What is Your Retro Range?

[Opa Opa]

Sup with all the "I don't play anything before NES" ppl on this site?

Yous all telling me you don't enjoy the likes of Pong, Asteroids, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, Motherfucking Space Invaders, Missile Command, Breakout, Centipede, River Raid, Scramble, Yars' Revenge, Combat, Defender, Dig Dug, Adventure, Berzerk, Tempest, Q*Bert, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Dragonstomper, Pole Position, Warlords, Jungle Hunt, BurgerTime, Lock 'n' Chase, Utopia, Pitfall!, Frogger, Venture, Zaxxon, Dragonfire, Gorf, Space Fury, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Kaboom!, etc etc etc.

Are you srs dudes? Are you srs?!?!

The naysayers make me sad.

Utopia is awesome.

[SonicGamer74]

Pitfall! There are billions of more worthwhile platformers to play than this garbage

While I agree that there are much better platformers out there, Pitfall! is far, far away from being garbage.

[the7k]

Sup with all the "I don't play anything before NES" ppl on this site?

Yous all telling me you don't enjoy the likes of Pong, Asteroids, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, Motherfucking Space Invaders, Missile Command, Breakout, Centipede, River Raid, Scramble, Yars' Revenge, Combat, Defender, Dig Dug, Adventure, Berzerk, Tempest, Q*Bert, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Dragonstomper, Pole Position, Warlords, Jungle Hunt, BurgerTime, Lock 'n' Chase, Utopia, Pitfall!, Frogger, Venture, Zaxxon, Dragonfire, Gorf, Space Fury, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Kaboom!, etc etc etc.

Are you srs dudes? Are you srs?!?!

I would love to have games like BurgerTime (one of my all time favorites), Dig Dug, etc. Just not for consoles. I want the arcade cabs.

Hell, I have Donkey Kong.

See, my parents didn't allow me to get a game system until the SNES came out - and that was only because I won it in a school raffle. I don't have memories of playing classic arcade games on an Atari home system, I have memories of playing them at the actual arcades.

[J T]

Pong This is boring as shit
Asteroids I like this once in a blue moon, on arcade hardware. Generally gets dull though
Pac-Man Fun for 10 minutes, boring after that
Ms. Pac-Man Fun for 10 minutes, boring after that
Donkey Kong I've never really enjoyed this
Donkey Kong Junior I think this is awful
Motherfucking Space Invaders I get bored before finishing 2 waves
Missile Command This is ok, but only on occassion
Breakout Boring
Centipede Also boring
River Raid Enjoyed this as a kid, tried again recently, was bored stupid
Scramble Never played
Yars' Revenge Never played
Combat Boring
Defender Rather play any superior shooter
Dig Dug Fun for 10 minutes, boring after that
Adventure This is an important game, but it is not a fun game
Berzerk Never played
Tempest Never played
Q*Bert Never played
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Never heard of this
Dragonstomper Did you just make this up?
Pole Position Incredibly dull
Warlords dont know this one either
Jungle Hunt Or this
BurgerTime I think this is terrible
Lock 'n' Chase Like pac-man, fun for 10 minutes, boring after that
Utopia Still making them up I see
Pitfall! There are billions of more worthwhile platformers to play than this garbage
Frogger I've always thought this was shit
Venture Oh you and your made up games
Zaxxon I genuinely dont see how anyone can enjoy this with it's horrid perspective
Dragonfire ??
GorfNever played
Space Fury Never heard of it
Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom Never heard of it
Kaboom! Never heard of it

[BoneSnapDeez]

Dragonstomper Did you just make this up?

In all seriousness, this is one you might like. It's arguably the first console RPG.

http://www.atariage.com/software_page.h ... abelID=155

[hashiriya1]

NES and up even though I started with the Atari 5200.

[nullPointer]

Sup with all the "I don't play anything before NES" ppl on this site?

Yous all telling me you don't enjoy the likes of Pong, Asteroids, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, Motherfucking Space Invaders, Missile Command, Breakout, Centipede, River Raid, Scramble, Yars' Revenge, Combat, Defender, Dig Dug, Adventure, Berzerk, Tempest, Q*Bert, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Dragonstomper, Pole Position, Warlords, Jungle Hunt, BurgerTime, Lock 'n' Chase, Utopia, Pitfall!, Frogger, Venture, Zaxxon, Dragonfire, Gorf, Space Fury, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Kaboom!, etc etc etc.

Are you srs dudes? Are you srs?!?!

I would love to have games like BurgerTime (one of my all time favorites), Dig Dug, etc. Just not for consoles. I want the arcade cabs.

Hell, I have Donkey Kong.

See, my parents didn't allow me to get a game system until the SNES came out - and that was only because I won it in a school raffle. I don't have memories of playing classic arcade games on an Atari home system, I have memories of playing them at the actual arcades.

This aligns completely with my perspective as well. So many of the early arcade games are designed in such a way as to be practically inseparable from their hardware. The game specific hardware was intrinsic to the game itself. Remember that up until the release of the NES, a major stated goal of the console gaming market was to "replicate the arcade experience at home". And for the most part many of the arcade games ported to home systems at the time suffered by comparison.

It wasn't really until the release of the NES (IMO), that console gaming started to define itself independently of arcade gaming (and PC gaming for that matter) on its own terms. I'd be willing to guess that a lot of folks dismissing "the golden age of gaming" have either primarily played console ports of classic arcade games, or missed the age of arcades entirely (and naturally there's nothing wrong with that). Of course this can be seen as an alternate way of saying, "Of course they were good because ... nostalgia," but equally I think there's a good argument to be made that these games are/were best enjoyed on their original platform of release in the form of full sized arcade cabs.

[Exhuminator]

The thing you have to understand about playing truly old games is their simplicity is a benefit if you allow your mind to reach a zen state. Not even kidding you have to allow your brain to go into an almost meditative trance while playing... your thumbs are still going but your mind is not fully there. When you snap out of it you have a high score and a rejuvenated sense of awareness. It's like douching the synapses. That is the tao of vintage gaming.

This is also works with beating bullet hell shooters.

[Tanooki]

It's not that I don't play stuff before the NES, it's just that I was keeping it at the home level. I'm not going to lie, I find the 2600 fairly crappy and even did back in the mid 80s, but that nice list of games there many of them are arcade games I'd throw a quarter at anytime anywhere if I saw a system standing around. I won't play them on a free rom ripoff emulator though, loses all the fun and the risk vs reward of losing my money since there are infinite continues -- the ultimate buzz kill.

[SonicGamer74]

The thing you have to understand about playing truly old games is their simplicity is a benefit if you allow your mind to reach a zen state. Not even kidding you have to allow your brain to go into an almost meditative trance while playing... your thumbs are still going but your mind is not fully there. When you snap out of it you have a high score and a rejuvenated sense of awareness. It's like douching the synapses. That is the tao of vintage gaming.

This is also works with beating bullet hell shooters.

This perfectly describes it. When I play a really old title, or an arcade game, I just fall into this "zen state". It's hard to describe, but it feels soooo good when I'm in that state.