[Official] EHW Retro - The EHW Retrogaming club

[neurotix]

You are more than welcome to add and discuss retro pcs here, and I've tried to be accommodating. However, if you want your own club, feel free to make one. I wish you both the best, and again, I really feel like I've been nice and open toward retro PCs, offering to add lists and such. I just can't add much to the discussion myself.

 

Unfortunately the user base here is small. Bear in mind, this is a continuation of my club on OCN which had 40+ members discussing retro gaming consoles. Clearly not happening here.

[pio]

2 hours ago, neurotix said:

Pretty cool but as I made clear in the OP, this is primarily a retro console gaming club

 

3 minutes ago, neurotix said:

You are more than welcome to add and discuss retro pcs here, and I've tried to be accommodating. However, if you want your own club, feel free to make one. I wish you both the best, and again, I really feel like I've been nice and open toward retro PCs, offering to add lists and such. I just can't add much to the discussion myself.

 

Unfortunately the user base here is small. Bear in mind, this is a continuation of my club on OCN which had 40+ members discussing retro gaming consoles. Clearly not happening here.

 

The above quote is all that I saw so far this morning (in the post from Labrat).  I didn't see the rest of your edit and post above his comment (I should've scrolled up).  I'm just going off what you said bro.  If you want it to be consoles only, we can absolutely discuss our retro PC's elsewhere.  If you want us included, that's great too, we'll stay right here.  No harm, no foul.   

[neurotix]

3 minutes ago, pioneerisloud said:

 

 

The above quote is all that I saw so far this morning (in the post from Labrat).  I didn't see the rest of your edit and post above his comment (I should've scrolled up).  I'm just going off what you said bro.  If you want it to be consoles only, we can absolutely discuss our retro PC's elsewhere.  If you want us included, that's great too, we'll stay right here.  No harm, no foul.   

 

Yes PLEASE continue and discuss PCs in this club, post pictures of rare hardware, post pictures of rigs, give me specs of rigs to add to your club membership, and I'll maybe learn some stuff in the process. The LAST thing I want is for the club to split. I am currently trying to get E to approve this club as official so I can add that to the thread title.

 

I am sorry for the confusion I caused in editing that post.

 

Also it's not like I don't remember all the generations of hardware myself, I just don't have any room for old hardware.

 

I can tell you one thing: I suck at it but I*love* UT2004 and especially Onslaught mode.

[UltraMega]

26 minutes ago, neurotix said:

You are more than welcome to add and discuss retro pcs here, and I've tried to be accommodating. However, if you want your own club, feel free to make one. I wish you both the best, and again, I really feel like I've been nice and open toward retro PCs, offering to add lists and such. I just can't add much to the discussion myself.

 

Unfortunately the user base here is small. Bear in mind, this is a continuation of my club on OCN which had 40+ members discussing retro gaming consoles. Clearly not happening here.

Don't let these old farts rile you up over excessively defining "retro". Some of them were probably already halfway in the grave when pong came out

 

Not everyone needs to have the same definition in their mind, we can all discuss retro gaming here, pc, console, or otherwise. 

 

Would chess be a retro game? 

[neurotix]

Sorry again for ny posts indicating otherwise about retro PCs or stressing consoles. I promise to not make such remarks in the future.

 

 

[neurotix]

I will also go through the OP and make it more friendly and welcoming to those engaged in retro computing. Probably on Monday.

[pio]

5 hours ago, UltraMega said:

Don't let these old farts rile you up over excessively defining "retro". Some of them were probably already halfway in the grave when pong came out

 

Not everyone needs to have the same definition in their mind, we can all discuss retro gaming here, pc, console, or otherwise. 

 

Would chess be a retro game? 

Just a simple misunderstanding over words again.  Stuff happens.  I'm not worried about it, we're all friends here talking about our retro hobbies afterall.   To me, retro GAMING in general includes all of it.  Consoles, old PC's, Amiga's, Atari's, Commodores, whatever.  If its gaming, and old, its retro gaming.

To answer your question Ultra, I PERSONALLY would classify "Chess" (assuming board game version) as a "classic" game, not so much as "retro" or "vintage".  Kinda like Monopoly or Checkers or any other board game.  It's not really retro, since you can still buy new play sets today.  But its not exactly "modern" either since its a board game.  No?  Idk, just thinking aloud.  

