Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 6:26 am
I recently bought about 30 genesis games and 30 saturn games as big packages, for around 70 dollars total. This includes many classics like Streets of Rage 2, Sonics, Grandia, Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter 1 and 2, Cool Spot, and many more. Considering the following information of why I make my purchases of old gaming and perhaps some ideas that may interest others in old gaming as purchases.
My greatest recent purchase besides the Neo Geo is now an Apple 2E. This amazing 80's computer has hardcore RPG experiences that rival even today's rpg in actual gameplay depth. You can buy a modern rpg but the thing is other than better graphics the gameplay is actual more basic and dungeons are linear, there isn't much to the common themes and stories. The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games for Apple 2E are rather deep in story and gameplay functions, the battles take precise thought and planning, and it is a very complex experience. It's like comparing AD&D to modern D&D 4th edition, AD&D from 1989 has like 50-100 more rule ideas and more complex systems for rules and is entirely more complex. It has become more casual in gaming because the computer RPG's of the 80's were never popular, and people shun depth for some reason generally. Also there are classic action games, such as Miner, the prequel to and Lode Runner, the original releases, and many others. The Apple 2E has games that are actually a lot more challenging than modern games. For this reason alone I bought one, yet the RPG's are the main reason. Their depth and complexity make it much more involving and there's actual role play rather than battle battle read a story watch a scene. These 360 and modern computer RPG's are more like virtual stories, while AD&D and others on Apple 2 have role play and choices that can change the story and more. You really play the role and make decisions, hence the name, role playing game. It's lost it's meaning of name since about 1992.
Honestly I did not buy the Neo Geo or any old games for nostalgia. I don't buy anything for that. With old 2d, the challenge is immense over any 3d. It's obvious, when dealing with dodging and attacking in every direction, mega challenge. 3d you aim forward and are always seeing forward, you never have to worry about more than basic direction, forward. 3d will always be technically way easier than 2d game.
I bought the Neo Geo because of it's great library of Shooters, mostly, and Fighters. The 2d shooters have such challenge, that first person shooters can simply never have. FPS pares in comparison, I make major accomplishment by mastering a 2d shooter, where in fps, there's virtually no dodging, it's aim and shoot. One idea, while 2d is a whole different field. When there are 20 bullets aimed at me from geometry of 15 different angles, literally one false dpad press and I lose. These games require mega talent on hard difficulty, and FPS is just so basic, 2d shooters are basically some of the most difficult gameplay that can possibly exist on a monitor or TV screen.
What I'm getting at, is with buying an old console, anyone looking for challenge can have loads of fun. With new consoles, it's mostly theme and story, even the beat em up styles, the 3d models are so big you can hit from 10 different ranges, where in Streets of rage, I literally have to be practically parallel, it's very common for people to miss a lot of attacks, usually every few attacks they miss one because of the exact placement required to hit. Because of this most rely on easy difficulty in a lot of 2d games, although if you play Streets of Rage twice a day for a month, you just may complete it on hard. Most give up very easily on challenge. Games have become suited and are just glam and showcase that people get into now.
If you were to buy a Neo Geo, don't worry about any kind of nostalgia, if you enjoy challenge of video games it is one of the best systems to have, because you get not only that yet some huge 2d sprites with gorgeous animation and the best part, no loading. These carts almost hold as much as a CD on the later carts, literally, huge 2d graphics with almost perfect animation, sometimes seems perfect as though it has every frame possible for paticular movement, and yeah, never loading because it's huge mega carts. Maybe research Neo Geo at this point, you just may find a great load of fun. Emulation is just not good enough or accurate, the sound is off, the display tears and ruins it for me, with my real arcade board that connects to my TV it not only looks better and less pixelated, it's on 27 inches of TV and without graphic glitches which I experienced in every emulation I tried long ago. I can't ever get 60 fps perfect smooth animation of the screen scrolling or sprite movement in any emulation, it always looks slightly torn and about 40 fps, which makes 2d look terrible. I have tried it on recent powerful computers, it's just a flaw with emulation of any kind. To truly get the full experience, a real system is definately a must.
