Older gamer, starting to hate old games

The Game Room
1

Ok, so I’m in my mid-50s now, and have been playing video games since the late 70’s. I’ve owned the TRS-80 (you bought games in a plastic bag at Radio Shack), the Radio Shack Color computer, Commodore Vic-20, Commodore 64, and Commodore Amiga 500 (which I had to travel for 45 minutes to 2 hours to find games for). Also PC’s from Windoze 98 up to Win 11. I’ve probably spent enough quarters in the arcades to buy a small, cheap car.

Consoles: I’ve owned or played the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Sega Genesis, SNES, Sega Dreamcast, Sony PS1, PS2, and PSP.

I’ve tried to reconnect with the Atari 2600 and 5200, but the games look really bad and primitive nowdays, and are just not that much fun for me. I’ve bought and played retro games collections, but my problem with those is that their devs seem to think that exact copies would be boring and they need to “Jazz it up”. I’ve played retro games that put your screens on a cube that rotates as you play, games that make your screens turn upside down or shake, and worst of all, speed up the game, presumably so younger players don’t get bored and wander off. Give me the original freaking game, with the original screens, original controls, and run at the (slow) speed that the games were made to be played at. To me the Amiga, Genesis, and SNES are pretty much the earliest systems I can still enjoy. Because that’s when they developed actual graphics that looked like…something other than a few square blocks.

And I’ve recently checked out some of the earliest RPG’s. Might & Magic 1-5 don’t look too good at all. 6-9 I just can’t get to run. 10 runs fine (through Steam) and I’m having fun with it, but I’ve asked for a refund on 1-9 from GoG. Picked up a Forgotten Realms package a few months back. I loved those back in the day, especially Pool of Radiance. But forgot how primitive the 1st person view was and how it had blank walls, no furniture, decorations, etc. The first Bard’s tale game was still pretty fun, but I haven’t played the rest yet.

Now, I just don’t want to play the old stuff anymore. Is it selective perception? Or were they just not that much fun in the first place and there wasn’t anything better? I saw that GoG has quite a collection of old games that I’ve forgotten about, but I’m worried if I’d still like them or be able to get them to work.

I did have a lot of fun with the Commodore Amiga games made by Psygnosis (Shadow of the Beast, Blood money, Barbarian, etc). Maybe my memory has failed me on those too and I won’t like them, but I want to try. I know there’s emulators, but I don’t know anything about them. Are we allowed to talk about those here or is that forbidden?

2

Emulators are generally legal, FYI, but pirating copyrighted game ROMs isn’t. But emulation itself is usually just a reimplementation that doesn’t run afoul of copyright. There’s a bunch out there (emulators).

And for older PC games, there’s Dosbox (which GOG often uses for older titles).

I also just learned about this company: Products - Analogue They make modern hardware systems that are compatible with retro ones (and original cartridges), not through emulation, but with custom chips.

That said, I grew up in the 80s and 90s and played a ton along the way, but I don’t feel the need to go back and play them again. There are already so many good modern indie games that I would never be able to get through in a lifetime. They capture much of the spirit of the older games but without the technical or graphical hurdles as much.

3

I’ve been playing Master of Orion II just recently; some older games I still enjoy.

4

My go-to is the Commodore 64 version of Dino Eggs. I’ve been playing it since I was 12 and it is still challenging. I’d wager I’m the best in the world at it, but I haven’t yet found any other enthusiasts to challenge.

5

I tried replaying Elder Scrolls: Morrowind a few years ago. I thought it was amazing when it first came out, but nowadays I found the graphics to be so ugly that I gave up.

Likewise, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was one of my favourite games when it came out but when I tried to replay it recently it seemed clunky and the music was incredibly intrusive and repetitive.

6

I felt so old when they first released KotOR on phones…

Ever tried the Old Republic MMO? It’s got similar vibes and can be played largely single player, but the combat is a WOW clone instead of D20 :frowning: Writing is less shitty than most MMOs but not to the level of the KOTOR games.

As for Morrowind, there’s a community remake underway: https://openmw.org/

But that doesn’t include a graphical overhaul. Hopefully we’ll see a remaster someday, a la the Oblivion re-release. Morrowind’s gameplay systems were SO much better. Oblivion and Skyrim were so dumbed down in comparison that I couldn’t play more than an hour of each…

Also, RIP to Elder Scrolls Legends, the Magic-like online trading card game. It was a phenomenal deck builder, albeit mispriced and soon abandoned by the publisher.

7

You can’t fish from the same river twice. Not only have you changed over the years but games have changed as well. I am in the same boat as you in that many games I loved in the past are less enjoyable than I remember. Fallout 1 and 2 were some of my favorite games released in the late 1990s, but the last time I played them, the controls were clunky and slow, I didn’t care for the isometric view, and I did not enjoy it nearly so much. I don’t believe I’ll ever want to play either game again, though I acknowledge both are good games.

