Old games were rubbish.

[CraigGrannell]

One might also argue that too much technology can be a bad thing—we're only just entering a time when companies feel it's OK to create graphics with unique character (like in the old days), rather than identikit polygon w*nking.

[Dudley]

'Tis true. Old games were rubbish.

I find the existence of a retro gaming scene thoroughly inexplicable. Platform games that substituted pixel perfect jumping and endless repetition for gameplay, sports games relying upon frantic pumping of keyboards, endless tedious maze games, shooters in which all you could do was move right, left and fire: those are just a few of the atrocities we used to put up with in the old days, simply because we had nothing better to play.

Nostalgia is all very well, but when we have the likes of Call Of Duty 4 and Bioshock to tell us stories, tease the grey matter and delight the eye, why revisit those virtually plotless mounds of block-o-vision tedium? Let's consign them to the dungheaps of history for the archeologists to pick over, alongside the top and whip, Margaret Thatcher, Bros, Jade Goody, HD-DVD and football. (OK, the last one is wishful thinking on my part.)

90% of everything is crap.

The joy of Retro is we can go back and play the 10% that definately isn't. Yes you get those atrocities in old games, because you're playing old games that are poor. It'd be like saying all today's games are dull trudge-aramas having just played "Lost".

[zero1979]

90% of everything is crap.

The joy of Retro is we can go back and play the 10% that definately isn't. Yes you get those atrocities in old games, because you're playing old games that are poor. It'd be like saying all today's games are dull trudge-aramas having just played "Lost".

This is an extremely good point. Some games released nowadays lack any of the depth and care that some of the older games contained.

The observation that 90% of everything is crap is a common statistic in line with every type of consumer industry. 90% of lollipops are awful. 10% taste nice! I like those odds.

[UK_John]

Surely "Platform games that substituted pixel perfect jumping and endless repetition for gameplay, sports games relying upon frantic pumping of keyboards, endless tedious maze games" was more about gamepad bashing and console gaming?

I think you are also looking at the UK market, that was tape based for C64 rather than the more sophisticated fare that was coming out of the USA on floppy. Tape games may have been mostly arcade based, but I got a 1541 floppy early on, and I was playing the Ultima Games and games like Killed Until Dead and Gunship and Silent Service. I did get Summer and Winter games and games like The Last Ninja, which was more arcade based, but still weren't too onerous.

Coming from RPG's and Wargames on my C64, I did the same on PC with the early DOS games. Roleplaying games like B.A.T. 1 and 2. Neuromancer and Ultima VII,and more action based (but still not keyboard bashing) Elite Plus, Freespace , Terra Nova:Task Force Centauri and Privateer: The Darkening.

In other words,there was always plenty of choice (if you had the hardware) and I never felt, in 25 years of gaming, that I ever HAD to play a keyboard bashing platform game. I didn't like those type of joystick wraggling games and preferred using my brain instead. There was never a shortage of titles for what I was looking for.

So I would say you played too much console and chose badly back in the day and you should have been throwing your net wider!:)

[mynameisray]

Battletoads FTW