Retro gaming: your thoughts?

[TKM21]

Hello there!

I’m a student from Staffordshire University in his final year of study. I’m doing my final year project on retro games and how much they impact games of today. I’d like to know what you guys think about retro games.

Feel free to talk about anything retro, like why you like retro to your favourite retro game. Talk about modern games as well if you want. It will all help!

Thanks in advance for the help!

[Mug UK]

If you're free over the Easter Weekend, I suggest a visit to the Coalville Discovery Museum in Leicestershire. The Retro Computer Museum are having a 2-day event and you can see all manner of machines from recent-ish (PS2, Xbox) through to Commodore PET machines and ZX81 (but souped-up ZX81s mind!).

More info -> viewtopic.php?f=28&t=22868

[nativ]

Before I discovered videogames... I was quite happy with the penny arcade @ Wookey hole or the 2p /10p drop at the seaside... Retro is just a fashion, videogames are 'engineered' products, and as long as they are able to be run they won't grow old...

I could argue that modern systems are retro because they don't do things as efficiently as they're aged counterparts. Granted that new hardware can do emulation but why do I need a 2.4 dual core Intel machine to emulate a Dreamcast? that runs @233?

like with the Amiga, that has loads of dedicated chips the ST doesn't have... but because the ST doesn't have them it could be seen to be a more adaptable machine.....

The other thing about retro is seeing how far 'ahead' some of these old systems were with there design and capabilities. If I had seen an Atari 130XE in full swing in 1984 I would have laughed in the face of IBM owners for several years to come hahahah! Actually even back in 1990 a Spectrum +3 seemed a more capable system to the PC.

some thoughts!

[Retrogamer_ST]

Hello there!

I’m a student from Staffordshire University in his final year of study. I’m doing my final year project on retro games and how much they impact games of today. I’d like to know what you guys think about retro games.

Feel free to talk about anything retro, like why you like retro to your favourite retro game. Talk about modern games as well if you want. It will all help!

Thanks in advance for the help!

You must have been there and see it all happend, else you have nothing left of what's retrogaming, nostalgia and memories. Because that's what retrogaming is all about. Sure you can play any old classic anytime, but it's not going to give you what matters most, all the memories and happy feelings from a time that never comes back.

[Grunaki]

Hi!

Stoke or Stafford? (I went to Staffs Uni myself.)

Echoing Retrogamer_ST - it's mostly the memories for me as well.. I'm assuming you're a fair bit younger than I am, so you wouldn't have been around for the video game explosion of the late 70s / Early 80s (I was 4 in 1980). I was submerged in it more than most as my Dad worked for Taito's UK distributor back in the early 80s and was allowed to bring home video cabinets, so I was often treated to weekends of Space Invaders and Pac Man table-tops (amongst many others) sitting in our front room.

Back then, the technology of the games also shifted pretty fast. I got a 48K Sinclair Spectrum back in 1981, which was quite an adaptable little machine. There were several games written specifically for it, (such as the iconic 'Jet Set Willy') but come the mid-80s many of the games being released for it were conversions of popular arcade games. They were passable and playable facsimiles of the arcade machines, but didn't hold a candle to the real thing. I grew up in Preston - which is only about 20 miles from Blackpool - so my friends and I would quite often head off over there to hit the arcades, which always blew us away and left us feeling that bit deflated when we had to come home and play on our home computers again.

The gap between home and arcade technology started closing towards the end of the 80s when machines such as the Atari ST and Amiga came into vogue. Again, they weren't quite as good as the arcade versions (which used dedicated hardware for the sake of playing the game - Computer programmers had to try and imitate the original game on the hardware they were working with), but the gap between them was much less. If anything, it forced the Arcade programmers to keep the bar high to produce games that couldn't possibly be replicated on the home computers of the time. However, as we advanced into the 90s, home consoles such as the Sega Megadrive and Super Nintendo Entertainment System started to produce pretty much arcade quality graphics in the home, and when the Sony PlayStation was released in 1993, they were basically at a parity.

