There already exists a general vidya thread, two RPG threads, so why not a specific kind of vidya?
I'd define retro as closing off with the release of the Dreamcast, but early 2000s vidya is welcome.
I have a penchant for early 80s arcade games and the "2nd gen" of gaming. Some of my favorite games in this regard (not including the obvious ones, but rather cult classics you may not have played) include:
Pooyan: an interesting take on the fixed shmup formula. You're a pig trying to stop balloon-attached wolves from killing your children.
Megamania: another really fun fixed shmup. Like Space Invaders, but the formations are weirder and more challenging.
Communist Mutants from Space: Like Galaxian or Galaga, but faster and more frantic.
Frankenstein's Monster: In terms of platformers on the Atari 2600, I'm picking this simply because unlike Pitfall's collect-a-thon gameplay, it's more direct. You have to build a wall around Frankenstein's Monster before he gets charged up and goes loose.
Berzerk: I love multidirectional shooters like Smash TV or Postal, and without this game, they wouldn't exist. Go from room to room dispatching robots with your laser. Sometimes a smiley face comes out of nowhere and tries to kill you. Great fun.
Yars' Revenge: A really weird shmup. You're a fly trying to destroy this weird... thing. It periodically turns into a swirl and tries to kill you. You have to break down its barrier, then activate the cannon by either touching the aforementioned "thing" or pushing yourself against its barrier. You then have to time it just right and clear the board.
Not to say I don't like later games either. I'm fond of old FPS games. My personal favorite game of all time is DOOM 1, second being DOOM 64. I've been playing Quake 2's re-release recently too. But I don't want this post to stretch on too long, so... what are your favorite retro video games?

    Commander Grausam

    I have a penchant for early 80s arcade games and the "2nd gen" of gaming. Some of my favorite games in this regard (not including the obvious ones, but rather cult classics you may not have played)

    no sinistar? :-C
    i don't know if it necessarily qualifies as a shoot em' up because it was a bit more dynamic in terms of movement but i consider it to be a bit more underrated compared to similar games of its time

        Commander Grausam
        Most of my gaming was probably spent with 2000s+ games, sadly I think even ps3 is probably not far off being retro now 👴

        I have a particular fondness though for Panel De Pon and another Super Famicom game BS Golf Daisuki - Out of Bounds Club. They are great little games to play for 20 mins at a time and I love the aethetic and charm of them.

        Another one i've been enjoying has been the PS1 Densha De Go, which is a shockingly popular train driving sim. It has an arcade feel but its very tough and i'm not very good at it

        Lip from PanelDePon image by Bamboo Grass

            Lumeinshin

            Most of my gaming was probably spent with 2000s+ games, sadly I think even ps3 is probably not far off being retro now 👴

            that’s the newest console i own

              I really like Dragon Quest 1-3.
              Dragon Warrior/Quest 3 was my first real RPG. I had no idea how to play one really. I understood walk around, battle, talk to people, and get new gear. But I never equipped any gear. I remember just grinding out the beginning area monsters for sooo long and I was definitely over leveled. I did not beat that game as a kid but I returned to the series as an adult. By returned I mean I played 1-3 and none of the other ones. I should one day, but not today.

              Daggerfall is another real good old school game I recommend anyone play. But not the original, Unity version fixes a lot of issues, allows modding, and has console commands. Getting out of the first dungeon can be a bit rough and my first go at the game it made me very frustrated. I spent so long try to get through that thing before just running around the enemies until I found the exit. Then getting to the world and seeing the stupidly large scale was just something else.

              Chip's Challenge is a fun puzzle game. Top down view and you collect keys and stuff to get through rooms and reach the door. There's 150 levels or something and a lot of fun and thinking to be had. Never gets super hard though, just hard enough to jog the noggin. It's also free on Steam.

              Golden Axe is a beat em up. I think it might have been THE beat em up, not sure. Either way it's incredibly fun and I played it a ton on my Sega. Never beat it as a kid and never returned to it but I do hold it in high regards.

              Last game I'm gonna put down is Kid Chameleon. I loved the powers, I loved the music, I loved the premise, I loved the "coolness" of the main character, and I loved the level design. It's such a strange game play as a kid who gets put into a video game and your powers are like spiky head guy, tank, samurai, they're just weird. The music though is probably my favorite thing about it. Still to this day I listen to some of the tracks, they're fantastic. I really liked the Genesis sound chip.

                Fantasy Love playing the lynx version of Chip's Challenge for the music, but I mostly played it on my dad's old work computer that ran Windows 95 lol.

                Very solid games in your list. I really want to get into Dagerfall, especially with the Unity engine giving a better experience.

                I am a sperg for the original Final Fantasy games and never played the Dragon Quest games, unfortunately. Been playing through the SNES versions of the first two games. Really enjoyable. People keep telling me 3 is pretty good. I also know that the modern games come highly recommended.

                  One that I just finished recently was System Shock. I've played both the DOS version and the Enhanced Edition and like with Daggerfall Unity the Enhanced Edition is much better.


                  I especially love the soundtrack of the medical level, the first level you start out on.

                    Zergface I never played the original System Shock but I did really enjoy the recent remake of it. I've seen people say it both is too similar to the original and not similar enough. I don't care either way, that's a good hecking time right there. Getting jacked up on space drugs and smashing some robots is always going to be fun.
                    The only thing I can say negatively is keeping track of what to do next can be difficult sometimes. You have to pay attention to all the logs and stuff.

