What is Your Retro Range?

[marlowe221]

I'm interested to see what the "Retro Range" is for the members of this great community. What do I mean by "retro range"?

I'm glad you asked!

By "retro range" I mean the age/generation range that you are interested in when it comes to retro gaming. In other words, what are the oldest games you like to play? What are the newest, short of the current console generation?

The retro games that interest me, that I like looking at, and that I like to play start from the Atari 2600 era through the end of the Genesis/SNES era for the most part.

I still like some of the classic games from the classic "Atari era" - but unfortunately, LOTS of them haven't aged well at all in my eyes. But classics like Asteroids, Yars Revenge, and Defender will never get old for me.

Meanwhile, I love the 8-bit and 16-bit generations too. The problem for me comes after that. IMHO, most of the PS/N64/Saturn early 3D games have aged really badly and I don't enjoy playing them like I did when they were current.

So, my retro range is Atari - SNES/Genesis or, games and systems current in NTSC-land from 1980(ish) - 1995/96 or so.

What's yours?

[BogusMeatFactory]

When it comes to computers, there is no range for me. I have played games from as early as the mid 1970's and thoroughly enjoy them. As for consoles, I think that the 8-bit generation and up is where my real interests lie, mostly because I don't have much experience with the older systems outside of the atari 2600. I would like to play the colecovision and the like, but I don't see myself going out of my way at this point in time.

[Cronozilla]

NES to now are all in my wheel house. I've never found myself very interested in Atari 2600 games. But I have found stuff prior to 1985 that I liked, so I think it's a per game basis before then.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I will go as old as possible. I love 2nd gen systems, with my oldest console being the Fairchild Channel F. I'd love to get more into 1st gen stuff, but it's all so obscure.

I'm more at home with old stuff than new stuff. I could play ColecoVision for hours on end, but still have no interest in Xbox One or PS4. I do like the Wii U, 3DS, and Vita because you can find games on those systems that feel "retro" in terms of style and presentation.

With all that said, my absolute comfort zone is with the 8 and 16-bit systems. Those are my all-time favorites and the ones I play the most.

[Forlorn Drifter]

My earliest is probably starting at the NES, then moves up through current times. Pre NES there's a couple of arcade games, but most of that stuff does little to nothing for me. In the retro areas, my big focus would be 16 bit and Gamecube/Dreamcast/PS2/Xbox era. Early 3D is hit and miss, although having some great stuff. 8 bit has some good stuff too, but it is far from my favorite area.

This is why stuff like the Retron interests me, it allows me to grab the majority of what I want, without feeling like I need to fill a library without getting more games for a system.

[J T]

I love classic arcade games: Space Invaders, Pac Man, Dig Dug, and the like. I will play pretty much any era of arcade game, but my interest in them fades as we start crossing into the year 2000 releases and beyond.

As for consoles, I have fond memories of my Colecovision and my friends' and cousins' Atari 2600s. That's as early as I go. I had a Magnavox Odyssey 2 as a kid, but I never really cared for it then or now. I also had a friend with an Intellivision, but that hasn't kept the same nostalgic charm as Coleco and Atari. The 8-bit and 16-bit eras are the sweet spot of retro console gaming for me. I will play, but have less interest in early 3D polygonal games from playstation era, though I think N64 games still look good and are usually quite playable. I also really love the PS2, GameCube era, though never had a thing for Xbox. I stopped playing consoles after that.

The majority of my interest is in PC, and that spans across all time. I find some archaic games from the 70s and 80s to be out of my comfort zone due to bad graphics and cumbersome gameplay mechanics, but I still play them from time to time. I like a lot of stuff from the 90s, early 00s, and I focus a lot of gameplay on the last 5-6 years of indie gaming innovations and doujin classic gameplay perfection.

[AppleQueso]

I will go as old as possible. I love 2nd gen systems, with my oldest console being the Fairchild Channel F. I'd love to get more into 1st gen stuff, but it's all so obscure.

Yup, this.

If it's too old, you're too... loud?

[8bit]

Like my name says, I start at the 8bit generation and go up from there. I really only care about the mainstream consoles though. So systems like the 7800, CDI, Jaguar, and obscure handhelds like the n-gage and game.com don't do much for me. I've tried owning a few of the them but it just doesn't seem worth while to keep all of that extra hardware around for just a few good games.

I have however tried to make most of the popular pre-8bit games available to me through emulation and compilation games on other systems. This saves me a lot of extra hardware while still being able to get down on some missile command, centipede, berzerk, pitfall, frogger, pole position, and other oldies on a rare occasion. It works for me and satisfies those few friends who were atari, odyssey or colecovision fans.

[Exhuminator]

I enjoy everything except truly old games, like Atari 2600 era old. There are some good games from that time period yes, but overall I find the average pre-1984 console game design to be too simplistic to hold my interest for long.

[SonicGamer74]

While I love pretty much every game era I've played (even Atari 2600; surprised at how much no one liked that one ), I gotta say the 32/64-Bit era (N64/PS1/Saturn), and the 128-Bit era (Dreamcast/PS2/Gamecube/Xbox) are my favorites. MAYBE it's because I grew up with games from that era, but I personally believe these two eras had some of the most magical games to hit video game systems. Some of my favorite games of all time are in these two eras (to list a few; Super Mario 64, Rayman 2: The Great Escape, Sonic Adventure, Super Smash Bros. Melee, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Crazy Taxi, Ratchet & Clank series, Halo, PaRappa The Rapper, NiGHTS into Dreams..., etc.).

Naturally, the earlier 3D games for the 32/64-Bit era weren't too hot, but I can say with certainty that I still love these two.