Nostalgic Gamer vs Atemporal Gamer

[Alexlotl]

Threads like the "Retro Games You Still Play" and the Ocean 8-bit reminiscences have got me pondering - are there two different kinds of Retro Gamer?

I got into Retro Gaming on the PC in the late 90s, playing all the SNES, NES, Megadrive, Master System and Arcade classics I'd missed out on. It was a great way to play new (to me) games, many of which were fantastic, for free. Similarly, these days I'm mostly playing GBA, Gamecube, Playstation and Playstation 2, playing games I've never played before, and having a great time. It's cheaper then playing current games, and the passage of time tends to wash away manufactured hype, leaving behind genuine user buzz around the key titles, regardless of whether they were high profile at the time.

I've rarely used retro or emulators to revisit my childhood, with probably the exceptions of Phantasy Star, Miner Willy/Monty Mole games and Lucasarts Adventures. Asides from anything else, most of the games I played as a kid sucked - in retrospect, I had pretty awful taste.

I'd say that I'm Atemporal Gamer - what's important isn't that it's old, or new, but that it's new to me, and hopefully good!

On the flipside, you have Nostalgia Gamer - the person who still plays the same games they grew up with, as they think they're still great and haven't been bettered. Retrogaming for them (I'd guess) is about reliving a magical period in the world of gaming and/or their own lives. NiGHTS at Christmas, etc.

Which one are you? A bit of both? Is this poll horribly reductive and insults your mother and all your forebears?

[Unofficial Who]

My pile of shame is now so large that a lot of games I bought back in the day are now appearing in Retro Gamer despite me not having touched them yet! I'm slowing down on buying this year to catch up.

[Inky]

Strangely enough I feel myself being medically excluded from recent modern gaming, and the way it's pushing forwards. Motion sickness is a big problem for me, so not only are FPS games out of the question, but pretty much all over-the-shoulder viewpoints can be just as bad. Ironically, some of the best games I've ever played (Mass Effects, Arkham Asylum) left me feeling absolutely terrible on numerous occasions. Also, most games where the camera work is very fast, or by neccessity I have to move it around a lot (Metal Gear Solid 4 springs to mind). So basically, as games stepped more into 3D environments I've been progressively turned off. I actually swore off those kinds of games early last year, but then Mass Effect 2 came out and I buckled. Yes it was superb, but it still made me feel wretched

On the other hand I actually, really prefer the 'VGA' years, or the SNES years, in terms of how games look. I love to see the artistry of pixels and working within strict limitations. I love chip generated music. Games becoming more and more realistic visually just pulls them further away from many of the reasons I enjoyed them growing up.

So my retro gaming is a mix between revisiting old favourites, having a genuine appreciation and affection for relatively 'lo-fi' aesthetics, and the fact that I can't properly play many new games (not without a great deal of misery anyway, which barely makes it worth it, even if those games are as good as Mass Effect).

[CandyBob]

Definately a mixed bag.

I still love playing the games from my yoof. I'm not sure my feelings towards them are purely nostalgic though as I don't think the games have ever been improved upon and replay value can be almost limitless.

I mostly missed out on the N64/Gamecube/Xbox/PS2 period though and I am enjoying discovering new (to me) games. So many games regarded as classics that I completely missed.

[Fry Crayola]

Mixed for me, because I'll still occasionally fire up games that I know aren't amazing or the best particular version, just because I have fond memories of it from my childhood. For example, I can easily use MAME to play arcade perfect Chase HQ (ok, no steering wheel, but that's it), or I can boot up the impressive CPC version that I used to play relentlessly in my youth. It's not as smooth or as good looking as the original, but it's a blast to play and does take me back.

On the other hand, be it PC emulation, Virtual Console, Xbox Live or recent compilations I'm still introducing myself to old classics I never had the chance to play at the time. Here, there's certainly still a tinge of nostalgia for genres and graphics that have long since died out, but the biggest reason is because they're good games that people still hold in high regard and I feel it necessary to experience it for myself.

Or there are games which aren't classics by any means but I want to play because they do something interesting, or because I'm interested in the genre. A while back I bought a host of PS1 games. One falls into the former category - Sentient - which I wanted simply because its real-time gameplay and sentence-structure conversations struck me as something worth checking out (although I still haven't got around to playing it). A bunch of them were football games, because I love the genre and wanted to revisit the likes of Actua, and sample the likes of Viva Football for the first time.

