Why don't people talk about video games from the 1980s and earlier?

Everywhere on the Internet, I rarely ever see discussion of video games from the 1980s and earlier unless it's a retro-games board. People talk a lot of about games from the 1990s, but the only time you would ever see discussion about games from before that time is if a game was highly influential.

It's quite telling to see how heavily discussed video games from the 1990s on these boards, but see little to no discussion on video games from the 1980s. I suspect a generational gap is in place, where older gamers are hesitant to talk about the 1980s because few would remember what they are talking about, and younger gamers ignoring games from that era because the games are just so archaic when you compare them to stuff from the 1990s and later. Plus, getting access to those games is not as easy, and few are bothered to do so.

The_Capitalist

There are many reasons.

For one, games during the 80's and pre-80's offered no rewards for completion. In addition to their repetitve nature, the levels were endlessly looped with identical level design or variable speed and difficulty whilst having a limited engine.

Two, you're comparing 80's gaming against 90's gaming which is incredibly stupid. That would be like comparing the Original Donkey Kong against Donkey Kong Country for the SNES; there's no comparison whatsoever.

Three, the graphics were sh!t. The music was simple midi.

Four, 90's gaming had actual soundtracks, actual graphics, rewards for completion, more of a reason to play them.

And finally, gaming evolved big time. I couldn't imagine actually picking up an Atari again. Eww.

1. Legacy thread: go there.

2. Pong, Asteroids, Pac-Man, Spacewar!, and a few obscure titles are about all the had worth mentioning. The rest were strange experiments or complete failures.

You could have posted your question in the Legacy Forum. This is System Wars, where we discuss current-generation games.

I don't think the folks who grew up playing video games in the 70s and 80s have any interest in bashing one old system or old game over another like the current crowd of younger players and that's why I figure you won't find much talk of older games in System Wars.

But for what it's worth, I think the Colecovision was better than the Atari 2600 and Galaxian was better than Galaga :D

I do hear about ET a few times here in SW.

I guess it was that bad. :P

[QUOTE="The_Capitalist"]

Everywhere on the Internet, I rarely ever see discussion of video games from the 1980s and earlier unless it's a retro-games board. People talk a lot of about games from the 1990s, but the only time you would ever see discussion about games from before that time is if a game was highly influential.

It's quite telling to see how heavily discussed video games from the 1990s on these boards, but see little to no discussion on video games from the 1980s. I suspect a generational gap is in place, where older gamers are hesitant to talk about the 1980s because few would remember what they are talking about, and younger gamers ignoring games from that era because the games are just so archaic when you compare them to stuff from the 1990s and later. Plus, getting access to those games is not as easy, and few are bothered to do so.

darkdude2k12

There are many reasons.

For one, games during the 80's and pre-80's offered no rewards for completion. In addition to their repetitve nature, the levels were endlessly looped with identical level design or variable speed and difficulty whilst having a limited engine.

Two, you're comparing 80's gaming against 90's gaming which is incredibly stupid. That would be like comparing the Original Donkey Kong against Donkey Kong Country for the SNES; there's no comparison whatsoever.

Three, the graphics were sh!t. The music was simple midi.

Four, 90's gaming had actual soundtracks, actual graphics, rewards for completion, more of a reason to play them.

And finally, gaming evolved big time. I couldn't imagine actually picking up an Atari again. Eww.

The Amiga already had 4-channel stereo sound and fairly good graphics for the time:

Amiga Sword of Sodan YouTube

Newtek Demoreel 1 (1987) - the whole thing fit on two floppies

It Came From the Desert

Battle Squadron

Star Wars

Test Drive: Muscle Cars

shout to all the gamers old enough to remember playing games off a tape cassette, or at the least a floppy disk :cool:

being old :cry:

[QUOTE="Gue1"]

and again. Beside a few arcade games that got (awful) ports to consoles later on like Pacman how many more of them stood the test of time like Mario did (and it did it more than once)? The first generation of consoles was basically you putting a piece of paper on the screen of the TV to play pong. The second one finally resembled video games but the gameplay was still very very very bad and unresponsive. Only a few games like Pitfall were marginally good because developers had to be very creative with their games and that isn't something that grows on trees you know.

rilpas

Pitfall

Pitfall 2

Keystone Kapers

Medieval Mayhem

River Raid

Adventure

Dragonfire

Frogs and Flies

Gunfight

Kaboom!

