Email: old school gaming

Mr. Malstrom,

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Sorry for the long e-mail. I’ve written you before and you’ve even posted it up, so I really appreciated that! I get the impression that you’ve gone from “isn’t gaming exciting? Let’s watch the industry die” to “gaming is truly, truly dead” in the last few months, and that makes me sad. However, I can’t disagree, because I feel the exact same way. To comfort myself, I’ve been investing in older game consoles and older games. I feel like I’m buying gold by the ounce: I think that the value (gaming value, not necessarily monetary value) will skyrocket in upcoming years. It’s amazing how there are so many “solid” games from the past, dozens and dozens of great games! I often tell my friends why bother buying modern games because there will be a more feature-packed version of that game coming out next year and then the year after? But it’s not that way with retro games. With almost every retro game I buy (of course there are a few duds) I feel like I’m actually adding to my game library because I know these games are replayable. I even bought a Saturn (a horrible commercial failure of its time) and I’m finding more fun games on that thing than I can find for my Wii or PS3.

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I was never too good at Street Fighter 2. I picked up a Genesis/SNES SFII guide from a thrift store that explains all sorts of combos and intricacies, and I feel like I’m discovering a whole new game (it reminds me of that post you made about how games are math, and math is pleasurable. SFII is full of calculations!). How odd. A 15+ year old game has the power to capture my attention where modern games cannot. It’s definitely not “nostalgia goggles”, because I had no interest in trying SFII out again until I got that guide. My friends and I have a blast digging in to these old games. My apartment is almost becoming that “house on the block where all the kids come to check out the videogame console” that you spoke about in reference to the Atari, NES, and Wii (when it launched). My wife likes the socialization but she says it can be a bit too rowdy! There are other games I never played when they were first released like Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Lightening Force, and Legend of Zelda (yes it’s true!), and they are so fun. They are also fun to watch even when I pass the controller and my friends take a turn. I’m even trading in many of my PS3 games in order to buy older games because I never ever played those PS3 games again.

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I guess the point of this e-mail is that I’ve stumbled onto something that I think I knew all along: a good game remains a good game. With that definition, there are hardly any “good games” from our current gaming generation, and that’s sad. Where are our Contras and Zeldas? And I don’t mean the franchises, I mean where are our games that become classics and stand the test of time? Are we so worthless as customers?! Take my money, Capcom! Seriously! I’ll buy your games when you actually start making classics again! You can even hike the price up to $80 a game. I don’t care. When was the last time Capcom actually tried to make a new fighting game, not a rehash of old franchises? The lack of “classics” is absolutely mind-numbing. When I look at store shelves, wanting to be responsible with my money, I ask myself “will this game last me longer than a year?” and I can’t find a single title that fits the bill. A year! I just want a year! A year is not too much to ask for when games like Sonic 2, Gradius, and Super Mario are still being played to this day. What’s even more maddening is that I’m being told that “I’m stuck in the past”. WHAT? A customer is stuck in the past? It’s like I’m holding money in front of a photographer asking him to take a simple portrait of me, but he refuses and keeps snapping photos of trees and birds (with quirky, unique camera lenses like a fisheye lens). And then he tells me that “real photo lovers” enjoy his pictures of birds and trees and that portraits are stupid. Insulting. Unlike you, Malstrom, I actually enjoyed the N64 to PS2 generations but that’s because I was a kid/teenager during that time, so I cannot even imagine what you’ve gone through over the past 15 years. Why do these companies refuse to serve us? It breaks my heart to see SEGA, Nintendo, Capcom, and Konami (the few giants of the industry who still have arcade blood) working so hard and spending so much $$$ to make boring, forgettable “modern” games.
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You ask questions I have been for years. I believe it is because they, not being consumers of their games, are advocates for the New School. To them, an Old School game is ‘beneath them’. Look at how hard it is to get Nintendo to make a new 2d Mario. It is like they are trying their hardest to make that sort of game obsolete. They have convinced themselves that Old School Zelda is obsolete due to Ocarina’s sales. I’d love to see a proper new Old School Zelda appeared on the handheld (I believe a New Legend of Zelda would obliterate all previous Zelda game sales).
.The way how you’re playing games is how I played games through the Fifth and Sixth Generations. The idea of getting a group of people, playing in the living room, with cartridges ‘strewn about’, is the most enjoyable way to play video games. Even single player games are fun to watch people play and laugh when they die or something. I love playing games like Gauntlet with people and adventuring through the dungeons.

One big difference in how we play games then and now is that we did not play games for ego. There were no achievements. Oh no, I fell down the hole in a platformer! So what? We laugh about it and move on.

Today, this is called ‘casual gaming’. But it isn’t. It is called ‘actual gaming’. It is as if people got together and played cards, checkers, chess, or the more complicated board games.

I would buy more old games but my worry is with the change in television sets, I would be unable to display these games. Perhaps I need to look into the clone hardware (like the NES clones) and see if they properly work with new TVs. I love cartridges because they cannot age (except for the battery).

May I make some NES suggestions for your gaming gatherings?

This game is ridiculously fun. Don’t let the cartoon fool you. While Miyamoto claims it took until 2009 to make a sidescroller with multiplayer at the same time, Capcom was doing it in the 80s. Two players can play at the same time.

Life Force was one of the few co-op shooters on the NES. Very fun to play as groups. There is a cheat code where you can have 30 lives.

Everyone should play Double Dragon II in co-op. It never gets old! So much fun.

Bubble Bobble! Also co-op. Women LOVE this game. So it is a good game for the wife.

Women also love Dr. Mario! The multiplayer in Dr. Mario is fantastic.

Marble Madness! The video above has two brothers going at it. Their cursing and howls of laughter is the norm of old school gaming.

Mario Brothers is one of the best multiplayer games ever made. So much fun!

Most people play Super Mario Brothers 3 in single player. But Mario 3 is a very different experience when played multiplayer especially if you fight via battle mode. “I want to do the next stage!” “No! It is mine!”

Wrecking Crew! The game is multiplayer but I don’t remember if it was co-op or not. It also has a level design. Very fun. Most people overlook this fun game.

Guerilla War! Also co-op. Many people don’t know about this one.

Trog! It is co-op. Also not as well known. Very fun.

Rampart! Great multiplayer game.

Dusty Diamond’s All Star Baseball. Quirky game! But multiplayer and many people don’t know about it.

Archon! This is a complicated one but very fun once you get the rules. It does not play like Chess.

Spy Vs. Spy! Fantastic multiplayer game. I highly recommend this one because there is nothing else remotely like it today.

The flagship game of the Old School. It is M.U.L.E. While the video is the C64 version, there is a NES version. You have not tasted old school gaming until you’ve played M.U.L.E. in multiplayer. You find math enjoyable? You will like M.U.L.E. The game is hilarious. You are on the world of Irata which is Atari spelled backwards. Random events occur like pirates or a mule goes berserk.

Dan Bunton was a genius, no doubt. They do not make game developers like they used to.

And there are the usual suspects of River City Ransom, Ms. Pacman, and so on. Those are just a few of the NES games.

For other consoles… well, I better stop now. It is so much fun to explore old school gaming especially with a group.