It’s easy to play retro games now and gloss over the challenges. With old stuff, we often have the best of both worlds – the challenges of the past can be overcome with modern features.
Save states help negate fake difficulty
Turbo/speedup and save editing help negate grinding, loading, and other time sinks
Digitization makes it easier to store and keep track of lots of game (no need to worry about someone losing a game you lent them!)
Modern storage capacities mean we can have as many save games as we want for free
Mods let us experience games (sometimes) even better than they were back in the day
Digital games are much more affordable now. Back in the day, if you wanted to play something other than your same handful of games, you’d have to borrow one from a friend, rent one, or pay at least 30 bucks or so for something that wasn’t trash. Or you want a brand new game? Might set you back $200 (both adjusted for inflation).
Yeah, the modern experience of retro games is super different in all sorts of ways.
All of that is 100% true. Conversely, a lot of stuff I was fine with in games at the time now seems unbearable. Old games that were great in context now aren’t and games that nobody knew existed now hold up great and have become cult classics.
Which is why preservation isn’t just about making the games playable, you also need some sort of record of how they were perceived at the time and why.
I’m overthinking some random meme about old game nostalgia, as usual, but none of this is wrong.
It’s easy to play retro games now and gloss over the challenges. With old stuff, we often have the best of both worlds – the challenges of the past can be overcome with modern features.
Yeah, the modern experience of retro games is super different in all sorts of ways.
All of that is 100% true. Conversely, a lot of stuff I was fine with in games at the time now seems unbearable. Old games that were great in context now aren’t and games that nobody knew existed now hold up great and have become cult classics.
Which is why preservation isn’t just about making the games playable, you also need some sort of record of how they were perceived at the time and why.
I’m overthinking some random meme about old game nostalgia, as usual, but none of this is wrong.