Kids get back into "oldschool" Golden Gaming

[Bloodwych]

Forgot to mention this guys. Proof that old-school “pickup and play”, instantly addictive games are timeless! They represent the true art of gaming and no instruction manual in sight!

Decided to drop into a large computer store last week when the kids were off and it certainly brought a smile to my face.

Out of all the machines set-up (playstations, x-boxes, gamecubes etc) the vast majority of kids were playing on those 10 retro games in one joystick things. At first I thought they’d just be taking the piss, but I soon discovered THEY WERE LOVING IT! Not joking, these mini-peeps were absolutely glued on games like pacman and dig-dug, trying to frantically beat each others score and arguing who was going to get the next go. Totally reminded me of when I was kicking my parents arse at Jelly Monsters on the Vic-20 at the age of 6. Or was it 5?

Poor next gen consoles - it was ghost town for them that day. Kids were having a go on them, getting pissed off with the controls or becoming board with what seemed like a "seen it all before" attitude, then wandered off far sooner than the group playing the classics.

So love em or hate em, these games in a joystick things are bringing old school back to the kids. Personally I have no use for them. It's also a shame none of them are upgradeable and retain 2-player as an option. Through their novel concept however kids of today (who are unlikely to use emus) are enjoying good old retrogaming!

[Amiga1992]

HOw old were these kids ? I guess no bigger than 6?

[Bloodwych]

Looked about 8-12, although older kids were sniffing round as well. Most of them have probably never seen these games before and found it a novelty to chase that hi-score. The store had six of the joysticks set up. Trying to shift stock I think. I was surprised, especially since you can get some of these games on platforms such as mobile phones - you'd have thought they wouldn't be that interested.

[Amiga1992]

Strange, kids that age already "apreciate" the nextgen shit. I can understand younger kids to grab these thingies (easier controls!) but this you tell me really is a bit of hope

But then again they'll get spoiled later. Advertisement does the trick.

Originally Posted by Akira

(easier controls!)

Also graphics are easier to perceive in old games.

[JudasEZT]

When my nephews had 8 and 11 respectively got pleased whit speccy versions of Nebulus and TargetRenegade.

they found Nebulus very interresting and different,.. months later they picked a MickeyMouse game for his PSOne which was basically the Megadrive/Genesis version of MickeyMouse with extra 3d levels that are very similar to Nebulus. they commented to me.

About TargetRenegade, they found it pretty hillarious and funny, and I susprised my self they liked this game because they already had the last version of Tekken for his PSOne.

[Unknown_K]

One of the reasons I got a Dreamcast and a PSX is because of the easy to play shooters, sometimes you realy don't want to play a complex game or spend hours looking for people to play PC games online.

The reason I keep my Atari 2600 around is for the simple games that don't need a manual or intense thaught to play. Great way to kill 20 minutes in between other tasks.

[Shatterhand]

And right now I read a feature in a gaming site about the next Nintendo home console, and Nintendo's president saying that "The games industry is going through a crisis, and this crisis won't be solved with newer technology, but with a revolution on gameplay. We don't need nextgen technology, what we need is nextgen gameplay".

Take that as a sincere speech from someone who understands gaming, or as a desperate speech from someone who sees Nintendo can't compete with Sony anymore

[Unknown_K]

Originally Posted by Shatterhand

And right now I read a feature in a gaming site about the next Nintendo home console, and Nintendo's president saying that "The games industry is going through a crisis, and this crisis won't be solved with newer technology, but with a revolution on gameplay. We don't need nextgen technology, what we need is nextgen gameplay".

Take that as a sincere speech from someone who understands gaming, or as a desperate speech from someone who sees Nintendo can't compete with Sony anymore

Nintendo doesn't have the cash to spend to beat Sony on hardware alone. Hell the PSX and PSX2 have kept Sony afloat for years, which is why they spend so much to keeping the unit selling.

I don't see how Nintendo can revolutionise gameplay on a new console since you dont need anything powerful for "gameplay" to begin with. lots of software developers have been caught up in the better graphics department ever since gaming got off the ground with the c64/apple II/Atari 800 allowing for decent graphics. From then till now there have been great gaming titles and utter crap with nice looking graphics. Long gone are the days all games HAD to look alike because the atari 2600 didnt have the horsepower or the memory to do better. Still E.T. and Riverraid were both made for the 2600 and had vastly different gameplay.

[gary]

On the subject of retrogaming, there is a game for the GameboyAdvance called "WarioWares" (I think) which is a collection of really simple little sub-games very reminicent of the old 8bit games played through at a very fast pace. eg: You're presented with one game and have about 5 seconds to figure out what to do, then do it and if you succeed you move onto the next, etc.

I've played the game on an emulator (VisualBoyAdvance) and found it to be one of the few recent games to have a similar 'fun' factor to the oldschool games but varied enough to keep me interested.

[Amiga1992]

I only heard good things about Wario Ware, and I can';t wait to try it out!