Retro Gaming

[Jassassino]

Might sound sappy, but I love the physicality to it? It's such more of a conscious decision to decide what to play; and the mechanics of turning a console on, putting the disc in and hearing the little noises of the disc being read - and the fucking panic when a game isn't loading (looking at you Sega Dreamcast with your disc drive made out of cheese).

Been really interested in the Dreamcast and Mega Drive/Genesis for a bit. I grew up with the Playstation, I think I knew one or two people who had a Saturn and a Dreamcast; we were all waiting on the PS2, one guy on the Gamecube. But I'm slightly too young to have been a "Sega Kid". N64 might be next; I'd love to play No Mercy/WCW v NWO especially. But so much of the N64 catalogue is streamable on switch, and I've got one of the N64 wireless controllers that Nintendo did, so emulation might be a better option.

Yeah I really get that man, making a concious decision to engage with the game from the moment you put it in feels much more meaningful and commited instead of just scrolling through your downloads and thinking "What can kill the time I have right now?".

Also love my Mega Drive, it's the second 'classic' console I bought myself, my first being my N64, which I played OOT and Goldeneye a shit tonne on. Mega Drive I haven't played much, but there's some really great standout titles on that console like Earthworm Jim which I loved to give a go, but found it insanely tough at the time lol.

Glad you made this thread Jass as just before you did I nearly posted in gaming general to ask if anyone has/had a Sega Saturn. I'm a big Sonic fan and where there was never really a Sonic game for the Saturn (besides the port of Sonic 3D Blast, where the objective version is now the Mega Drive due to the original dev, the founder of Travellers Tales, unofficially patching his own game a few years ago. Gonna copy and paste my review of that at the bottom of this post cause why not*) I never really paid it much heed. But I never played Nights into Dreams by Sonic team and recently I've become more interested in it, Sonic Team deciding to make a new IP instead of immediately making a proper 3D Sonic game is pretty bold. Plus there's an exclusive Christmas version on the Saturn so obviously that is a must for festive gaming.

But tbh getting a Mega Drive or GameCube again is a higher priority for me. I own all of the Sonic Mega Drive games as I bought them when I was a teen in the 2010s, but my holy grail item is to get the Sega CD and 32x expansions for it and to play Sonic CD and Knuckles Chaotix-one of the best and one of the strangest Sonic games, respectively-on the original hardware. That's no small feat as both peripherals and both games are reasonably rare.
Also: bring back the old Traveller’s Tales logo![/spoiler]

Yessssssss classic Traveller's Tales logo was iconic. I think I own one or two Sonic games for Mega Drive but I'm just not much of a fan! But the console is honestly wonderful, I think it has a really nice, classic kind of form factor - it feels a bit edgy in its all black look with the vents on the side, kind of like a 90's vision of 'the future'. Really dig it.

I've been picking up more older games than newer ones for a few years now. Not many stores here that still sell them unfortunately

Yeah secondhand and retro game shops are sort of dying, and I can see why too - not much money in anybody's pockets right now and the prices for the games which you do want are just increasing exponentially, especially when a franchise revival or spiritual succesor etc. comes out to bolster the demand for it.

Yeah I’ve slowly transitioned into a retro gamer as time has gone on. Obviously I still like the odd modern title here and there but the fact for example in 2025 I spent the entire year playing games with release dates ranging from 1987 to 1999 says it all.

Lmao yeah I was thinking earlier about my 'GOTY' list for 2025, and I've not even played 5 games which actually came out in 2025 to fill it out.