Have you guys in my age (18-24) realized that video games have gone downhill in terms of what we grew up playing on the genesis and snes? Also arcades are not here anymore, they are inside the ps2 and xbox, some arcade games can be played on the platforms. I miss going to the mall and playing them with lots of people (with grunge or the dying genre of heavy metal playing in the background, ahhhh.) Hell, some of the arcade based games had heavy metal soundtracks (at least the instrumentals).

And what about today's graphics? I know you guys will probably say the graphics are better now. But video games are toooooo realistic now. They are not as wacky now with less storylines. But they also don't look like video games anymore. The characters look too real. Feels like I am watching a tv show sometimes and not playing a GAME. I mean look at a game from the 90s and one today, and you will be able to tell that today's game is missing that something.

While some of it has to do with getting busy with studying for college which really made my video game interest plunge in the early '00s, I still have some free time, but most of today's games take WAY TOO LONG to play; the Game Cube game Animal Crossing really did it in for instance: certain objects could only be collected at certain times of the year! Also, way to many first-person shooters came about in the early '00s; and there aren't too many action/adventure/puzzle games that get released; despite some recent efforts to bring them back. I also prefer to play video games after they are no longer hot; when they fall in price where you can get them for only a few bucks on eBay or something; plus with my emulators of all the systems from the '80s and '90s, I want to keep playing the games I haven't played from that "golden age". Once in a while I'll play a Wii/360 game for a different feel, but the '80s and '90s are when gaming was by far at its most innovated. Developers often used the system to its limits. Of course there were many bad games (ET, Superman) that were released back then, the simplicity yet challenge/fun with high score displays really shows what video games were.

But for arcades, I still enjoy them for the pinball games, various skill games such as basketball shooting and air hockey, plus games that give out tickets such as Skee-Ball, but I'd rather go to a casino sometimes to really try to win real prizes. Many arcade games from the '80s and '90s are available online now, many for free, to relive those golden years. The main appeal for malls nowadays is mostly fashion, the food court, and not much else.

While some of it has to do with getting busy with studying for college which really made my video game interest plunge in the early '00s, I still have some free time, but most of today's games take WAY TOO LONG to play; the Game Cube game Animal Crossing really did it in for instance: certain objects could only be collected at certain times of the year! Also, way to many first-person shooters came about in the early '00s; and there aren't too many action/adventure/puzzle games that get released; despite some recent efforts to bring them back. I also prefer to play video games after they are no longer hot; when they fall in price where you can get them for only a few bucks on eBay or something; plus with my emulators of all the systems from the '80s and '90s, I want to keep playing the games I haven't played from that "golden age". Once in a while I'll play a Wii/360 game for a different feel, but the '80s and '90s are when gaming was by far at its most innovated. Developers often used the system to its limits. Of course there were many bad games (ET, Superman) that were released back then, the simplicity yet challenge/fun with high score displays really shows what video games were.

But for arcades, I still enjoy them for the pinball games, various skill games such as basketball shooting and air hockey, plus games that give out tickets such as Skee-Ball, but I'd rather go to a casino sometimes to really try to win real prizes. Many arcade games from the '80s and '90s are available online now, many for free, to relive those golden years. The main appeal for malls nowadays is mostly fashion, the food court, and not much else.


I have stopped video gaming since maybe 2002 or 2003.  I think it could be college too(we are probably the same age).  Anyways, in the 90s, I had almost every video game console, including ones from the 80s, thanks to my brother whom we had to share a room together, a nightmare!  I loved Playstation and Playstation 2, and I used to open up the consoles to install mod chips there so I can play backup games on it.  One of my favorite games of all time are Sonic series, Final Fantasy series, and the Gran Turismo series.  I didn't mind the 3D technology being integrated in video games, but I found it hard to adapt to the first person shooting camera view, especially the ones with the newer Metroid series. 

Currently, I don't have time for video games, but if I did, I want to get a WII.  The Wii's processor is far slower than the Xbox360 and the PS3, but the movement controllers do it for me.  Hell, this console would be heaven if I had Madden.

I still like playing video games, I even have a Genesis II which STILL works (except the restart button). And I still would like to play skeetball (heh-heh...skeet) as well as play pinball. I would actually like to get a Pinball Machine someday!

I'm an old fart who laments the demise of the local arcade, but even I recognize that the console has brought us most of the things that the local arcade used to:

Graphics: The graphics/gameplay you can get at home are now just as good as what you can get in the arcade.

