The Old School Gamers Movement

[IrishCanadian25]

I gotta be honest, I am a little sick of all of the newbie-induced video game love that has centered around the last 10 years of gaming history. I understand that the Wii and Rock Band have basically taken gaming into an entirely new mainstream rennassaince, but I am going to step up and stand for the Old School - when video games WERE video games.

When people knew the difference between 8-bit and 16-bit, and that difference was obvious and palpable on the small screen.

When the biggest event of the year was going to theatres to see Fred Savage in "The Wizard" to catch a sneek peak of the debut of Super Mario Brothers 3, and hearing the girl in the movie describe Savage's rain-man like younger brother based on the fact that he's "going through Ninja Gaiden a second time and he hasn't even taken a hit yet."

Or the feeling you got when you first sat down to a Sega CD and popped in "Wing Commander 3" and saw Mark Hamill and the guy who played Sallah in the Indiana Jones films having a live conversation.

When you finished the last Star and Special worlds in Super Mario World - the game that felt like it would never actually end.

So take your Final Fantasy 7's, your Wii Sports, your Guitar Hero. Give me an NES Sega Genesis, Sega CD - shit, give me a Turbo Graphix 16! And sit back and join the Old School movement!!!

 

[klunderbunker]

Boss you just made me want to cheer. AMEN. Today, the problem is there are too many big systems and not enough memorable games. Back in the day, you have Zelda, Mario, Meteroid, Pilotwings (DAMN that was a sweet game), the original Mario Kart etc. There was no internet or anything to get reviews so you had to take a guess on what would be good and what wouldn't. That's what made it awesome. Look at some old Atari 2600 games. They're so bare bones but it's the definition of classic. It's so retro and basic that you have to use your *gasp* imagination. The stuff back then still holds up today. If you don't believe me, go pop in Link to the Past. I guarantee if you're a gaming fan, you'll have a blast.

 

[Slyfox696]

Since I'm a gamer for over two decades, I'd love to be able support this IC.

However, I can't, because it's a completely asinine position to take. Video games from 20 years ago better than games like Halo, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Fallout, etc.? Not a chance. Just because you remember crappy graphics with limited gameplay from your childhood in a nostalgic fashion, that doesn't change the fact that those games and systems completely suck when compared to games and systems of today.

 

[jmt225]

When I was looking at the people's seedings in the Bar Room, I kept wondering have any of you ever got off the fucking Nintendo and been to the Arcade? Hardly any Arcade games got love in that entire thread and it blew my fucking mind. Spending countless hours and hours at the Arcade are some of my fondness memories as a kid. Motherfucking Wrestlefest, The Simpsons, Ninja Turtles 2, Contra... those are fucking video games.

Now… granted, I'm a huge fan of the N64 and I think GoldenEye 007 is the by far the greatest game ever created, but those Old School Arcade games are fucking classic and should get a lot of recognition in this tournament. And there are a lot of NES games that hold a special place in my heart as well. Also, my man Tdigs bringing up Night Trap in the other thread… fuck that brought up so many great memories.

I honestly don’t play video games today with the exception of very rare cases such as Street Fighter 4 on my friend’s system and you know… shit like that. And I haven’t been a gamer for years before this. In fact, the only games I’ve bought since around 2004 for the PS2 were either sports games like Madden and Live, wrestling games, and GTA: San Andres (which was awesome) and Soul Calibur 2. So I have no idea about Call of Duty, Halo, and all games like that. So, obviously, I will much prefer the games from before 2000 more than most of what’s out today.

 

[Blade]

Yeah, the old games are classics. But there are some new ones as well.
There's some games I play for fun, and there's some games I play for escapism. To be completely sucked in to a completely different world.

I love old games, I really do. I love the sheer playability, the classic music that didn't use an entire orchestra, and the general simplicity of it all. The kinds of games that we grew up with. But really, there's absolutely no depth to them at all. As much as I love Super Mario World, I really couldn't have given 2 fucks about Yoshi's missing children or whatever. I just wanted to play the fun game, yet Nintendo still felt it was necessary to throw in some totally unneeded excuse for Mario to hop off on his adventure.

Video games are the only form of entertainment that's truly evolving as time moves on. Graphics, genres, gameplay, storylines... Games are becoming the most in-depth form of entertainment on the planet.
As I said, I love the "retro" games, but never has a retro game sucked me in like Ocarina of Time or Knights of the Old Republic. And it's being so sucked in that I love about those games.
The old games are memorable games. But newer games are not only memorable themselvves, but they give you amazing memorable moments too. It's like in wrestling, we have those great matches. They're entertaining but there's no real emotional connection to them. And there's the moments outside wrestling matches, like Benoit and Eddie hugging in the ring at Wrestlemania 20.

