It's official (to me, anyway): NES is now retro.

[Pantechnicon]

Atari 2600 and I go way way back. It will always be my first and greatest gaming love. But now that it's 2005 and marking 20 years in the U.S., I've got to raise the retro glass (as if this needs my decree...) and give a toast to the fabulous Nintendo Entertainment System. :cheers:

Back in the day (1985) I despised all things NES. Oblivious to the market mechanisms of the crash of 1984, the only thing I understood was that I was nobody was selling Atari games anymore - save for the bargain bins - and that this ugly grey overpriced game box was taking Ataris place for reasons beyond my ken.

Sure, I thought, it's got better graphics, but look at these games. They're all the same. I was basing this bias on what appeared to be a never-ending succession of side-scrollers vertical shooters for the system. Sports games did not register on my conscious, and I had yet to see an RPG for anything other than the Commodore 64. And what was up with that controller? A little dinky pad and two fire buttons? Looked too complicated for me.

So I kept this mad-on for another four years, until one day when I was in the Marine Corps and some of the guys rented an NES for the weekend along with a game some of you may have heard of called Crystalis. It was, at the time, the most fascinating and engrossing game I had ever seen. Suddenly I realized there was more to this system than meets the eye.

Well I don't want to muse too long. And again, it's just my opinion here but I just wanted to be the first in 2005 to say it to the NES: welcome to the club.

[imanerd0011]

I too think the NES deserves it's title as a Classic system now. I think it many peoples eyes it has been retro for quite some time now, but I think that 20 years is the start of being retro (but some people think that Dreamcast is old school. LOL ).

I love the fact that Crystalis changed your mind about the NES. It was one of my favorites as a kid, and I also thought it was a truely amazing game at the time it was released (it still is today too!).
Heres to another 20 years of NES gaming :cheers:

[Gapporin]

20 years!? It doesn't even seem that long! Wow, I feel old. LOL

[Dahne]

As a young whippersnapper, it amuses me greatly that the NES once had better graphics than anything.

Cheers to the good ol' Nintendo. :cheers:

[pineapplehead2]

NES,Master System and Commodore 64 have the best games in the world IMO.

[Perkar]

let's hope those 72 pins keep getting made for another 20 years ;)

[Ed Oscuro]

As a young whippersnapper, it amuses me greatly that the NES once had better graphics than anything.
SMS?

[Ed Oscuro]

Here's to another 20 great years of NES game playing, and I'm also gonna say I love Pantechnicon's sig :)

[MegaDrive20XX]

NES,Master System and Commodore 64 have the best games in the world IMO.


very well put

:cheers:

Here's to Nintendo, I hope they have something planned well for the 20th anniversary in the USA

[Kepone]

Hell, I remember when my dad bought a NES in 1988 or so(can't really remember). Man, talk about memories playing SMB and many other games.

Some NES games I still love nowadays. River City Ransom and Mike Tyson's Punch Out stand out as two of those games.

[Ed Oscuro]

Here's to Nintendo, I hope they have something planned well for the 20th anniversary in the USA
Ugh...dare I say it, I think they missed their chance by fumbling with the NES Classic Series...it won't work this year it seems (or will they wait until the 86/87 national relase? LOL )

[Promophile]

Here's to Nintendo, I hope they have something planned well for the 20th anniversary in the USA
Ugh...dare I say it, I think they missed their chance by fumbling with the NES Classic Series...it won't work this year it seems (or will they wait until the 86/87 national relase? LOL )

What I would give to live in Japan. You wouldn't BELIVE all the stuff they have. For example, you can actually get PERFECT little replicas of Fanicom games, cardboard box cart and all. The carts are, in fact, erasers @_@ . These came with certain games, and if you collected them all and entered the codes at Nintendo's site they sent you a nift thing to hold them.

[Ed Oscuro]

What I would give to live in Japan. You wouldn't BELIVE all the stuff they have.
Yes I would; I would even BELIEVE it :D

There was an offer for a case that holds a bunch of the Mini titles at once; I believe it was only offered via Nintendo's club (whatever it's called...), that showed up a few months after the July 2003 (has it really been that long? lol) release of the Minis.

Personally, I have little interest when I can play the real things. But hey, Nintendo's making money and that's fine by me :)

[JJNova]

let's hope those 72 pins keep getting made for another 20 years ;)

Preach it brother! Give it to 'em!
Amen!
Hallelujah!

That's probably bordering Blasphemy, so I hope the Lord is more into using the Online Rarity Guide than he is into checking this forum.....

[MegaDrive20XX]

Here's to Nintendo, I hope they have something planned well for the 20th anniversary in the USA
Ugh...dare I say it, I think they missed their chance by fumbling with the NES Classic Series...it won't work this year it seems (or will they wait until the 86/87 national relase? LOL )


Fumble on the 40 yard line....

Now that you mention that...yeah what a sloppy release of NES games... :roll: thank you Nintendo for screwing us out of Kid Icarus

[Ed Oscuro]

let's hope those 72 pins keep getting made for another 20 years ;)

Preach it brother! Give it to 'em!
Amen!
Hallelujah!

That's probably bordering Blasphemy, so I hope the Lord is more into using the Online Rarity Guide than he is into checking this forum.....
Heh. If Nintendo hadn't cheaped out in the first place, we wouldn't be asking this question 20 years from now! :P

[lendelin]

Sure, I thought, it's got better graphics, but look at these games. They're all the same. I was basing this bias on what appeared to be a never-ending succession of side-scrollers vertical shooters for the system.

