The retro gaming thread!

[Xela]

1 hour ago, Keyblade said:

I envy the kids that grow up with iPads and PS4's etc from birth pretty much. It was a struggle back in the day.

I don't envy them. Being bombarded with tech from such a young age, I'm not sure is a good idea, personally. 

I'm glad I didn't discover the internet until I was about 18! 

 

[GarethRDR]

7 hours ago, Beastmix said:

I'd be quite interested to hear what everybody's pre-ps2 console journey was, actually...

Despite being the right age to have a NES onwards, my folks didn't get us a console until PS1 so my linear computer-gaming journey has been Spectrum ZX81 > Atari ST >  home PC > PS1 > Xbox > Xbox 360 > PS4.  That doesn't account for the Master System II, Mega Drive II, SNES and PS2 I've picked up at random points along the way as second-hand/garage sale finds.  Console gens prior to the PS1, I had to go round mates' houses to "play" i.e. sit there like a plum watching said mate play, hoping to be chucked a 5-minute long scrap if lucky; how the hell this experience ever came to be popularised - monetised, no less - in the years that came as streaming/Twitch culture, I will never, ever understand.

Edited March 29, 2021 by GarethRDR

[Stevo985]

6 hours ago, Beastmix said:

Those Spectrum cassettes were hilariously bad. I remember having my ZX hooked up to my dad's paint-splattered work hi-fi so I could wait 20+ minutes for a game to load...

Bad (yet nostalgic) times 

When a game was like the 6th one on a tape and you waited all that time and then accidentally stopped it at the wrong time. That was the worst

[Stevo985]

This loading noise gives me chills

Edit: having read the comments it seems that if you had an actual spectrum and used an MP3 to cassette adapter then that YouTube video would actually load Manic Miner onto the spectrum. No wonder they were so easy to copy  

 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2021 by Stevo985

[Chindie]

18 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

This loading noise gives me chills

Edit: having read the comments it seems that if you had an actual spectrum and used an MP3 to cassette adapter then that YouTube video would actually load Manic Miner onto the spectrum. No wonder they were so easy to copy  

 

 

 

TV shows used to play an electronic garble of noise at the end of an episode for people to record and then load onto their computers.

Which kinda feels increasingly bizarre as time goes by.

[Keyblade]

42 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

This loading noise gives me chills

Edit: having read the comments it seems that if you had an actual spectrum and used an MP3 to cassette adapter then that YouTube video would actually load Manic Miner onto the spectrum. No wonder they were so easy to copy  

 

 

 

Man, so you would just sit there for 3 minutes and listen to that noise while the game booted up? Here I thought spending 2 minutes blowing on an NES cartridge and putting it in the console at different angles was as bad as it got.

It's not even an oddly pleasing noise like dial-up was. That's just grating

Edited March 29, 2021 by Keyblade

[Stevo985]

8 hours ago, Keyblade said:

Man, so you would just sit there for 3 minutes and listen to that noise while the game booted up? Here I thought spending 2 minutes blowing on an NES cartridge and putting it in the console at different angles was as bad as it got.

It's not even an oddly pleasing noise like dial-up was. That's just grating

3 minutes if you were lucky.

A lot of the tapes I had would have multiple games on. You couldn't just fast forward to the game you wanted, you had to sit there and wait for each game in turn to load in order until you got to the one you wanted.

(actually you probably could fast forward if you knew exactly where to fast forward to. But without a counter on the cassette player and knowing where to stop it that wouldn't be possible

[Designer1]

8 hours ago, Keyblade said:

Man, so you would just sit there for 3 minutes and listen to that noise while the game booted up? Here I thought spending 2 minutes blowing on an NES cartridge and putting it in the console at different angles was as bad as it got.

It's not even an oddly pleasing noise like dial-up was. That's just grating

3 minutes was considered a Turbo loader on the Spectrum and C64. 

Some of the bigger games like Elite you would be looking at 15 minutes easily.

