How many console generations back are you willing to go with your gaming? Page 4

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  • dominalien 21 Jul 2020 11:07:21 10,703 posts
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    Anything before the spectrum that's just dots and blocks holds no appeal to me. I like my wizard to look like one, I just don't have the imagination of a 5yo any more.
  • Dirtbox 21 Jul 2020 12:20:16 92,595 posts
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    Snes for 2D, PS2 for 3D.

    Early 3D I just can't deal with. Terrible graphics and primitive control systems just kill it for me. Wasn't until the late Dreamcast era that things started to became playable.

    Edited by Dirtbox at 12:23:12 21-07-2020
  • RawShark 21 Jul 2020 13:05:56 2,202 posts
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    Depends on the game. I have a strange affection for Spectrum text-based adventures. It's always interesting to head to the retro area at EGX and see how far back you can go and still enjoy the game. I'm not sure I can squeeze much fun out of a Colecovision or Vectrex anymore.
  • Psiloc 21 Jul 2020 23:24:50 6,366 posts
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    Being into the YT retro gaming stuff, I've actually noticed a definite uptick in acceptance of the PS1 era lately. In a hipster sort of way I guess like the NES resurgence in the late 2000s
  • docrob 22 Jul 2020 00:12:46 1,795 posts
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    I go back and play Spectrum games occasionally, if not often. A good game is a good game, no matter what the generation.
  • BreadBinLidHero 22 Jul 2020 06:21:45 10,801 posts
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    8-bit is hit and miss. Anything before is unplayable.
  • simpleexplodingmaybe 22 Jul 2020 06:59:53 19,992 posts
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    What channels are people digging for retro gaming on YouTube?

    I love the Kim Justice approach but don’t really follow anyone else
  • ukaskew37 22 Jul 2020 10:21:37 334 posts
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    I'm still heavily invested in the 8/16 bit 2D era but I find the early 3D stuff unplayable now. We have a Mega Drive set up which is used regularly and the Atari 7800 comes out very occasionally, but I'll skip pretty much everything after that right up to our current console (Switch).
  • Samildanach 22 Jul 2020 13:18:21 641 posts
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    It looks like there is a general consensus that the early 3D games of the 5th generation (PS1/N64/SS) have aged the most. In fact there seems to be more enthusiasm for early 2D games of the second generation on the whole. I guess what helps the early 2D games is their arcade like brevity, whereas playing a 10 -30 hour blocky PSX game is a much less appealing idea.

    I do think that there is a highest proportion of genuinely shit games in 2nd generation though, as they were easier to program.so any budding coder could knock up a rip-off of a well known game. I gather that was the reason for the US video game crash that signalled the end of the 2nd generation (over there), too much crap obscuring the quality stuff.
  • pyper777 22 Jul 2020 14:06:20 272 posts
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    simpleexplodingmaybe wrote:
    What channels are people digging for retro gaming on YouTube?
    https://www.youtube.com/c/Bransfield2000/
    https://www.youtube.com/c/strafefox/
    https://www.youtube.com/c/JeremyParish/
  • Psiloc 22 Jul 2020 17:05:27 6,366 posts
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    Graphically, the MD/SNES 2D has aged way better than the PS1's 3D, but I really think this overriding concept of all 3D games being unplayable crap until the PS2 is some Mandela effect nonsense. I mean I'm just really not sure gameplay evolved overnight when the PS2 gen started.

    The main thing everyone seems to think of with janky early 3D is the glut of awful 3D platformers we got. But for the most part they were considered awful back then. And not to mention the 3D platformer genre is on life support these days so I don't see that it's a useful comparison.

    Maybe I've just got a blindspot to the type of games that this phenomenon really affected. But graphically, yeah, oh boy. I guess you either find it charming these days or fucking insultingly repulsive
  • Tonka 22 Jul 2020 17:08:23 31,979 posts
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    Psiloc wrote:
    Being into the YT retro gaming stuff, I've actually noticed a definite uptick in acceptance of the PS1 era lately. In a hipster sort of way I guess like the NES resurgence in the late 2000s
    I've seen a few indie games that use the PSX esthetic with rather nice results.
  • Cappy 22 Jul 2020 19:22:27 14,393 posts
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    The PS1 Aesthetic is becoming pretty fashionable. Which is pretty interesting because there were people who insisted it could never happen, asserting that only 2D was worthy of nostalgic love and 32 Bit era 3D would always be out in the cold.
  • bone-on 22 Jul 2020 20:07:34 805 posts
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    16 Bit and no further.

    My only no go is anything PS1 related the games look gash on an HD tv. I think CRT TVs helped the PS1 so much.
  • spookyxelectric 22 Jul 2020 20:09:08 639 posts
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    NES, I guess. I actually think they've aged better than SNES games because sometimes SNES games were overly ambitious visually and they had a ton of slowdown. Mega Drive fared better, IMO.
    And I think the PS1/Saturn/N64 generation might have been the best ever, so no problem replaying those games.
  • simpleexplodingmaybe 22 Jul 2020 20:10:51 19,992 posts
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    I prefer the PS1 3D to what happened in the next gen. Its more stylised in a way and I think that fits aged graphics better than striving and falling short of realism.

