What is retro gaming?
Introduction
“Retro gaming, also known as classic gaming or old-school gaming, is the playing and collecting of computers, consoles and video games from previous decades.” According to Wikipedia.
In this blog, I’d like to explore what retro gaming is, together with you. What makes something retro or classic? We’ll also take a brief look at the computers and consoles that can be considered retro.
Where do you draw the line when it comes to retro gaming? To me, retro covers everything up to and including the PlayStation 1, and perhaps the GameCube. According to ChatGPT, a console is considered retro after 25 years, which would mean the original Xbox will be retro next year. That’s hard for me to imagine. I can remember so clearly finishing Ninja Gaiden on ‘Path of the Mentor – Very Hard’, only to discover that there’s also a ‘punishing’ difficulty level. 😂😂😂
That brings me to the next point: old games are difficult…
Games
If you pick up an old game now and realise you’re not as good at it as you once were, you might think you’ve got worse. Many of us will have this feeling. However, this isn’t always the case; I, for one – and I’m sure you too – have become more ‘games literate’ over time. By that I mean that I now realise more quickly what a game expects of me: how the controls work, how the difficulty builds up, and why a particular section has been deliberately made tricky. In the past, I’d just play and hope to get through it. I’d often memorise levels and build up muscle memory. Now I’m quicker to spot the patterns and intentions behind the design.
As I mentioned earlier, learning the levels by heart… what strikes me most now that I’m playing old games with more experience is that (although it makes sense) there are few Quality of Life (QoL) improvements in them.
QoL refers to small improvements that make playing a game more enjoyable. Think of improvements to the controls. A good example of this is how, in the early days of 3D, older games and developers didn’t yet know how to handle camera controls. Sometimes the camera was (not) inverted, semi-automatic or the infamous ‘C-button’ camera on the Nintendo 64 – all of which were dreadful. Since then, things have improved considerably and an industry standard has emerged. Want to know more about QoL? Check out this blog post on QoL!
The cycle time in old games can sometimes be very punishing. Just think of Ghosts ’n Goblins – a couple of mistakes and you’re back to square one. The thing about this game is that it’s actually designed to make you die several times anyway, and you have to memorise lots of sections. It’s worth bearing in mind that many of these games were originally designed to take your coin in the arcade. Modern games often don’t do this anymore; you’ve already bought the game, so there’s no more money to be made. And if there are punishing elements, the cycle time is so short that it’s no longer frustrating. Think of Super Meat Boy or Celeste.
There are certainly still games that uphold the tradition of difficulty and are specifically designed to be punishing. Think of the From Software Souls series and similar titles. But here too, quality-of-life improvements have been made, so that even players who can’t complete the game on their own can seek assistance. Personally, I always try to complete at least one FromSoftware Souls-like game solo because I find it very rewarding.
Hardware
Modern hardware
TL;DR: Emulation devices also bring us huge quality-of-life improvements.
Reviving old games on modern hardware is, of course, brilliant. Just think of those stunning screens with resolutions that are perfect multiples of the original screen resolutions. This allows us to experience old games with a level of quality that was once unthinkable.
Modern hardware allows us to play for hours on end, charging via USB-C cables whenever we like. No more worries about batteries. As an 8-year-old, I would have thought that was the best invention ever. I can clearly remember being bored stiff in the back seat of the car on the way to a skiing holiday in Austria, whilst my rechargeable batteries had already died three times after just a few hours of playing. Save states? No way!
The convenience that modern hardware brings us is fantastic. Take, for example, the Miyoo Mini Plus running OnionOS or the more modern TrimUI Brick running NextUI. Sleep and resume? Absolutely amazing!
Of course, emulation has its limitations. For one thing, it’s never exactly the same as playing on an original chip. Sometimes there are strange bugs, or a game runs just a bit too fast or too slow. And even though CRT screens are technically inferior, they still lend the games a certain charm. After all, that’s what the games were designed for.
Original hardware
Another way to experience old games is on original hardware. You’d expect this to be the ultimate experience. However, you’ll soon run into all sorts of setup problems. I’ve spent a fair bit of time myself building the ultimate SNES experience: a One-Chip SNES, a RetroBright treatment, a 4K HDMI scaler, Bluetooth 8bitdo controllers, cartridges from Marktplaats, and cables and adapters from China. And now, dozens of hours later, I can finally enjoy Yoshi’s Island on a 4K TV with a modern controller. Amazing!
But sometimes it’s a real hassle. If, for example, you’ve bought an old console, you still need to connect it to your 65-inch TV. You then have to convert an analogue signal to HDMI. That’s when you find yourself down the rabbit hole of scalers. I myself use the RetroScaler, a relatively inexpensive and reliable solution. Please note: always use good-quality cables.
Modified original hardware
Nothing plays better than an original Game Boy. For me, that’s the Pocket or the Colour. They’ve got a really great D-pad. No modern device feels quite as good for Game Boy games. But let’s take them into 2025 by modding them!
A community of creative minds has sprung up. Some mod original hardware, others develop the mods, and yet others produce them on a larger scale. YouTube is full of legendary modders. Think of HDMI mods, custom shells, gold buttons and incredible creations.