Dragonstomper

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Yars' Revenge

Wizard of Wor

Air Raiders

Haunted House

Thunder Castle

Snafu

Night Stalker

Tower of Doom

Swords and Serpents

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons

The Castles of Doctor Creep

Space Taxi

Airborne Ranger

Cauldron

Boulderdash

Elite

Delta

Bounder

Chuckie Egg

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin

and that was ust at the top of my head

It wasn't until the Nes that we finally got games that were playable. And that is my opinion and whole point about why nobody talks about the first or second generation of video games. The few that does talk about it is to tell how bad it was back then, or about all the imagination you had to use in order to blind your eyes enough to enjoy it. But you can bet you can find any little kid right now and show him the first Mario game on the Nes and he will like it.

Gue1

nah, it wasn't until the PS1 that games became playable dawg

2D games suck dawg

besides, all the NES got was piss poor ports of arcade games, Contra, super C, Life force, Gradius, Double Dragon, etc.

and again, those games aged real bad, they have few standouts like Mario which people care about and want to talk about them. From that list I don't think anybody would want to play any of those games but I do bet people wouldn't mind trying something like Bubble Bobble. I say this because even when I was a kid I had an Atari and didn't like it one bit. It was a terrible system. It wasn't until I got a Sega Master and a Nes that I got interested in video games.

Contra had worse graphics than the arcade but the core gameplay was still just as fast and that's what is important. Arcade ports for the Atari and other consoles of those gen were literally terrible from gameplay to graphics.

There's Legacy Platforms for that.

Obviously people won't talk about games and systems they don't know much about.

I assume most posters on these forums weren't growing up with NES or earlier systems.

You should try searching for some dedicated forums like Retro Gamer Forum and the like if you want more such discussions.

Everywhere on the Internet, I rarely ever see discussion of video games from the 1980s and earlier unless it's a retro-games board. People talk a lot of about games from the 1990s, but the only time you would ever see discussion about games from before that time is if a game was highly influential.

It's quite telling to see how heavily discussed video games from the 1990s on these boards, but see little to no discussion on video games from the 1980s. I suspect a generational gap is in place, where older gamers are hesitant to talk about the 1980s because few would remember what they are talking about, and younger gamers ignoring games from that era because the games are just so archaic when you compare them to stuff from the 1990s and later. Plus, getting access to those games is not as easy, and few are bothered to do so.

The_Capitalist

I think they are tealked plenty about in general.

There are a few things to consider with the ore '90 games:

1) Alot of the games were knockoffs of similar games (down to it being silly), while alot of these fairly openly copy catting games are not talked about alot, the games they copied ARE talked about (space invaders, pacman, donky kong and so on).

2) This is a bit more tricky to explain, and is not ment as a negative altho to some it might be. Alot of really great ideas were thrashing about back then, but execution often lacked somewhat, so alot of the games would be "flawed gems" these ideas has since been refined, and refit. Sadly to alot of people being the original matters very little it seems, since there was alot of really good creativity and fun oddball ideas thrown about alot (and sadly copied like no ones buisness, ever since, so most gamers from 1988+ can not understand the impact and beauty of the games back then, that started genres, ideas, and gameplay mechanics).

3) This is SW, usually reserved for the latest gens of consoles/handhelds and PCs, I doubt most people here were alive back then.

[QUOTE="The_Capitalist"]

Everywhere on the Internet, I rarely ever see discussion of video games from the 1980s and earlier unless it's a retro-games board. People talk a lot of about games from the 1990s, but the only time you would ever see discussion about games from before that time is if a game was highly influential.

It's quite telling to see how heavily discussed video games from the 1990s on these boards, but see little to no discussion on video games from the 1980s. I suspect a generational gap is in place, where older gamers are hesitant to talk about the 1980s because few would remember what they are talking about, and younger gamers ignoring games from that era because the games are just so archaic when you compare them to stuff from the 1990s and later. Plus, getting access to those games is not as easy, and few are bothered to do so.

ronvalencia

[QUOTE="The_Capitalist"]

Everywhere on the Internet, I rarely ever see discussion of video games from the 1980s and earlier unless it's a retro-games board. People talk a lot of about games from the 1990s, but the only time you would ever see discussion about games from before that time is if a game was highly influential.

It's quite telling to see how heavily discussed video games from the 1990s on these boards, but see little to no discussion on video games from the 1980s. I suspect a generational gap is in place, where older gamers are hesitant to talk about the 1980s because few would remember what they are talking about, and younger gamers ignoring games from that era because the games are just so archaic when you compare them to stuff from the 1990s and later. Plus, getting access to those games is not as easy, and few are bothered to do so.

ronvalencia

That's true as a whole. But, the PC wasn't exactly known as a gaming powerhouse until VGA and sound was commonplace. That wasn't until the early 90's. During the 80's, 4-color CGA was the most common PC graphics with a smattering of 16-color EGA and Tandy graphics here and there. Sound was mostly blips from the internal speaker. Even a mouse wasn't common on a PC. They were common on all other computers which had a GUI (Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari ST, Mac). Back then, PC owners shunned gaming and derided game-heavy computers like the Amiga as "game machines" which I found ironic seeing how the PC turned out today.