I went to a retro arcade back in 2022, and it only took about an hour before I was ready to go. Back in 1989, I would have been able to spend the whole day there. But I left after almost two hours. I’m just not the same person I was back in 1989.

8

I have an extremely ancient PC, so I play most games on the Xbox. Not sure if it would be available on the Xbox One.

9

With no disrespect meant, I gotta comment that I understand less of this thread than I do of the long-running cricket thread. My own gaming ended with a then-new Atari 2600 and the occasional Missile Command at the arcade.

I’m glad you’re all having fun and I’m enjoying watching y’all through the glass wall. But it is confusing. :slight_smile:

10

Thank you so much! It is good to know that other people have similar experiences.
Another question would be: Is my modern, Hi-def system with my maximum resolution HDMI tv making my older games look worse? Would they actually look better if I turned my resolution way down?

So, Reply (is that really your user name?) I think i’m going to stick to newer games styled after the old school ones. Some that I have picked up were Legends of Grimrock, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, and Pillars of Eternity, all some recent games in the style of old school RPGs, but they look great and play well. The first Wizardry, Proving grounds of the Mad Overlord has been remastered and rebuilt, and that’s been fun, but there are no plans by the company to remake any of the other Wizardry games.
The Shadowrun series (which I played both the SNES and Genesis versions of) has some nice modern games in the series. So does X-Com.

[LSLGuy] Summary: I’ve been playing games since I was very young and the technology was in its infancy. I’ve been on a kick for older games but I’m getting disillusioned because old games that I had a lot of fun with back in the day are not fun at all now.

11

Thank you. I got the overall message; it was the details that were baffling.

12

I still play all these on my Windows 11 PC:

  • Heroes of Might and Magic 3* (Complete)
  • Civilisation 5*
  • Colonisation

*solo or multiplayer

I find these websites helpful:

I have been playing this MMORPG for over 12 years (level 150 Captain :sunglasses:):

Home | The Lord of the Rings Online

13

Well, the high score for the c64 version is claimed to be 2239 or possibly 2333, so you can measure yourself against that.

14

I have multiple games way past that. Where did you find that record?

15

I remember loving HoMM 3 and Colonization (25 years ago), but I think my patience for strategy games has actually decreased as I’ve gotten older.

Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri and Warlords 3: Darklords Rising were two other favourites from that era.

16

I recently replayed Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds and enjoyed them. I went on to the third game (Secret of the Silver Blades) but the pacing on that game just sucks. “What if we just had a bunch of long tedious mazes with encounters with twenty enemies every twelve steps?”

My limit for old games is C=64 era and even that’s only for the real classics. I’ve played old Atari (et al) game collections and always bounce off super quick. I played them as a kid and enjoyed them but I also didn’t have any other options. Once you get to the Commodore era, there’s either good enough graphics or interesting enough game play for me to stay with some of the best titles.

I like to joke when people make 2025 indie games in styles emulating old Nintendo or Play Station games, “You know, when we were playing on the Commodore 64, no one ever said ‘This is fun but I wish it looked like a shitty Atari 2600 title’…”

17

I loved my Intellivision growing up and would go retro with the games again if they made the 2-player games vs the computer.

I was thinking of running the whole Ultima series or getting a joystick and playing the old air combat games from the early 80’s like Falcon and F-19 (now F-117)

18

Sadly not, not the MMO. It’s a pretty old game (2011), but you probably still need at least a midrange PC from the last decade or two.

Hey, if you ever want to try the recent titles, PC gaming is easier than ever these days with streaming services and game subscriptions. Lots of flight sims too (you were a pilot, right?).

Yes, they look worse on modern LCD screens. If you want the retro look you have to hunt down an old CRT monitor (the giant cubes). That said, it’s not HORRIBLE, just different. And video filters in emulators can upscale and smooth out old games and motion, or devices like the Analogue.co ones I linked to have hardware filters that make games look like they’re on a CRT.

You can try turning down the resolution on your TV, but it still won’t be exactly right. Worth a try though.

Yes… believe it or not, it’s one of my less stupid ones… :joy:

Cool, there’s a lot of good ones! If you like isometric CRPGs, yes, the ones you listed are great. Baldur’s Gate 3 is another good one, along with Divinity Original Sin and Warhammer Rogue Trader. There’s a few threads in The Game Room where people share their experiences with various games, like Video Games You've Played Recently

Have fun!

19

From the YouTube page of the programmer. It’s from 12 years ago. He would be interested in hearing from people with higher scores, according to his video description.
(This video is upside down, but view it in YouTube for all the info.)

20

Pillars of Eternity is very good. I like Kingmaker except high-level combat becomes a slog and I never liked the city building part of the game.