Retro gaming - what's your poison

[hackersanonymous]

Greetings!

Apologies if this is a bit rubbish - it's my first new post here..

I'm basically curious to know what (if any) retro gaming (or other purposes) you folks are into, and how you think they hold up compared to games nowadays?

I'll start the ball rolling by saying I'm heavily into ZX Spectrum emulation (our American cousins may know it as a Timex, I believe).. Got one of these babies when I was 10 years old, and have never looked back (basically)..

I'm not much of a gamer now - consoles don't really hold much interest for me save for the odd game or two (Half Life 1/2 on PC , Evil Dead on XBox and Spidey).. This is vastly different to my Speccy days when I'd spend hour upon hour playing games - until I learned how to hack them, at which point I'd then spend even more time learning how to look at how they were written.

How they compare? Hmm... A tough one... I daresay there are games out there which are fantastic. However, I'm wary of games which feel the need for 20 minute long rendered intros and breakpoints - yes, yes very pretty - get to the game already!! And don't get me started on driving games - yawn!

Umm.. That's it... Over to you people who are hopefully far more eloquent than I am :-)

Toodles!

[InvisibleWolfMan]

hackersanonymous,

In my opinion the games reached their peak when Mario donned a raccoon hat so he could fly.

Best Regards,

InvisibleWolfMan

[The Curmudgeon]

hackersanonymous said:

Over to you people who are hopefully far more eloquent than I am :-)

Tut tut, Hacker. If you WEREN'T eloquent do you think I would have spent all that time cutting and pasting all your posts from the old site? I think not.

Anyway, I went from being a complete gaming nut to the epitome of a casual gamer. Honestly, I have NO idea of what games are out right now, and only make choices of what to buy by what it looks like on the box.

As for the gameplay being better? Well, I'm sure there are some knee-jerk zealots who will say that the likes of the Spectrum etc have far better REAL gameplay than the glossy new games but seriously, when compared to the likes of Grand Theft Auto and WWE games - easy to control, difficult to master, ultra playable, indepth characters and gameplay.. there really is no competition, as well there shouldn't be.

I do agree that there are FAR too many formulaic games out nowadays, basic clones of well-worn genre-standards that have little to no redeeming qualities. Generic Driving Crud 4 being a prime example. I forget if that's the exact title.

You can't beat a bit of retro gaming though, especially some Spectrum games - Back 2 School, Dizzy, Rescue, Street Hassle, Target Renegade.. ohh, I'm getting all teary-eyed..

[trashcanman]

I've been a hardcore gamer since Atari 2600 and I think the greatest console ever was the Super Nintendo. Damn, that thing gave me more hours of fun than mankind could possibly quantify. I can't even count the number of times I played through "Final Fantasy 2" ("FF4" in Japan I believe). I'm trying my damndest to keep up on the newest and coolest Xbox 360 games, but I just don't have the time anymore. Stupid work and wife and child and hobbies and internet and junk keep getting all up in the way. Don't they know that I just downloaded 8 new playable characters for "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance"? Hulk needs to smash; dammit, life, stop happening!