Although I never played loads of console games back in the day, I did enjoy playing them. It all started for me in the 1970’s with a pong style console that came with a lightgun. I think I was about 10 or 11 years old and I may have had it for my birthday? I wish I could remember that far back. You would hit a square between two lines as bats in “tennis” or hit it against the wall “squash” style and shoot the square that moved around the screen. I can clearly remember my Mom’s old cat Bobby trying to get the square, ha ha. it sounds and looks so basic and non-exciting now but at the time it was state of the art stuff.
Of course, back in the 1970’s , 1980’s and 1990’s when I was playing the console above and the ones I owned after like the Commodore Vic 20, Amiga 500, 500 +, 600, 1200 and CD32, Sinclair Spectrum +2 and +2A and my Sega Game Gear (complete with the TV tuner), they were not retro at the time! I also used to play on Jnr’s Sega Master System, Megadrive and Playstation 1 with him too. As the years past they all become a nostalgia I fondly looked back on and I started my retro gaming collection with the above mentioned Amiga 500, 600 and 1200, the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast and the above mentioned Megadrive. As well as them I have the Nintendo NES, SNES, N64, Gameboy and Gamecube (I also have the Wii and DSi and DSi XL but they are not retro… just yet) and the above mentioned Sony PlayStation 1 and the 2 and 3 and the Microsoft Xbox. I have a lot of games for said consoles and a fair few peripherals as well and other bits and bobs. My collection spans 30 years or so and it is worth more than just money to me, it is a passion I need to play more with because being boxed up doesn’t do it justice. It needs to be on show to look at in wonder if nothing else. As well as them I have played emulation games on PC’s I have had and through my Amazon Firestick and 4K Firestick. and on as well.
So, although I do have a gaming section as part of my fun and games section, you can see why I could not justify sticking my LOVE of retro gaming as a subcategory of it. It deserves pride of place clearly on its own in my website menu.
Read about classic games machines and classic games etc. from my past and any memories regarding them in associated blog posts and in my decades section as well as in the above-mentioned fun and games section.
About Retrogaming
Retrogaming, also known as classic gaming and old school gaming, is the playing and/or collecting of older (or older versions of) personal computers, consoles, and/or video games (generally arcade), in contemporary times. Usually, retrogaming is based upon systems that are obsolete or discontinued. It is typically put into practice for the purpose of nostalgia, preservation or the need to achieve authenticity.
Retrogaming has three main activities; vintage retrogaming, retrogaming emulation, and ported retrogaming. Vintage retrogaming includes games that are played on the original hardware. Emulation involves newer systems simulating old gaming systems, while ported retrogaming allows games to be played on modern hardware via ports or compilations. Additionally, the term could apply to a newer game, but with features similar to those of older games, such as a “retro RPG” which features turn-based combat and an isometric camera perspective.
Participants in the hobby are sometimes known as retrogamers in the United Kingdom, while the terms “classic gamers” or “old school gamers” are more prevalent in the United States. Similarly, the games are known as retro games, classic games, or old school games.
Retrogaming has existed since the early years of the video game industry but was popularized with the popularity of the Internet and emulation technology. It is argued that the main reasons players are drawn to retro games are nostalgia for different eras, the idea that older games are more innovative and original, and the simplicity of the games that require fewer hours of gameplay.
Retrogaming and retrocomputing have been described as preservation activities and as aspects of the remix culture.
Origin Of The Word Retro In Gaming
The first known instance of the term “retro” in terms of gaming came from the online video game store RetroGames, which was launched in 1997 as a joint effort of Turbo Zone Direct and Robert Frasure. It specialized primarily in Turbografx-16, Sega Master System, and NES systems sales and repairs. This was quickly followed by the emulation website retrogames.com in 1998. The original word was coined by Robert Frasure when he found that “Flashback Games” was taken.
Retro Games
The distinction between what is considered retro and modern is heavily debated, but it usually coincides with either the shift from 2D to 3D games (making the fourth gen the last retro generation, and the fifth being the first modern), the turn of the millennium and the increase in online gaming (making the fifth gen the last retro generation, and the sixth being the first modern), or the switch from RCA to HDMI cables for video and sound transfer and the shift from 4:3 to 16:9 as the main aspect ratio for the games (making the sixth gen the last retro generation, and the seventh being the first modern). Some games are played on the original hardware; others are played through emulation.
Retro games can include video games as well as personal computer games for retro computing platforms. Arcade games are also popular and were frequently attributed to individual programmers. Some retro games can still be played online using just the internet browser via DOS emulation. In some cases, entirely new versions of the games are designed or remade. As well as playing games, a subculture of retrogaming has grown up around the music in retro games.
Retrogaming Methods
In the wake of increasing nostalgia and the success of retro-compilations in the fifth, sixth, and seventh generations of consoles, retrogaming has become a motif in modern games, as well. Modern retro games impose limitations on colour palette, resolution, and memory well below the actual limits of the hardware in order to mimic the look of older hardware. These may be based on a general concept of retro, as with Cave Story, or an attempt to imitate a specific piece of hardware, as with La Mulana and its MSX colour palette.
This concept, known as Deliberate Retro and NosCon, began to gain traction thanks in part to the independent gaming scene, where the short development time was attractive and commercial viability was not a concern. Major publishers have embraced modern retro gaming with releases such as Mega Man 9, an attempt to mimic NES hardware; Retro Game Challenge, a compilation of new games on faux-NES hardware; and Sega’s Fantasy Zone II remake, which uses emulated System 16 hardware running on PlayStation 2 to create a 16-bit reimagining of the 8-bit original.
Read more about Retro Gaming here.
The above articles were sourced from Wikipedia and are subject to change.
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