Retro video gaming: a solo pursuit or shared passion?

[treismac]

How much do you play retro video games with others? When is the last time you beat Contra with a childhood friend or took out a friend with a red turtle shell on Ghost Valley 1 in Super Mario Kart? Occasionally, my girlfriend or friends will humor me and play a game or two with me, but the fact that they aren't enjoying themselves all that much really takes away from my enjoyment of the experience. While I do enjoy playing by myself, I miss playing with others here and there.

So, how often is your retro gaming a social activity? Your thoughts.

[weirdguy]

I do my retro gaming alone only 50% of the time. I got some friends that are gamers too and sometimes we select a few carts and play until we try them all.

On the other hand, my current gaming is about 90% alone.

[RPG_Fanatic]

Being an old bastard (40) I play all of my games alone (except xbox live) my friends and my wife aren't gamers so it's just me. But that's fine with me because I mostly play RPG's.

[Malon_Forever]

Not too often anymore. Still play some N64 games with friends though.

[VG_Maniac]

Mostly alone. I have a cousin who's in to the classics, but most everyone else I know are only into modern games. I have one friend who sells his old systems everytime a new system comes out. He used to own a Playstation and N64, but he sold them in 2001 and bought a GameCube and PS2. He than did the same thing again in 2006, and sold his GameCube and PS2 to buy a Wii and an Xbox360.

[Emperor Megas]

I do about 90% of all my gaming alone.

The wife does play some games with me, but there aren't that many games that we play together, retro or modern. Mainly the Mario Kart series and the Left4Dead games. The only game I can think of older than the last generation that she's stilling willing to play with me is Trip'D, on the 3DO. She loves that game because she can hold her own in it.

[HYB]

I do most of my gaming with my SO :). At least the other is usually present if we're not playing anything togheter.

[xelement5x]

My wife and I normally play the newer cooler stuff together, or the longer story based games we are both interested in. But we still have plenty of time where she plays her Dragon Quest on the DS and I'll go up and root around in old Sega hardware for hours.

[jwmollman]

Mostly alone. I have a cousin who's in to the classics, but most everyone else I know are only into modern games.

I know what you mean. Most of the people I know are into Call of Duty and whatnot, but for me, after the PS2, I started to go back in time and get back with the classics (SNES, Genesis, etc.). Nobody I know now is into classic gaming.

Oh, and I do all of my gaming alone. I remember being a kid growing up in the '90s, all of my gaming was with my cousin on his family's Nintendo 64, then PlayStation, then our Gameboy's, etc...

[Colorado Rockies]

95% of the time is alone unfortunately. I would love to play more retro games with friends but we usually end up playing call of duty or halo on xbox live.

This Christmas my cousin and I are planning on beating Secret of Mana tho, sothat should be fun.

[Johnny_Rock]

I hang out on retro channels on justintv/twitchtv a lot if that counts. Otherwise it's mostly by myself.

[Edmond Dantes]

Shared, definitely: I get the pleasure of the game, and my cat gets to lay in my lap.

[Sunnyvale]

Mostly alone, as (like the rest of us geeks) most my friends laugh when they see my SMS or whatever. But I do have a fellow collector/retro gamer here in town who I'm friends with, and we play every now and again.

[NerdXCrewWill]

I guess I'm lucky to have a good gaming group. We end up gaming at least once a week, if not more, and just about every day in the summers.

My three best friends will play anything with me (Playstation, Sega CD, Atari 800, CD-i . . . anything!) and actively seek out new retro games for us to try and share together. We're on a pursuit to eventually play all the good games ever made. Another friend of ours is less serious about collecting (he's poor) but will play anything put in front of him and loves playing emulated versions of the main classic consoles on his Dreamcast. His wife loves anything multiplayer, so we often find ourselves playing Worms, Twisted and its 3DO brethren, and Fire Pro Wrestling. Recently there's been a couple of new guys hanging out with us (new bandmates) who absolutely love anything from the Playstation era. It's really fun to play Saturn and 3DO with those guys.

To bad the rest of our significant others don't much like watching us play, so they end up staying home or talking about girly stuff.

[danny_galaga]

Mostly alone, sometimes I'll take the N64 to a friends. And once a year or so I'll have a Retro Games day and make a party of it.

[jonebone]

Mostly alone on any generation of gaming, retro or current. Probably at least 90%, and usually is the girlfriend who is playing if it's a multiplayer game.

It's a true rarity if I'm actually playing a game locally with a friend. It's just due to getting older and having more hectic schedules. I wouldn't say that I miss it... I just know that I'm on to the next stage in life and things tend to change over time.

