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[Moon Goon]

Full article here: http://retrogamingmagazine.com/2015/11/17/were-all-doing-classic-gaming-wrong-2/

Basically, I think "Retro" has been misconstrued at times.  There's something missed from the pre Nintendo days.  Something that's more than simplicity and chunky graphics.  I dunno.  I could be misreading things.  What say y'all?

[JWK5]

Nostalgia.

[Cobralad]

castlevania 1 is garbage

[JWK5]

castlevania 1 is garbage

LIES!!

Castlevania does have some bullshit design moments here and there but ultimately it has pretty solid gameplay and is impressive (for its time) in the what it pulls off graphically (especially in regards to its use of color) and aurally (easily one of the best NES soundtracks).

Demon's/Dark Souls actually reminded me very much of the NES Castlevania games in the way the combat and movement creates a very deliberate pace with careful attention to timing.

[gimymblert]

is minecraft retro?

I think there is a confusion, my generation says pixel art, 12+ years old say retro.

It's not just nostalgia, it's a style that "evoke" the past of gaming and fit modern production constrain of indie development, ie maximize quality with cost.

[ProgramGamer]

[Cobralad]

i knew whats going to happen, why did i do that

[SirNiko]

castlevania 1 is garbage

It was; thankfully Konami improved it when they ported it from the MSX to the NES and the result was a masterpiece.

[Schoq]

that's an even better obscure video game one-up than when people say they should do a remake EVO

[Photon]

In response to the original post...

This is a very interesting topic for me. Why do certain MS-DOS titles and classic Nintendo games still hold this certain appeal, not just from a gameplay perspective but even graphically and audibly? I haven't been sure exactly how to define it or put it into words. But then the article (emphasis added):

Today with the expectation of lens flare, rag doll physics and 4k displays we are given reality instead of interpreting it.

  THIS

There's a certain purity to these older titles. You didn't necessarily see pixels; you just saw clouds, trees, whatever. They weren't pixel-this or pixel-that. They were just "this" or "that". At least graphically speaking, if you can somehow get people to stop paying the "pixel tax" (easier said than done,) then its amazing the gaps your mind bridges between reality and the game itself. This is, in fact, perhaps one of the most important abilities necessary for both the game and the gamer. How do you maintain that sense of wonder and immersion when you're spoon-feeding everything to your players? That's why I can still look back at some of these games and still be transported. Nostalgia, yes, but one could argue that nostalgia is rooted in something far more powerful.

Now, how one gets modern day players to see that in the age of HD... well, maybe that's not really the problem. There is something to be said of retro being "outdated," but at the same time maybe HD is just misused similarly to the way the author advocates retro is misused.

[LucasMaxBros]

Simple. When you're younger, you learn and absorb more information. As you age, not only do you absorb less but it feels less because it's being compared to your current knowledge. If you played a game when you were very young, you'll judge it in a very different light than now. An hour of gameplay experience now would've felt like a days worth of gaming experience when you were young.

However, there is one thing retro styled games don't do often, if not ever. Even the best retro-like games don't do it (Shovel Knight as an example). They don't feel like they are working under limits.

I feel that some games, because of the technology and freedom begin to abuse it too much and sometimes lose creativity. You look at Mega Man's design, he has more than 4 colors which were the limit for sprites. So they programmed the game to draw another sprite for his face. Shovel Knight on the other hand has some colors the NES could never emulate.

I think it would be fun making a game under the late 80s/early 90s era of gaming. Just to see how it would effect my choices when constructing gameplay, since the sky really is the limit today.

[gimymblert]

Well they had more color because kickstarter was their constrain, else they would had to be """racist"""

[s0]

ok, i have a confession to make: i don't enjoy playing old games unless they have no better modern equivalent. i also never had a NES growing up and tbh i don't really like most of the games for it that i've played. other than mario bros 1 and 3 and the first zelda, i don't think there are any NES games (including megaman and castlevania) that have managed to hold my interest coming at them from a modern perspective.

i also don't have a particular fondness for "simplicity" or 2d games. my first ever system was a a gameboy and even on that my favorites tended to be the mechanically more "complex" games like zelda link's awakening or pokemon. i never thought 2d platformers were be all end all, i just played them because there were so many of them that it was almost unavoidable. i wasn't that enthusiastic about videogames as a small kid and didn't really become a "gamer" until i first played mario 64.

imo the advances we've made in terms of things like interface design, balancing and certain advances in hardware have made modern games not only more playable than old games but also better on average.

EDIT: that doesn't mean i hate or don't respect old games. just in terms of what i find the most entertaining/engaging to play, it's modern games 9 out of 10 times.

[Alevice]

imo the advances we've made in terms of things like interface design

This so much, in particular with old computer games, where the interfaces could be so damn obscure. also more responsive controls are a blessing. some consoles of the nes and snes generation had so horrible controls.

[s0]

also i guess its in part because the mega popularity of the NES was an american phenomenon, or at leat it wasn't one in my home country (mostly when people say "retro games", they mean games that copy NES games). here in europe, there was never a game industry crash and lots more people played games on computers like the spectrum, c64 or amstrad. growing up without an NES was not uncommon even for "80s kids".

[LucasMaxBros]

Most NES games were poorly designed, but what did you expect? It was one of the first eras of videogames. When most people talk about retro, they are talking about the good aspects like how in Metroid you can go left.

I'd definitely take modern games over NES games though. There wasn't a rulebook for how games should be made back then, but now there are a lot of design philosophies we use to make awesome games. But my point before was that I liked the limitations some of the developers were under.

Because of that, they had to really consider what does what, if I make this would it fit, will this lag, how the art would work, etc. And some of them made games that changed gaming. PoyoPoyo(Kirby) was a placeholder sprite for the main character of a game, but they liked his simplicity so much that they kept him instead. Mario 1's camera was revolutionary, Zelda had the first save feature, and a couple of others. I just appreciate the creativity, since it revolutionized and made gaming what it is.

[Superb Joe]

the reason the dutch are the tallest people on earth and that europe has much better health outcomes than the us is because nobody had a nes

[Canned Turkey]

I had an nes

[ProgramGamer]

The point of retro is to mimic an aesthetic, shovel knight gets it the best and most indies imitate it to certain degrees of success, intentionally or not. Also, nostalgia and references.

[Canned Turkey]

I guess I'm in the minority when I say I think shovel knight looks fugly.