Most arcade developers saw the writing on the wall and jumped ship to home consoles - big arcade names like Namco and Capcom started to make the switch in the SNES/Megadrive era, and by the early 2000s hardly anyone was developing arcade games any more. The ones you tend to see now are usually from the mid to late 90s, in a poor state of repair and seriously showing their age.

It's a pity the arcade era died out as it was a fun time, and it was always amazing to hit the arcades and see what was new.. Now they're a vanishing relic of a bygone age, although the games being produced for today's home consoles are still excellent quality, it just doesn't feel the same.

[Shredder11]

I am 40 and for me, being around the new age of the home computer industry in the late 70s and early 80s, was probably what it was like for our parents being around the new 1950s era of the music industry, with their own vinyl record players, shops and new rock n' roll music. As for todays younger generations, I am not sure what their version of all this is, because everything seems to have evolved from what we already had. I suppose the previous generation had their own mobile phones, but although this was a revolution of sorts it did not seem as large or profound as ours. Maybe I am too biased?

[Retrogamer_ST]

I am 40 and for me, being around the new age of the home computer industry in the late 70s and early 80s, was probably what it was like for our parents being around the new 1950s era of the music industry, with their own vinyl record players, shops and new rock n' roll music. As for todays younger generations, I am not sure what their version of all this is, because everything seems to have evolved from what we already had. I suppose the previous generation had their own mobile phones, but although this was a revolution of sorts it did not seem as large or profound as ours. Maybe I am too biased?

To been there an see it all happend was a fantastic thing. The arcade halls, the new games on tape, with 10 min of loading time, to watch the new Sinclair Spectrum in action or playing my first ever text adventure on Vic 20. I wouldn't trade those memories for all the money in the world.

Same thing when VHS video was something new and revolutionary in the early 80's.

*Retrogamer_ST watches the new Mattel Intellivision for the first time*

WOW, it's 3D and you can hear the noise and whistle of the audience in the background.

[Shredder11]

To been there an see it all happend was a fantastic thing. The arcade halls, the new games on tape, with 10 min of loading time, to watch the new Sinclair Spectrum in action or playing my first ever text adventure on Vic 20. I wouldn't trade those memories for all the money in the world.

Same here, I feel very lucky to have been there and been a part of it.

[Retrogamer_ST]

All those things has always been a big and importand part of my life. Standing there and watching the all new Pac-Man for the first time or reading early computer mags. It was something magic with that time and that's why retrogaming is so enjoyable. It's so much more then just games.

[Grunaki]

All those things has always been a big and importand part of my life. Standing there and watching the all new Pac-Man for the first time or reading early computer mags. It was something magic with that time and that's why retrogaming is so enjoyable. It's so much more then just games.

First time I saw the cut-scene in Pac Man when you clear the second maze, I thought it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.. (I was about 6 at the time..)

[Retrogamer_ST]

All those things has always been a big and importand part of my life. Standing there and watching the all new Pac-Man for the first time or reading early computer mags. It was something magic with that time and that's why retrogaming is so enjoyable. It's so much more then just games.

First time I saw the cut-scene in Pac Man when you clear the second maze, I thought it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.. (I was about 6 at the time..)

The first time i played Pac Man it was on an arcade machine in a local cafe. At first i didn't understand what to do.

But when i got the hang of it it was real fun.

The first time i ever watched a video game was 1974 or 75 in a nearby city. Two white lines and a square as a "ball", all in black and white, some kind of video tennis (pong). I was completly hooked from the first moment and from now on i was a big videogame fan.

[wongck]

My first arcade game I saw was space invaders.
The pong thingy did not really make it here so much.
Got into fights at the arcade just to get on the game...

[Retrogamer_ST]

Several of my school mates had Pong consoles, i was the first one to get a real games console with switchable games on cartridge. (Fairchild Channel F)

The swedish catalog from 1978 said, "Entertainment computer of the future". Channel F don't lasted long with it's 29 (in total) released game cartridges. Yet it's more nostalgia for me then anything else.

[Grunaki]

Would be nice if TKM21 got back to us - I think this is all good stuff!