    It’s a game by game thing and gameplay will always trump graphics of course.
  • wizbob 22 Jul 2020 21:28:59 936 posts
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    Anything with a good loop and tight mechanics is still playable. I've spent a lot of time on Defender recently, specificly Defender II on the Atari 2600 and Protector on the Vectrex. I also got a personal high score on Ranarama after a break of 30 years.

    Most of my interest in older games now is trying stuff I bounced off, like Lords of Midnight or Laser Squad, but with save states and a guide.

    I thought I'd never touch PS1 era games again but now that you can fix texture warping and bump the framerate, they look surprisingly good on a PVM, I can totally see how whippersnappers get nostalgiac about them.
  • PES_head 22 Jul 2020 23:38:51 49 posts
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    Xbox 1 era is probably as far back as I'd go. The first gen where 3D worlds and controls were coherent like they are today. For sure, graphics and gameplay mechanics have greatly improved since, but both were basically intact then.

    Helps as well that Xbox is (kinda) back compat back to Xbox 1, so it's all quite accessible from a single box.

    Edited by PES_head at 00:51:11 23-07-2020
  • Deleted user 23 July 2020 00:07:27
    Last year I bought a PS2 (again) just for playing Forbidden Siren 2, which I bought as well.

    A very underrated little gem.
  • Pierre2k 23 Jul 2020 00:27:47 1,466 posts
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    One of the biggest hurdles to Saturn/PS1-era 3D is the lack of analogue, and mainly twin stick, controls. Didn't mind when I first got my Saturn or played a friend's PS1, but it's just something your so used to now, I find it awkward. Even Dreamcast, which visually holds up ok, suffers without a second stick IMO.

    N64 and Dreamcast just about get away with it in FPS games with the buttons on the left replacing the right thumb stick, and the right thumb stick being used for aiming (Turok, Quake 3 etc), but even that is the opposite of modern controls.
  • whatthefu 23 Jul 2020 00:57:10 1,340 posts
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    I'll probably always go back to the NES for Zelda, Megaman and Contra. I would include SMB only Mario allstars was better on the SNES.
    PS1 3D games may have dated horribly but I have memories from when I was a kid and I adored that system. Also it was the only PS I owned before becoming a PC gamer and the other consoles I've owned since have been secondary to the PC.
  • Psiloc 23 Jul 2020 09:44:10 6,366 posts
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    Pierre2k wrote:
    One of the biggest hurdles to Saturn/PS1-era 3D is the lack of analogue, and mainly twin stick, controls. Didn't mind when I first got my Saturn or played a friend's PS1, but it's just something your so used to now, I find it awkward. Even Dreamcast, which visually holds up ok, suffers without a second stick IMO.

    N64 and Dreamcast just about get away with it in FPS games with the buttons on the left replacing the right thumb stick, and the right thumb stick being used for aiming (Turok, Quake 3 etc), but even that is the opposite of modern controls.
    Actually yeah FPS is a genre that suffers terribly the further you go back, with only a few exceptions. I have absolutely no nostalgia for old FPS's though with the exception of Doom, which somehow still holds up.
  • PazJohnMitch 23 Jul 2020 09:47:02 17,276 posts
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    Pierre2k wrote:
    One of the biggest hurdles to Saturn/PS1-era 3D is the lack of analogue, and mainly twin stick, controls. Didn't mind when I first got my Saturn or played a friend's PS1, but it's just something your so used to now, I find it awkward. Even Dreamcast, which visually holds up ok, suffers without a second stick IMO.

    N64 and Dreamcast just about get away with it in FPS games with the buttons on the left replacing the right thumb stick, and the right thumb stick being used for aiming (Turok, Quake 3 etc), but even that is the opposite of modern controls.
    Dreamcast is a really horrible console for me to return to now. The games still look fine and Skies of Arcadia is a personal favourite. But if anything the quality elsewhere makes the lack of second stick far worse than the N64 or PS1.

    I kind of forgive the N64 and PS1 for poor controls as everything is on par and I go back expecting it to be wonky. The poor controls on Dreamcast though still manages to surprise me every time which leaves me irritated.

    Edited by PazJohnMitch at 09:48:11 23-07-2020
  • Bambot 26 Jul 2020 17:08:42 2,076 posts
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    None. If it doesn’t run on the latest console, I won’t be playing it. For one thing, I don’t have space for more than a PS4 and a Switch, nor time to play everything I want to on those systems. For another, spoiled by the technical advances of each generation, old games tend either look like shit, or play that way, or both, with relatively few exceptions.
  • Bambot 26 Jul 2020 17:08:44 2,076 posts
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    None. If it doesn’t run on the latest console, I won’t be playing it. For one thing, I don’t have space for more than a PS4 and a Switch, nor time to play everything I want to on those systems. For another, spoiled by the technical advances of each generation, old games tend either look like shit, or play that way, or both, with relatively few exceptions.
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