Good, but old, games

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Wombatwarlord777

"...What?"
Scary as it seems, I think I might actually be maturing. Well, maybe not. Let me set the scene for you guys.

I recently sold off a lot of the games I've accrued in disc form, including Sonic Adventure DX and 2:Battle and Heroes. For various reasons, though, I held onto a few select games of mine. I kept Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl and Mario Kart Double Dash, mostly because the company that periodically comes around to my place generally likes those games. I've also saved Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Gems Collection, because they contain Sonics 1 through 3+K and CD, games I hold to be sacred and would preserve in the Smithsonian should, by some cosmic error or joke, I suddenly find myself leader of the free world. But I digress...

So, I was bored tonight and, with nothing better to do, popped in Sonic Mega Collection and played some Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Now, that game happens to be one of my favorite games of all time, if not my favorite. So it was odd that, around Marble Garden Zone, I found myself utterly bored.

I know why this happened. I've played this game so many times, for so long, that there's no novelty left in it anymore. I know the levels' various routes and hidden caches for all three characters. I've mastered all the Special Stages and have gotten the seven Super Emeralds. I can beet Doomsday Zone without losing a life. I remember when I first excitedly discovered it, I lost close to 30. There's simply nothing new to discover. I suppose speeding through the levels in an attempt to beat my best times and scores could spark some renewed interest in the game, but I've never really been into that. Besides, when you've got an experience as nice as Sonic 3 and Knuckles, rushing to beat it somehow seems counter-intuitive.

I've considered selling Sonic Mega Collection, seeing as how my experiences with Sonic 3 and Knuckles pretty much apply to all the other games on the disc. For now, though, it'll stay on the self in the basement of my parents' house. Which brings me to the question I want to discuss: What are the reasons we preserve or play old videogames?

I suppose my reasons, other for the games that company enjoys, is that it has to deal a lot with preservation of the games themselves. Before buying Mega Collection, I had all the classic Sonic games as separate cartridges on my old Sega Genesis. As that gradually broke down, I bought compilation collections to preserve the old Sonic games I liked. These games deserve to be preserved, not only because they're fun but because they're good, both wildly creative (perhaps CD moreso than the others) and technically impressive (Sonic 3+K and CD especially). More than that, these games were part of the zeitgeist that helped define the character of popular culture in the first half of the 1990's. Going on that standard alone, I'd say that video games deserve to be preserved and archived as much as era-defining literature, music, and movies.

More personally, though, these games are a part of my personal identity. I can do without memories of Mario, Zelda, or Metriod, or that of Madden Football (the one major video game series that my brother likes). But somehow, the same can't be said about Sonic. Maybe because of the massive amount of time that I spent preoccupied with the franchise's games from such an early age, or the time that I spent anticipating major releases like Sonic Heroes or Sonic Advance 2, or how interest in the games spread to other facets of the franchise (especially SATAM, the Archie Comics, and later on the Sonic OVA). The influence of the franchise has even subtly influenced my own interests and attributes, such as the rough character designs in my on-and-off efforts at cartooning.

Though it sounds cliched, maybe I keep the old videogames that don't really interest me anymore because of the personal significance and memories that they hold. And hell, if nothing else, I can pop in Sonic 3 and Knuckles for my offspring someday and show them how horrible Dad truly had it in the dark days of the 20th Century.

So, what strikes your fancy about old, obsolete games, if anything?
 
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Funny discussion, but I like. I have whole collection of old Sonic on Genesis. I played with in another way than you.

I have long played when I was little. Up to 8-9 years, I continued the Sonic.
I still kept those good old cartridges.
I also owned games like Heroes but the birth was from Genesis.
Up to 15-16 years, I always kept something for these cartridges.
Professionals recovered the data from these games and have in fact Roma. Now, it is still possible to play, whatever the period. I will explain later what are the Roma.
Besides, I have a huge collection of Sonic games Game Gear / Genesis and all that comes after.
To resurrect the old Sonic at all, I will move the mp3 to download on this website as soon as possible. There must be more than 1000 songs from Sonic ...
But I must first find all the music for all games. It will take some time. But I hope to do the old Sonic rennaître with these old tunes. Nothing beats dial a level of SRB2 in listening Flying Battery or Chrome Gadget ...


(Excuse the language, I'm in a hurry)
 
1. Some of the music is better than the new games. Example: Green Hill theme is better than Splash Hill theme!!
2. It may think player's old memories!
3. To be special by having 'old' and now limited catridge/cd, or to make a collection

I hope this helped you! :)
 
Methinks this thread belongs in Colosseum

For me it's mostly "classics" like Duke Nukem and Crazy Taxi, but I do hold a special place in my heart for the first RPG I ever played: Bionicle: Maze of Shadows. I recently loaded it up again in an emulator, and it turns out it's actually pretty damn good!
 
As much as I understood the question...
My favourite old game would be Rayman, the first one. And as Mecha said, BIONICLE: Maze of Shadows' also great. Just unplugged my converter from the DSi's charger into my old Gameboy Advance SP charger which didn't fit the plug things without a converter before and got to play it...
Now when I actually understand English, this game's better than ever. Yeah I didn't know English that well when I got the game... 6 years ago?
 
Ah ? Why do not you like the Roms ? They can play the cartridges if you lose them ... or if you don't have. But perhaps you find that playing on the computer is not "old tradition"?


