Old Consoles and Gaming - was it better then?

[Lara Mills]

Do you have any of your old gaming consoles and games? I still have my original Playstation and PS2. They both still work, and I have all of the controllers, games, memory cards, and everything for it. I'm quite proud of how good a condition it is in. Started playing this yesterday, bringing back some childhood memories:

Also went looking through some old boxes and found this gem:

It's my dad's, and then I've somehow ended up with it. For those with absolutely no idea what it is (if you don't, shame on you and don't slam the door when you leave), it is a one-game mini-console (I guess is how you would describe it). It has Donkey Kong on it, and is possibly one of the most frustrating games I have ever played. Oh yeah, and it STILL WORKS! No idea how, but it does. Now I just need to find Super Frog and I'm all set.

While playing Spyro and Donkey Kong, I realised that, as a child, I got frustrated with these games. The difficulty progression was noticeable and bloody infuriating. I got to one bit on the Spyro game and went "this is really familiar... I'm sure I raged at this" and then I remembered why... because I couldn't beat it.

The point of this is, gaming now seems to be a bit easier. You can select the difficulty, you can add mods if you want, and you can easily get help on how to beat a level. Back then, you had to work at it, but now if you are stuck it's a case of "Google knows all".

So, is gaming too easy now? Was it better "back in the day"? Or is that just nostalgia?

[AbsoluteNoob]

Part nostalgia for sure. Even going back to say, GTA (since that is a hot topic), you have folks claiming GTA III was the best, or maybe even Vice City, but after playing IV & V, it's VERY hard to play the aforementioned as the game mechanics are sooooooo archaic. Gaming is a lot better nowadays because you can easily get immersed in the world.

GTA V, Mass Effect (the first one) The Witcher 2, Red Dead Redemption. Those games were technical feats when they released (excusing GTA V as it's just out but my point still stands) that sucked you in because the technology has advanced to the point we can make realistic game worlds, with awesome art, graphics, AI, more NPC's on screen etc etc.

15-20 years ago or so, videogames were just games, past times, similar to games on Android and iOS phones, rarely did you find a game that could suck you in, as technology evolved we got the likes of Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid et al.

The only games that I played that seems to stand the test of time are Shenmue I, II, LoZ Ocarina of Time & Majora's Mask. mainly down to great game worlds and good mechanics.

TLDR; Nostalgia is a real thang'

[Lara Mills]

I didn't get into The Witcher. I played the tutorial and I didn't understand the combat. I want to play it, though, so I might have to try again. Do you have to use the spells, or can I just button mash for the entire game?

Mass Effect is one of my favourite series of games... absolutely love it.

I did actually find myself getting sucked in with Spyro, even though it was an old game. Sure, the combat wasn't as evolved (charge or flame instead of this gun for this, that gun for that, this ammo, this power, etc), but it had charm in the fact that it was challenging.

Are games more difficult now, or are they easier?

[Dub Lad]

I didn't find Spyro that difficult but I did love the gameplay it had some nice story line and the colours are really delightful

As for gaming getting easier, well before the internet and stuff like I had a NES and super mario bros. the amount of like little cheats/easter eggs n stuff you could discover was really cool I remember the last levels when you had to do the boats you could at the start of the level jump down the side into the water and spam the bejaysus out of button A to keep swimming under the boat and you pretty much by passed that lvl, there was no Google to look this up!!!

As for finding the old mario/donkey arcade game I give you...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQZ9w...A9055F5A7C3B30

It's a documentary about it and getting the highest score, it's called

The King of Kong; A fistful of quaters.


That's the little cheat there I found on youtube!



All the parts are there