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This is a link post Mr Biffo - Old Games Are The Worst
The writer of Pudsey The Dog: The Movie being spot on about how retro-style indie games are usually far better for nostalgia than the real deal.
(I helped save b3ta! monkeon schmonkeon, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 21:01, Reply)
This is a normal post Yes.

(I helped save b3ta! drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 21:11, Reply)
This is a normal post I defy anyone to find a better game than this though
youtube.com/watch?v=xoDXL4HEaKY
 (I helped save b3ta! drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 22:08, Reply)
This is a normal post How about a Finnish bloke reviewing...
...Graeme Sounness Vector Soccer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4waGl0lZxbs
 (I helped save b3ta! Fray Brentos *mega-belms*, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 22:30, Reply)
This is a normal post no way is that a real game :O

(I helped save b3ta! drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 23:27, Reply)
This is a normal post although vector games were commonplace
'Zeewolf', one of my faves back in the day:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dphbGMn9So
 (I helped save b3ta! drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 23:29, Reply)
This is a normal post
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxmvPmNvsAk
 (I helped save b3ta! monkeon schmonkeon, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 23:43, Reply)
This is a normal post FUCK. Mr Biffo wrote Pudsey the Dog: the Movie?
Rose, you have messed up.

I cuss you bad.

What a moc-moc-a-mockery.
 (Jimbotfu Bummed in the gob again, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 21:16, Reply)
This is a normal post He wrote this about it
www.digitiser2000.com/main-page/panel-4-both-sides-of-the-fence
 (I helped save b3ta! monkeon schmonkeon, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 21:29, Reply)
This is a normal post Interesting, if depressing read.
Seems it was a shit film made cheaply to cynically cash in on high-profile banality.
The fact it was aimed at kids makes it all the ickier. It's a cinematic turkey twizzler.

No deeper conspiracy in the negative reaction.

Shame Biffo felt hard done by, but what did he expect? I imagine it was a paycheck for everyone involved. They didn't set out to make a bad film, but I can't imagine they really cared about making a good one either.

Complaining that the critics attacked it for being a corporate product inextricably linked to Simon Cowell is...odd. Because, really... what else was it?
 (Jimbotfu Bummed in the gob again, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 22:45, Reply)
This is a normal post tl,dr;
He gave Sonic 2 76%?!
 (Jimbotfu Bummed in the gob again, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 22:56, Reply)
This is a normal post Bout time someone had the stones to call that. Old games are fucking shite.

(I helped save b3ta! Quiver Search for FATALISTS on Spotify, Amazon, Apple, &c, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 21:37, Reply)
This is a normal post Well, now they're just smartened up a tad and turned into mobile phone apps instead.
There are a few games that are good, but 99% of apps are utter balls.
 (I helped save b3ta! Fray Brentos *mega-belms*, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 22:27, Reply)
This is a normal post It was always like this.
Most 8 bit gmes were recognised as being shit at the time. There were a few brilliant ones, lots of mediocre ones and dozens of utterly crappy knockoffs.

It was the same in the 16 bit era, and it's the same now.

Personally I thought the 16 bit games were pretty much the high point for "retro". Computers were good enough to run something reasonably complex but they were still cheap enough to make that people could do crazy stuff.
 (tacpprm has a mmrpcat, Fri 25 Sep 2015, 9:01, Reply)
This is a normal post radio 4 yesterday: UK Gaming
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06bp38h
 (I helped save b3ta! artifus is doing it all wrong, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 21:50, Reply)
This is a normal post while this is undoubtedly true (barring a few exceptions maybe)
what makes most of those early games so shit by modern standards is really rough gameplay and technology that wasn't anywhere close to being able to do what it wanted to be doing. By the era of the megadrive/snes this was becoming less the case, and I still find myself playing stuff from that time, or their modern equivalents.
 (I helped save b3ta! mutated monty, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 22:43, Reply)
This is a normal post I like me some old games and have all the classics on emulation-o-tron.
But:

On average, they're fucking hard. Much harder than I remember. Especially when you go back to 8 bit.