Edit:

Among the 4 non-PC computers I mentioned, it was the Amiga and Apple IIGS which boasted the most eye candy in games. Steve Jobs killed off the Apple IIGS because it competed with his own Mac line. That left the Amiga. The Mac too had decent sound and good graphics once the first color Macs appeared. But, the sheer amount of 80's games looked best on the Amiga.

Star Trek - one of the first games I played in the 70s.

[QUOTE="ronvalencia"][QUOTE="The_Capitalist"]

Everywhere on the Internet, I rarely ever see discussion of video games from the 1980s and earlier unless it's a retro-games board. People talk a lot of about games from the 1990s, but the only time you would ever see discussion about games from before that time is if a game was highly influential.

It's quite telling to see how heavily discussed video games from the 1990s on these boards, but see little to no discussion on video games from the 1980s. I suspect a generational gap is in place, where older gamers are hesitant to talk about the 1980s because few would remember what they are talking about, and younger gamers ignoring games from that era because the games are just so archaic when you compare them to stuff from the 1990s and later. Plus, getting access to those games is not as easy, and few are bothered to do so.

jun_aka_pekto

That's true as a whole. But, the PC wasn't exactly known as a gaming powerhouse until VGA and sound was commonplace. That wasn't until the early 90's. During the 80's, 4-color CGA was the most common PC graphics with a smattering of 16-color EGA and Tandy graphics here and there. Sound was mostly blips from the internal speaker. Even a mouse wasn't common on a PC. They were common on all other computers which had a GUI (Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari ST, Mac). Back then, PC owners shunned gaming and derided game-heavy computers like the Amiga as "game machines" which I found ironic seeing how the PC turned out today.

Edit:

Among the 4 non-PC computers I mentioned, it was the Amiga and Apple IIGS which boasted the most eye candy in games. Steve Jobs killed off the Apple IIGS because it competed with his own Mac line. That left the Amiga. The Mac too had decent sound and good graphics once the first color Macs appeared. But, the sheer amount of 80's games looked best on the Amiga.

My first gaming system ever was a Tandy in about 86 or 87. I have fond memories of playing Might & Magic II and 2400AD on it. As well as some of the gold box SSI D&D games like Hillsfar and Pools of Radiance.

I'm 32 BTW.

well I'm thinking it's because most of those gamers are now actually working for a Video Game Developer or Just moved on with their lives and never bothered with Gaming, it was just a toy to them.

If anything you might find the occasional PC Gamer that's been playing since the 80s, but seriously I don't think anyone wants to argue if Pacman on the Atari 2600 was better than Pacman in the Arcades, or something to that extent.

or heck I don't think anyone wants to pull out super old "rubbish" PC games from the 80s either.

In this Generation of Gamers in Forums you'll probably find a lot of them Grew Up Playing Games from the NES or Super NES or the Genesis.

LegatoSkyheart

[QUOTE="jun_aka_pekto"]

[QUOTE="ronvalencia"] There's only one platform that exist from the 80s and still being discussed today i.e. the x86 PC.Boddicker

That's true as a whole. But, the PC wasn't exactly known as a gaming powerhouse until VGA and sound was commonplace. That wasn't until the early 90's. During the 80's, 4-color CGA was the most common PC graphics with a smattering of 16-color EGA and Tandy graphics here and there. Sound was mostly blips from the internal speaker. Even a mouse wasn't common on a PC. They were common on all other computers which had a GUI (Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari ST, Mac). Back then, PC owners shunned gaming and derided game-heavy computers like the Amiga as "game machines" which I found ironic seeing how the PC turned out today.

Edit:

Among the 4 non-PC computers I mentioned, it was the Amiga and Apple IIGS which boasted the most eye candy in games. Steve Jobs killed off the Apple IIGS because it competed with his own Mac line. That left the Amiga. The Mac too had decent sound and good graphics once the first color Macs appeared. But, the sheer amount of 80's games looked best on the Amiga.

My first gaming system ever was a Tandy in about 86 or 87. I have fond memories of playing Might & Magic II and 2400AD on it. As well as some of the gold box SSI D&D games like Hillsfar and Pools of Radiance.

I'm 32 BTW.