[UltraMega]

So anyway.. 

 

My top 5 retro games/game series other than FF games:

 

1. Armored core 2 on PS2

2. Unreal Tournament 2003, 2004, UT3

3. Tribes Ariel Assault on PS2

4. Halo 1

5. Battlefield 1942

 

Armored core 2 intro is a straight up banger:

 

 

Ten-15 years ago I had a 720p projector. Unreal Tournament 3 was a Ps3 game. On pc the code to do split-screen was included but not usable from any menu. Me and my buds played UT3 4-player split screen on that 720p projector using console commands and it was glorious. Some of the most fun I've had gaming IRL. 

 

Tribes 2 was a great game on PC. Tribes: Arieal Assault was a version of Tribes 2 that was optimized for PS2. Me and a buddy of mine who later got hooked on drugs and committed suicide would play Tribes on PS2 online via the PS2 network adapter. We would own servers. It was a ton of fun. 

 

Halo 1CE, do I really need to explain? 

My parents had just got divorced and my mom bought us a good enough desktop PC for me to game on while my dad bought me an Xbox. I guess they both wanted to make sure I had something to do. I booted up Halo on Xbox while my dad watched. He has never had any interest in video games, but Halo 1 was so impressive at the time that he was actually interested. My dad was absolute dog * at playing games tho, so coop was not an option

 

BF1942 was my jam. It kicked off a life long addiction to BF games. My grandma bought it for me for Christmas one year. I made sure it was the only thing I asked her for so she wouldn't get me anything else. She complained about being apprehensive buying me a war game, but she did me a huge favor. It kicked off my PC gaming enthusiam and I probably wouldn't be here on EHW without that. 

 

 

What are your top 5 retro games? 

 

 

 

Edited February 25 by UltraMega

[pio]

33 minutes ago, UltraMega said:

So anyway.. 

 

My top 5 retro games/game series other than FF games:

 

1. Armored core 2 on PS2

2. Unreal Tournament 2003, 2004, UT3

3. Tribes Ariel Assault on PS2

4. Halo 1

5. Battlefield 1942

 

What are your top 5 retro games? 

 

 

 

There's so many to choose from, just 5?  Here's what I'd say mine would be, and this is in absolutely no particular order.

1. Super Mario All-Stars (SNES)
   On the list because there's 4 great games, sometimes 5 (depending on locality I believe?) included all on one cartridge.
2. Rush 2: Extreme Racing (N64)
   Who didn't love playing the Stunt track on this?  But even better yet, who didn't love bringing the arcade game Rush home on your N64 and CRT television set?  I even had Dolby surround sound for this game, it was great!
3. Quake (Win9x)
   I only ever had the demo for most of the time I played this, but I got REALLY really good at the first level at 320x240 resolution, software rendering, at like 10-15 FPS.
4. SimCity 3000 (Win9x)
   Creating amazing cities and then blowing them up?  Heck yes!
5. Driver (Win9x)
   First game I had stumbled upon that "simulated" a good burnout in a car.  The police chases weren't bad either.  Like GTA games later on (I played this long before GTA), never really played for the story.

Honorable Mention:  NFS Underground 2 (WinXP):  Do I really need to explain why?   

Edited February 25 by pioneerisloud

[UltraMega]

5 minutes ago, pioneerisloud said:

There's so many to choose from, just 5?  Here's what I'd say mine would be, and this is in absolutely no particular order.

1. Super Mario All-Stars (SNES)
2. Rush 2: Extreme Racing (N64)
3. Quake (Win9x)
4. SimCity 3000 (Win9x)
5. Driver (Win9x)

Honorable Mention:  NFS Underground 2 (WinXP)

Any fond memories you could share on those games? 

[pio]

Just now, UltraMega said:

Any fond memories you could share on those games? 

I edited them in.  Sorry, I should've typed it all up first lol.  I'm done editing now.

[UltraMega]

4 minutes ago, pioneerisloud said:

I edited them in.  Sorry, I should've typed it all up first lol.  I'm done editing now.

OMG RUSH. Rush 2049 was the best game. The stunt mode was so good. I totally forgot about that, it definitely deserves an OP spot in the retro gaming hierarchy. The stunt mode was so much fun. I played it with my GF via emulator at one point just to make sure she knew how good it was, and we both had a blast. 