Does this remind you of opinions about TODAYs games?

I never understood why gamers ignore or condemn entire libraries of a certain generation of games or specific game systems, and only in hindsight with a nostalgic retro-view appreciate them. I understand individual preferences, but they are all games; and because game development was and always is gradual, the big seperation lines between game-generations doesn't make sense.

When it comes to gameplay value, I only recognize good games and bad ones; age doesn't matter.

If the NES or SMS is a 'classic' system, I don't know. As long as we don't know what 'classic' is and define it, it doesn't make sense to put 8-bit games into a 'classic' category or the 'neo-classic' category. (the latter never made sense to me anyway)

[Pantechnicon]

Does this remind you of opinions about TODAYs games?


This post brought to you by the letters "D" and "C"(times 3).

Up to a point it does, yes. I'm not saying it was a fair or valid opinion. It was just that at the time I didn't really understand that the American locus of the game market had died and the Japanese were ascending. I was 15 and still considered my 2600 to be the end-all and be-all of gaming systems. Most of my friends at the time were likewise either 2600 or Colecovision buffs who, moving into their late teens, weren't even really even playing videogames all that much anymore. It was always the younger kids I saw raving about this new NES thingie. I didn't undersand this Japanese machine (SMS really didn't dent my local market) with superior graphics but what appeared to me to be gameplay that was either redundant or too complex. It just never really occured to me to let go of the old paradigm. Nowadays I tend to be less about the console than about the games available for it. But back in 1985 it's probably safe to say that nobody really knew how to handle this 2nd advent of a gaming market.

[retroman]

i think that every 2 generations of systems...things become retro

[Flack]

I never understood why gamers ignore or condemn entire libraries of a certain generation of games or specific game systems, and only in hindsight with a nostalgic retro-view appreciate them.

I think some of that comes from the fact that when systems are new, we are bombarded with games and marketing. We are constantly being told what games are good, what's "hot" for Christmas, etc. It's only after some time away from them that we can step back and really take a look at what was good and what was just hype. The cream does eventually rise to the top, it just takes a while sometimes (like 20 years).

[Cranky Kong]

What I would give to live in Japan. You wouldn't BELIVE all the stuff they have.
Yes I would; I would even BELIEVE it :D

OMG that is hilarious the way you corrected his spelling like that! You've really raised the level of internet humor!

[ApolloBoy]

Wow, it's been 20 years and I've been playing the NES non-stop throughout my life for 13 years. Here's to another 20 years! :cheers:

[lendelin]

I never understood why gamers ignore or condemn entire libraries of a certain generation of games or specific game systems, and only in hindsight with a nostalgic retro-view appreciate them.

I think some of that comes from the fact that when systems are new, we are bombarded with games and marketing. We are constantly being told what games are good, what's "hot" for Christmas, etc. It's only after some time away from them that we can step back and really take a look at what was good and what was just hype. The cream does eventually rise to the top, it just takes a while sometimes (like 20 years).

That's right, I just wanted to point out that we shouldn't put current games under scrutiny while looking at older games with forgiving nostalgia. A cold and distant view is always good, for current games and older games.

The hype can easily be avoided: First, play games and ask yourself if they are worthwhile playing ten years from now; second, reading game-previews of one year old game mags is is a breeding ground for objectivity. :)

[Ed Oscuro]

The hype can easily be avoided: First, play games and ask yourself if they are worthwhile playing ten years from now; second, reading game-previews of one year old game mags is is a breeding ground for objectivity. :)
I've done that with a number of game sites. It's funny how "this game has some minor issues with the camera" becomes "The camera totally destroyed the game" in the review. LOL

[NESaholic]

The dawn of a new era! 20 years of Nes,i'm gonna drink on this tonight!
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/images/smiles/2003_cheers.gif

[Keir]

I never understood why gamers ignore or condemn entire libraries of a certain generation of games or specific game systems, and only in hindsight with a nostalgic retro-view appreciate them.

I think some of that comes from the fact that when systems are new, we are bombarded with games and marketing. We are constantly being told what games are good, what's "hot" for Christmas, etc. It's only after some time away from them that we can step back and really take a look at what was good and what was just hype. The cream does eventually rise to the top, it just takes a while sometimes (like 20 years).

That's right, I just wanted to point out that we shouldn't put current games under scrutiny while looking at older games with forgiving nostalgia. A cold and distant view is always good, for current games and older games.

The hype can easily be avoided: First, play games and ask yourself if they are worthwhile playing ten years from now; second, reading game-previews of one year old game mags is is a breeding ground for objectivity. :)
We're also cheap. Why pay $50 for the best new game, when the best games for older systems can be found for a dollar at fleas and thrifts everywhere?

[=physicalboy=]

I've got to raise the retro glass (as if this needs my decree...) and give a toast to the fabulous Nintendo Entertainment System. :cheers:

I couldn't agree more... :cheers:

Whether you loved or hated it, in my book it deserves a salute....a classic/retro system! I loved it back in the day and I still love it now! :)

[izret101]

i think that every 2 generations of systems...things become retro

I was thinking about it and I figure NES HAS BEEN retro. I really don't know what i consider retro anymore though.

It sucks because i am not old enough to really be an "Original Gamer" and missed out on so much great history but on the plus side i grew up with Genesis and SNES :) .