There's no nostalgia there, it's closest to academic interest if anything else, and if I find a game I like, that's great. I caned the almighty fuck out of Viva Football (even though it has quite a few problems) just because I was enamoured with its History mode. The 1958 Indonesia international team? Yes please.

[roberthazelby]

I think I'm also in both camps.

Sure, many of the retro games I play are because I have fond memories of playing them as a kid, and playing them now brings back many of those memories.

I also play retro games because these days my gaming time is limited, and I've noticed that I've got stacks of games I've purchased over the years that deserve my attention. So, instead of purchasing yet more titles I'm going back to those and trying to complete them.

(At present I'm trying to make my way through the Amiga versions of Troddlers and Leander. Troddlers is great, as you can chip through a couple of levels at a time and then go off and do something else. Leander, on the other hand, I need a good 45 mins to an hour set aside for.)

The final reason I'm playing the old stuff is that whilst the graphics in many of the titles may not be very impressive, they offer types of gameplay that modern titles simply don't offer.

[Qazimod]

Mixed. In my opinion, playing old games for the first time today and enjoying them is a reminder that age doesn't matter (to me) if the foundations of the gameplay are solid enough. If you're enjoying an old game that you've never experienced before, you can't say that your enjoyment is based on nostalgic memories - it is just an enjoyable game. Equally, there are games that I have played decades ago and I still play them today because they're still enjoyable. I also think this is true for less enjoyable stuff - if I'm playing an older game for the first time and start to think that the controls are crap or the weapons are shit, I'm willing to bet that my opinion wouldn't change much if I was playing the game way back when it was released. (Mind you, I would have had more patience and free time back then... )

[trickytree]

I thought I was a bit of both, until I got stuck deep into a C64 emulator and realised the games I played as a kid had so much more appeal, even if they're relatively a bit rubbish.

[Soulstar]

I put myself into the atemporal category as I tend to play games I haven't yet been through. As I was a big gamer in the 90 through till the early 2000's, there were many releases I wished to play at the time but never got the chance or never had the console even. RPG's are a key genre in my playlist and there are plenty I've yet to check out on past consoles.

I've realised that it's a lot cheaper and although I do appreciate newer graphics, I seem to be purposely forcing myself to stick to older games at the moment in fear of taking the new visuals for granted. I prefer not to experience the newer generation material until I'm ready to progress. I recently stumbled across the DC and having never played it before until late last year, I'm getting the chance now to go through many of the games I remember seeing in shops but not being able to try out.

I also like to play though the import rpg's as they are usually less common and gives you that unique feeling playing through them. There were a fair few on the snes I always wanted to check out and the ps1 also. I was playing import stuff back then with my windward and chipped ps1, but there were still games I hadnt touched but remember seeing mentioned in magazines.

I do miss that feeling I used to get when keeping up to date with what would be new on the horizon through plantation magazine or Nintendo back then. I feel that if I was to go down the modern route, id never end up playing a fraction of the material I've wanted to go through in past games so for now I'm sticking to older games which I haven't experienced yet.

[Yiggy]

This is an intersting discussion.

For me it is about the gaming dynamics and the gaming design. Retro games for me are just simpler forms of the games we play today. Most of the time. They are often more elegant and remain very pure to the gameplay dynamic. They are also not tarnished with gloss and lost in a sea of presentation and smoke. Thats not to say that a retro game cant look beautiful. Of course if can. However my most exciting time gaming was when I was a kid. From C64 to Amiga to Megadrive these were the happiest days of my gaming life and part of me really does want to feel that again. Retro games allow me to reconnect with that. Whilst also playing games that can offer just as much enjoyment as the current gen.

I love the way that games never used to be caught up in the corporate machine. Baring a few cases the machine didnt even exist back then. It was very much solo programmers to small teams who knew what they wanted to do and did it. I suppose there is something very romantic about that really. Now, if somebody has a new idea like Mirrors Edge, it wont sell 5 million copies and will force the publishers not to take any risks. More often in retro days it was all about taking risks because the industry was in its infancy.

I think mostly though its all about playing games. I can get as much fun out of playing New Zealand Story as I can out of playing Fallout 3. Maybe not for so long but I get the fun injection none the less.

So a bit of both then.

[strider]

Retro games? PS3 all the way baby...

