This has become a pretty big thing in the last few years but I’ve never seen a thread discussing it here. Is anyone into retro gaming? As much as I love the PS3, I still play my Genesis, Dreamcast and PS1 more than anything else. Classic games are like classic movies, they might not have the slick visuals and sounds of modern examples but it’s all about the experience. One of my favourite games of all time is the arcade version of Donkey Kong, and that came out in 1982! I’d still rather spend 2 hours playing that than Call of Duty 29 or whatever they are on now (not that I don’t play COD as well). Amazingly there is an arcade near me, so for instance last week I spent about $3 playing Donkey Kong in between House of the Dead 2 and the new Rambo game (which is awesome). Luckily DK emulates well, but the control response time is sometimes off if you aren’t using a pad or stick.
Some systems I own:
-Magnavox Odyssey (the first game console of all time…also totally broken now, but it’s too expensive for me to replace at the moment)
-Atari 2600 (three models: the original 1977 version, the 1980 4-switch which no longer works, and the “Darth Vader” black model which is my go-to because of it’s reliability)
-NES (two copies since one doesn’t work, but it’s the first system I had so I won’t throw it out)
-Sega Genesis (model two only)
-Sega CD (again the model two version)
-Neo Geo AVS
-Panasonic 3DO (FZ-1 model, though I’d like to get the top-loader since I expect this to die very soon)
-Playstation (modded to play imports and CD-Rs)
-Dreamcast
I also used to own a Gameboy, but it died around 1997, probably because I played it so damn much. To this day I have never owned an SNES or a N64, since I was a Sega loyalist in the “bit wars” of the 1990s, but they are great systems. I play them on emulation but I’m hoping to pick them up soon, as they are cheaper than the NES at the moment. But even though the system sucks I’ve never played the Atari Jaguar so I’m hoping to acquire that next.
I love the Neo Geo, but it has a limited library and it is super expensive anyway, often more than the games are worth now (they emulate on MAME very well, especially if you have a PS3 arcade stick, which is USB and works on MAME), so I’d say my favourite game system of all time is probably the Dreamcast. I cannot say enough good things about this system, which was tragically cut short because of Sega’s financial fuck ups with the 32X and Saturn. The only reason this thing isn’t better regarded is because no one has played it! For everyone that owns it they usually consider it worth it’s weight in gold. You can get it for about $50 these days, which is criminal, and if you like late-1990s arcade games like House of the Dead 2, Street Fighter 3, Soul Calibur, Daytona USA, Hydro Thunder, Virtua Tennis or Power Stone, you will be in heaven (it also has it’s share of puzzle games, RPGs and great exclusives like Resident Evil Code Veronica, Sonic Adventure and Jet Grind Radio). It was the first system to have online gaming and even though the official servers are down, the fan networks have made their own so you can still play Fantasy Star Online. Did I mention that there is absolutely no copy protection or region coding?
Also, many of the games on Dreamcast, even popular ones like SF3, did not get dedicated releases on any other console. The guts of the Dreamcast was basically the arcade circuit board Sega was using at the time, so, similar to the Neo Geo, you are pretty much playing an arcade board shelled inside a plastic console body.
I’m sad I don’t have a Colecovision or Intellivision, since I love many of those early 1980s arcade games like DK which were ported pretty faithfully to those consoles. The Atari 2600 has ports of most of them, but to be frank they absolutely suck on the 2600. Pac Man and DK were just totally butchered. They play well on the later alternative systems. Ironically, the truest ports of those types of games are the “Collection” releases that you saw released on the PS1 and such. But it’s fun playing them on the vintage systems, it just “fits” better. Amazingly, you can plug in your Sega Genesis controller to an Atari 2600. They use the same ports, there was no true game pad for the 2600, and plus the Genesis controller is one of the best designed gaming pads ever made.
Would love to hear from other gamers that don’t just play whatever is new.