For me, this is the best of both worlds: the original chip, but with modern luxuries. Think backlit screens, USB-C rechargeable batteries and transparent shells that showcase the craftsmanship of the original hardware.
That craftsmanship is impressive. Opening up a ‘ Game Boy ’ that was carefully built 30 years ago is magical. You can see clever design choices, trywing screws, buttons that only fit one way, and even pencil scribbles on the motherboard. Who ever wrote that? What are they up to now? Unanswerable questions that lend a special charm to the whole experience.
If you don’t fancy picking up a soldering iron yourself, you could also have a look at this page, where you’ll find all my mods that are for sale.
Generations
A Redditor called Iamn0 man came up with a brilliant theory: categorising consoles into geological eras.
Precambrian (the era of the first life)
- First generation (Pong): Electronic games on your TV are a thing!
Palaeozoic (ancient life)
- Second generation (Atari 2600): A GENERATIONAL LEAP: dozens to hundreds of games on a single device!
- Third generation (NES): 8-bit, sprites!
- Fourth generation (MegaDrive): 16-bit power!
Mesozoic Era (Middle Life)
- Fifth generation (PS1): 3D gaming!
- Sixth generation (Xbox): Better 3D!
Cenozoic (present day)
- Seventh generation (PS3): Always online, microtransactions.
- Eighth generation (PS4): Better picture and sound.
- Ninth generation (PS5): Remasters, VR as a serious option.
Retro PC Gaming
Whilst consoles have followed a relatively straightforward path of development, PC gaming has always felt to me like the Wild West – full of brilliant innovations as well as frustrating set-ups.
Software
Shareware & classics
Installing it was an adventure in itself. I still remember clearly walking around the flea market as a child, looking for floppy discs. I’d often come across things like Jazz Jackrabbit, Jill of the Jungle or Doom II. Once, I even saw someone there with an impressive set-up who was copying hundreds of games on the spot. You could literally pick out a stack of floppy discs and take them home, hot off the press. As a ten-year-old, I had no idea what copyright was, and this felt like the most natural thing in the world.
Back at home, the real work began: installing the game. You’d get to the third or fourth floppy disc, only to find that that one was corrupted. Then you’d have to start all over again. But that whole experience – searching for them, unpacking them, hoping they’d work – I found it magical. Back then, I often didn’t even know where to get hold of new games. I was one of the first people in the neighbourhood to have a PC, and I mainly got my games from those markets or from magazines.
LAN parties & multiplayer magic
Even before online gaming became the norm, we had LAN parties. You’d pack up your PC tower, lug a heavy CRT monitor into the car (often a friend’s mum would give you a lift), and then you’d all set up the whole rig together at someone’s house. Hours spent running cables, setting up IP addresses, installing games, and then finally getting stuck into Quake III, Unreal Tournament or Counter-Strike 1.6. Sometimes you’d sleep there, sometimes you wouldn’t. But what memories. This was gaming at its rawest and most sociable.
Mods and user-generated content
PC gaming wasn’t just about playing, but also about creating. I loved discovering that you could mod games. Sometimes it was as simple as tweaking a config file in GTA: San Andreas so that it ran at a decent frame rate. But others also created complete makeovers — such as Half-Life becoming Counter-Strike, or Warcraft III being the birthplace of DOTA — there was so much creativity in the community. Many PC gamers were often creators as well, and I thought that was absolutely brilliant.
Emulation and DOSBox
Of course, you could try buying a nice 486 PC on Marktplaats. Go for it – it’s awesome! But for those who want to make things a bit easier: have a look for tools like DOSBox, PCem or ScummVM. These let you run classics on modern hardware, without the hassle of corrupt floppy discs. Pretty handy.
Fancy reliving some of those classic games? Have a look at playdosgames.com
What people think of retro gaming
Retro gaming is an umbrella term – that much has become clear to me. In this Reddit thread I started, dozens of replies came in. Some were philosophical, others practical, and some were simply matter-of-fact: “old games are just old games”.
An important topic: when is something considered retro? Opinions on this vary widely. For some, anything up to and including the fourth generation is retro, whilst others also include the PS2 and the original Xbox.
Iamn’0 man’s theory was brilliant. From the Precambrian to the Cenozoic, with each generation representing a technological leap.
Retro gaming isn’t just about nostalgia. Some people are only just discovering old games now and are still feeling their magic. Someone said they’d only recently discovered Dragon Quest and Doom, and had fallen in love with them.
Someone else put it perfectly:
“I miss the days when games were just games, not films. When skill and reflexes were what counted.”
Some people swear by original hardware, whilst others prefer modern conveniences such as USB-C, sleep/resume and bright screens.
“I’m making my past self (and, shall we say, my inner child) quite happy.”
Afterword
Thanks for reading this far. It’s been brilliant writing this blog and getting to know the retro community in a new way.
Of course, there are a thousand things I haven’t mentioned – for example, there were, of course, arcades, and there are dozens of consoles I don’t even know exist. Feel free to add to this blog in the comments!
If you like this blog, feel free to quote it, share it or print it out and have a proper retro read-through.
– Xxx –
Jorne
info@retrogear.nl