[VertigoProcess]

My friends think my collection is cool but no one every wants to actually play any of my games/old systems with me... it's kind of depressing...

[Sunnyvale]

My friends think my collection is cool but no one every wants to actually play any of my games/old systems with me... it's kind of depressing...

Par, my friend, par.

[Fuyukaze]

These days, I don't even bother playing games alone anymore. If I play anything, it's almost always with a friend or a family member. The single player experience lost most of its charm the past year to me. What few times I do try to play alone, I tend to bore of it in less then an hour. With a friend though, I can play for 3-4 hours with the ocasional break.

As for the retro spin, I find most people tend to go more twords the systems they started with. The older crowd who started on the 2600 tend to be more willing to play that then those who started on the NES or SNES. In turn, those who started with the N64 tend to avoid most things older then it. I find it has more to do with what they can relate to then a simple avoidance of anything old.

[Damaramu]

Online, I play with friends a majority of the time, be it on XBL or Steam. Outside of that, I'll play retro or new games with my wife and/or friends.

Yup, I married a gamer and my friends are gamers. Life ain't too bad! :rocker:

[Steven]

Largely a solo pursuit/escape/get-away for me.

Once in a while, when my brother visits, we'll play something. We beat Brawl Brothers earlier this year and I also introduced him to the awesome BS Out of Bounds Golf game on SNES, and he loves that game.

Also, Christmas is a family gathering time where usually we get our Super Bomberman on. Last Christmas I spent over 2 hours playing Super Bomberman 2 and TMNT IV with two of my cousins -- it was an old school blast. Really a fond memory for me :)

Other than that, it's mainly solo. Which is fine, since I'm going through a lot of the great SNES 1-player only games right now :)

[cooky560]

Defiantly shared, nothing like classic co-op gaming in Streets of Rage 2!

[Pedro Lambrini]

I play alone. I've got a bunch of pals who claim to be into older games and systems ("SMB3 is the bestest game in the world.!!") but when it comes to the crunch they all invariable play Xbox Live. To be fair, one of them does own a SNES... I've even seen it powered on once!

I'd like to play multiplayer games sometimes but, in general, I'm pretty happy in my own world most of the time.

[djshok]

I hardly ever play games with someone else, and it's always been like that. I never much cared for 2 player games unless they're turn based like SMW or fighting games. It's just too annoying to play a co-op game with someone when they're at a much different skill level than you. It only ever worked out once when my wife and I beat TMNT Manhattan Project together, she's a little better than me at that game but not so much that it made gameplay annoying.

Usually when I play with a friend we just take turns each level, even in 2p games.

[Shulamana]

I was considered the "loner kid who was good at video games" back in school, because people just assumed I was good at games because that's what I did all the time (mainly because I had few/no friends). As an adult, other than my mother playing Dr. Mario or Tetris Attack on my old SNES every other year or so nobody I know really expresses an interest.

My sister bought a Wii in April, and has literally never used it after I set it up for her.

[Baloo]

I wish video games were more of a shared passion for me, but unfortunately I do most of my gaming alone. Usually I go to a video game gathering once a month though at my local game store (Next-Level in Blackwood, NJ) so at least I get some time to talk about games and compete with others, because after a while playing by yourself it just meh.

[Aussie2B]

Shared, definitely: I get the pleasure of the game, and my cat gets to lay in my lap.

Cute. :)

To answer the question, for my circle, it's more a matter of one person playing and everybody else enjoying just watching rather than all of us actively playing competitively or cooperatively. Or sometimes a few of us will be playing different games together, like one person on the TV and the others on handhelds. I guess we just tend to go after the single player-only games, especially me with my love for RPGs and platformers. But we do have a blast pulling out Mario Kart 64 or such and four controllers once in a blue moon.

[Shulamana]

once in a blue room

Not sure if intentional or not, but :D

[Aussie2B]

Not sure if intentional or not, but :D

Doh, that's the second time I've done that lately. I don't get how you think that ties in with my comment, though. :P I think playing Castlevania is messing with my brain, with the maps filling in with blue, haha.

[jammajup]

Being an old bastard (40) I play all of my games alone (except xbox live) my friends and my wife aren't gamers so it's just me. But that's fine with me because I mostly play RPG's.

Similar situation with me as i am also 40,most my friends who i used to game with back in the day have other commitments now and do not even talk games let alone play them.
So of all the people i have known i have just 1 cousin and 1 friend who enjoy to talk or play retro/classic games.