightlight princess, and everytime i think the game FINALLY starts moving, i have to stop, read, do some stupid step by step horsecrap, read some more. man its frustrating,,,,

i think alot of eople were turned off by 3d because  the transition from 2d to 3d was not as gradual as it should have been, and sony sort of force started it byt requiring ALL ps games to start being 3d, whch in turn made everyone else have to catch up. you start to see experimentations into 3d starting in 91 and 92 and if the saturn , jaguar, n64 and playstation would have been 2d out of the box with a slow transition to 3d (at least saturn and jaguar had those intentions!) it would have given developers alot more to time to perfect how 3d works, and alot of garbage 3d games would have never been made. but because psx is 3d out of the gate, suddenly eveyone has to be 3d too and i hink not everyone was prepared for it,  the only 2d games i can think of  for psx are rayman and klonoa and megaman x. were there any others?

so maybe if 3d started getting more into full swing around th time of the ps2 people would not be as bitter about it as they are, i can understand coz i played that crap too!  plus  i fel that we were robbed of expriencing endless 2d platforming with 16.7 mllion colors, as was my dream growing up!

[nat]

the only 2d games i can think of  for psx are rayman and klonoa and megaman x. were there any others?

Castlevania?

[Kitsunexus]

the only 2d games i can think of  for psx are rayman and klonoa and megaman x. were there any others?

Skullmonkeys, Castlevania, Johnny Bazookatone, the Strider port, Gunner's Heaven, a whole horde of SHMUPS and fighters...

[Golgo13]

Why do we play old games?  Ill show you why!


This aint the early 90's anymore, this is the 07 my friends, and as the illustration shows:

[kenomac78]

the only 2d games i can think of  for psx are rayman and klonoa and megaman x. were there any others?

Skullmonkeys, Castlevania, Johnny Bazookatone, the Strider port, Gunner's Heaven, a whole horde of SHMUPS and fighters...

yea i forgot about castlevania! i was asleep when i made that post anyways!  then theres  alot of fighters yes, and games like r-types and thunerforce v.  but even if the total of (original, not remade) 2 d  games for the PS was 100 it would be a drop in the bucket compared to all the other games they had.

[Golgo13]

. I'm pretty sure in 20 years time people will have fond memories of the "retro" PS3 (although they have yet to release any truly great games for it,

Another factor for me is that I work long hours and have a family, old games are better at providing a quick fix to fit in with my lifestyle.

Exactly, new games take too long to get into most times, and as for what you said about the day when PS3 is called retro, well, that is going to suck.

[terrormask]

The problem with the newer games is they are trying to be too much like interactive movies. It would take a lot of typing to explain thoughorly about the big changes in video game making that happened in the 90's, but to let you know who did it, it's Id software. The game company that made Doom and Quake changed the way video games were originally visioned, and turned them into pretty much interactive movies. Doom 3 was great in many ways, but, I like playing video games, not some stupid virtual simulation of putting me in some sci-fi horror flick where I have to fight aliens and escape from mars.

[Michael Helgeson]

Actually, we need to blame 3D games sucking on id Software, makers of Doom and Quake. They pioneered the "license out an engine for a shit game" business method, after all.

I don't know,I like most of the games released that used the Quake 1-3 engine. I hard pressed to find one I don't like playing on my 3DFX based computer. I have it set up to play games right from the 96- early 2001 era. Its a Athlon Thunderbird 1200 mhz,on a Shuttle AK12A,with a Voodoo 4500 and a Aureal A3d 2.0 card. As far as Unreal engine goes,Im hard pressed to see alot of games using the engine,other then Land of the Dead:RTFG,and Tribes Vengence. RTFG sucked,but Tribes is awesome,but also,Tribes runs on a modified engine using Havok.

I mostly play old games from the 80ies to mid 90ies but I do love certain 3d games. Arcade style ones are my favorite,along with certain games like the  Silent Hill series 2 on up, Max Payne 1 and 2,Return to Castle Wolfenstien,ect.

