How to Get Into Retro Video Games - Retro Bird

when it comes to getting into something people often don't know where to start well here's a start how about figuring out if you even like it seems like fair enough first step to me i mean plenty of people have tried to get into things only to find out they don't actually enjoy them like sudoku or working hard for long time fans of these older games the concept of getting into them for the first time might seem kind of weird because liking these games feels as natural as breathing you're telling me not everybody lives this way i mean i feel like if i stopped breathing or stopped playing video games either one would be just as effective at stopping me from living now it's only reasonable that not everybody would be that crazy about it but could still get at least some enjoyment out of it and especially if you're currently getting no enjoyment out of it because you don't play older games at all and that my friends is where us enthusiasts come in to help you out there's two main questions we're gonna need to cover what to play and how to play it and naturally this is going to vary from person to person i mean if you were recommending a book to read you couldn't just say here's a book that everybody will like or could you super mario world is one of those games that always pops into my head as a game that it seems like darn near every single retro gamer likes yeah it might seem like a bit of an oversimplification but playing super mario world and seeing what you think of it might be a super quick way to figure out i think i like this sort of thing a lot of ways to play this game too it's on the super nintendo the game boy advance the super nintendo mini the wii u the nintendo switch your microwave and yeah depending how you feel about it you could play it on your computer with an emulator or even a cell phone if you wanted to i would say though that to give retro games an accurate assessment you really do need a decent controller in the case of super mario world an actual super nintendo controller would of course be best but at the very least some sort of decent controller i wouldn't suggest touch controls or a keyboard okay but what if you don't like super mario world is all hope lost for liking retro games nope because as much as it seems like every retro gamer likes that game there are still some that do not well super mario world is a platformer and this was a pretty dominant genre back then it wasn't the only genre and you may not even have to veer very far to find what you like perhaps action platformers will do the trick for you in these games the emphasis isn't on just jumping but also attacking enemies usually with some sort of weapon a whip a sword shurikens apples that's a brutal one makes me wish there was a game where bananas are a weapon though if you can think of any let me know however regardless of which type of game you choose you're likely going to have to come to terms with games being challenging of course not every single retro game is challenging but a good chunk of them are and you're going to be crossing a lot of potential games off your list by ignoring them big thing here is to have the right expectations if you're used to more modern games you might be used to finishing any game you want not all but a lot of more modern games can feel like they will make sure you make it to the end with generous checkpoints offers to lower the difficulty whispering sweet nothings into your ear while you sleep a lot of money was put into some of these games and they want to make sure you see everything meanwhile retro games just say hey screw you buddy you can't just waltz through here but they don't do it to be mean well some would argue they do but think of it like tough love you're being pushed to develop the skill to do some pretty cool things things that make you feel good things you wanna tell people about oh well maybe there's nobody to tell but that's okay because it's still satisfying for you i've always thought of progression in modern versus retro games like this beating a lot of modern games is more so about having the time to play through them whereas in retro games it's more about getting good enough at the game to be able to beat it although guess how you get good at them by playing them which takes time so it just depends if the time you spend figuring out how to progress in retro games is enjoyable for you or not i think a great way to gauge this is how you react to finally making it past a difficult section in a game is it just relief and bitterness that it's finally done or do you feel joy like it was time well spent i mean feeling a little relief is reasonable sure but getting through a section of a game shouldn't feel like you just got done with a trip to the dmv we're supposed to be playing video games for fun and you know what they always say if you're not having fun stop i would also suggest to not start with some of the harder games no ninja gaiden for beginners you can't run before you learn to walk hey look at that nice and easy of course regardless of what you're playing if it still feels too challenging you could make it far less challenging by using something like save states essentially a way to create as many checkpoints as you want and wherever you want them some people would say that using saved states is cheating but we're not talking about a test you took in high school here we're attacking video games there's no repercussions for playing a video game how you want to other than potentially having the time of your life question is how do you use saved states well you typically can't use them with original hardware although as a small compromise to that you can sometimes at least enter in a level select code so that you can go back to whichever stage you are on instead of having to go back through the entire game but basically any modernized way of playing retro games will have save states so all the usual suspects like the mini consoles nintendo switch using your computer so on and so forth you'll often see something like the raspberry pi getting recommended as well and no we're not tacking desserts here although i'd still recommend that one too but with the other kind of raspberry pi you can just load whatever games you want onto it and plug it into a modern tv no problem which some will tell you is simple to set up but it's not as simple as this if you're at all familiar with tech i'd say you may want to consider using something like a raspberry pi because of how inexpensive they are but if you look up a tutorial and it seems over your head then i'd say probably not okay so i've talked about 2d games already and specifically platformers and action platformers being some of the types of games commonly associated with retro gaming but what else well there's a lot of other stuff and my suggestion would be to try out whatever it was that piqued your interest in the first place typically if somebody is interested in getting into retro games it's because they saw something that made them think hey that might be something i'd like maybe it's even something that somebody remembers from childhood heck that's probably what got most of us into retro gaming if we ever spent any time away from it but if you're looking for a relatively risk-free option and you're not wanting to invest much time or money before you can try it out one additional suggestion i'd have is to see if anybody you know has retro games that'll let you try them out that way not only is it a risk-free way of trying them out but you'll also have somebody right there who can potentially talk you through any questions you may have or give you information about how to play the game that could be helpful perhaps even suggest which games to play having somebody right there to gauge your reactions to playing whatever it is you're playing in real time makes a big difference they could even say why it is people like particular games and i'd say understanding why other people like something can often be useful for figuring out if you might like it yourself i mean i didn't understand why people loved bubble wrap until i realized you could pop the bubbles [Music] youtube can help you out too watch videos of people talking about older games and you can get a sense for why it is that they like them so much whether it's straight up reviews or any number of other things at least that's what i've found passion can be infectious also another thing about getting into retro gaming is that not everybody agrees what qualifies as retro gaming some people might think that something like the gamecube is retro in which case you could probably just play something that feels very similar to more modern games if you wanted to i would tend to recommend the old light zapper games too if it weren't for the fact you need to make sure you have the right equipment to play them i mean who doesn't enjoy doing this it was like the wii sports of the 80s and 90s but whatever the case may be if you're interested in trying out retro games or know somebody who is give it a shot you never know it might just lead to somebody having a new hobby that they love as much as all of us do as far as collecting goes well most people wouldn't recommend it at this point but remember you don't have to have a huge collection to spend time playing games and have a great time with it especially if you're looking to dabble in it more casually as a beginner but with that i'm curious what tips all of you might have or even better any stories you have of helping somebody get into retro games for me i got my brother-in-law a loyal viewer of the channel to start playing sega saturn and he even did it on the cheap that makes me feel really good so with that leave your comments down below and i will see you in the next video what he had to say

Channel: Retro Bird

Views: 19,151

Keywords: how to get into retro video games, how to get into retro gaming, how to get into retro games, how to start retro gaming, retro gaming for beginners, retro video games, retro gaming, video games

Id: 2uOUV_-Tlj4

Length: 10min 30sec (630 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 05 2021