                      Zergface
                      Zergface
                      I've played some of it, it was nice but something a bit difficult to get into to me personally. I want to give it another chance and a proper one too. The music however I'll admit is absolutely magnificent. Up there with some of my favorite video game soundtracks. Don't get me wrong, I like the ambient and DnB SS2 soundtrack, but I just wish they retained that awesome industrial feel the first one had. Rhythmic, mechanical, and eerie. Encapsulates the game extremely well.

                      I think in the 90s there were many sorts of experiments of melding FPS games with adventure games/RPGs. Of course, SS1 and 2 encapsulate the "immersive sim" and games like Deus Ex and Thief to come (I really never understood why people call them "immersive sims". They are immersive, but so is any FPS game I feel. I don't know what they simulate though. Any game simulates a character, I guess, but enough autistic semantics). One other one I really enjoyed was Strife: Quest for the Sigil from 1996. I can't call it a "hidden gem", it's more of a cult classic; very well known among retro FPS fans, not so much among those outside of it. I can definitely see why; by the time it came out, it was considered bit dated. I don't see it that way though; 3 years isn't too far off from DOOM's release, which this definitely takes after, but I wasn't even alive then so I can't tell you.

                      I had great fun with it. The story is great, the levels are beautifully built, and the music is really nice too. I recall Nightdive remastered it as Strife: Veteran Edition. I must admit the radio buddy (Blackbird, as she's called in the game) has a nice voice but sometimes she gets kinda annoying; she does a good job at building up the story though. Strife has multiple endings too. I must admit, in terms of the gameplay, it very much is DOOM-esque. Large maze-like levels, enemies and NPCs are just 2D sprites, etc.
                      The art is great too. The character design and cutscenes have a very distinctly 90s Western feel to them, which honestly looks great to me; some may find it kinda cheesy though. I linked the intro down there so you can give it a look for yourself. Still, great fun for anyone who just wants a DOOM-style retro FPS with some adventure/RPG elements.

                          Tolo
                          I just played Sinistar. I knew of it prior but haven't played it until now. Can't believe I've been missing out on this. I love this.

                            15 days later

                            Zergface
                            Maybe I'm wrong, but I've heard that Nightdive Studio makes lousy Enchanced Editions? The reviews on this particular one look good though... I really need to play System Shock one day.
                            But as for now, the latest oldies I've been through are...
                            Cruis'n USA
                            Cruis'n World
                            E.V.O. - Search for Eden
                            And I hope Rikki & Vikki counts as retro. Completed it with a friend over the course of three evenings, I believe...

                                Commander Grausam
                                I think I've heard a lot flac directed towards them because of Blade Runner. Cannot really find much at the moment.
                                Either way, I guess the point is when I will finally get to any of those games it will take a little research to determine which one I want to play.
                                I definitely remember that console versions of the Powerslave have cooler endings than DOS one.

                                    Ross_R

                                    Ross_R I definitely remember that console versions of the Powerslave have cooler endings than DOS one.

                                    They're both nearly entirely different games in terms of the levels too. The Nightdive version is based on Powerslave EX if I recall which is basically a mix of the console and DOS versions.

                                        a month later
                                        8 days later

                                        Commander Grausam Dont forget that to many, even the Wii is retro 🤯
                                        I've been playing more retro games lately, I go on and off a buying megadrive/genesis games kick. I will one day stop being awful at Super Hang On

                                        Lumeinshin I still suck at densha de go 🙁

                                        Fantasy DQ1 is a fun time, I played the SNES remake a good bit last year. Definitely one to appreciate its legacy

                                                Lumeinshin Dont forget that to many, even the Wii is retro

                                                It's 2006 console. It is retro by 4chan /vr/ rules. (edit: Double-checked. It's not. While the games are accepted up to 2007, the consoles are only up to 2001 at the moment. The rest of the post stands though)
                                                And it is frankly quite retro by the norms of modern society, where borderline life expectancy of an average thing is 5 years. Good thing if anyone will remember about an average video game 3 years after it came out.
                                                I'm not aware of such cases, but I'm pretty sure some franchises might be rebooted 5 years after the first part came out.
                                                So yeah, Wii is, unfortunately, quite retro it seems.

                                                  I'll write down some of the retro consoles and the games I mostly liked from them, I'll be listing from the ones I remember from the get-go.
                                                  SNES - Super Mario World of course, and Megaman X (Loved the last one)
                                                  NDS - Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, Apollo Justice Ace Attorney, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth took MONTHS from me, GIVE IT BACK!!!!!!!
                                                  GameBoy Advance - Pokemon (Emerald), Castlevania Aria Of Sorrow and WarioWare (Also that Danny Phantom game, never managed to finish it though)
                                                  PS1 - METAL GEAR SOLID, impossible to not say it, what a game. Castlevania Symphony of the Night, managed to get the complete Alucard experience and stopped halfway through with Richter, that game had stolen so many days from me already 😭 . Gran Turismo and Ridge Racer 4, both introduced me to racing games.
                                                  Misc - (PC) METAL GEAR SOLID 2 AAAAAAAAAHHHHH WHAT A GAMEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, THIS FRANCHISE IS SO GREATTTTTT, I'LL TAKE IT TO THE REST OF MY LIFE! Sonic 3 (and Knuckles) liked it very much, just not the whole searching for emeralds, kinda annoying.
                                                  I guess that's it

                                                  I say this from the very bottom of my heart... I know no comfier feeling in the world than playing Classic Fallout at winter.
                                                  Ever since I got Fallout 1 and 2 as Christmas presents for myself a few years back, they've had a very dear and special place in my heart.

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