Do you think the "classic/retro gaming craze" has died down recently?

[Steven]

I remember back in 2006 how popular NES, Genesis and SNES were. Boards were booming, topics of nostalgia and "Wow, remember 10-15 years ago" threads.

Now it's 2011 and I don't know, it seems the craze has died down quite a bit. Perhaps most of us have already purchased and played all those old childhood games we reminisced about back in 2006?

What are your thoughts on this topic?

In general, I feel most '80s/early-mid '90s nostalgia has died in recent years with technology becoming all the rage (i.e. iPhones, Angry Birds, etc.). I remember in 2005 bootlegs of old childhood cartoons were all the rage, too. Has the "nostalgia period" ended?

[goatdan]

I remember back in 2006 how popular NES, Genesis and SNES were. Boards were booming, topics of nostalgia and "Wow, remember 10-15 years ago" threads.

Now it's 2011 and I don't know, it seems the craze has died down quite a bit. Perhaps most of us have already purchased and played all those old childhood games we reminisced about back in 2006?

From the perspective of the GOAT Store, we sell more today than we did in 2006, and I have less time to worry about it. We haven't added any new consoles since like 2003ish either, so it isn't that. The 'hot items' have changed a bit (2600 gets a lot less sales today) but we've only seen sales go up.

From the perspective of the Midwest Gaming Classic, we drew over 3700 people to this show this previous year, we drew about half that in 2006.

So no, I don't really think it has died off. It changes always, but I don't think it will ever completely die.

[MarioMania]

It will never die...

[Compute]

I think the novelty of it has died down. Instead of people freaking out because you can still buy 2600 games, now they just go buy them and play them. Also the options for playing are way more expansive now. Digital download re-releases impact sales of old carts, for sure. Maybe you and I still want that copy of Gumshoe in cart form, but Noobly Dorkelson doesn't care if they have the cart. More people than ever are building MAME cabinets, even if the arcade collecting prices aren't ridiculous anymore. Maybe classic gaming won't get any goofy weekend magazine articles, but the audience is still there.

[boatofcar]

I remember back in 2006 how popular NES, Genesis and SNES were. Boards were booming, topics of nostalgia and "Wow, remember 10-15 years ago" threads.

Now it's 2011 and I don't know, it seems the craze has died down quite a bit. Perhaps most of us have already purchased and played all those old childhood games we reminisced about back in 2006?

What are your thoughts on this topic?

In general, I feel most '80s/early-mid '90s nostalgia has died in recent years with technology becoming all the rage (i.e. iPhones, Angry Birds, etc.). I remember in 2005 bootlegs of old childhood cartoons were all the rage, too. Has the "nostalgia period" ended?

I think it all has to do with how into it you are. I remember when I stopped playing Magic, I assumed everyone else did too, because I stopped reading about it on the internet. Then a few months ago, I was reading some random blog about MTG and it's apparently bigger than ever, but had just slipped off my personal radar.

[Graham Mitchell]

It's not so much that I'm not into it anymore, but at this point I've acquired a lot of what I wanted to get, so I've moved on to imports. PC-Engine, JP Saturn and Famicom Disk System are my primary foci at this point.

[Casati]

Discussing classic/retro gaming on message boards has died down recently, and in the summer. I haven't purchased everything I want, rather given up on doing so because many of them have become expensive. In 2006, you could still get a lot of CIB games at reasonable prices on Ebay.

[Aussie2B]

If you look at one specific time period, yeah, it's going to die down, but the popularity of playing retro video games hasn't changed. It's usually roughly a difference of 15 years. Add 15 years to the age at which people were playing their childhood games, and they've hit a point in adulthood in which they have some disposable income and a desire to recapture their childhood. The serious collectors and players will always be buying and talking about every era of games, but in terms of the "craze", that's where your answer lies. These newcomers to retrogaming either stick with what they grew up with or lose interest in collecting after awhile.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

People on message boards are probably exhausted of discussing "Sega versus Nintendo", "favorite system" "worst game", etc. That may not mean that collecting is down, just the discussion of it.

Maybe one of this site's administrators can tell us if site traffic is down from a few years ago.

I also agree with what boatofcar said. I also quit playing Magic, and by doing that it makes it seem like everyone else quit as well. It probably works that way with gaming too. If you hit a lull in your interest, you may be "seeing" that happen around you as well. It's just something our brain does.

