Which is your favorite retro gaming era?

[Arkhan]

PS2 can play all PS1 games.   I don't know what Broadway's smoking.   I can confirm FFT and LOD work on a PS2. and VR Missions actually.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_games_incompatible_with_PlayStation_2

Which PS2 do you have? I have a chipped PS1 for imports, and neither console are stay hooked up, so it's not a big deal for me to get it out and play PS1 games on it. I never checked for myself what games work or don't work, since I never got rid of my PS1 to begin with.

Just these 3?
Not that big a loss... I could just emulate them if I ever want to play them...

Nah, a lot more, but those were the only three I cared about.

I can go check when I am home.  I have 2.  but, I use PS1 mostly for PS1.   I need to get some more PS1s.

sometimes they f*ck out on me.

I was just playing JetMoto2  on a PS2 a few weeks ago.  lol  it seemed OK to me.

[Gredler]

NHL Rock the Rink - the middle man between Hit the Ice and Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey / NHL Hitz.

Great game, worth having a ps1 around to play it.

[coryoon]

Whilst I did some gaming in the 8-Bit era (had an Amstrad CPC), although I liked to play on it, I find it hard to go back to 8-Bit stuff.  The same can be said of the 8-Bit consoles (bar a few stand out games).

The 16-Bit era has the consoles that I like the most - PC Engine, Snes and Neo Geo.

With that said the 16-Bit era continued long after the Playstation era, as the Neo still had releases as did other arcade hardware that I suppose could be lumped in with this era?

-Was CPS2 16-Bit?
-The CAVE CV1000 pcbs were much more powerful than the 16 Bit PGM hardware that preceded it.

I never like to use the generational classifications that are used, save as to say that there was a jump from 8 to 16 bit graphics and then a gradual peaking of 16 bit (style) 2d graphics well into the 000's.

I dare say that I am into the era of 2D pixel games that started from the PC Engine and ended with the last official Neo release, so that gives me 1987 - 2003.

Certain exceptions are made on the handheld format as I love the GB and the GG - although they do fall into my 87-03 window.

[esteban]

FINAL CONCLUSIONS:

(1) The 8-bit era is, without a doubt, the best era.
(2) Pussyfooters say otherwise.
(3) FEKA agents hacked the poll to elevate "16-bit Era" into the lead. Therefore, the results displayed above are invalid. Ignore them.
(4) For three hours this afternoon, the poll was titled "Dendy4Ever" (Russian hackers). Necro fixed this by hitting "refresh" in his mobile Opera browser.

[Michirin9801]

I think there are plenty of NES, GB and GBC and a few Master System games that have actually aged pretty damn well in my book and still look sound and play great now, granted they're never gonna compare to the likes of what you find on the PC engine, Mega Drive and Super Nintendo, but I still love games such as NES Batman, NES Batman Return of the Joker, Shatterhand, Ninja Gaiden 1, 2 and 3, Kirby's Adventure, Super Mario Bros. 1, 2 and 3, Contra, Super C, Castlevania 1 and 3, ZAS (GB), Crisis Force (FC), Crystalis, Adventure Island 2 and 3, Final Fantasy III (FC), Dragon Warrior IV, Super Mario Land 2, Gremlins 2, Journey to Silius, Bomberman II, Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu (NES), Faxanadu, TMNT 3 The Manhattan Project, Wacky Races (GBC), Zelda Link's Awakening DX (GBC)...
The point is that there is no shortage of 8 bit games that are still pretty damn good, sure some of you might not agree with some of my choices, but there are plenty more that I haven't mentioned so my point stands...

I voted for the 16 bit generation for a good reason, that's when 2D graphics became truly amazing, 2D gameplay was pretty much perfected, and the sound that those systems produced has never been and will probably never be surpassed, but if you dismiss the 8 bits you're only doing yourself a disservice...

