Video Games: Nostalgia Vs Extinct Genres

[Zardnaar]

I'm sort of a retro gamer keeping 16bitganes from the 90s and adding to the collection over the years.

However there's a handful of games I'm still actively playing now and it's because they were arguably the apex of their genres and nothing better has replaced them. By actively play I mean probably play them semi regularly.

Those games are.

Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri. Arguably the best Civilization type game ever and a great 4X game. There's been no direct sequel and the spiritual successors don't hold up.

Civilization 3. My personal favorite of the series. I didn't really get into Civilization IV and V+ have changed to much. Not played to often but probably break it out for stints at least once a year.

Star Wars Empire At War. Not to many SW RTS games were made and this was the best one. Still actively supported by the modding community. Thrawns Revenge mod is buckets of fun for me.

Honorable Mentions.

Knights of the Old Republic. Gets broken out for occasional playthroughs. Recently done because my wife bought it on the switch so we played it together.

Sid Meiers Pirates. Similar to KoToR. Another unique game doing its own thing.



Anyway what games (if any) do you semi regularly play that are old. Remakes do not count eg Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Halo Master Chief Edition.

 

[Atomoctba]

The Incredible Machine is an old friend I revisit from time from time.

Some months ago I found an emulator to Lemmings. Lots of laughs again.
Also, I found an emulated version of the Day of the Tentacle that I loved. One of the best adventurer games of all times.

Not playing right now, but I still regard Dune 2 as one of the better games I played.

 

[aco175]

My college is in the middle of building a new building for game design. It is supposed to have a learning room with 1 of each gaming system ever.

My favorite from childhood. "Fighter needs food badly." Elf is about to die."

 

[MNblockhead]

Zork. But this is 100% nostalgia.

 

[Tonguez]

Yeah Deidre and I still regularly pay a visit to the Planet and her Mindworm swarms

Streets of Rage was best of the side scrolling beat em ups (though I started with Double Dragon)

my two favourite games though are Dynasty Warriors 4 & 5 and the Prince of Persia Sands of Time series

 

[MarkB]

Transport Tycoon (or at least OpenTTD these days) is one that I still occasionally go back to. Very nice to chill out with while listening to podcasts or audio books, though it's a dangerous timesink - there's always just one more thing to do or tweak.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah Deidre and I still regularly pay a visit to the Planet and her Mindworm swarms

Streets of Rage was best of the side scrolling beat em ups (though I started with Double Dragon)

my two favourite games though are Dynasty Warriors 4 & 5 and the Prince of Persia Sands of Time series

I still break out Streets of Rage 2 occasionally. That's nostalgia though but it's one of the best side scrolling beat em ups. Haven't played 4 which came out somewhat recently.

Used to play the crap out of SoR2 bought my own copy 1998 iirc.

 

[Zardnaar]

Transport Tycoon (or at least OpenTTD these days) is one that I still occasionally go back to. Very nice to chill out with while listening to podcasts or audio books, though it's a dangerous timesink - there's always just one more thing to do or tweak.

Understand Civilization, SMAC and the Paradox interactive soak up time.

 

[MarkB]

Understand Civilization, SMAC and the Paradox interactive soak up time.

Of those I've only played Stellaris, and yes it does, for the same reason. You're always in the middle of 2-3 things at once, and even when you surface and think "okay, just one more thing and then I'll wrap up", it's easy to get dragged back in as more things cascade.

 

[Zardnaar]

Of those I've only played Stellaris, and yes it does, for the same reason. You're always in the middle of 2-3 things at once, and even when you surface and think "okay, just one more thing and then I'll wrap up", it's easy to get dragged back in as more things cascade.

Don't get me started in Stellaris lol. Way to much time on that (Lockdowns, Covid, injury recovery).