Retro games and emulation - Discuss retro shit in case you're stuck in the past or a hipster

[Pissmaster]

If I'm playing a NES game it needs to be over in 20 minutes.

• Most zapper games have very little content due to arcade-style design. I figure you've "beaten" them once you've seen every screen, or completed every criteria before it just loops. I think Chiller is only like four or five screens?
• Board & trivia games are all over really quickly because they're designed to be played over and over with different RNG determining the game. Both Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy have three versions.
• If you know how to play any sports, you could just rip through an exhibition match in whatever's your favorite.
• Be a cheeky fucker and just play the NES Test Cart they used at service centers. It's technically official!

 

[Baraka Obama]

I adore the NES, but I would not recommend more than a dozen or so games to anyone that didn't grow up with it.

Wow really? Outside of Mega Man 3, Super Mario 1 & 3 I had some real stinkers including the notoriously bad Back to the Future game.

My list of NES games worth playing is 144 games long... very few that I ever owned pre-2010.

That includes FC, FDS, and games that required a fan translation of course. There's an insane breadth of cool games.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

The NES is the most overrated console ever. Every time I play the NES I just think "Why aren't I playing something better?" There's so many issues with the system and the most annoying is the slow down and sprite flickering. I've been trying to find a game I enjoy for Best of NES and it's like there's 10 good games total and everything outside of that has issues all over the place.

It was likely amazing for it's time but hasn't aged well. It's not as bad as Atari but definitely a relic of a system.

SNES aged way better, but is kinda rough too tbh.

 

[3deadniggers]

My list of NES games worth playing is 144 games long... very few that I ever owned pre-2010.

So roughly 1 in 5 games are worth playing? Not a great ratio.

It was likely amazing for it's time but hasn't aged well. It's not as bad as Atari but definitely a relic of a system.

SNES aged way better, but is kinda rough too tbh.

SNES can be rough but it isn't plagued with technical issues the NES is. The Master system and gameboy do a better job of being a simple system with basic games because they don't have sprite flickering like the NES does.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

So roughly 1 in 5 games are worth playing? Not a great ratio.

That'd be an incredible ratio. Too bad it is more like 1 in 100 games though lol

SNES can be rough but it isn't plagued with technical issues the NES is. The Master system and gameboy do a better job of being a simple system with basic games because they don't have sprite flickering like the NES does.

Trye but that kinda stuff doesn't bother me much, usually. What kills NES is it's all brutally difficult and/or very clunky or looks/sounds like shit. Good luck finding a game that doesn't cry out for save states and looks/plays/sounds good (like Mario and Kirby).

 

[Baraka Obama]

So roughly 1 in 5 games are worth playing? Not a great ratio.

SNES can be rough but it isn't plagued with technical issues the NES is. The Master system and gameboy do a better job of being a simple system with basic games because they don't have sprite flickering like the NES does.

And yet the master system is a fucking turd with only a handful of games worth even paying attention to. Who cares about sprite flickering?

 

[Judge Dredd]

@SSj_Ness keeps beating me to the punch, so sorry for the repeats.

I'm going to throw my hat in with team "The NES isn't so good without nostalgia goggles" camp. I think I've said this before, but you can guage someone's age/childhood console by knowing where the cut off for "games before this point are too primitive to enjoy for more than a 5 minute distraction".

The NES shines through some of it's best known games, but for hidden gems. I only know Guardian Legend.

So roughly 1 in 5 games are worth playing? Not a great ratio.

That's a fantastic ratio. As the saying goes, 90% of everything is crap. Even the PS2 and Xbox 360, the peak of console gaming imo, has a high dud to winners ratio.

However, I have incredibly poor taste and can tolerate a lot of shit people hate. I enjoy pretty much all of Raven Software's games, and can even find enjoyment in supposedly awful games Legendary: The Box or that 2008 Wolfenstein reboot everybody forgot existed. FPSs are my favourite genre, or were. The nes and snes are king if you like mascot platformers.

they don't have sprite flickering like the NES does.

Some emulators allow you to turn that off.

 

[Baraka Obama]

I didn't think it made sense to post a long list of NES games you all know of plus some of the more obscure FC games that are really good but you know a list of Master System games doesn't even fill a full page:

Alex Kidd in High Tech World
Alex Kidd in Miracle World
Alex Kidd in Shinobi World
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck
Land of Illusion
Legend of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
Phantasy Star
Shinobi
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon's Trap
Ys: Vanished Omens
Zillion
Zillion 2: Tri Formation


This isn't even a list of good MS games because I can tell you right now I really hate Sonic 2 but it's at least worth checking out for yourself.

 

[Quijibo69]

Don't forgot the Atari 2600, some of those games will give you cancer.

 

[Calandrino]

SNES can be rough but it isn't plagued with technical issues the NES is.

lol

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Even the PS2 and Xbox 360, the peak of console gaming imo, has a high dud to winners ratio.

Popular consoles had so many games that it's inevitable most will suck. PS2 probably has the most good and bad games of any console. N64 actually has a pretty damn good ratio of good games just because it's a pretty small library with a lot of Nintendo's support.

Also, just to chime in on what I think is peak console gaming, I'd agree with PS2 but also put PS1 there ahead of 360.

I didn't think it made sense to post a long list of NES games you all know of plus some of the more obscure FC games that are really good but you know a list of Master System games doesn't even fill a full page:

Alex Kidd in High Tech World
Alex Kidd in Miracle World
Alex Kidd in Shinobi World
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck
Land of Illusion
Legend of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
Phantasy Star
Shinobi
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon's Trap
Ys: Vanished Omens
Zillion
Zillion 2: Tri Formation


This isn't even a list of good MS games because I can tell you right now I really hate Sonic 2 but it's at least worth checking out for yourself.

