Pre-NES games - good or bad? dated or timeless?

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Originally Posted by gamevet

I'd recommend emulating the C64.

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Yeah, this is something that anyone with an interest in classic games should do if they aren't already familiar. It excels in the early '80s style games you find on systems like the 2600/InTV/etc. and also has more advanced games with several screens, endings, and varied soundtracks.

That's why I used some early-mid '80s computer games as examples in my first post. There was a significant transition and evolution in game design going on there (and in the arcades and on systems in Japan as well) that a lot of younger/console-only gamers missed out on. I'm wondering if those that find the 2600 era stuff too simple would think the same of the computer gaming circa 1984. I find it's hard to get people to try stuff on emulator, though.

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Originally Posted by goldenband

I like the SG-1000 library quite a bit and might like to get one someday, though given the poor controllers and other issues, maybe it's better just to stick with emulation.

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I have some I play through a Mark III and they control fine with its pads. I haven't tested Genesis controller compatibility yet.

SG-1000 games are also accessible through a standard Master System with the Master Everdrive.

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Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

I find it's hard to get people to try stuff on emulator, though.

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Old computer emulators are annoying as hell. Quirky behavior, nonsensical interfaces, painful methods of interacting with the machine... To make matters worse old cracks were complete garbage, and for games where a perfect image is available, it usually requires a manual to input some stupid code.

It depends on the computer and the emulator. Amiga emulation is confusing. C64 emulation is usually quite simple (although newcomers might not know that most games use joystick port 2).

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Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

(although newcomers might not know that most games use joystick port 2).

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C64 is ok except they now insist on using bilinear filtering on VICE (which is braindead retarded).
The Amiga is much worse, on the Amiga it's seemingly impossible to use a 2 button controller in WinUAE. I can't figure it out, all the games that supposedly support it don't work, except Turrican 2...

I think simply saying "Pre-NES games" is too broad. It ultimately comes down to a game by game basis. It's like if someone asked you, "Are NES games good?" Because for every yes you give, someone can counter with 3 or 4 bad games.

I think there are several pre-crash games worth playing. I also think there are probably about 10 times as many pre-crash games not worth playing. But this is true of any generation of games.

If I had to sit someone down in front of, say, an atari 2600 and give him 5 games to play that would endear him to the console, I'd likely choose from the same pool of games that everyone else would choose from:

River Raid
Yar's Revenge
Defender II/Stargate
Warlords
Pitfall 2

etc.

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Originally Posted by Kamahl

The Amiga is much worse, on the Amiga it's seemingly impossible to use a 2 button controller in WinUAE. I can't figure it out, all the games that supposedly support it don't work, except Turrican 2...

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It's been a while since I gamed on WinUAE, but I remember that the trick was that you couldn't get the keyboard to act as a 2 button gamepad, but you could get a normal gamepad to act as a CD32 controller, which will let the blue button act as a button 2.

I still play my Atari VCS from time to time. My all time favorite video game is Space Invaders on arcade, but the VCS version is a great port which I still play. There are so many great games for the VCS that I don't think I'll ever stop playing it. Some of my favorites are Empire Strikes Back, Superman, Frogger, Stampede, Pitfall, Defender, Centipede and I could go on. Sometimes when my buddies come over we crack some beers and fire up the Atari and just game for hours. It's such a great pick up and play system. This can be said for many of the pre-NES systems. The games aren't elaborate, they're just simple and fun. They're designed so that anyone can play them, but they take time and patience to truly master.

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Originally Posted by TheSonicRetard

Yar's Revenge

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I f-ing love Yar's Revenge, good call.

Really, Yar's Revenge eh? I bet that is on the Xbox Atari Anthology, I should check it out.

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Originally Posted by TheSonicRetard

It's been a while since I gamed on WinUAE, but I remember that the trick was that you couldn't get the keyboard to act as a 2 button gamepad

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Oh... but you can! It just works like ass and in only 10% of the games. Why is this still not fixed? Why is the interface still a complete mess that only saves half the settings you think it does when you press "save"...Why is it still so painful to launch games? Why... you get the picture.

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Originally Posted by Kamahl

Oh... but you can! It just works like ass and in only 10% of the games. Why is this still not fixed? Why is the interface still a complete mess that only saves half the settings you think it does when you press "save"...Why is it still so painful to launch games? Why... you get the picture.

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It's part of the reason why I went out of my way to actually get an amiga. WinUAE is a great tool (especially when I'm trying to transfer stuff onto my Amiga via the CF Kit. It would have been impossible for me to install workbench, for example, because I don't have the install disk) but for all it does well, it's controller setup is trash.

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Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

I have some I play through a Mark III and they control fine with its pads.

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I'd imagine that works well, and (as Sheath suggested) I plan to play SG-1000 games that way if/when I get a Master EverDrive. But the palette discrepancies are annoying, and I can't see myself collecting SG-1000 carts since they're not compatible with any stock US SMS hardware. And if I were to get a SC-3000 then I have no idea how I'd sort out the issues involved with that (i.e. the fact that AFAIK there's no English-language NTSC hardware).

So CrabEmu on the Dreamcast works out well for most of my purposes -- I just fire it up and play Chack'n Pop or Ninja Princess without issues.

System wise, I'm not really into pre nes games. I do enjoy pre nes arcade games though. the nes, gameboy, sega master system and sega genesis are what got me into gaming.

Unless it's arcade games, Pre-NES stuff is just too old and outdated for me. Too simple. A couple of the arcade ports can be fun, but even then they're just too old and outdated to really be fun.

Probably the only era of console video games to outlive their usefulness.

Sometimes I wish C64 emulation had ended up based around tapes instead of disks, the tapes just seem like much less hassle to me (I remember true drive emulation caused me a lot of issues at first), with tapes there's no problems with choosing different cracks (and I dislike the cracker screens blathering on about how amazing they are and how useless everyone else is anyway) and tapes load really fast with emulator's these days.

It just seems cleaner and easier to me personally, with each game only having one download available etc