[Beastmix]

7 minutes ago, Designer1 said:

3 minutes was considered a Turbo loader on the Spectrum and C64. 

Some of the bigger games like Elite you would be looking at 15 minutes easily.

Yeah, I had to wait about 15 to 20 minutes for every game I owned.

[Beastmix]

12 hours ago, Xela said:

I don't envy them. Being bombarded with tech from such a young age, I'm not sure is a good idea, personally. 

I'm glad I didn't discover the internet until I was about 18! 

 

I wouldn't have it any other way. There was a particular magic about having the old consoles at the time. Everything was fascinating.

Consoles have no 'heart' these days. It's just 'load times' this and 'frame rates' that.

[Demitri_C]

9 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

This loading noise gives me chills

Edit: having read the comments it seems that if you had an actual spectrum and used an MP3 to cassette adapter then that YouTube video would actually load Manic Miner onto the spectrum. No wonder they were so easy to copy  

 

 

 

Feck me my ears

[Stevo985]

I'm now looking at ZX Spectrum 128Ks on ebay...

Quite tempted! You can get one with a bunch of games for under £100

 

Although my dad's is probably in a box somewhere in my mom's garage

[hogso]

Born in 86, my gaming history pre PS2 went Game Boy - SNES - PS1

I think got these in '95, '96, and '97 respectively. 

My favourite games on those devices at the time were Link's Awakening, Super Mario All Stars, and uh, Demolition Derby. 

DD was one of those PS1 games referenced above that was barely held together. Even as a ten year old I thought the screen tearing looked a bit rubbish, even though I didn't know that's what it was. Regardless, the crumpling effects were decent, and I think it's a reason I've always had a real affinity for 'destruction effects' in games regardless of genre - BFBC2 being one of my favorite examples. 

Up until '98, I liked games, but I didn't love them. I started BIG SCHOOL in '97, and then got FF7 in '98 and that was that. At a time where home Internet was a rarity (or an impossibility for myself and most of my mates), talking about beating this boss, or finding this weapon, or getting stuck and talking about it at lunch was such a massive part of school life for me, it was almost certainly to the detriment of my achedmic achievements! 

Edit - as evidenced by my speeling above. Dem approved. 

Edited March 30, 2021 by hogso

[Follyfoot]

23 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

I'm now looking at ZX Spectrum 128Ks on ebay...

Quite tempted! You can get one with a bunch of games for under £100

 

Although my dad's is probably in a box somewhere in my mom's garage

This was the Daddy IMO

 

[Follyfoot]

12 hours ago, Xela said:

My Mom used to work at Carrefour when I went to Walmley junior school. It became a Gateway for a while as well?

Indeed it was, been an Asda since 1989, I feel very old 

[BOF]

Finally we're back to talking actual retro

[Ingram85]

Got stuck right back into Gran Turismo 2, graphics aside it’s still a phenomenal game. I’d love an update of the Grindelwald track in GT7.

[Chindie]

We always had consoles and computers in the house from when I was a kid. My brother had a range of those late 80s/early 90s computers - Amigas, Amstrads, through to DOS based stuff which I mostly remember for watching him play Doom. We also had a a couple of Spectrums, one of which (a Living Daylights bundle) is in the loft still with a bunch of accessories and so on, but this was before my time.

My own experience of consoles

NES - family console. Duck Hunt with the zapper, Mario 1 to 3, Mega Man, brilliant. We had that console for about a decade all told.

Gameboy - hand me down. I eventually got one of the clear redesigns for myself, which I still own because of how much I loved it.

SNES - Christmas present, still got it. Also had the Super Gameboy attachment. Brilliant console.

Game Gear - brother had one and we later got another for a knockdown price. Strange console, a handheld that isn't REALLY portable, unless you were Mr Duracell or Energiser, but it had a few good things on it. Still got one of them at least but the screens gone on it.

PlayStation - Christmas present, still got it. Loved it at the time.

N64 - brothers console but I spent more time on it and had more games. Still got it. Love it.

