Cy4n has 13 chronicles

1. A Blue Thought: "No School Like The Old School"
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Aug 31 2008

   In my collection, nothing holds my attention more than my handheld games. I can't get enough of them: my PSP, my DS, my Wonderswan (even though it only has two games to play at the moment)... there's something about being able to take my entertainments on the go with me that keeps my attention longer than sitting in front of the 'tube watching the "fully-fledged retail" games coming out nowadays.
   
   I've been trying to think of why that is, and I think I've found out why: it's because I'm a retro-nut. I love older games, it's that simple. When programmers were churning out the most memorable games in history, they had such limited hardware to work with that they had to have such skill to pull out what they did. Can you imagine... a first-person shooter on the Atari 2600? It happened... Skeleton+, a home-brewed game put out through Activision on their 2600 collections.
   
   What about a fully-fledged RPG on the original Game Boy? Final Fantasy Adventure did it, and with very fun results.
   
   Limited hardware, I believe, was the reason why we had such amazing games back in the days of the Atari VCS and the NES... I would even go so far as to say that without those limitations, we wouldn't have where we're at now. Back in those days, game developers were working their damnedest to figure out how to get an extra sprite on-screen, or a couple extra pixels, or that bonus room crammed into that 2K, 4K, 8K cartridge... it took a lot of meticulous, careful and skilled creators to push whatever hardware was available to its' limitations.
   
   With the platforms of today, the possibilities are nearly limitless; we have near-photo realism, we can discover such amazing arenas and landscapes, we have the technology and ability to create nearly anything the mind can think up and the heart can desire... but in my mind, so many of those games are lacking in something that those coming before it had an abundance of: heart. If you don't believe me, answer me this... how many of the games coming out today will you be likely to put in years and years from now? Or how many do you think your kids will be playing at that point? Will people still be playing games of old? Will Grand Theft Auto 4 have the staying power that Pac-Man has experienced? Will Metal Gear Solid 4 be right up there in the end with Super Mario Brothers?
   
   Or will you find, after you put those games and systems away, that your trusty Game Boy will still be made available for a round or two of Tetris, right along-side your Genesis because you need a Sonic fix?
   
   Maybe thinking like this just shows how old my brain is. Maybe playing those games really is just a nostalgic event, something to remember the "good ol' days" when games were more simple, more fun to gather your friends around to show off your new stuff, just a more... primal?... time in life. But you know what I think? I think Donkey Kong and Pac-Man making headlines kind of makes my point for me. For those of you who think that the classics of our hobby are dead, have served their purpose of paving the way for our current generation and the future of our entertainment...
   
   Play a little Galaga and see me in the morning.

   
   

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Cy4n has 2 comment s on this chronicle.

1. BEN
   Posted On Sep 01 2008

   I agree, great read and nice Chronicle for sure
   
   After your forum post about all the handhelds you play, I'm not surprised to see this conversation coming from you. I can always enjoy an old school game, but when I'm gaming by myself, I'm almost always playing online...and the old games don't quite have that functionality
   
   There's a lot of GoG members who appreciate and love the retro games, so I'm sure you'll enjoy those members and what they have to say...

2. Dynafire
   Posted On Sep 01 2008

   I prefer older games, but my reasoning differs a bit from yours. I prefer them because everything that came out back then was almost always a new idea. I consider the time from the beginning of the home console to right around the time of the 32-bit era to be the golden age of gaming.
   
   Nowadays, you'd be hard pressed to find a game with the amount of fun and originality as anything that came out during that time period. Don't get me wrong - there are many games that have come out since then that are fun and original, but obviously they are much more complex than their 8-bit brethren. That's another thing I love about older games - fewer buttons. (With the exception of the stupid Colecovision and Intellivision controllers) I remember the days when you could jump right into a game, and have the controls memorized in a matter of seconds, while anything modern tends to have a freaking 10 minute walkthrough on how to play.
   
   In response to your questions, though, I will most certainly put older games above newer ones in terms of replayability. New games just don't hold the same appeal to me as the classics, mostly for the reasons I mentioned above.
   
   Nice chronicle, by the way! Write more of 'em!