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Nostalgic for older genXers such as myself who grew up with these things. Hard to imagine younger generations having patience or interest in such primitive gam

Nostalgic for older genXers such as myself who grew up with these things. Hard to imagine younger generations having patience or interest in such primitive games though. Needs to be played in basement on CRT TV with wood paneled walls though.

hackernoteng 3y ago
Also need a mom in the background shouting that we should go play outside...
etrautmann 3y ago
I recently played a bunch of these classic games with my 7 and 10 year old nieces and they loved them. There’s something magnetic about the challenge and simplicity that seems timeless IMO
- colecut 3y ago
  And complete lack of ads and load times..
- sunpazed 3y ago
  Here are my kids playing my childhood 2600 from 1982 https://www.instagram.com/p/CIJ0aeTJAuo https://www.instagram.com/p/CIJ0aeTJAuo
xwkd 3y ago
Needs to be played on a CRT in general. For retro games, you can't beat the low latency and fantastic glow of an electron gun. No shader emulation comes close.
- Wowfunhappy 3y ago
  ...I find this hard to believe. A modern high-quality 4K HDR screen is exceedingly good at recreating all sorts of lifelike imagery. You're telling me the one thing it can't effectively recreate is a CRT television? Input lag is probably the biggest issue, but you can get very low-latency screens nowadays! None of them are actually 0ms, but neither were CRTs unless you're measuring only the top of the screen and not the bottom.
  - tracker1 3y ago
    It depends.. the waterfall effects in the likes of Sonic are pretty hard without a real CRT. If you're using an emulator, there are quite a few filters that can help to recreate that old feel, none are quite right though.
    - pezezin 3y ago
      The waterfall effect of Sonic is more of a result of composite video artifacts. Using a RGB cable, the effect is much less pronounced.
      - tracker1 3y ago
        I know.. and it was designed that way. It wasn't a bug but a feature of the game where the designer/developer knew how that would artifact on the screen, and was done intentionally. It really doesn't emulate/simulate well on a modern display.
    - Wowfunhappy 3y ago
      The waterfall effect is basically just blur! The problem with adding blur is that—although it makes the waterfall effect work—it makes the image blurry. Personally, I don't think it's that the CRT is better than the filters, I think you're just used to the imperfections of a CRT. Also, I really do think you need a 4K HDR screen (with good HDR, there's a lot of variance) in order for filters to really emulate the look of a CRT.
      - tracker1 3y ago
        It's not a blur so much as intentionally designed to use how a CRT/Composite video would artifact on a CRT. It's not a matter of better or worse, just that filters/simulation won't work well for that same effect. Also, in a lot of ways a good CRT does look significantly better than all but OLED displays for games. The down side is they're heavy. I used to have two 22" calibrated flat screen displays that I loved, and only very recently are new displays visual quality on par. I stopped using them more because of space and size than quality. They weighed 85# each and had a permanent bow in the desk I was using back then. Moving 3x in one summer I decided to go with flat pannel. Not as good, but was doing less design work and more programming since then.
tenpoundhammer 3y ago
I agree, I've tried numerous times to get my kids interested in the games I love from childhood, and they find them so boring. Modern games have a level of pacing, engagement, and art style that are all really attractive to kids, it's hard to get people with no nostalgia to go backwards. However, there will always be some that are attracted to retro and lofi but not the majority.
tracker1 3y ago
I setup an RPi a few years ago to play some of these old games... played with upscaling settings, played a few games I used to love... flipped the score on asteroids after a few hours, and hadn't touched it since.
naruhodo 3y ago
> Nostalgic Just looking at those pictures I got a faint whiff of wood and warm plastic from 40+ years ago.

hackernoteng 3y ago

Also need a mom in the background shouting that we should go play outside...

etrautmann 3y ago

I recently played a bunch of these classic games with my 7 and 10 year old nieces and they loved them. There’s something magnetic about the challenge and simplicity that seems timeless IMO

colecut 3y ago
And complete lack of ads and load times..
sunpazed 3y ago
Here are my kids playing my childhood 2600 from 1982 https://www.instagram.com/p/CIJ0aeTJAuo https://www.instagram.com/p/CIJ0aeTJAuo

xwkd 3y ago

Needs to be played on a CRT in general. For retro games, you can't beat the low latency and fantastic glow of an electron gun. No shader emulation comes close.

Wowfunhappy 3y ago
...I find this hard to believe. A modern high-quality 4K HDR screen is exceedingly good at recreating all sorts of lifelike imagery. You're telling me the one thing it can't effectively recreate is a CRT television? Input lag is probably the biggest issue, but you can get very low-latency screens nowadays! None of them are actually 0ms, but neither were CRTs unless you're measuring only the top of the screen and not the bottom.
- tracker1 3y ago
  It depends.. the waterfall effects in the likes of Sonic are pretty hard without a real CRT. If you're using an emulator, there are quite a few filters that can help to recreate that old feel, none are quite right though.
  - pezezin 3y ago
    The waterfall effect of Sonic is more of a result of composite video artifacts. Using a RGB cable, the effect is much less pronounced.
    - tracker1 3y ago
      I know.. and it was designed that way. It wasn't a bug but a feature of the game where the designer/developer knew how that would artifact on the screen, and was done intentionally. It really doesn't emulate/simulate well on a modern display.
  - Wowfunhappy 3y ago
    The waterfall effect is basically just blur! The problem with adding blur is that—although it makes the waterfall effect work—it makes the image blurry. Personally, I don't think it's that the CRT is better than the filters, I think you're just used to the imperfections of a CRT. Also, I really do think you need a 4K HDR screen (with good HDR, there's a lot of variance) in order for filters to really emulate the look of a CRT.
    - tracker1 3y ago
      It's not a blur so much as intentionally designed to use how a CRT/Composite video would artifact on a CRT. It's not a matter of better or worse, just that filters/simulation won't work well for that same effect. Also, in a lot of ways a good CRT does look significantly better than all but OLED displays for games. The down side is they're heavy. I used to have two 22" calibrated flat screen displays that I loved, and only very recently are new displays visual quality on par. I stopped using them more because of space and size than quality. They weighed 85# each and had a permanent bow in the desk I was using back then. Moving 3x in one summer I decided to go with flat pannel. Not as good, but was doing less design work and more programming since then.

tenpoundhammer 3y ago

I agree, I've tried numerous times to get my kids interested in the games I love from childhood, and they find them so boring. Modern games have a level of pacing, engagement, and art style that are all really attractive to kids, it's hard to get people with no nostalgia to go backwards. However, there will always be some that are attracted to retro and lofi but not the majority.

tracker1 3y ago

I setup an RPi a few years ago to play some of these old games... played with upscaling settings, played a few games I used to love... flipped the score on asteroids after a few hours, and hadn't touched it since.

naruhodo 3y ago

> Nostalgic Just looking at those pictures I got a faint whiff of wood and warm plastic from 40+ years ago.