I think a lot of the draw honestly comes from re-living old memories people have around playing these games (like staying up late in order to beat that one boss in Super Mario or whatever), which obviously is difficult if you never did so in the past.

To a certain extent, yes, these games ARE a chore (all games are in a way - the point is almost always having to practice in order to get good enough to beat them). A well designed game just keeps your hooked with its storytelling and well timed rewards long enough not to toss it aside in frustration.

But if it gets too frustrating because the payout just doesn’t seem to be there, I’d say don’t try to force it. Get a Switch and play the modern version of the classics, but with newer, fancier graphics, maybe that helps.

Nothing wrong with playing a game for as long as it holds your interest- especially older games that cost pennies / nothing at all.

If you’re playing for nostalgia, I assume you have a big backlog of games to get through? Play until you lose interest, then pick up a different game. Just make sure you keep the save! At some point you might want to get back into it without having to play from the start.

You can use any sort of cloud storage sync to keep a backup of your saves just in case!

i plan on playing, chrono trigger, zelda ocarina of time, starfox and simillar games.

Then play them since you have free time. If you lose interest then you just do not enjoy the games you are playing. If you do not play too many games, then what games do you play that I assume are modern?

What do you feel is the reason that are you losing interest?

Have you tried other genres of game? What about starting at a more modern console and working backwards? Have you tested out if applying CRT-like shaders or playing on a genuine CRT improves the appeal?

Sounds like you’ve got some classics lined up but I’d suggest throwing in some more casual stuff too, especially if you’re losing interest in the long-form, story-based games. Something like excite bike or crazy taxi or road rash (I’m partial to old racers) or anything where you just pick it up, play a few rounds and move on. Think arcade style.

I made a favorites list in retroarch and cycle through it. I’ll play the story-based classics too but sometimes it’s difficult to get invested with dated graphics and sound. The pick-up-and-go games I find more accessible as I’m getting older.

I could play almost any modern title with my PC and I’ve tried. I tried remakes of the games I used to like, I’ve tried modern takes on retro games… and I’ve come to accept that what I love are button-mashers :-)

I will play Metal Slug for hours. Any of the overhead shooters from Battle of Midway or almost any of the SciFi side scrolling shooters.

So my advice is try something different. Dig around in old coin-op titles, there are literally thousands and you can download all of them in one torrent.

Skip the AAA+ titles and play something dumb :-)

I gotta be honest with you… I NEVER cared for the Zelda games. Even when they were new, they seemed low tier to me. Great for kids who had never played an RPG before… not so great for anyone else.

Here’s what I’d do… pick a genre and experience that genre start to finish. You don’t have to spend a lot of time on each individual game, it’s more about the journey.

So, for example, fighting games.

Atari 260O Boxing
Karate Champ
Yie Ar Kung Fu
Street Fighter
Street Fighter II

The gateway depends on what genre grabs you.

I’ve gone back and played a TON of ROMS in the past few years. Some were old favorites, some for the first time, and 80% of them are trash.

That’s not me hating on retro games, I play those more than anything else, but some companies were cranking out anything they could for those old systems.

On average, I lose interest in most retro games in under ten minutes (because it’s just not good). But the ones that grab me, I play for weeks until I’ve finished it.

Super Mario World or Donkey Kong Country are great side scrollers. Final fantasy 5 (translated) and 6 (published as 3 in the US) have been my favorite RPGs. I enjoyed Super Metroid much more than Castlevania even though they get clumped together in the same genre. Tetris & Dr Mario are great puzzle games.

Retro gaming brings a feeling of nostalgia for most that are into it. My video game life started off on an Atari 2600, so playing old games from my childhood is fun and a reminder of easier times. That being said NES provides a bunch of pick up and play fun games. Here is a short list of fun games to play.

Mike Tyson’s punch out Mega Man series- Mega Man 2 has the most banger soundtrack. R-Type Alpha mission RC Pro Am Ironman Ivan Stewart’s Off-road Super sprint Double Dragon Kung Fu

These should provide a bunch of different play types and genres to figure out what types of games scratch your itch.

My usual go-to is Super Mario Bros 3. It’s as low or high stakes as you want to make it.

Losing interest? How about some shorter games that are super high quality all the way through?

• Kirby’s Adventure
• Super Mario Bros. 3
• The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX
• Gunstar Heroes
• Mega Man 4 (and then Rockman 4 Minus Infinity)
• Tetris Rosy Retrospection
• Hammerin’ Harry: Smash Smash Hammer Smash
• Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
• Streemerz
• Donkey Kong Country
• Star Fox 64
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

So, what kinds of games do you normally play? We can help you more if we know where you’re coming from.

RPG’s can be a slog. Go for Starfox or other games that you can play in 5-10 minute bursts. Jet Set Radio usually works for me.

Some things: (a) Retro gaming is an extremely wide at this point. It houses multiple generations if extreme upgrades from PS2 to Spectrum. The further back you go the more restricted it becomes. So if you want to get into retro, I think it might be good to move backwards to gain a tolerance. As you go back QoL will slowly get worse as we’ve built upon them over the years.

(b) Gateway games are difficult because for me a gateway is a way to gain interest, it was never just picking the best of the old games. When Megaman 9 came out it was good enough that I went back and started playing the old games. Because I enjoyed it and it emulated the originals. If there are some retro-inspired games you enjoy, going back to the games that inspired it is a good gateway (for me anyway)

© I’m not sure how this feed feels about it but feel free to use save states. Arcade difficulty is real and sometimes saving can be complicated. Just remember that they exist when considering an opinion. Your feelings on contra may vary depending on if you use save states to beat it.

So if N64 is your “modern” retro I’d probably recommend Mario 64, Ocarina of Time (slow start be aware), Kirby 64 and Paper Mario. From there if you like Mario 64 and Want another Banjo.

I think SNES JRPG is a bit tricky. I don’t really remember my avenue into it. I believe it was GBA and DS JRPG that gave me a tolerance for more simple combat systems.

Have you try retroachievements.org ? It really makes playing old games a new experience by adding a more challenging and competitive aspect.

I’d also recommend installing whatever quality of life mods/romhacks/emulator settings you can find. Gaming has changed a lot over the years and our brains expect different things than they used to.

I used to love Gen3 Pokemon growing up, but playing it now feels unbearably slow, but it’s a lot nicer with a fast forward setting. Same with adding text speed up cheats, faster running cheats, etc.

That, and I’d recommend starting with remakes of popular retro games to get hooked. Usually they have some revamping of control schemes or graphics that match your expectations a bit better. Then once you get the momentum going, expand from there.