Also, I imagine the release of downloadable classics on the three major systems (and the 3DS) have satisfied the appetite of a large number of people who would normally be collecting the physical media.

[8bitgamer]

At the shows I've done recently, interest in the Atari 2600-era is down a bit from the craze of a few years ago, but NES, Genesis, SNES, N64, and PS1 titles are selling really well. Any non-common complete game will fly off the table if priced reasonably. Cart-only (but not disc-only in the case of the PS1) of hard to find, semi-hard to find, and otherwise desirable titles are also doing very well.

[xelement5x]

I'd also throw in that with the economy still being in somewhat of a down state, people are also less likely so spend money on a hobby like retro games. I think I've gotten some pehenomenal deals locally, just because people need the cash and can't afford to keep around retro systems they only play occasionally.

[portnoyd]

Retrogaming has blended into the general consciousness of gamers and pop culture. It's still there but doesn't seem as booming because it's part of the norm now. See also: Compute's post.

[Glitch695]

Honestly, I see it growing, and agree that it has folded into popular culture. Local store chains like CD Max, Mega Media Exchange, Half Price Books, etc, didn't even sell cart based games in 2006 (Could be location specific, but I can't recall seeing them other than the occasional stray NES cart). Now, all these resale stores not only sell large amounts of these games, but they sell them at ebay prices and with heavy movement, according to the people I know that work at these stores.
Five years ago, I remember boxed DKC 1,2, and 3 sitting at $1.99 each in a local CD Max for months. Now, they fly through $20 cart only DKCs in days. It has not dropped off.

[Kellhus]

It was definitely going through a weird growth period in like 2009-2010, but it's starting to simmer down.

[StoneAgeGamer]

I see it growing as well, but this time of years sales are down for a lot of this type of stuff since us people in the north finally get to go outside.

[Glitch695]

I see it growing as well, but this time of years sales are down for a lot of this type of stuff since us people in the north finally get to go outside.

Yeah, that started about 3 days ago. What a terrible summer thus far. Nicer weather, however, does usually equal more people having yard/garage/rummage sales...

[8bitgamer]

I remember boxed DKC 1,2, and 3 sitting at $1.99 each in a local CD Max for months. Now, they fly through $20 cart only DKCs in days. It has not dropped off.

It might be smart to start grabbing up all the cheap PS1, PS2, and Xbox titles you can get now (at least the better games).

[Lerxstnj]

Na, retro is still hot. It's just that E3 got a lot of gamers thinking towards the future and the newer systems.

[Atarileaf]

These things are cyclic. Right now the N64 seems to be the popular system to collect. Its about 15 years old and kids who owned one now have jobs and disposable income. On kijiji in my area its definitely the most bought and sold system in the retro gaming section of the site.

I've been finding a lot of Atari games so much cheaper in the last couple of years compared to 10 years ago. Prices have come down, with some exceptions of course. Less interest in Atari? Perhaps, but I'm sure it'll go up again. NES still seems to be the most collected for and interest in by the general collecting public right now but that may wane in time.

I don't think the interest will ever die all together. The current gaming climate, in my mind, is making classic and retro systems more appealing than ever.

[Baloo]

These things are cyclic. Right now the N64 seems to be the popular system to collect. Its about 15 years old and kids who owned one now have jobs and disposable income. On kijiji in my area its definitely the most bought and sold system in the retro gaming section of the site.

I've been finding a lot of Atari games so much cheaper in the last couple of years compared to 10 years ago. Prices have come down, with some exceptions of course. Less interest in Atari? Perhaps, but I'm sure it'll go up again. NES still seems to be the most collected for and interest in by the general collecting public right now but that may wane in time.

I don't think the interest will ever die all together. The current gaming climate, in my mind, is making classic and retro systems more appealing than ever.

I agree that it is very cyclic. If you track prices of different games over different systems in the past few years, you'll see that they fluctuate. Some games/systems go up (SNES is on the rise, as well as NES and N64) with others go down (Genesis, Atari). All depends on supply and demand. Even certain games, look at say for example Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. Prices before the AVGN reviewed it were low, then they rose to maybe $35-40 CIB. Then Michael Jackson died and they were $50-80. Now two years later you can get the game for $30 CIB.