General Retro Discussion

[Colif]

 

[BeardyHat]

I took the above quiz and am kind of surprised at my results of a 6/7, only missing question 6. Playing Atari 50 definitely helped with some of that...

I got a bug up my butt this week and decided to add more old handhelds of my youth to my collection and ended up buying both a Nintendo DSi and a DSi XL. Silly, as I already own a New 3DS which can play all the DS games, but they look a bit blurry, so...

That said, for my money the DS wins out over the 3DS, as far as games go. I enjoy my 3DS, but loved the DS (mine was stolen during a break in), because the DS just had so much weird and experimental stuff, not to mention ports of PC games like Broken Sword and Anno 1701, as well as really weird stuff like Fighting Fantasy: Warlock of Firetop Mountain. To top all that off, the DS (at least the Lite and the DSi XL) had excellent battery life, going from 15-19 hours, versus the 3DS at a maximum of about 5 hours, which frustrates me to no end.

 

[Johnway]

I took the above quiz and am kind of surprised at my results of a 6/7, only missing question 6. Playing Atari 50 definitely helped with some of that...

I got a bug up my butt this week and decided to add more old handhelds of my youth to my collection and ended up buying both a Nintendo DSi and a DSi XL. Silly, as I already own a New 3DS which can play all the DS games, but they look a bit blurry, so...

That said, for my money the DS wins out over the 3DS, as far as games go. I enjoy my 3DS, but loved the DS (mine was stolen during a break in), because the DS just had so much weird and experimental stuff, not to mention ports of PC games like Broken Sword and Anno 1701, as well as really weird stuff like Fighting Fantasy: Warlock of Firetop Mountain. To top all that off, the DS (at least the Lite and the DSi XL) had excellent battery life, going from 15-19 hours, versus the 3DS at a maximum of about 5 hours, which frustrates me to no end.

i had played my DS along with my vita and 3ds but i kinda got bored with all the DS games and i beat pretty much most of them that i got.

The DS has plenty of games worth playing and stuff like the R4 card means you can have an entire collection on the go plus some custom games like Lemmings with a stylus etc.

Hell, why splash out 90 bucks for etrian odyssey series when you could get it for peanuts on the DS (or the updated on 3ds for that matter). Then of course there is the professor layton games, ghost tricks, the devil survivor series, shin megami tensei (the latter did have some updates on the 3ds) etc. the fantastic the world ends with you. An under appreciated gem until recently. The original is still great. or perhaps the original castlevania's Like Dawn of sorrow, portrait of ruin or order of ecclesia?

The last game i played/beat was 2 / 3 years ago which was golden sun dark dawn. didn't think much of it tbh.

 

[swagMan]

haha.... Simulate java games using Nintendo Switch.

 

[Brian Boru]

Flash Games Legend John Cooney Talks​

 

[Colif]

most of us were in the 80's as it was only way to get games early on

 

[Johnway]

most of us were in the 80's as it was only way to get games early on

ah good old amiga x-copy. i didn't have it, but man that brings back memories. introduced all sorts of (crazy?) copy protection to try and stop it. hell, some of those pirate groups had some pretty catchy intros etc.

Which brings me to an interesting tid bit, if you try and get roms for the Amiga you might notice that they are front loaded with pirate group intros etc. Its a good example of Pirating games is probably one of the sure ways to preserve games.

 

[Colif]

i had a floppy drive full of copy programs... I just remembered. I know they were copies themselves.

Which brings me to an interesting tid bit, if you try and get roms for the Amiga you might notice that they are front loaded with pirate group intros etc.

Some newer games also have similar things in them. Some games companies rely on some files from these copies to actually keep playing/selling their own games. I know I saw that in a video at some stage.

 

[Johnway]

i had a floppy drive full of copy programs... I just remembered. I know they were copies themselves.


Some newer games also have similar things in them. Some games companies rely on some files from these copies to actually keep playing/selling their own games. I know I saw that in a video at some stage.

yeah i heard the stories as well. Whether they're actually true i can't remember, there was talk that Nintendo took the roms of those who emulated them and then tried taking them down. I think some other devs tried taking emulated/rom versions but i can't put my finger on anyone else.

That said, once they get emulated, all sorts of bootleg stuff comes out and some of it is great. Streets of Rage Remake is a fine example. Combines all of Streets of Rage into one new package adding all the fighting systems, enemies and locales. On top of that it throws in custom characters, levels, various unlocks and even customize names and colors of the enemies. its a thing of beauty.

i suppose Mugen is another one of those community fighting games thats ranges from being a complete mess to something exciting as passion and commitment made the games good.

Night slashers X is another good one. puts the official steam version to shame apparently.

We also have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rescue-Palooza! not quite as good as turtles back in time on the snes, but hey, credit for a decent effort.

​

 

[Brian Boru]

Zade has a great 29m video on a classic RTS…

Dark Reign: The Future of War - 26 Years Later

…which has a ton of info I didn't know—incl how to get and play easily these days, and get some multiplayer action if that's your thing.

Anyone here play it back in the 90s? I think I posted here before that imo it's a fine game which got lost in the big crowd of super RTSs back then, a forgotten gem.

 

[Johnway]

i heard of it but never played it myself. i did have a go at Dark reign 2 demo (thanks pcg!) but i didn't think much of it tbh.

 

[Brian Boru]

Dark reign 2 demo … i didn't think much of it tbh

Yeah agree, DR2 was a miss. It was developed by Pandemic, not by DR1's dev Auran, which probably explains it—I don't think RTS was Pandemic's thing.

