If there's anything to put you in a bad mood..

[Dog--]

..it's definitely playing a hard NES game. I was just playing Ninja Gaiden (emulator), and I got to thinking..

Games back in the day were hard as ****, and would take a LONG time to get right and complete. You had to work at it, it took dedication. You had to do it in one sitting or too bad, your not beating the game. Look at games now.. I don't think I own a modern game I haven't beat. And I barely have any that are actually really really hard. It's really rewarding playing these old games because they're so god damn hard, but when you put the time into it and finally beat that boss or level, it just feels so damn good, am I right?

I just wanted a thread to talk about these old games and any experiences people have had with them (or the difficulty of them), what games you got, what systems, etc.

I've got a 3rd party SNES/NES console, and I only got a few games.. I lost all my shit years ago, and have finally started rebuilding. I've only got Mario/Duck hunt, Mario 3, Zelda, and Super Mario World. I've actually been looking at USB NES controllers online, and I might just get one of those and download all the roms and just play it on my PC. I just looked up the price for games and it's pretty ridiculous how much money people want for some of them. There are a few I'll probably still buy though, the classics. First purchase is probably going to be Ninja Gaiden

 

[JFry]

I agree games back in the 8 -16 bit era were much harder what we have today (and have had for quite some time). The only somewhat recent thing that reminded me of the difficulty is diablo 2 hardcore mode, which is awesome imo aside from horrible lag deaths. I think lost levels from super mario bros all stars was one of the hardest games from back then. Battletoads I think had a reputation for being hard too. As did Ron Jeremy. Heyo.

 

[Mogi67]

Battletoads. **** that game. I always had a really hard time with Mega Man NES games

 

[MJ12]

I feel games back then were only hard because of 1. The technology (no quick saving) 2. They didn't understand how to balance a game yet.

 

[Bad^Hat]

It was mostly because they could only make the game so long thanks to cartridge limitations, so difficulty was their way of padding out the length. Often at the cost of the player ever even seeing the entire game.

Alex Kidd was my Everest. ****ing bike level, man.

 

[Dog--]

I feel games back then were only hard because of 1. The technology (no quick saving) 2. They didn't understand how to balance a game yet.

I dunno I kind of like it better. When you say you beat a game it should sort of be an accomplishment. Back then you could say you beat a game and people would be like "woooaaa man that's awesome!". Now it's like 'oh yea I beat that game', 'cool.'

 

[Gargantou]

I feel games back then were only hard because of 1. The technology (no quick saving) 2. They didn't understand how to balance a game yet.

ZT speaks words of wisdom and I am inclined to agree with him.

People who want that feeling of accomplishment these days usually go for getting all achievements/trophies in a game, at least that is true for several folks in the old-gaming community I frequent since a few years.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

my family being raped and killed in front of me

killing and raping your family is redeeming though

 

[Stormy]

I remember when I first played sonic 3 and thought it was incredible that you could save the game! Shit what I can turn it off and come back later and not have to start right from the beginning again! fukk yea!!

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Oh yeah, and any jRPG made since 1999

 

[Paulaner]

Infocom text adventures were unbeatable by regular human beings.

 

[TheOneFreeMan]

I dunno I kind of like it better. When you say you beat a game it should sort of be an accomplishment. Back then you could say you beat a game and people would be like "woooaaa man that's awesome!". Now it's like 'oh yea I beat that game', 'cool.'

That's because we've got past the concept of "beating" a game ... now it's just about playing, not beating.

 

[Doomination]

all you had to do is follow the train CJ

 

[Remus]

I prefer the way games are now. When I play a game I want to have fun, not get frustrated and pissed off to the point of breaking the keyboard in half.

 

[Acepilotf14]

If there's one thing I would do away with in modern games it'd be how they hold your hand and treat you like you're retarded the whole way, and you keep expecting the tutorial to end but it never does.

Yahtzee complains about this a lot, but it's true.

 

[Dog--]

Back in the day games just threw you in and said "have fun". Not even a "Good Luck"!

 

[morgs]

Y'all need to play the PC version of cannon fodder.

 

[Mogi67]

can't say i've played a challenging game in years

 

[Bad^Hat]

What is this shit.

 

[Adabiviak]

I don't miss the over-the-top difficulty, where it seemed difficult just for the sake of being hard. Grinding through those was never rewarding for me; after several dozen tries, I just wanted to get past it and see the rest of the game (and I could regularly beat Contra, Side Arms, Black Tiger, and Toki in the arcade on one quarter, so I don't consider myself too much of a slouch). I only owned Atari 2600 console games, so the difficulty level wasn't as gnarly as the subsequent Nintendo/Sega/etc. systems (which I played at friends' houses).

Am I dating myself? I remember when the 'pause' function was new in the Atari 5200... can't imagine living without that now.

 

[Bad^Hat]

I remember pause being a giant ****-off button on the console itself. Good old Master System.

Edit: Bee tee dubya, best game -

 

[Dog--]

I don't miss the over-the-top difficulty, where it seemed difficult just for the sake of being hard. Grinding through those was never rewarding for me; after several dozen tries, I just wanted to get past it and see the rest of the game

I think of it more like since the games are shorter, they make it hard to make it last longer. It is alot more rewarding seeing a cutscene or the next level after you spend so long getting through a certain part.