I had a Tandy 1000SX. It cost a $1k with just a single 360k floppy drive and no hard drive. I added a $500 10mb RLL hard drive on an ISA card and another 360k floppy drive.

I played Origin's Times of Lore, Microprose's F-19 Stealth Fighter, Sierra's Gold Rush, Lucasarts Battlehawks 1942, and Kings Quest which all supported 16-color Tandy graphics. But, I moved quickly on to the Amiga.

I don't play games from that era... nothing to really discuss.

and again, those games aged real bad, they have few standouts like Mario which people care about and want to talk about them. From that list I don't think anybody would want to play any of those games but I do bet people wouldn't mind trying something like Bubble Bobble. I say this because even when I was a kid I had an Atari and didn't like it one bit. It was a terrible system. It wasn't until I got a Sega Master and a Nes that I got interested in video games.

Contra had worse graphics than the arcade but the core gameplay was still just as fast and that's what is important. Arcade ports for the Atari and other consoles of those gen were literally terrible from gameplay to graphics.

Gue1

so you played them all? let me see your cartridges

and I told you dawg, the NES and SNES suck all of their games aged really badly

[QUOTE="Gue1"]

and again, those games aged real bad, they have few standouts like Mario which people care about and want to talk about them. From that list I don't think anybody would want to play any of those games but I do bet people wouldn't mind trying something like Bubble Bobble. I say this because even when I was a kid I had an Atari and didn't like it one bit. It was a terrible system. It wasn't until I got a Sega Master and a Nes that I got interested in video games.

Contra had worse graphics than the arcade but the core gameplay was still just as fast and that's what is important. Arcade ports for the Atari and other consoles of those gen were literally terrible from gameplay to graphics.

rilpas

so you played them all? let me see your cartridges

and I told you dawg, the NES and SNES suck all of their games aged really badly

I hope you don't think that SMS and SMD games *somehow* aged better...

And really, the best NES and SNES games are still supremely playlable.

For example Yoshi's Island on the SNES trashes any other 2D platformer ever made, including Rayman Origins (imo, but not just imo :P ).

What were the gaming systems around during the 80's? The ones I had was Colecovision, Atari 2600, NES, Commodore C128, PC (Tandy 1000SX), Commodore Amiga, Apple IIGS.

The computer wars were a lot more lively compared to Mac vs PC today. There was the overlap between old and new platforms: C64, Amiga, Apple II, Mac, Atari ST, IBM-compatibles.

The platform wars were also more vicious too. There truly was no censorship back then in the BBSes and Amiga zealots were particularly nasty. I hated sharing the platform with them.

Maybe people don't talk about the 80s because there were no games that were particularly good. The games were limited by the extremely primitive technology and unlike some games in the 90s no games from the 80s have aged well at all whatsoever. Brean24

the nes saved the game industry and was incredibly popular even though it had no games that were particulary good? when did you get your start?

[QUOTE="Brean24"]Maybe people don't talk about the 80s because there were no games that were particularly good. The games were limited by the extremely primitive technology and unlike some games in the 90s no games from the 80s have aged well at all whatsoever. CaseyWegner

the nes saved the game industry and was incredibly popular even though it had no games that were particulary good? when did you get your start?

I think it was just the console side that needed saving. The computer side simply kept going.

[QUOTE="CaseyWegner"]

[QUOTE="Brean24"]Maybe people don't talk about the 80s because there were no games that were particularly good. The games were limited by the extremely primitive technology and unlike some games in the 90s no games from the 80s have aged well at all whatsoever. jun_aka_pekto

the nes saved the game industry and was incredibly popular even though it had no games that were particulary good? when did you get your start?

I think it was just the console side that needed saving. The computer side simply kept going.

yes but my question still stands.

[QUOTE="Brean24"]Maybe people don't talk about the 80s because there were no games that were particularly good. The games were limited by the extremely primitive technology and unlike some games in the 90s no games from the 80s have aged well at all whatsoever. CaseyWegner

the nes saved the game industry and was incredibly popular even though it had no games that were particulary good? when did you get your start?

I agree that the NES saved the gaming industry it was the right system at the right time, not necessarily because of how good the system was. Keep in mind that the NES was my second system (Atari 2600 the first) and I really enjoyed the games, but I think they did so well because there was a vacuum in place and it practically had no real competition. Sega's system, the Master System, paled in comparison and it was Ninty where the real action was. It also came a few years after the NES had become established. Having said that I really liked the NES and enjoyed several of what are now the classic games on it (Zelda, Mario Brothers, Castlevania, etc...).

You're wrong, i've seen plenty, especially regarding arcade games. You're probably checking at the wrong places and at the wrong time.