I'm quite into the new games no doubt, but I looked back on the games I grew up with and all the sudden started missing them for some time now. Some of them that I remember was Hugo, The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall, the classic Everquest before Sony revamped the graphics, Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Master, Zool, etc. Even though I've been doing game programming for some time now, I look back at the games I played in my childhood and just really seem to miss them. Amiga 550 anyone? I remember Syndicate, Speedball, Cannon Fodder, etc. If you didn't live in the 1990 gaming world, all you can say is how horrible the graphics were. But for me, I remember my past, how it got me where I am now in game programming etc. I just really appreciate the past games. Now everything is about shaders, but for sure, some cool games still come out. I was just wondering if anyone feels this way? I'm trying to convince myself its not just me ;) It was definitely a good time back then.
I have recently purchased the King's Quest Collection and I'm loving the ol' memories. I just hope that when/if I have kids, I can introduce them to the glories of RGB graphics and syntax command windows.
Seriously, though, every now and then I load up an older game and play it just to revitalize my memories of them early days. X-COM: UFO Defence, Syndicate, Populous, Magic Carpet (which runs like crap on today's computers), Dungeon Keeper, Wing Commander 3-4, Warcraft 2, Star Control 2 (freakin' remake fixed the unlimited lander bug!), Ultima 7...I mean, it's good to go back and play the games that came from the computer gaming Golden Age. I just wish Privateer would run a little better these days...and Mechwarrior 2.
Yeah, I hear ya. Hence why I've got almost every game box from every game I've ever played up on my wall.
But, in the end, times keep changing, so it's not like I ever expect gameplay to return to the way it used to be. But I'm not really all that unhappy with where things are now. It's just different.
That being said, there will likely never, ever be another game like The Neverhood.
Yeah I too love older games. I was not able to play many games like quake 3, Half life in time of their realses. I only was able to see them had a lot and liked them. Now I have PS2, 360 and planning to buy PS3 and upgrade my PC but still I miss them. I consider Twisted metal 2 to be my all time favourate game. Its good that iD and valve r introducing their games to next gen.
i love old games, and still play some of them - three of your examples, cannon fodder and speedball (i never played syndicate, but i have a soft spot for syndicate wars), are three of my favourite games of all time
but it's rare i play them any more - the only old game i still play regularly is doom, which was 93 - old games are great, but their gameplay is often very simple, i recently stumbled upon spyhunter on some applet on a website and thought, wow, wicked, i gotta play!
i managed about 3 minutes before i was utterly sick of it, and that's a game i used to play for hours on end
i maintain that i love old games, and i do, and i have a ton of old pc games that have been relicensed for xp (not so old, but i recently went on a rpg buying streak getting all the stuff i'd never fully played, like fallout 1 and 2 and icewind dale)
but at the same time, a lot of old games' gameplay ammounts to left right shoot left left right right shoot shoot jump left right die enter 3 letter name restart left right die, nostalgia does a lot to your brain, and many of those old games, either we've just outgrown them or they were never that great to begin with, and we just remember otherwise
some of my favourite games of all time are real old, and all except escape from butcher bay are pre-2000, but with the exception of doom, which is timeless, i like to leave the past where it belongs
my loss, no doubt - but i like loving those games i grew up with, and i don't want recent experience to damage that
dude, all the freakin' time. I first got into gaming as a wee tadpole when my aunt got me this special collection of lucasarts adventure games, including full throttle, the first two monkey island games, the dig, sam and max hit the road, after life, forbidden>
dude, all the freakin' time. I first got into gaming as a wee tadpole when my aunt got me this special collection of lucasarts adventure games, including full throttle, the first two monkey island games, the dig, sam and max hit the road, after life, forbidden>soundsODD454
I remember those collections! Love 'em. Though I didn't make it through The Dig, and Afterlife had me scratching my head more often than not...
Full Throttle, though. Oh man, how sad was it when we all learned that the sequel had been cancelled? Crushing...
Yeah, I think everyone misses the old games. I think that's why, even in consoles, virtual arcades downloads are so popular. There are some great recent releases and yet, at the same time, they seem to be missing something.
I just hope we don't turn into those old farts complain about video games and how in our day "we only had 3 characters to choose from in diablo! And we were THANKFUL!". Ah, Doom and its 4 megs of ram requirement. We've come a long way.