My greatest recent purchase besides the Neo Geo is now an Apple 2E. This amazing 80's computer has hardcore RPG experiences that rival even today's rpg in actual gameplay depth. You can buy a modern rpg but the thing is other than better graphics the gameplay is actual more basic and dungeons are linear, there isn't much to the common themes and stories. The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games for Apple 2E are rather deep in story and gameplay functions, the battles take precise thought and planning, and it is a very complex experience. It's like comparing AD&D to modern D&D 4th edition, AD&D from 1989 has like 50-100 more rule ideas and more complex systems for rules and is entirely more complex. It has become more casual in gaming because the computer RPG's of the 80's were never popular, and people shun depth for some reason generally. Also there are classic action games, such as Miner, the prequel to and Lode Runner, the original releases, and many others. The Apple 2E has games that are actually a lot more challenging than modern games. For this reason alone I bought one, yet the RPG's are the main reason. Their depth and complexity make it much more involving and there's actual role play rather than battle battle read a story watch a scene. These 360 and modern computer RPG's are more like virtual stories, while AD&D and others on Apple 2 have role play and choices that can change the story and more. You really play the role and make decisions, hence the name, role playing game. It's lost it's meaning of name since about 1992.
Honestly I did not buy the Neo Geo or any old games for nostalgia. I don't buy anything for that. With old 2d, the challenge is immense over any 3d. It's obvious, when dealing with dodging and attacking in every direction, mega challenge. 3d you aim forward and are always seeing forward, you never have to worry about more than basic direction, forward. 3d will always be technically way easier than 2d game.
I bought the Neo Geo because of it's great library of Shooters, mostly, and Fighters. The 2d shooters have such challenge, that first person shooters can simply never have. FPS pares in comparison, I make major accomplishment by mastering a 2d shooter, where in fps, there's virtually no dodging, it's aim and shoot. One idea, while 2d is a whole different field. When there are 20 bullets aimed at me from geometry of 15 different angles, literally one false dpad press and I lose. These games require mega talent on hard difficulty, and FPS is just so basic, 2d shooters are basically some of the most difficult gameplay that can possibly exist on a monitor or TV screen.
What I'm getting at, is with buying an old console, anyone looking for challenge can have loads of fun. With new consoles, it's mostly theme and story, even the beat em up styles, the 3d models are so big you can hit from 10 different ranges, where in Streets of rage, I literally have to be practically parallel, it's very common for people to miss a lot of attacks, usually every few attacks they miss one because of the exact placement required to hit. Because of this most rely on easy difficulty in a lot of 2d games, although if you play Streets of Rage twice a day for a month, you just may complete it on hard. Most give up very easily on challenge. Games have become suited and are just glam and showcase that people get into now.
If you were to buy a Neo Geo, don't worry about any kind of nostalgia, if you enjoy challenge of video games it is one of the best systems to have, because you get not only that yet some huge 2d sprites with gorgeous animation and the best part, no loading. These carts almost hold as much as a CD on the later carts, literally, huge 2d graphics with almost perfect animation, sometimes seems perfect as though it has every frame possible for paticular movement, and yeah, never loading because it's huge mega carts. Maybe research Neo Geo at this point, you just may find a great load of fun. Emulation is just not good enough or accurate, the sound is off, the display tears and ruins it for me, with my real arcade board that connects to my TV it not only looks better and less pixelated, it's on 27 inches of TV and without graphic glitches which I experienced in every emulation I tried long ago. I can't ever get 60 fps perfect smooth animation of the screen scrolling or sprite movement in any emulation, it always looks slightly torn and about 40 fps, which makes 2d look terrible. I have tried it on recent powerful computers, it's just a flaw with emulation of any kind. To truly get the full experience, a real system is definately a must.