So why do you retro-game?

[Hatta]

The reasons I play these old games don't really have anything to do with nostalgia. I mean, I played the shit out of the games I had as a kid. I don't really need to go back and revisit them.

Instead, I play these games for the same reason someone else might read the works of Homer, or watch a Charlie Chaplin movie. Because there's a timeless appeal to the classics. Back then, all they had was gameplay, not much in the way of plot or graphics. When you pare away these things, you get down to the essence of a game.

Of course, things were new back then, and they tried lots of different things to find out what works. A lot of it didn't, and that's interesting too. But the real classics shine despite the limitations of the hardware. Go back and play Pitfall! on the 2600, or Loderunner on the Apple II, they're great!

And of course, there are lots of genres that they just don't make anymore. No console since the NES has had a paddle controller, AFAIK. Point and click adventure games are dead (and parsers even more so). Turn based RPGs seem to be going the same way. Compare Missile Command on the Xbox 360 to the real thing on MAME. There's simply no contest, you just don't need all that graphical glitz to make a good game.

[kingdomheights777]

Me and my brother (mustardseed) were pretty broke growing up. And so now that I am older and I have money I love collecting stuff that I couldn't afford growing up. Transformers, Videogames, etc...

[RemyC]

You rarely see difficult (by my standards), or score based games in the current generation. If you do, chances are it is a continuation of an old franchise.

[crux]

I think the topic should be "Why don't people retro-game?".

Pretty simple, really: Great games don't simply become irrelevant with age. They're still great - just older.

[opticledilusi0n]

new games are not fun

[Snickerd00dle]

i like playing games on their original consoles, like to collect, and games are the only thing im good at

[h8b1llg8ts]

Two smiles a day and one big one every once in a while.

First smile is when I get a new game in the mail everyday or other day.

Second smile is when I sit home and look at my collection everyday.

And the third every so often smile is when my parents come over to see their granddaughter who instead of wanting to see them is playing SMB3.

[ArwingCmdr]

First off I guess for nostalgia. I love the feeling of playing the games I used to play on the consoles I used to own. I love the classic artwork, the music and marketing slogans. So very timeless. I love to collect things so that is a factor as well. I collect what I love most, Games and Ninja Turtles. It also goes much deeper though. I feel like with the popularity of games now the quality has really decreased. Yes, there are still some gems, but it seems like there is more and more crap in between each gem. For each "Brawl", or "MGS4" or "Halo 3" you get 20 different "Horsez" and "Imagine: Babysitter" and what not. Also, it seems like a lot of the good games take no skill to beat. In short, I retro game for challenge, for nostalgia and for a good time that you can't seem to find anymore.

[Flashman85]

And of course, there are lots of genres that they just don't make anymore....There's simply no contest, you just don't need all that graphical glitz to make a good game.

Yup.

2-D platformers and point-and-click adventure games are two of my favorite genres, and those all but disappeared when 3-D became popular. FPS and RPG are my other two favorite genres, but they just keep getting more system-intensive (for PC games, at least) and more complicated as time goes on. "Simple to learn, challenging to master" is my preferred philosophy of gaming, and modern games tend to have too many features and options and too much micromanagement for my tastes.

Plus, games like Metroid Prime Hunters with their fancy controls require way more effort to play than retro games; I play games to relax, not to get hand cramps after half an hour, thanks.

[Incognito D]

I just have a lot of games hanging over from my childhood that I've still never completed. Now I'm able to go back and play them all the way through. For example, this year I finished Link's Awakening for the first time, and last year I beat Majora's Mask and Shenmue II for the first time.

I still have a lot that I've never beaten though, so it's simply a case of finishing the ones I have before buying loads of new ones.