Gameplay: The motion capture hardware you have at home is better than what you could have in an arcade, because it would be difficult to harden something like a Wiimote to stand up to the rigors of arcade use.  The only thing you can't (reasonably) get at home are full-motion simulators, which are too big to fit in the average home.

Social I: Your Friends: With Internet-aware consoles, the social aspects of life at the arcade can also be had at home: You can play cooperatively and/or competitively amongst your friends, even if none of you are in the same city anymore.

Social II: Cross-Cultural: You're even getting a bit of the "getting out there and exploring the world" aspect of the experience: 30 years ago, the trip to "that place downtown" and placing a quarter on the control panel to reserve your spot in line on the latest game was part of growing up.  But with random opponent matching from anywhere around the world, though, you can get that at home, too: your opponent could be anyone from that hipster at your local Starbucks to some dude in an Army base halfway around the world.

This topic is kind of funny because I'm reading through my old video game magazines (EGM mainly) from the 90s.  Soon I'll be entering the new millennium with my magazine reading (currently at September 1999).  It's been one hell of a nostalgia trip and very interesting.

The reason this topic is kind of funny is because it praises the Genesis and SNES days and how gaming these days isn't as good.  Fun fact: I read letters from my 1994 magazines bashing the then-current state of the games industry.  Letters saying that there's way too many copycat cookie cutter fighting games, that graphics are becoming more important than gameplay, video games are too expensive (actually true, most games in 1994 cost $70, more than the average cost of $60 in 2010!) that the video game landscape is a "sea of garbage" with only a few bright spots, etc.  Coincidentally, the mid 90s saw the first blooming of video game nostalgia with tons of early 80s game collections being released on the PS1 and such (nostalgia for the 80's second half of gaming didn't hit until the late 90s).

In fact, one constant throughout the years is that people always had a tendency to bash the current trends in video games.  You can pick up a magazine from 1994 and see people complaining about gaming then pick up a magazine from 2004 and see people being nostalgic for 1994.  It makes it kind of funny to see people idealize the 90s for games (no magazines from the 80s so I don't know there) only to read stuff from the 90s complaining about that supposed "golden age".  I guess it kind of shows that people have always bashed the present while pining for the "good old days."  While I personally love 90s video games, that era definitely had many flaws as well, just like the current era.

I'm an old fart who laments the demise of the local arcade, but even I recognize that the console has brought us most of the things that the local arcade used to:

Graphics: The graphics/gameplay you can get at home are now just as good as what you can get in the arcade.

Gameplay: The motion capture hardware you have at home is better than what you could have in an arcade, because it would be difficult to harden something like a Wiimote to stand up to the rigors of arcade use.  The only thing you can't (reasonably) get at home are full-motion simulators, which are too big to fit in the average home.

Social I: Your Friends: With Internet-aware consoles, the social aspects of life at the arcade can also be had at home: You can play cooperatively and/or competitively amongst your friends, even if none of you are in the same city anymore.

Social II: Cross-Cultural: You're even getting a bit of the "getting out there and exploring the world" aspect of the experience: 30 years ago, the trip to "that place downtown" and placing a quarter on the control panel to reserve your spot in line on the latest game was part of growing up.  But with random opponent matching from anywhere around the world, though, you can get that at home, too: your opponent could be anyone from that hipster at your local Starbucks to some dude in an Army base halfway around the world.


I feel the same way, Foo Bar, yet realising that the Xbox360/PS3 is basically a mini arcade in a box anyway...

I personally feel arcade games are dumbed down a lot these days but that is because I remember when games used to be almost impossible to finish. Back in my day (yep, a 'Bobby 31 and getting old' monologue coming through...) retro gamers only got three to five lives to complete a game - that was providing completing the game was possible as a lot of them would just simply loop back to the start to play again. As time went on we got continues but that was in no way a spritely waltz in the park (anyone playing R-Type will know what I mean by excruciating frustration). I personally think the save point is too liberal in some games. Examples include Gears of War I and II. Both masterpieces but because you could save regularly there was little peril involved so the whole thing became more of an experience than a game.

Talking of how hard games used to be. I was watching this walkthrough for one of the most maniacal games created for the 8 and 16 bit machines today - Ghouls 'n' Ghosts by Capcom. This is the Ultimate Ghouls 'n' Ghosts walkthrough for the SNES. It features in various parts, most are easy to find in the user's video section on the right:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaE3CHXP8TQ