Five retro games that dominated my childhood

Hi guys,

I thought I'd post this here -

Five retro games that dominated my childhood

Any retrospective thoughts on retro gaming?

Thanks for reading!

I've always liked 'retro gaming'. When I was younger, it was forced on me since I always had computers that were 5 years or more behind the times. Actually, I still have that, I guess, but it's not as noticeable as it was back then, since i can run 90% of the games out there and probably 99% of the ones I want to run.

I'm also a bit annoyed with the way gaming has gone in the last several years. I don't like the pay-per-month models of MMOs (though I think the games themselves are good) because I feel paying once for a game is enough. Indirectly, MMOs have also helped to kill my favourite types of games, the solo fantasy rpg, for reasons mostly having to do with economics.

I also don't like the way most modern games give you as many 'lives' as you want, so that even a complete dunce can beat any game, given enough time and 'load save game' clicks. I was very happy with the recent game 'Torchlight' because it included a 'hardcore' mode where if you die, that's it. Game over, done, character erased, start from scratch. Too few games are like that anymore. Games like Baldur's Gate (which, don't get me wrong, I loved) can be beaten by even the most incompetent of gamers without skill, just by trying over and over again, whereas in the "good old days" those people were penalized by having to replay the beginning of the game for their lack of skills. Again, this is due to economics; games today are catering to the casual, average person, rather than the nerdy, hardcore fantasy gamer like me, because there are less of the latter than the former.

Anyway, for my top retro games of my childhood... hmm

Nintendo:
1) Super Mario Bros. You know you're old when you can remember when the 3rd installment came out, and you remember thinking "Holy crap, the graphics are SO much better than the first two..." I can't tell the difference anymore :p I used to play this series religiously with my best friend at the time. A prime example of the sort of game where if you die, you have to start over.

2) Bubble Bobble. We used to play this one all the time, too. We weren't very good at it, though, and it suffered from the 'load save game' problem above, since it had passwords you got after you beat each level, so you could just restart there. We weren't hardcore gamers yet, though; we were like 8 years old :p

3) Blades of Steel. This was a really fun hockey game. Keep in mind I don't really like sports or sports simulators, so that's saying something.

I played lots more, but those three are probably the most influential, and I didn't play much of the other systems at the time, so I don't have any favourites from those.

Computer five
1) Hack. I learned to play this roguelike game when I was something like five years old, no joke. I don't play this particular one anymore, but I *still* play roguelike games, even though the 'graphics' are nothing but ASCII characters. This game is in large part responsible for my being a complete fantasy nerd today.

2) Doom. This was the one FPS I played often enough to get good. Really good. Me and my sister used to play Deathmatch on our LAN all the time. I remember one day I played against my buddy from school via modem connection (yes phone modems :p that's all they had then) and after several dozen kills against him without dying, I letmy sister, who is five years younger, take my place without telling him. (We were probably like 15 and she was like 10 at the time) She then proceeded to destroy him just as badly, and he was pissed when I told him what we had done the next day! Good times...

3) Master of Orion. (the original one) This turn-based empire-building game used up a *lot* of my time when I was young, because it was so good and because it took a long time to play a game. The sequel was just as good, if not better, though the third one was an absolute disaster.

4) Magic: the Gathering (by Microprose) Based on a collectible card game that I played for years, .this let me build and play with decks that would have cost more than a year's college tuition in real life, for nothing. I haven't bought any cards for years, but I *still* play this computer game several times a week. It was also the game that made me beg my dad to get Windows 95 so I could run it, because we had DOS as the time.

5) Scrabout. This is just a simple Scrabble game, written for windows 3.x, but I still play this one, too. For awhile I was into scrabble really hardcore, and would memorize word lists, such as ones with statistically probable (and usually extremely strange) words that I could then use in-game. Thanks to this game, I know that aediles, terefah, zyzzyva, epinaoi, and countless others are actual real words, though most I would have extreme difficulty using in a sentence. I also used to play scrabble online with other people, but they thought I was cheating!

reply to post by DragonsDemesne


Thanks for your contribution DragonsDemesne. I agree with your points regarding modern gaming - games are just too easy these days!

The frustration felt when nearing the end of a game and dying without a single 'save' point was beaten only by the sense of determination to get back to that point as soon as possible!

3) Blades of Steel. This was a really fun hockey game. Keep in mind I don't really like sports or sports simulators, so that's saying something.

Good call ... such an epic game!

Myself & friends have been playing it on the NES lately, but it takes ages to get it to work and sometimes it's liney! LOL. Great game though, glad I was introduced to it.

"WHIT THU PASS!"

[edit on 14-6-2010 by markymint]

Remember this one?



Good times.


TheAssoc.

Originally posted by thebox
Hi guys,

I thought I'd post this here -

Five retro games that dominated my childhood

Any retrospective thoughts on retro gaming?

Thanks for reading!

About retro game, scrabble was my most darling game in my childhood. And still scrabble is my favorite one. Several time I play scrabble and taking savour of scrabble.

Thanks
Clarence D. Young