Auran got themselves in a biz mess which didn't help, and had Activision as a pub which probably also didn't help, and went under pretty easily. They sort-of got zombied and have mainly developed the Trainz series since.

 

[Johnway]

Yeah agree, DR2 was a miss. It was developed by Pandemic, not by DR1's dev Auran, which probably explains it—I don't think RTS was Pandemic's thing.

Auran got themselves in a biz mess which didn't help, and had Activision as a pub which probably also didn't help, and went under pretty easily. They sort-of got zombied and have mainly developed the Trainz series since.

honestly the entire dark reign series fell under the radar. i do remember looking at the wikia/fandom site and if i remember had all sorts of time travel hijinks but it was past my time. For some reason i still look at KKND2 and KKND Xtreme on youtube and i'm not entirely sure why. its a pretty generic RTS but its got a couple annoying bugs like the instant mission fails when load/saving a game. plus it seems to be missing a siege unit.

 

[BeardyHat]

One of my first games on Steam. I played this one all the way through and had a ball... and apparently then forgot just about everything I did, because I recognized almost none of the things in this video.

View: https://youtu.be/_L53-6MsFr8

I really need to replay this one. Used to replay it every few years, but it's probably been a decade or more since those times.

Fyi:

Why Super Pocket Might Be the Perfect Retro Game Console

Imagine a Gameboy that can play all the best retro arcade games around.

www.lifewire.com

There's such a glut of these things right now and it's awesome. I have one of these, which is about the size of a deck of cards and can play up to PSX, but I've been considering one of these guys, which can emulate up to Gamecube.

That said, I still end up using my hacked PS Vita most of the time. The access to older Indies on it is great and the community support is excellent, so I end up most often playing ported versions of Heroes of Might and Magic.

 

[Johnway]

it totally slipped my mind, but the raspberry pi 5 is out now, of course we have vintage gamer discussing how good it is for emulation especially for PS2 and GC level of emulation.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSN1L2XyyUY

 

[Colif]

Gate keeping... the middle game here is not retro... none of these are.

No... back away... a game people still play and have since launch in large numbers is not retro... it might be a game from your childhood but thats because you only young. Retro is before your time... kids these days think a game released 10 years ago is retro... GTA5? LOL

 

[Johnway]

Where has all the time gone? i mean, to see remakes of final fantasy 7, resident evil 2, 90s disney movies (the lion king, mulan, jungle book, etc). makes me feel old. i always keep thinking the retro years being the 90s 8-16bit era and its slowly creeping into 32 bit area etc.

Christ i do feel old.

 

[Colif]

Which version of WOW is retro? Classic can't be as they modernised it.
I wonder how many 64 bit games there are. I found a list but not a total. Many 32 bit games work on 64bit so was no sudden need to swap. Not sure there was a cut off.
So using 32bit as a marker is complicated and a really slippery slope

 

[AdamAdam]

Sorry to interject into the conversation as a rookie, but I think we have a new generation of people who are fascinated by retro games are being rediscovered. I actually do, in fact, often find something in my basement, or by chance something comes along. Currently looking for games for such a console, I look and can not find.

As for the very question of whether WOW is Retro, possibly other games, I once had a discussion on this topic. We wondered when actually a game becomes retro? What elements affect it? What conditions does a game and hardware have to meet for it to fall into this category? Do retro games have to be released on an old console or system like Nesa, Commodore or on a computer with DOS. Does the mechanics of the gameplay matter? Greetings to all

 

[Colif]

I think that the game needs to be released before year 2000 to count as retro. That covers an entire century.
Should at least be 20 years old and not a game people still play in large numbers. Speed runners don't count as they keep games alive.

 

[Brian Boru]

According to a very useful reference—provided of course you know how to use it …

"playing and collection of obsolete personal computers, consoles, and video games. Usually, retrogaming is based upon systems that are outmoded or discontinued"

Retrogaming - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Colif]

goes really retro

I see traveller got a revival

Traveller (role-playing game) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Zloth]

I think Retro depends on how fast the technology is changing, personally.

Y2K for a cut off? That was a quarter century ago!! Maybe 2009 and earlier. It will stretch out as technology is advancing slower and slower, but it isn't expanding fast.

Skyrim is seriously old looking and pushing retro hard (late 2011). Oblivion is easily retro (2006).

(Another possible definition of retro: "Even Zloth has played that game.")

 

[Brian Boru]

Maybe 2009 and earlier

Picking a year is too arbitrary imo. As you say, RPGs are retro almost before they're released, whereas many good games aren't.

Crysis from 2007 is ahead of many 2023 games, Civ 4 from 2005 is as playable today as it ever was, Far Cry 2 from 2008 still has a modern feel. However Civ 3 and Far Cry 1 are definitely different era, as are all the RTSs prior to 2007's Supreme Commander.

2007's Portal is another eminently modern game. So yeah, picking a year won't help much. It's more a style and UI/UX thing, isn't it?

 

[Zloth]

2007's Portal is another eminently modern game. So yeah, picking a year won't help much. It's more a style and UI/UX thing, isn't it?

Could be. If I make a brand new game, but make it look a lot like a game from the 90's, do you want to call it a retro game? You do if you want to talk about games with a particular style, you don't if you want to reminisce about games from long <ahem> games that are not recent.

You could exclude game that are still getting played a lot, like @Colif said, too. That would work for a 'nearly forgotten gems' discussion.