1. Some of the music is better Than The new games. Example: Green Hill theme is better Than Splash Hill theme!
Only here, I'm on the side "New Sonic". Sorry, but the theme of S. Hill pleases me more than that of G. Hill ...


My favorite old game Rayman Would Be, The First One.

There is a soundtrack of Rayman ... I really appreciate , that of "The Great Escape". If you love Rayman, you must know.
 
Of course I do IE! =P
I had a random download speed the other day of 500 KBps, so I started downloading every cool soundtrack I found. Man I love the Final Boss music(s) of Rayman 3. And the Snowboard Race. And Reflux the Knaaren's bossfight... And a bunch more!
Also, I kinda envy you. You live in French, and most cool Rayman 1 "expansions" or better versions were released there... Never got my hands on any of these.
 
Something I picked up in my english class this year (a literary criticism style called "Reader Response," though that name isn't appropriate in gaming) is that every time I go through a creative work, something different pops out to me. It happens like that because I'm different every time I play it, given enough time has passed.

I know this game isn't old enough to be relevant to the discussion, but my best example right now is Prince of Persia for the 360. The first time I played the game (a year ago?) I was baggin' on it for having a simplistic gameplay. Now I'm going back through it and enjoying the architecture of the world, seeing the gameplay as a vehicle to showcase the world. And my brother just hates the music.

For S3&K, when I was working on my rendition of LRZ2, I went back to the original game for a comparison of how I should be using the textures. Although personally, I haven't played S3&K to death like Wombatwarlord777, so that might be part of it too.
 
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By Metal-Rawr
Of course I do IE! =P
I had a random download speed the other day of 500 KBps, so I started downloading every cool soundtrack I found. Man I love the Final Boss music(s) of Rayman 3. And the Snowboard Race. And Reflux the Knaaren's bossfight... And a bunch more!
Also, I kinda envy you. You live in French, and most cool Rayman 1 "expansions" or better versions were released there... Never got my hands on any of these.


Ah. For my part, my favorite is that of Whale Bay. Rayman are rather the ambiance music. There is no theme highlighted like Sonic ... Oil Ocean has a theme Recognition in very easily. But that of the Whale is beautiful !
 
Honestly, I've always been more of the opinion that older games tend to be better than new ones. Call me biased, or overly nostalgic, but I just feel like gaming in general was a lot better back then. For the most part, games just take themselves so seriously now, and everybody wants their game to be like a movie. A 'movie', to game developers these days, apparently means 'angry marines, space or otherwise, hiding behind things'.

Yeah, I guess I'm generalizing a little too hard, and I apologize. It's not like there's no creative, fun games at all, anymore. There's still stuff like LittleBigPlanet, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and Duke Nukem Forever. They're all drowned out by this kind of generic crap:

homefront.jpg


...Then again, I guess you could say the same thing about platformers or fighting games if you really wanted to. Still, I'd take 50 Sonic ripoffs over one more Gears of War/Halo/Call of Duty ripoff, anyday.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, the newest game I can think of that isn't a sequel that does a game the way I like them is Bayonetta. Man, that game was SO good.
 
here are some of my favoriate old games:
Jill of the Jungle
Jazz Jackrabbit
Vinyl Goddess From Mars
Xargon
Commander Keen episodes 1-6 (good luck finding numbers 3.5[keen's dreams] and 6[Aliens ate my babysitter])
Wacky Wheels
Jazz Jackrabbit 2
Doom
Doom 2
Evilution
Plutona
Wolfenstein 3D
Monster Bash
Decent
Dune 2
Brix
Epic Pinball
Kiloblaster
Raptor
and there are still more
(Notice: most of the game listed require Dosbox)
 
Honestly, I've always been more of the opinion that older games tend to be better than new ones. Call me biased, or overly nostalgic, but I just feel like gaming in general was a lot better back then. For the most part, games just take themselves so seriously now, and everybody wants their game to be like a movie. A 'movie', to game developers these days, apparently means 'angry marines, space or otherwise, hiding behind things'.

Yeah, I guess I'm generalizing a little too hard, and I apologize. It's not like there's no creative, fun games at all, anymore. There's still stuff like LittleBigPlanet, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and Duke Nukem Forever. They're all drowned out by this kind of generic crap.

No one can deny that Homefront was pretty...bad, though if your looking for a interesnting game on steam, I'd recommend Amnesia: The Dark Decent. I'd guaranteed it will keep you restless for a few night basically due to the fact that some abomination is after you while your figuring out what in god's name is going on; though I recall that it's kinda short...
 
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I'm still painfully attached to the original "Spyro the Dragon" series... I've been looking into why INSOMNIAC stopped working on Spyro. I've read that if they could get the rights back, they wouldn't make a new Spyro game. It makes me painfully depressed... And that's over a video game.
Spyro is my favorite game in the entire world. Of course, the game does have it's whole nostalgia aspect as to why I love that game... And like everyone said, the soundtrack to that game is absolutely sick.
While a simple system, the level geometry was fun to move around and the textures were absolutely beautiful. The game has a charm to it that I've not ever felt in another game. I wish that that could have been kept in the series. Spyro really shows how the artistic factor in popular games has gone down. There are a select few new games that are amazing with this, CoE being one of them, but games back in the day won for art.
 
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