[Soulstar]

When you said the whole piece about covering new games in gloss Yiggy, it can certainly detract from the quality of the gameplay as it prevents you from being able to actually see what the heck is actually going on. Modern fighting games and scrolling shooting games may look amazing these days, but they suffer from the issue of having a screen full of crazyness in some cases. I suppose the same can be said of a lot of games which makes the atmosphere more like watching a movie, but it can make things more difficult to focus on the actual gameplay itself.

I was watching a video of the new Mortal Kombat, and despite a lot of people saying it looks good and this time remains more faithful to the original series, particularly MK2, the problem I had with it was that the movements felt a bit too fluid. with beat em ups I prefer that fast solidness. It may look less realistic, but it works as a game.

[Vimster]

I voted for games new to me, although there is a touch of nostalgia, I must admit.

Basically I see all games ever released as fair game, as it were. I was 8 in 1980 and feel able to appreciate games from whatever year for what they are, therefore I can approach almost anything as new and get something form it, even if it's just to confirm my suspiscions it's a crap game.

Yes there are some games I like to go back to, or some games I remember lusting after back in the day but never got around to playing. You can't have a gaming past without feeling something for the games you enjoyed.

Right now I'm going through some C64 games, replaying some classics, trying to find something I can get into properly rather than just play for 10 minutes. Wouldn't mind a play of a decent RPG like Wasteland or one of the Bard's Tale games. They might not be as slick as a modern RPG but I remember thinking they were so damn sophisticated back in the 80s, and will doubtless play with that mindset .

[Oh Danny Boy]

i don't play for nostalgia's sake i just love playing retro games. If it was for nostalgia's sake i'd still be playing the classic snes games, the mario world's and mario 64's but i've been there and done that so many times, i no longer want to play them, so i don't own the sfc's etc. Just some reasons why i play retro games for better or for worse.

-I'm a SEGA boy - the reason i'm a gamer in the first place is because of SEGA. I loved their games. The industry moved forward and left me behind once they bit the dust. Iike SEGA consoles and love the games on them. Put me down as a 90's gamer, i loved the videogames of this period, the culture, and the combination of innocence and exciting developments in gaming. In this way i don't see myself as a retro gamer, i'm not a retro music listener because i love 80's/90's american indie, i'm just a music fan who likes a particular period of music history, same goes for videogames.

-Modern videogame culture - doesn't do it for me. I think culture is all part of the identity of mediums and there was a particular culture to the 90's gaming scene that attracted me that doesn't exist today. Probably due to varius factors, the death of arcades, videogames becoming a part of mainstream life, the death of the Indie retailer, when i walk down the high street CEX, GAME, and Gamestation hardly scream at me to go in and enjoy, in fact they seem very uninviting and have no charm or character. And of course consoles becoming multi media devices seem to have further lost their identity as videogames

-aesthetics - i love 2D, i like colourful fantasy worlds, i like cheesy music, i love the surreal. I do not like; real world physics, dark colours, bland worlds, and unoriginal characters. Neither do i like videogames attempting to be an action movie, i'd rather watch a hollywood blockbuster. Videogames today just don't cater to my tastes anymore

-time - these days i have a love of music, roller derby, hanging out with friends, girls, and playing various sports. Videogames can't take up as much time as they did previously. Older games are simply best at giving me that 20minute instant adrenaline rush. I doubt in 20mins i'd get past the training stage in most games.

- Plenty more great games to play - i'm not a collector so i don't hoard, i have 3 platforms (MD, Saturn, DC, all jap), i buy one game i know from researching the net is great and which i'll love and play it to death, then buy another one. Bought rainbow islands extra in november and now have only just got my fill of it. Now i'll soon be looking to buy another game. Theres so many great games i haven't tried yet that i have no temptation to buy another console any time soon.

- price of upgrade - the choice between my crt and sega consoles or an lcd and a 360 at a considerable cost. There always will be only one winner.

[Soulstar]

I liked the way you summed up the differences between modern gaming culture and 90's gaming culture. I loved the whole of the 90's era too. 80's was a little before I got into them as I was too young and didn't really own anything. I think I might have gotten my Atari ST at the end of 80's possibly, but the 90's was where it was at for me.

The first half of the 90's I played an Atari ST and just tended to play shallow games with cheats on. When I got a SNES, that all changed as everything appeared not not only look a lot better, but contain more depth. I'm not saying that all games on the ST were shallow, but the majority were over quickly and very very difficult to advance. Some people like this sort of thing, however I prefer a game I can stick with for longer, and probably why I like RPG's.