I don't even think it's that, I compare it to things like watching a movie on PC which I've never really done (maybe once or twice) I can watch a DVD and it doesn't bother me it's some soulless digital copy of a real film. I think it's more something about LCD that sucks, looks too flat or something. Like for one brief shining moment I was like... whoa the windows in Windows really could look like a window if the screen was better at that aspect. LCDs do suffer in the contrast department or something right?

like with those Ghanian posters too the screen does the job but it doesn't really capture the feel of fabric or whatever they were made on

but yeah I think it's more about would you watch a movie on a PC if it was possible to watch the same movie on tv. Some kind of EYE EXHAUSTION thing where it's not as enjoyable to take it in. Because I'd think if it were that simple seeing the games in these crystal clear LCD monitor graphics would work for certain games like Mario etc.

so for the record my position on video game nostalgia is:

* today's games probably are better in terms of everything works and the controls are good and things aren't incredibly cheap like esp. NES games

* there is some quality about older games that was probably completely unintentional/a product of necessity but I do think it's really a style despite being a semi-accident and that RAWNESS was more interesting than random space marine game even if the NES game was dumb space marine game (like Contra kind of sort of??) I don't think it's inherent to the platform though I find some RPG Maker games interesting when the creator is limited by art skill and misuses graphics etc. I think it's more design choices than the analog frequencies generated by the Genesis transmit messages of peace and goodwill to your brain also I LIKE THE FEEL OF THE CONTOLLER IN MY HAND that's so gay and wrong I hope I forget I'm even holding a controller after about 30 seconds isn't that the point of a well-designed control pad?? I;ve become comfortably numb

* also just totally fucking unintended feelings conveyed by earlier games because of the difficulty at depicting things (ex. theme song to a certain game is terrifying because of the timbres of the harsh square wave sounds when the composer actually had in mind something sweeping and majestic) and sometimes when a work gets away from the artist's control it's the best thing possible. Try to draw some other comparison like an earlier game can make you feel so empty and alone because of the nature of the graphics like a man stranded on some desert island surrounded by literally identical/indistinct water graphics some 3D game could never convey this quite the same way. (real game situation the whole shit with Palom and Porom (sp) from Final Fantasy II and the walls are closing in on you the graphics totally work in favor of the situation creating a claustrophobic atmosphere) Final Fantasy in particular has a some interesting FRAMINGS of things that would never happen in 3D like animated fleshed-out characters battling against literally indistinct phalynx of foot soldiers who literally have solidarity/unflinching quality because there is no animation to make them appear otherwise. But yeah also the weird dramatic potential when a particularly nasty FF boss just DISINTEGRATES when they die the suspension of disbelief there is interesting

* you could argue that there's more politics/businesslike/some kind of PARADIGM SHIFT where videogames are pretty much just movies ver. 2.0 now all anybody wants to do is dramatize a movie as a game or make a movielike experience, older games were a mix of different things/ refused to be pigeonholed. Even things like RPGs are approached from this movielike way that's why FFXIII has no towns because everybody was into Lord of the Rings movies and those movies were kind of like lol towns are gay that fucking town in the second movie that I guess it's inspired by Mt. Saint Michel but it was just like hey let's fucking stack this town on top of itself so our heroes only have to spend 2 seconds in it then back to firing ice arrows at orcs or something and I dunno how did they get information if not from villagers just some gay dream sequence shite?? PREMONOTION

* game designers take themselves way too seriously these days maybe older game designers were more HUBMLE or they were just happy to be doing a programming-related job that was interesting and not grinding sprockets. I can imagine when the SNES came out it sounds all cheap now but many a game composer must've been like woaoaooaawh now I can make my masterpiece I am misunderstood artist shit was so cash. Maybe we had some Ed Wood type people who were like now I can unleash my vision upon the world now that I have 256 colors no man can stop me

- But as far as negative points yeah lots of cheap difficulty most games were unplayable but all you remember is Mario 3 also is there a theory for this like with NES SNES games you've got a feeling for the tropes of the games for each respective system because its already in the past and you've pieced it together. There is probably a way to quantify the feel of Playstation 2/make up theoretical games released for the Playstation 2 based on what a game would need to do to have the 'feel' but nobody's worked out the blueprint yet/who gives a shit it's PS2 it's pretty much the first 'looks pretty real' system imo but somebody will probably figure out the signature look of it (overly glossy skin? texture map compression that looks like triscuits??) and somebody will then make a Yume Nikki type game with retro PS2 graphics. Oh so something like you have the 'feel' of the NES figured out so well who knows if you're shitting your pants with nostalgia over a game that DIDN'T EXIST/was a pastiche of a bunch of games you liked and not this one game about rabbi ninja clown racing at the north pole

- another negative point like positive memories persisting and you don't remember HOURS OF FRUSTRATION or you could play a game to pass the time while you're stuck at home with EXPLOSIVE DIARRHEA or something else horrible and you were probably barely even focusing on the game but 345624 years later you brain only remembers happy fun game time not flesh-eating bacteria eating away at your body as you struggle to lift your finger to press the A button

- maybe it's just some Stockholm Syndrome shit like that one kid's video you had as a kid where you loved it because you didn't realize there were other kid's videos or something and you watched it no less than 277 times


is there some kind of theory about the rise of more interactive mediums (book/movie picture/television/videogame/internet?) and declining standards with each iteration like watching youtube poops is somehow more enjoyable than watching a very funny well written sitcom on TV because it's the internet. And really any videogame with any effective humor has probably been heralded as GENIUS and like jesus if you have a plot twist then you're just god. (I mean M Night Shamalylalynanan (dude sounds like a Street Fighter II character)) I was trying to blame it on videogames being played by a bunch of japfags that don't know their own culture and it's a miracle they knew the Fugitive reference in MGS3, but maybe it's more like 'it's on videogame console so it's just more important PORTENTIOUS that way (probably didn't use/spell the word right)' oh yeah maybe Iphone apps are the next iteration like it's on this overpriced Apple box so suddenly I really REALLY need to play the same Tetris game I've played for years

but yeah keep in mind I'm nostalgia freak I'm even missing Playstation games now they were mostly just these jumbles of shit I miss that feeling of games just reveling in being a jumble of shit and this shit was THE FUTURE compared to SNES that was just total shit now even though it capture the authentic look of some cartoons without difficulty Playstation had a hard time even looking like COHERENT IMAGE half the time (Mondo Medicals ahead of tsi time) I saw an image of some adults only game for the Playstation/3DO and I even got nostalgic for that like just because it looked so horribly unsexy and it's something we can laugh at now whereas at the time it was this super-serious shit for parents and gamers I was literally worried games would get this stigma as all being sleazy and mom and dad wouldn't allow me to get anymore forever and all eternity

that's a really good post Ragnar. i don't know why nobody said anything about it but thanks dude.

I'm not going to spend the time it takes to re-iterate the points listed out here, so I'll just go ahead and tell you what my favorite game is.

It is Portal.

The way I view game theory, that should be all the explanation anyone would need as to how I view the value of games, in terms of exactly what it is that games fundamentally (or at least ideally) provide to the player.

die siedler

i kept trying to pirate settlers 4 when i was younger but always got NONENGLISH fucking ugh

Yeah settlers II ruled.

I'm one of those hardcore Earthbound fanboys. I love the game... played it so many times as a kid. There are parts that are not-so-fun, but you have to look at the sum of its parts rather than the parts themselves.

Metroid Prime also ranks up there in my favorites. The atmosphere for that game was simply phenomenal. It really did feel like you were exploring an alien planet. Metroid Prime was more of an experience to me than a game.

anything on the PC from 1990-1999.

yesssss