I love them... I still got all the original hardware and it is all in working condition. C64, Amiga 500 and my Amiga 1200 which I actually hooked up to the internet. There still is a large fan community out there and I'm one of them!
Amiga and C64 (in random order) games like push over, another world, HERO, The last ninja series, lucasarts adventures, Bruce Lee, Lemmings, Lotus Esprit turbo challenge, supercars, it came from the desert, North and South, Millennium 2.2, Deuteros, IK+, Future Wars, Disc, and many more are gems I still play up to this day.
wow u just reminded me of cannonfodder...thank u :) speedball was ace sb2 even better sensi socer..blah blah.. anyway.. u ever thought about how all the old games felt "new" yet all the new games feel...well..unoriginal??
Oh absolutely, i mean, i've been playing games for, god.....i dunno, well, since i was like 8 years old, so sure, i think back to those games of old all the time.And thanks to things like the GBA, and Gametap, i can actually play those oldschool games again, and enjoy the hell out of em.What i really miss though is those oldschool adventure games.You can't find those anywhere anymore.i'm talkin about the ones that came on multiple CD's.
It's been half a day and I'm really suprised by all the responses so far. I'm glad that I don't feel alone about this anymore. I guess it was the time where things were being done for the first time (somewhat) and it stuck in our heads after all these years. Give me a game today and most likely I'll forget about it within a year. Well, okay, Gears of War and Halo are pretty spiffy. I think another thing too was the absense of rating systems and thus there was more creativity and origionality going on, but perhaps that was just for a few games back then.
The tricky thing is, you always remember or replay the classics, but there was a lot of crap out there too. However, the classics tend to make us sentimental. Probably in the next 20 years people will say: "GTA 5, now that was a good game", in the very same way we love our classics - by then it will probably look like pacman or pong does today... Wait what happens when VR kicks in.
I agree mostly. To our elders, their classic games they remember (Pong, PacMan etc) aren't what we played or focused on although we have our own classics too. It's like the next generation of classic gaming somewhat. Does this mean we're becoming elders? that's scary. Kids today too are going to be thinking back on Gears of War, Zelda for the Wii, Pokemon, etc. Then their ever so claimed great graphics arguement will be laughed at by the next generation of gamers. We all grow up with our classics.
I agree mostly. To our elders, their classic games they remember (Pong, PacMan etc) aren't what we played or focused on although we have our own classics too. It's like the next generation of classic gaming somewhat. Does this mean we're becoming elders? that's scary. Kids today too are going to be thinking back on Gears of War, Zelda for the Wii, Pokemon, etc. Then their ever so claimed great graphics arguement will be laughed at by the next generation of gamers. We all grow up with our classics. red_shock
Brace yourself 'cause you are speaking to one of the elders. My first computer experience dates back to the early era of computers. I played pacman as a coin up in the arcade halls, I owned a C64 (still do) and I used PCs like 086 and philips P2000. I have seen computers evolve for over the passed 2 decades and I grew into them. Yes, I like to get sentimental once in a while and load up any old game on any old platform I own. But on the other hand: computers do more than I ever could imagine when I was a kid. I remember convincing my parents that computers were going to take over the world and they thought I was getting into scifi a little too much. Now they turn to me for help cause they can't find a clue what's going on all around them.
Never I have felt myself getting to old for gaming. On the contrary, I think games are a perfect mirror for showing what a home computer is capable off. I love pacman, I love Rome total war and it is all getting better and better. I really hope to live and see the first quantum computers, applied nano technology and virtual reality as a home computer OS. Then I will be able to rest my head and go peacefuly.
I think the cool thing for me is: I was there when it all started. I gladly consider myself as one out of millions pioneers from all over the world. I had a lot of benefit from this too over the years. I gradualy grew into the complex modern computers. Yes, I may be a dinosaur - but hey we all love dinosaurs...
I think the hardest part for me is this: I'm going into the professional world of game programming but my passion seems to be the older games. Tell that to your boss and you'll be out the door. Then again there's always cell phone gaming which are 90% chance casual gamers. I don't think everyone who owns a cell phone is a hardcore gamer. So, 2D, 3D etc. would be of their interest still, and they can look like older games like Cannon Fodder, Pacman etc lol. No one would argue against it. It just seems my passions lye elsewhere than the full blown AAA shader++ games today.
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