So made a long blog post about this...

https://amigang.com/cantgoback/

But basically to sum it up, have you guys had a game you loved growing up with and thought it was the coolest thing ever, and really want to go back and play it, but basically the magic was no longer there, it just was not as fun to play. I had this, the two stand out are Theme Park and Wing Commander both classic games, but i just cant find that magic I had as a kid playing them.

Any other games you feel the same?

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@amigang

I guess it depends on whether you've migrated to something better in the meantime. I never got into Rollercoaster Tycoon so I think I could go back to Theme Park quite easily especially the superior Mac version under Shapershifter.

After Elite Dangerous, I guess Wing Commander might not be as fun but the CD32 version is a treat with the Cinemaware type presentation and sound/music!

I don't like Super Huey which is quite frankly rubbish and does not represent a 16-bit simulation of flying a helicopter even in the late 80s but it's all I had then!

Last edited by BigD on 15-Mar-2024 at 02:08 PM.

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@amigang

To be honest, probably half of all Amiga games are like that.
As much as I enjoy the system and its software it's dated worse than many other systems of similar, or older vintage. ST ports and overambition. Amiga could make some aesthetically pleasing images in 32 and 64 color modes, but trying to shift those graphics around can take more effort, time and skill than many had. Coupled with the fact it was good enough for its day (existed in same era as speccy/atari st/low powered pcs) and it didnt stand out as being as crippling as it does now after decades of higher framerates/better frametime consistency.

Through weight of numbers though even if (for conversations sake) %95 of all Amiga games were terrible unplayable messes that would still leave a heck of a lot of great stuff.

@amigang

Populous 2 was a game I liked most on our A500 and it is still one of the best games - in my not that humble POV - in existence. If I may choose a game with "magic lost", it would be some action game. Not that it doesn't stand the test of time, but the older I'm, the worse I'm on this kind of games.

@amigang

I think the biggest factor isn't that the games or whatever feels old and low-fi. It's the fact that we have simply already done it and grown up.

Pretty much nothing I did as a kid or teenager and felt some kind of magic around is the same today if I should try it (except possibly dating women, if I would ever get the chance again ). We have simply "been there, done that". We have experienced the new and exciting, having had unlimited time to play or create or explore of whatever. Not so anymore.

Being exposed to new games/software/technology doesn't exactly help feeling the excitement over the old stuff either. It was new then! Now it's not new anymore.

My strongest memories of magic was when we rented a NES and plugged it in to our old TV, spend some good 10 minutes manually turning that tuning knob on channel 7 (the last) and finally it appeared! Mario running over the start screen of SMB 1! MAGIC!

Or when I first got my A500 and started making music in NoiseTracker. Something I could have never ever dreamed of could exist before! MAGIC!

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@amigang

I voted “No� because it’s been my experience that 8 times out of 10, the re-experience is a shadow of the remembered glory.

And it’s not just with video games. It works for TV shows and movies. When the new BSG series was popular, I tried rewatching the original Battlestar Galactica I enjoyed in the ‘80s. After watching one episode, I promptly quit because the old show does not hold up well to today’s story-telling and production standards, and I didn’t want to ruin the fond memory I had.

Thomas Wolfe was right, you can’t go home again.

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@amigang

Quote:

But basically to sum it up, have you guys had a game you loved growing up with and thought it was the coolest thing ever, and really want to go back and play it, but basically the magic was no longer there, it just was not as fun to play.

I feel different.

When I play with my son together a round of Deluxe Galaga or a match of Archon
then this is still as much fun and exciting as it was 30 years Amiga.

@Gunnar

That's because no one has made a better Galaga.

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@agami

It’s not the simplest games to write, it looks simply, but getting waves of enemies to move like they do, require some clever logic. They also need to transition into the pattern,
Not saying it’s impossible, or anything like that, but its more than a few days of coding.

Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 27-Mar-2024 at 01:25 PM.

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@amigang

I have old magazines with tests of f.e. C64 games. At that time I liked those games but if I look at it from today they look really old. The same is true with many amiga games. You cannot go back and look today like a 10 years old decades ago. Finally you certainly have some games you liked at that time and that are still entertaining today. But not general of course