When Did You Realize You Were A Retro Gamer?

Post by **racketboy** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:44 pm

At what point did you realized you were into classic gaming (or too cheap to buy the latest hardware)?

My last few years of high school I hardly played any console games because I got a new Pentium II PC and was playing Test Drive 4, Need For Speed 2 SE, and Sim City 2000 to no end.

My good 'ol Genesis sat neglected for two or three years.

My freshman year in college I kinda got introduced to emulation. I started playing some of my old favorites like Sonic 2 on my laptop and I wanted to try out more games. When I got home for the summer I started picking up some more games online for my Genesis and then eventually bought a Saturn and some games before the summer was over. The next year I started obsessing about collecting all the best games.

Near the end of my junior year, I heard the news that Sega was ceasing production of the Dreamcast, I drove over to my local Toys R Us to pick up a Dreamcast.

Once I quit school after three years, I joined SegaXtreme and shifted into hyperdrive. In my search for classic gaming information and sharing what I found, I racked up thousands of posts in the forums there before starting my own blog.

The rest is history....

Post by **diehllane** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:04 am

I never had the newer systems really. I had my NES once SNES came out, I got a PSX after the PS2 came out, and I got a Saturn once the DC died.

Once I moved off to college, I had a lot of free time on my hands. I started buying and repairing NES consoles on ebay and with the profit I started to build up my console library.

Post by **aaron** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:09 am

when i stopped caring about halo 2 halfway through and picked up sonic 3 instead. when i feverishly look for information about saturn games that were released years ago but couldn't really give two shits about anything on the ps3. when i ran out of time, money, and patience to try new games.

stick with what you know! :wink:

Post by **wyatt** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:25 am

Living in the dorms in college. I was still rocking mario kart and FF3 when other people had PSX and were buying the new N64, and I didn't give a damn.

Post by **RockinB** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 2:54 am

I turned into a retrogamer slowly, almost without taking notice of it.

One reason might be that after the dreamcast, there was no new SEGA console released. So I didn't buy a new one since then.

Another reason is emulation for sure. I was fascinated by emulation right from the first day I got to know it. Around 2000, I've been in the flow of emulation on Dreamcast.

A big part of my retrogaming existance is my homebrew activity for SEGA Saturn. I also became a collector in the last years.

Post by **marurun** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 11:51 am

I think I've been a retrogamer for forever now. I didn't realize it until I hit college, around '96, '97. I rarely had money for new stuff, and when I did I usually bought the underdog. I think retrogaming is really a combination of nostalgia and underdog-worship. Once something is old it's automatically an underdog of sorts.

Post by **Mozgus** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:08 pm

I started off one generation behind, stayed that way until Dreamcast, and then began shifting back and forth between retro and modern every few months.

Post by **ImportBoy** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 1:58 pm

I've pretty much been a PC gamer from most of my gaming life - I started emulating the SNES and Genesis on my old Pentium II 333 MHz machine. Mostly games I never had a chance to try or only had rented when I was younger. Moved onto some other platforms later on.

Didn't pick up a Dreamcast until early 2004. Having a large everything-is-new to me library of games was very refreshing and I was surprised how the graphics easily held up to the other current gen platforms of the time.

I've also always been a fan of classic PC-DOS games and still play some of those now and then. Recently fired up the old Hugo adventure game series to play with a couple of younger cousins of mine. The whole idea of "typing in" what to do was very new and refreshing to them, and had a good time.

Post by **Metalcrack** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 2:46 pm

ImportBoy wrote:
I've also always been a fan of classic PC-DOS games and still play some of those now and then. Recently fired up the old Hugo adventure game series to play with a couple of younger cousins of mine. The whole idea of "typing in" what to do was very new and refreshing to them, and had a good time.

Hugo was a fun game. I still have the disks somewhere. I just wish I could find my Blackthorne instruction manual, as installation requires a random word retrieved from the manual. Codename: I.C.E.M.A.N and Conquests of Camelot are games in the same genre that I'd recommend (Home of the Underdogs anyone?).

I realized I am a retro gamer when I looked at my collection, and saw that 32-bit and less is the prevalent amount of bits my systems have. When you have 100+ Atari Carts, Genesis and Nintendo games follow closely in number it kinda strikes you. I haven't played them in a while, but when the original Legend of Zelda is your favorite game, you realize your getting older too.

Post by **ott0bot** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 4:52 pm

It was probably when the only reason i was finally buying a PS2 was for the Sega Genesis Collection!! I was always a fan of SNES and Genesis and I held onto my PS1 until last year when I finally traded up. It's in my blood and I've never wanted a next generation system until virtual console downloads....and I'm still not there yet.