Re: State of old school emulation
Posted by Vimm on .
Yeah, emulation really needs a good news site, but is there enough news worth reporting? I don't think retro-gaming has declined, it has simply spread its wings and is no longer confined to one place as sirkakkarot said. I don't really pay much attention, but it seems like emulation sites seem to be silently poofing away. How many emulation sites can you name that are as old as Vimm's Lair? And I don't think gamers will be disappointed with the simplicity of old games, that was the whole concept behind the Wii and we all see how that turned out. If a game was fun 10 years ago, odds are it's fun today (just look at Starcraft). Frankly, I have difficulty buying new games. I already have a huge library of games that I know are good, so why would I buy a game that might be good? For example, I recently played through FF7 for the first time since I bought it and it has been so long, it was like a totally new game. I was so disgusted by the sheer volume of crap in the N64/PSX era and the "2D = bad, 3D = good" attitude that churned out garbage after garbage 3D games that I never really got back into it. A fun game will always be fun, but an awful game with eye candy will inevitably lose it's candy to technological progress, and then you're just left with a crappy game. Just look at any of the bajillion old FPS's out there.
Anyway, I'm sure BitTorrent has taken a good chunk of traffic away from emulation sites and in a way I'm happy because I no longer have to defend the site from collectors. Why would they want to download one at a time when they can grab a torrent? I'd much rather they waste someone else's bandwidth than mine anyway. But for anyone who just wants some nostalgia and doesn't want to spend hours downloading 17 dumps of Super Mario World, there will always be sites like Vimm's Lair. Sure I could disect a torrent and dump it into a database, but where's the fun in that?
I wouldn't say Retro-gaming is declining, if anything I would say its seeing renewed enthusiasm with the virtual consoles on the PS3, Xbox, and Wii. You recently posted about the new Mega Man 9, a new Mega Man game that stays true to the original NES series. This would never had been possible if there hadn't been a sudden interest in the old school games.
I spoke months ago on the boards here about how the adaptability of the emulators should produce more of an interest in retro-gaming. With emulators being ported to consoles, handhelds, plug-in-plays, phones, iPods, and even calculators, retro-gaming no longer required you being stuck seated at a PC.
However, I also voiced my opinion that with the way video games are now it would be pretty difficult to even convince the emerging gaming generation to find joy in retro-gaming. Their standards just seem too high to go back to Up,Down,Left,Right,A,B.
Retro-Gaming Emulation websites I would agree are in decline. Have been for some time now. Your points are valid except I would add that the disintegration of the emulation/retrogaming community have led to emulation websites falling into decay. No one seems interested in discussing emulation anymore. I would prefer all the petty squabbles and stupid rivalries over the dead silence these boards face from time to time. I don't even have a good place to get emulation news from anymore.
so to summarize I think:
1. Retro-gaming isn't dying it has just moved away from the computer to new frontiers.
2. Retro-gaming probably won't survive the next coming generation of gamers due to overwhelming standards.
3. Emulation websites have been on the decline due to a variety of reasons.
4. Due to a lack of a community, the retro-game emulation scene will deteriorate even further with less development in new emulation, fewer fan translations, and ROM sites being nothing more than file hosts.
I spoke months ago on the boards here about how the adaptability of the emulators should produce more of an interest in retro-gaming. With emulators being ported to consoles, handhelds, plug-in-plays, phones, iPods, and even calculators, retro-gaming no longer required you being stuck seated at a PC.
However, I also voiced my opinion that with the way video games are now it would be pretty difficult to even convince the emerging gaming generation to find joy in retro-gaming. Their standards just seem too high to go back to Up,Down,Left,Right,A,B.
Retro-Gaming Emulation websites I would agree are in decline. Have been for some time now. Your points are valid except I would add that the disintegration of the emulation/retrogaming community have led to emulation websites falling into decay. No one seems interested in discussing emulation anymore. I would prefer all the petty squabbles and stupid rivalries over the dead silence these boards face from time to time. I don't even have a good place to get emulation news from anymore.
so to summarize I think:
1. Retro-gaming isn't dying it has just moved away from the computer to new frontiers.
2. Retro-gaming probably won't survive the next coming generation of gamers due to overwhelming standards.
3. Emulation websites have been on the decline due to a variety of reasons.
4. Due to a lack of a community, the retro-game emulation scene will deteriorate even further with less development in new emulation, fewer fan translations, and ROM sites being nothing more than file hosts.
Replies:
| Re: State of old school emulation | Tricob -- 9/11/2008 9:49 pm UTC |
| Re: State of old school emulation | slowmotionriot -- 9/14/2008 9:04 pm UTC |