I think all the Sonic games on MS are worth a shot, even Sonic Blast.

 

[3deadniggers]

Who cares about sprite flickering?

I care. Trying to play a side scrolling shooter when half the bullets disappear and reappear is bullshit.

However, I have incredibly poor taste and can tolerate a lot of shit people hate. I enjoy pretty much all of Raven Software's games, and can even find enjoyment in supposedly awful games Legendary: The Box or that 2008 Wolfenstein reboot everybody forgot existed. FPSs are my favourite genre, or were. The nes and snes are king if you like mascot platformers.

We share similar tastes but The NES is just a bad system held up by nostalgia. By the SNES a lot of the problems were ironed out so you didn't get so much of the NES bullshit to deal with. An average NES game is barely playable while an average SNES game is enjoyable even if it's not great. So many NES platformers have problems at the core of their design with your attack sucking or the physics being terrible. The SNES for the most part ironed that out and it's the exception to find the back platformer rather than the reverse. The Master system aimed at more arcadey games so a lot of the design work was done on a better system and then shrunk to the limits of that console rather than trying to break the damn thing when more than 3 sprites are on screen.

That Master system list looks like something you googled. There's plenty of other Wonderboy games worth playing and Fantasy zone once you even start the list.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

As for Dragons Crown. Holy shit that game was is way better than I expected. It's so pretty. All I ever heard about it was controversy over big titty sorceress. The game is (so far) basically Castle Crashers or Knights of the Round, but perhaps a better comparison would be those DnD arcade games back in the day. The use of a DM narrator is fun too. The whole game is like a moving painting.

Now that you've played it and like the art you should check out Vanillaware's catalogue. Odin sphere I already recommended because of the art/gameplay, and you can find an HD redux of it on PS3 emulator. They also made Muramasa for Wii (different nontroversy over fox girl tits) and if you want to go back even further there's Princess Crown (untranslated) on Saturn. The amazing art is still there, it's just in sprite form, it's truly a beautiful series of games.

 

[foam rolla]

I didn't think it made sense to post a long list of NES games you all know of plus some of the more obscure FC games that are really good but you know a list of Master System games doesn't even fill a full page:

Alex Kidd in High Tech World
Alex Kidd in Miracle World
Alex Kidd in Shinobi World
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck
Land of Illusion
Legend of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
Phantasy Star
Shinobi
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon's Trap
Ys: Vanished Omens
Zillion
Zillion 2: Tri Formation


This isn't even a list of good MS games because I can tell you right now I really hate Sonic 2 but it's at least worth checking out for yourself.

Add Wonderboy 2 and Ninja Gaiden to that list

 

[Two Dollars]

So roughly 1 in 5 games are worth playing? Not a great ratio.

>”Bad games exist, therefore the good games don’t count”
That’s a shit opinion and you should feel bad for having it.

 

[Dojima's Dragon]

I adore the NES, but I would not recommend more than a dozen or so games to anyone that didn't grow up with it. Even obscure shit I enjoyed as a kid, like Fun House, has an absurd amount of repetition and a crazy steep difficulty curve near the end, all for no finale, and an ending of just three screens.

Here are the three screens:
View attachment 6095159View attachment 6095160View attachment 6095162

Other than the star field effect on the first one, they are static images. I've burned out by about 25 levels every time I've tried to run through it. So I messed around with a hex editor to jump around to different levels, and it turned out there's 70-some of them. I pity whomever has to play Fun House all the way through. That is not fun. It's not even a house.

The few nes games i can think of that aged are

1.Castlevania
2.Contra
3.Super mario bros 3
4.the first ninja gaiden
5.double dragon

 

[Judge Dredd]

I'd agree with PS2 but also put PS1 there ahead of 360.

PS1 had a lot of great stuff, but people find it hard to go back to if they never grew up with it. The graphics are too primitive for some, and since 3D control wasn't standardised there's a lot of games that feel weird.

I rank the 360 so highly because all but the worst games are beatable without being an insane person. It's rare to have games that are flat out broken or unplayable like the NES has. You had a huge selection of good stuff from AAA hits like Halo 3 to indies like Geometry Wars, and things are standardised enough that it's easy to go back to. When people argue if melee attack should be B or R3, that's not an insurmountable change.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

since 3D control wasn't standardised there's a lot of games that feel weird.

It's funny that a lot of PS1 games were so close to being a functional, modern-feeling experience that you can mostly fix them with nothing more than remapping buttons in an emulator.

It actually makes some games like Megaman Legends much, much easier as the devs expected the player to use the clunky and slow lock-on function rather than circle-strafing enemies.

 

[Quijibo69]

PS1 and N64 games aged the worst. Something about them is off putting.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

PS1 had a lot of great stuff, but people find it hard to go back to if they never grew up with it. The graphics are too primitive for some, and since 3D control wasn't standardised there's a lot of games that feel weird.

Yeah, the graphics are a love it or hate it kinda thing, true. As for camera controls, most were serviceable but you're right, it wasn't standardized yet. I think it gives games some personality but tolerance may vary.

I rank the 360 so highly because all but the worst games are beatable without being an insane person. It's rare to have games that are flat out broken or unplayable like the NES has. You had a huge selection of good stuff from AAA hits like Halo 3 to indies like Geometry Wars, and things are standardised enough that it's easy to go back to. When people argue if melee attack should be B or R3, that's not an insurmountable change.

Yeah, it was a good system, but at least for my genre preferences that console (and generation overall) wasn't the best. It was very shooter heavy.