Yeah I know I was a little dismissive of the 5th generation earlier in the thread while saying I didn't have a ton of experience with it, but that wasn't exactly the most accurate way to word what I was trying to say, not only do I have experience with the 5th gen systems (minus the Saturn which I really want to play when I can) but I was open to suggestions! (In other words, I'm not being a hypocrite by defending the 3rd generation even though the 4th is my favourite by a long shot)

[MrBroadway]

I think some trends are in order. I'd say 8-bit platformers were represented the height of the genre, as they started to get too easy with 16-bit consoles. There are, of course, many exceptions.

The absolute pinnacle of shooters is either PC Engine greatness or Saturn greatness, late enough to be polished, early enough to avoid the terrible danmaku fetish.

RPGs were greatest in 16-bit generation, but racing games from the Saturn and PS1 on blow everything before that out of the water. Not even close.

On the other hand, 8/16-bit beatemups were way, way cooler than 3D platformers, which objectively suck. Final Fantasy went from dark knights to scrappy but effeminate boys.

Things were weirder in 8 and 32/64-bit eras than 16-bit, but that's mostly due to the sheer size of the shovelware (and thus unusual and unexpected slam dunks) from the NES and PS1 libraries.

Sports games get more boring the more realistic they make them. Ergo earlier is better. (Are there any phenomenal sports games after NHL 94? I'm thinking Virtua Tennis and Hot Shots Fore! or something.)

Hard to say which gen is best with all this, but I'd still lean 16-bit as a comfortable middle ground there.

[esteban]

Obviously, I love the 16-bit era. 

That said, there is an awful lot of pussyfooting in this thread!   8-bit4Evuh



Michirin9801, you have sound reasoning. I hear you. I think most folks would (do) agree with you.



MrBroadway: I think you identified something crucial to this discussion...trends and genres. A person's personal preference for certain genres will absolutely affect their vote in this poll.

Personally, the fact that I don't really care for:

* Vs. Fighting Games (a la Street Fighter)
* RPGs on consoles (I used to play RPGs on computers in 80's, then got sick of it)
* FPS/3D platformers

...really shapes my vote in a favorite "era"...

Plus, the incontrovertible fact that the 16-bit Era is, and always will be,  inferior to the 8-bit Era is integral to the analysis, too.

[sanjo]

Crystalis

It's a damn shame they never made a sequel. When SNK made it big with the Neo-Geo, I was really hoping for a 16-bit  sequel.

Best action rpg of the 8-bit era

[NE146]

I'm a child of the 70's.. had a Coleco Telstar console, and then was fully and absolutely immersed in the 2600/5200 era. I had also had a Famicom before the NES was all that huge in the states and totally loved that era. However my "favorite" has to be the 16 bit era..  that was truly a golden age imho.

[Arkhan]

Crystalis

It's a damn shame they never made a sequel. When SNK made it big with the Neo-Geo, I was really hoping for a 16-bit  sequel.

Best action rpg of the 8-bit era

There's a fanmade sequel.

https://rpgmaker.net/games/3175/

its kinda neato

[Michirin9801]

Crystalis

It's a damn shame they never made a sequel. When SNK made it big with the Neo-Geo, I was really hoping for a 16-bit  sequel.

Best action rpg of the 8-bit era

There's a fanmade sequel.

https://rpgmaker.net/games/3175/

its kinda neato

It looks alright, but the graphics/artwork look amateurish as f*** >~>';
Sorry #>w<#

[Arkhan]

that's because it's an RPG Maker fan made sequel made by probably a highschool kid in their spare time.

what'd you expect? lol

[Michirin9801]

that's because it's an RPG Maker fan made sequel made by probably a highschool kid in their spare time.

what'd you expect? lol

Been there, done that, so I get what you mean...
(But my teenage self's graphics were still better >w<'; )

[Arkhan]

Been there, done that, so I get what you mean...
(But my teenage self's graphics were still better >w<'; )

yea, but theirs are in a released Crystalis fansequel, so they kinda one upped you.

[Michirin9801]

yea, but theirs are in a released Crystalis fansequel, so they kinda one upped you.

Point taken, I never finished my old RPG maker projects...