You can talk about how much better old games are. And in some ways, you are right. But I think someone isn't a true games fan if they only like a certain era of games, just like I think people who don't like music after 1980 aren't true music fans. You can't be a true games fan if you're letting experiences like the new Zeldas, Mario Galaxy, KotOR, GTA 4, Fahrenheit, Fallout etc. all the while becomming bitter old people who bitch constantly how much better things were in 'their days' just like there are in other forms of entertainment.

 

[Leeds Guy]

The old games are still amazing to this day, but cant compare to todays games. The problem is they are graphically inept, and you have really limited gameplay, I was playing Sonic2 the other day and finished it with all the emeralds in just over an hour..... I thought to myself 'now what can I do with it?' Compared to games like Fallout 3 which I can play for hours and not finish the game or get bored.

I'm looking forward to this tourny as we are going to see some interesting match ups and great discussions. I am a fan of the old school games as much as the next guy an still enjoy playing the games today, but I enjoy playing the newer games that bit more.

 

[X]

Old school games are great and all...but they really just don't stack up to modern games at all. Because video games are technology, and you can't really argue that old technology is better then new technology. That's like arguing that a 70s IBM computer is better technology then a 2009 computer.

Don't get me wrong, I love old school games (from the original NES on, never was an Atari guy, too young) as much as the next guy, but as much fun as Super Mario Brothers 3 is, it doesn't compare to a game like Grand Theft Auto IV. I mean, just the unbelievably massive universe and amount of things you can do in GTA4 just blows all of the hop-and-bop fun of Super Mario Bros right out of the freakin' water.

I mean the massive amount of great games introduced on the PS2 and XBox are really just undeniable. And as much retro fun as it is to play a game like Wing Commander, it will never entertain me for as long of a period as a modern game will.

I usually just play online FPS these days though (America's Army, the original Halo, Counter-Strike). Haven't touched the old PS2 in a while. The other day I did finally hook up my old N64 though and went to town on Goldeneye and the South Park game that came out on there. Fun shit, I was up for 8 solid hours until 4AM playing Goldeneye. Best shooter, ever.

 

[Lee]

The best thing about retro gaming is you can go back and not get annoyed at it...anything from Gen 5 just really pisses me off...what looks better? The polygons of OoT or the fantastic view of Link to the past?

I am retro through and through, you name a retro console, I have it. They just are gameplay over looks, enjoyment, excitement!

 

[Gelgarin]

So this is the video games section is it?

Anyway, much like with everything else, I take pride is being more old school than anyone else. Keep your Nintendo Entertainment Systems you under-age cooperate ****es. It's people like you who are the reason why games production has fallen into the depraved pit of unoriginality which it currently resides. The creative blood was drained from the industry when people gleefully anounced that they would empty their wallets to play Super Mario again, and the slippery slope of mind eroding uncreative sequelege was paved with "retro classic" titles such as Sonic 3, Mario 4, Link to the Past and all those fucking Tetras clones.

The anti retro crowd are quite correct in their assertion that there is nothing overtly sacred behind these games, they're just old. They were good for the time period, but certainly wouldn't hold up today.

The retro games that really matter are those that came before. I'm talking about the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64. When titles were produced by people instead of corporations, and creativity consisted of more than simply taking an existing franchise, re-skinning the pre made engine, tastefully rearranging the levels and sticking a successively large number on the end. Gaming today is in the sad state where any remotely original title is considered the exception to the rule, and people with true vision for fresh titles will more often than not find themselves squashed underfoot because of the ability to the main franchises to render each separate piece of interstellar magic space marine power armour to a degree that makes any other title look defunct and out dated.

And you know what's to blame for this downturn? I'm pretty certain I said it earlier, but I need a sentence link. It's the games you celibate as being the retro classics.

Well not me. The special rose tinted place in my heart is dedicated to the true pioneers of the gaming industry. Those titles that forged genres and pushed video gaming further in a decade than it has come in the successive five generations of console. Give me Dizzy, Ikari Warriors, Football Manager, Deathchase, The Hobbit, the original R-Type, Elite or The Sentinal. Those are the games that made video gaming what it was, and even to this day the industry spends most of its time making progressively more aesthetic versions of Elite and Deathchase.

Those games were the George Tragos, Lou Thesz and Ed Lewis of the video game industry, and much like their wrestling counterparts, those that have come after are still imitating them. People are right, newer games are invariably better. They're longer, more advance and better to look at. But I'm going to celibate the time where everything began. Where a bunch of creative single guys with stilted social lives sat down and carved out an entertainment medium that would outlast them. Leave Sonic and Mario to live it up on their private islands, taking the obligatory return tour once every generation so that they can keep themselves paid up in crack and women. Celibate the true heroes of gaming.

And before anyone asks, no I'm not being serious. ... Much.