How far can you go back generation wise and still have fun?

I can go back all the way back to the 8 bit era.

However, I have a hard time going back to pre-NES. Most of the games I enjoyed on those pre-NES systems are arcade ports, not originals. While Pitfall was novel, I cannot play it with any enjoyment today.

But, I can have tons of fun with many NES and Master System games to this day and I'm still exploring those libraries.

 

I feel like part of the “fun” per say is being able to like, find the actual games. I still have my Ps2, but 10 year old me sold all my ps2 games for literally nothing and I’m super sad about it. I didn’t have a concept of nostalgia at all and now my ability to go back to that generation is gone (I could buy some games from eBay or something but as of right now...)

 

I actually did something similar! When I got my PS3 I gave my PS2 and all the games I had away to a friend who wasn't as well off as I was. I regret it now because one of my hobbies is collecting games and game merch and like you said buying back some titles isn't exactly cheap.

 

I regret it so hard tbh. Like I remember tony hawk skater or whatever and all this other stuff that’s out there somewhere XD

Here’s the other thing: will we someday be entirely unable to play these consoles? Because for example, my PS2 has those yellow, white and red thingsy. Eventually TV’s may get rid of those right? I can’t think of anything they’re used for other then games and old DVD players. That means you’d need an old tv and an old console

 

That’s pretty cool actually. Because I know the PS3 doesn’t even have those, it’s all HDMI and whatever. But you’re right, when all the cds are gone we’re really screwed

 

This is actually why I support game emulation. Who knows what will happen to all these discs and cartridges in the next 50+ years. I know most people use emulating for piracy but a really great aspect of game emulation is being able to preserve these games digitally for as long as the internet exists.

 

I've never gone beyond the 8 bit era. There' d be no nostalgia involved if I went further.

While I can plug RCA cables on my HDTV the result looks pretty dreadful. An actual cathodic TV remains your best option. I'm told CDs and DVDs last 50 years tops. As for catridges and consoles I'm not quite sure. You might be able to keep those in good shape for a lifetime, but I'm pretty sure you can't save files on cartridges forever. It depletes an internal battery.

 

Yep same, 8-bit. I could still play Joust now and probably be entertained for hours.

 

I’ve never had a CD or DVD break on me yet, but I’m super sad that a bunch of games are one day going to be lost forever because no one bothered to put them online. Or even old movies if we’re talking about DVDs. Like some stuff is going to go extinct which is crazy to me.

We can keep poems all the way from Ancient Greece alive but some TV shows and other stuff no one bothered to record and put online instead of a disc are gonna get lost forever

 

Game preservation is a rather interesting thing actually. And we're starting to see strain on it already despite how young of a medium it is. Like the technology that makes light gun games like Duck Hunt work requires a CRT screen. Modern displays refresh differently and just straight up won't work. So do we try to keep CRTs alive in some capacity? But how long do we expect to be able to do that? Or do we modify the games to work on new hardware? Well then you're hitting issues about if that counts as preserving the game and how many games can we patch like that (if it's even legal to because of copyright).

 

bump bc this is basically my favorite thing

I love picking up older games I missed out on before, and I think most older generations tend to have at least a few gems. Gen 3 (NES/Master System/etc) is a natural threshold, although I have a soft spot for a few of the arcade titles from before then also. It's true however that it can get pretty pricey! I'd still argue that a basic setup is usually less of an investment than buying new consoles/games, but I don't have any motivation to collect for some platforms because it's so expensive (SNES...).

I'm actually very invested in trying to "futureproof" my older analog systems and keep them looking and running okay, although lately this has required opening a few of them up. They do look best on a CRT -- awesome even -- but imho CRTs are finicky and, while I don't encounter them dying outright very often, these days they tend to come with picture problems (bad geometry, color impurities) and they're a nightmare to fix. Unfortunately getting this stuff to play nice with modern displays is a complicated and often expensive process, and it's only getting worse.

If anyone is interested, many older systems can output a pure RGB (+sync) video signal which is really clean without any modifications. It's leagues better than composite video. The issue from there becomes upscaling or "line doubling," and converting it into something an HD display will take. I'd love to do a little writeup on this stuff sometime.

 

I grew up on the NES in my early childhood (woo older sister born in the 80s!) so I can go that far back.

 

I've never really been that big into 8-bit honestly. I like the idea of simplicity, but every time I try to play anything 8/16-bit, it just doesn't seem that fun to me. The only 8/16-bit game I could get into were the classic Sonic games, those were great. My first non-portable console was the GameCube, so things like that I can get into easily. My favorite was Super Mario Sunshine, anyone else a fan of that?

Of course, I'm mostly a PC gamer now, so I haven't played a console regularly in a while now.

 

For me I can basically go back to my wii (if I can find a specific cable for it to start up again) and still have fun. I would also say Gamecube but some of my discs just won't run on it and I think I'm also missing a cable for it too. As for portable, I would go back to the original Nintendo DS and play some old gameboy advance games on it. The game I had the most fun with the wii would have to be Sonic Riders Zero Gravity or Super Smash. Nowadays I just mainly play on my 3DS or my PS3.

 

Far enough to play the Street Fighter Alpha series, 2nd Impact, and the Street Fighter EX series. The older street fighter games were godlike (except for the game that made DSP win a tournament becaues it's a bad port). There's also Darkstalkers, Marvel vs Capcom 1 and 2, Samuria Showndown, KOF MAXIMUM IMPACT, Guilty Gear 2, Jojo Heritage to the future, so many great fighting games. If I don't recall, the Dreamcast had some badass fighting games and JRPGS.


The Dragonball games on the Dreamcast and Ps1 were great. There's also Persona 2 innocent sin and Eternal Punishment on the Ps1

 

For me it would be PS1 sort of era but that is mainly because of my own personal nostalgia aspect. I probably could have fun playing these older games but I would probably get bored because I have no personal connection to it. I couldn't play Pacman until the early hours of the morning like I can with modern games but that may be because they are a lot simpler. Of course I still have fun playing the older games, I just wouldn't play them for hours.

 

I still have a working PS2, though I don't use it as often as I used to (these days I can play PS2 games on my desktop computer).

I've also played a fair number of old LucasArts puzzle adventure games from the '80s and '90s, and most of those are still pretty fun as well (Day of the Tentacle is probably my favorite one.)