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Comment by bossyTeacher | Hacker News Reader

What is the appeal with games that are this old? Is the audience people that played them in their childhood? I struggle to see kids (who are used to super colourful, hyper interactive, animated games) play GBC games let alone something like this. Any ideas?

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To turn it around on you: what's wrong with old games? Does anyone ask the same about books?:

"What is the appeal with books that are this old?"

Not very often from what I can tell. I do see the sentiment you've expressed regarding games much more often. Why is that? I'm not sure. Perhaps it's just a sign of the immaturity of games as a medium (compared to books, anyway).

There's a lot of user interface issues in playing an older game. Not so much the graphics -- people like "pixel" styling in modern games, though generally at much higher resolutions and with better color palettes than in old games -- but rather in how you interact with the games.

There's a lot of experimentation in old games about how to approach certain concepts, where eventually something won out and became the way we do it. So it's very strange to go back to e.g. an old first-person game and realize that WASD controls aren't used.

I recently saw this YouTube video ("How System Shock's Reboot Wrestles With Adapting Its Legacy" by Errant Signal) that talks a bit about this take on the issue, which might interest you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDQ24iAkh90

That's sort of tangential though. A game can have user interface problems and still be fun. A game can be outdated and still be fun.

I would argue the age of a game is entirely orthogonal to whether it is possible to still enjoy playing it.

Will EVERYONE enjoy playing it? Probably not. But some people do. And that's enough to give projects like ScummVM a valuable purpose.

Well, technology has progressed quite far while humans are still humans with the same (but slightly better maintained) brain. I have a hard time watching old movies where the FX is crap

And many of us who like practical effects feel the opposite. If a movie hasn’t engaged you enough to see past the puppet, makeup, and rigging, there’s probably something else missing.

Books and games are different. Books is just text (mostly) so there is no expectation of anything else. It is art.

Games are entertainment. So they are supposed to have higher levels of engagement over time

A lot of the audience probably is the nostalgic. But also, there's quite a few genuinely good games in there, and also some very foundational ones. The tendency towards cartoony graphics and a plot/humor focus means that in some ways they've aged a lot better than other games from a similar era.

In a way it's like asking why people read old fashioned novels, even though they're out of step with modern language and culture.

While I don’t share the sentiment, I have an anecdote that might be relatable.

Some time around 2014 I finally got around to playing Castlevania: symphony of the Night. It was almost 20 years old, casykevania had long since moved to 3D graphics and stages. Even when it was released in the 90s it could have been considered outdated due to its small, sprite-based graphics.

It turns out, the game is a masterpiece. The control, the level design, the progression, the exploration, the freedom of item choice are all exceptional. Even the graphics are beautiful for what they are without needing a RTX 4090 and 4K display. I’ve replayed it several times since then and it opened up a new genre of games that I hadn’t previously considered liking.

Many of the Lucas Arts point and click adventures may or may not soar the same interest. They’re quirky, funny, clever games that can be played casually.

For kids who like games, the gameplay is enough. They might say how dopey it looks at the start, but if it hooks them, that reaction will fade away.

I'd be surprised if many youngsters would seek these out themselves but nostalgia drives many people and they're likely to push younger people to try this out.

I have a hard time finding the appeal for myself.

It’s the same reason why Nintendo does so well relative to PS/XBox.

It doesn’t have to be all about high-end graphics.

Plot, game play, fun is what’s most important for a large segment of gamers.

Does that mean that you would be happy to pay a premium (think PS5 prices) to play new games that are in that format?

Story, charm, fun

They don't have microtransactions or ads

Plot. Story. Humor. Thinking.

Visuals. Music. Challenge.

They're still fun.

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