Gameboy Color - was never in doubt I'd get one, the Gameboy was my thing. Brilliant machine. A slightly more powerful slim Gameboy, it's brilliant. Sold it to help buy the GBA.

PS2 - Christmas present, still got it. Great console.

GBA - first console I bought myself with savings. Still got it. Loved it. Basically a portable SNES.

GameCube - unexpected birthday present. Sold a year or so ago unfortunately. Had the Gameboy Player for it as well. A small library of games but some brilliant ones. And sadly Mario Sunshine.

Dreamcast - bought for myself when they did the firesale on them. Sold it about 5 years later. I don't love it like many do but I can see why is beloved.

Xbox 360 - bought for myself right around the time I went to uni. RROD once, still got the replacement console with the bigger harddrive. Later got the redesign console for a great price as part of a Microsoft scheme when I worked in retail, which I've still got. It's a bloody great console and it came at the right time for me, at uni and then my first job.

Wii - managed to get one around release. Probably the least liked Nintendo console I've owned. I can barely remember what I played on it besides Twilight Princess and Wii Sports. Really not one I love.

Xbox One - unexpected present. Initially the jump from the 360 was enough to overshadow the issues, but as time went on it was clear that the console was a bit of a stinker in its original guise. Still have it for some reason.

3DS XL - bought on a whim, mostly to play Mario 3d Land. Good console despite itself. I was working on the release day of the original 3DS in retail, and really didn't like it, the redesign won me over. I still think the whole DS concept is shit though. Still own it but have sold 90% of the titles I had.

Wii U - bought because I wanted to play Wind Waker HD and I had the cash and was mentally in a tough place. Not a bad console on the game library it had, but clearly a bit of a busted flush. Sold it last year, still need to shift a few games.

PS4 Pro - great console. Still got it. The game library is nearly peerless for what I want from a game these days, the exclusives they had for it are absolutely brilliant. Old school Nintendo dominance style.

Switch - one of the few consoles I've bought twice. I still don't love the concept. I've played it exclusively as a handheld. It's nice machine but it's showing it's age now. I could sell it now (...again) and not miss out, but equally there's titles I want to play still.

PS5 - all the usual new console stuff really. It's clearly powerful, it's clearly a first draft, it's got some dumb issues. But it is good.

[It's Your Round]

Some good memories in this thread.

My first experience of gaming was a Commodore Vic20, it was my Dad’s really but I remember playing Pac-Man on it as little kid. We also had a Binatone TV master, which was great fun for a game of tennis. Anyone remember them? (Picture down below)

My first computer was the C64, well a joint present for me and my sister. She was obsessed with Manic Miner, I was into Dizzy, Double Dragon, Bubble Bobble etc... this was the time (late 80’s/early 90’s) where you could buy games from most newsagents for about £3. my favourite game before I sold it was Speedball, loved that game.

Next up was a Sega Megadrive, fond memories of Streets of Rage, Mortal Kombat, Sonic, and the first ever FIFA game (which was nowhere near as good as Sensible Soccer). 
 

The futuristic PS1 came next, and the discovery of International Superstar Soccer (ISS), which later became Pro Evo. I pretty much just played that all the time, with a few other games thrown in for a break. Same for the PS2, it was 2-3 hours a day of Pro Evo, with Tekken and GTA as a change. 

That was the last console I had, I don’t play anymore as adult life these days doesn’t leave much time for that. I’ve had some good runs on my kid’s consoles though, they’ve gone through Nintendo DS’s, Wii, Xbox and Switch. At one point I could thrash them on MarioKart, and competed the New Super Mario Bros on the Wii, when they couldn’t do it. Now though, they’re serious gamers and I don’t understand today’s gaming

Take me back to the sprawling arcades of 1990 and give me a couple of quid to play Streets of Rage, and I’d be very happy. 

 

[Keyblade]

20 hours ago, Ingram85 said:

Got stuck right back into Gran Turismo 2, graphics aside it’s still a phenomenal game. I’d love an update of the Grindelwald track in GT7.

How's the performance on PS3?