[Tatsujin]

the only 2d games i can think of  for psx are rayman and klonoa and megaman x. were there any others?

are you kidding? did you ever realized the PSXs big 2D shooter repetoire. there over 100 of them in mimimum. of course, not all of them are utlimate 2D treasures, but at least 20 of them are top notch.

harmfull park
gradius gaiden
r-types
donpachi
dodonpachi
X-multipy
kaitei daisensou
jikkyou oshaberi parodius
sexy parodius
....

[kenomac78]

but most of those never made it to america. where the mindset is bigger and badder, and in 3-d

[jimid2]

I'm late to the conversation but want to add my 2-bits worth anyway... I agree with a lot that's been said in the thread so far. Nostalgia is certainly a part of it for me, especially with my favorite old-school systems - the Lynx and TurboGrafx - neither of which has a huge library to draw from (yes, I know the PC Engine has about one bazillion games available, but I only have US hardware). Besides that, I simply have a limited amount of time and money for games, and retro gaming offers the best bang for the buck. We own all the last-gen consoles (XBox, PS2, GameCube and Dreamcast x 2) in our house, and there are plenty of games for these systems I haven't got around to playing yet, despite the fact that I own them (God of War, Shadow of Colosus, Final Fantasy XII, Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater, Killer 7, Resident Evil 4, Trigger Heart Excelsior, etc.) - I picked most of these games up cheap, used, because I know I'll like them and I know I want to play them, but I hardly get in any console game time in the summer, so they'll have to wait until September before I start looking at them... That's okay though, because with the exception of recently published DC shmups, I pretty much refuse to pay more than $20 for a game, and I usually get them for less than that (pawnshops mostly - drifting around the streets on my lunch hour).

I've played Gears of War and Advanced Warfighter and Guitar Hero II on a friend's XBox360, and they're certainly fun, but they're not any more fun than the stuff I have in front of me to play now, and they'll still be fun when I finally get around to playing them at $20 a pop on a $200 XBox360 three or four years from now... We have many friends who own a Wii, and playing Wario or Wii Sports is a kick when we visit them, but it doesn't feel like the kind of thing I'd spend lots of time doing at home, so what's the rush? 

Of course, with our constantly-in-a-state-of-barely-controlled-chaos schedules (we've two teenagers in the house, after all) portable gaming makes the most sense, and everyone in the family has a DSLite, and these systems see a lot of use. There are also two PSPs in the household, and my GP2X is my retro portable, so the vast majority of our gaming is done on handhelds, which tend to have a decidedly retro feel in most games anyway. Maybe our tastes just gravitate to that kind of gaming (platformers, shmups, 2D fighters, classic JRPGs etc.)... Or maybe I'll just be damned before I drop $600 on a video game console

[elnino]

I love the old 2d games but I've to admit that I play 3d games as well. The most important factor for the superiority of 2d games is the soundtrack which is just not memorable in newer games no more. I mean, I've played Ridge Racer 6 for the 360 for 95+ hours but I can't whistle a single song! Maybe I'd remember if I heard them, though. On the other hand, I catch myself a lot whistling a tune from 2d games with hilarious soundtrack like Winds of Thunder, Gates of Thunder, Star Parodia, etc., it's just always in my head! Classic stuff!!
Another important issue with 3d games is the "pick-up-and-play" factor, to use Kitsunexus' words. When I insert a game, I don't want to spend an hour or even read a manual (WTF?!!) to get familiar with the controls, and the presence of a tutorial in a lot of the new generation games (especially shooters) is a clear sign that the controls are not intuitively no more (no offense against tutorials^^). A little pressing around on the buttons to see which one is for shooting and which one for jumping has to be enough!
Last but not least I'm a great fan of shoot'em ups and 3d is just not made for them.

Keep 2d gaming legal!

[Kitsunexus]

On the other hand, I catch myself a lot whistling a tune from 2d games with hilarious soundtrack like Winds of Thunder, Gates of Thunder, Star Parodia, etc.,

Making fun of the GOT soundtrack is punishable by death on these boards...