Maybe I just don't have the patience to spend hours wrestling with wonky physics in a crap platformer any more.

Maybe modern games are much more forgiving.

Or maybe I've just got old and shit.
 (Jimbotfu Bummed in the gob again, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 23:01, Reply)
This is a normal post think its a combination of the two
back when I was a kid i'd spend months playing a single game until I knew it back to front, cos there was nothing better and i had loads of time. But games in those days were as hard as balls, no question. Modern games don't even need instruction manuals.

Also, games started life in the arcades, where the more they killed you the more money they would make, and it took a while for that level of difficulty to ease off as they migrated to home consoles.
 (I helped save b3ta! mutated monty, Fri 25 Sep 2015, 0:04, Reply)
This is a normal post ^

(I helped save b3ta! omnitruncatedkraken from Empire Algol, Fri 25 Sep 2015, 9:49, Reply)
This is a normal post I usually can enjoy
watching 8-bit games being played, but playing them myself is often too much like a chore.

I think you're right about the SNES-era, though. Most indie games I like now could have been built then without losing much.
 (I helped save b3ta! monkeon schmonkeon, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 23:04, Reply)
This is a normal post You can see in the metroid and zelda games
how far they progressed in gameplay between 8 bit and 16 bit. Those old nes games are pretty obscure and unforgiving at times.
 (I helped save b3ta! mutated monty, Fri 25 Sep 2015, 0:20, Reply)
This is a normal post they were certainly often brutal
also, in terms of gameplay progress the NES games themselves were a massive step up on the previous 'generation' of (mostly) crap that was being put out before Nintendo got its seal of approval in place.
 (Melatonin, Fri 25 Sep 2015, 8:22, Reply)
This is a normal post 95% of old games are utter shit
So I don't play them. But there are thousands and thousands of games, which means 5% still gives me shitloads of decent games to enjoy.
 (I helped save b3ta! Thrill_My_Chinchilla is old and unimproved, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 22:56, Reply)
This is a normal post Bollocks
I spent two days over christmas completing Jet Set Willy again. Its fucking tough, but its brilliant. The last ninja is in there too, and that still holds up (although the controls suck).
 (I helped save b3ta! DinivanX Has stinging piss after drinking Pact Coffee, Fri 25 Sep 2015, 9:01, Reply)
This is a normal post Well, JSW is the best game of all time.
Got to play it on a real speccy at Game City for the full nostalgia rush.

If I were to disagree with Mr Biffo, I'd go for the angle that some old games are amusing for being so shit. The Atari XL version of JSW for example: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P3d-8OdIsA (which has an amazing theme tune)
 (I helped save b3ta! monkeon schmonkeon, Fri 25 Sep 2015, 11:28, Reply)
This is a normal post Attention-seeking bollock-spouter with no clue what constitutes a coherent argument.
Good games are good. Shit games are shit.

In graphics, low-res and low-colour do not matter; jerky movement and flicker matter, whether the game is brand new or 35 years old.

Only having one fire button does not matter; quick responses and clearly defined actions matter.

First-person, third-person, overhead or isometric views do not matter. Being able to see what you are doing matters.

There are piles and piles and piles of utterly shit games thrown up by every generation. The trick is not to be a fucking idiot and instead play the good ones.
 (I helped save b3ta! joefish It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks, Fri 25 Sep 2015, 12:44, Reply)
This is a normal post I know what you're saying,
but many of the best games I have played on old systems have been recent homebrew stuff, which have taken advantage of increased knowledge of what makes something playable.

The point I liked of his was not that old games are bad, but that indie games have more of what made them great - the willingness to experiment etc, combined with the increased knowledge of game mechanics that have evolved by people making mistakes in the past.
 (I helped save b3ta! monkeon schmonkeon, Fri 25 Sep 2015, 16:22, Reply)