Edited February 25 by UltraMega

[neurotix]

If I'm not mistaken, SF Rush 2049 is not just on N64 but I think Dreamcast as well where it's pretty much an arcade perfect port graphically+ Stunt Mode and all the other features of the N64 release.

 

Also, Super Mario All-Stars has a variant cartridge called Super Mario All-Stars + World that has the games from All Stars+ Super Mario World on the same cartridge. I think this was only available as a pack in cartridge but I'm not sure, I do know it came out later in the lifespan of the SNES because of how much ROM it requires.

[neurotix]

So, top 5 games for me.

 

1. Final Fantasy 4 aka Final Fantasy II back in the day when it was on SNES. This game has amazing music, unforgettable characters and a great story about redemption. You travel three different worlds more or less. I can clear my copy of this game and get to the final save point with the final dungeon at 100% in under 10 hours. I have probably cleared it and it's remakes around 100 times. Maybe more.

 

2. Final Fantasy (NES). It has a paper thin plot and zero character development. There's a little bit of story but generally it's go grind and clear the four elemental dungeons. This one is difficult and more like the PC games Wizardry and The Bards Tale or Might and Magic. Just not first person. That means it is about dungeon treks and resource management i.e. saving magic and using healing items wisely to progress. It is non-linear and after you clear the Earth Fiend dungeon, if you know what you're doing you can do the fire, air and water dungeons and beat the fiends in any order you wish.

 

3. Tyrian aka Tyrian 2000 (DOS). It is fully open source now and has been ported to the PSP and Vita and probably phones and tons of other devices. What this game is, is essentially the best vertical shoot em up ever created. You don't die in one hit. You basically take on stages, collect currency in the form of coins (killing enemies adds to it too) and use the money to buy upgrades like whole new ships. You also have a shield and generator to upgrade, and weapons you have front, rear which can be toggled to fire sideways or forward for most weapons, and sidekicks which have limited ammo and are fired with the right mouse button. (You play using the mouse to move your ship and left button is fire, right one is sidekicks). Sidekicks are usually stuff like missiles you can fire that recharge slowly. Also, this game has tons of hidden secrets like secret levels filled with money, "secret" keywords you can type to activate certain cheats or modes, and more. It is also 2 player and I think the second player uses the arrow keys and enter to shoot. You can link your ships together too by flying close to each other and you'll have a very powerful weapon while you do. The game also has fantastic music and pretty good SVGA sprite graphics. I strongly recommend getting Dosbox and a copy of this (it's free).

 

4. Super Mario Bros 3. It's the best Mario ever created. I remember I went to a friend's house and they had rented The Wizard with Fred Savage and when they showed Mario 3 at the end I was just enamored and had to have it. I believe I got it Xmas 1990 and before I was introduced to JRPGs. I played the hell out of it. I still play it now, stayed up til 4AM playing and then beating the game with my little sister. This is still one of the best selling games of all time- at least 20 million copies sold.

 

5. Xenogears. Just go read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia. This game is crazy and quite difficult for a newcomer to it, I would not suggest playing it because it has too many faults, but this was getting into some real Freudian and Jungian psychology, Jewish Kabbalah, Vatican and corruption, aliens, drug abuse, PTSD and multiple personalities, nanotechnology, etc. It was protested by the Catholic Church before release and almost wasn't released here. It was pretty deep for a 14 year old to be playing and is highly cerebral where you would want to cross-reference concepts in it like Animus and Anima, etc. Oh and the music is fantastic, done by Yasunori Mitsuda who did Chrono Triggers soundtrack.

 

Whew that was a lot. Honorable mentions are:

Chrono Trigger

FF6

FF9

Virtual On: Cyber troopers (arcade)

Super Mario World

Streets of Rage 2

UT2004

Raiden II (arcade)

Phantasy Star Online

Phantasy Star 2

Phantasy Star 4

..and quite a few others I'm drawing a blank on.

 

Also, check the OP. I have immediately made it more welcoming to PC gamers and collectors.

Edited February 26 by neurotix

[neurotix]

Feel free to post retro game music in this club too.

 

 

 

 

[neurotix]

Club has been made official per @ENTERPRISEs blessing!

[Slaughtahouse]

On 25/02/2024 at 04:28, UltraMega said:

 

What are your top 5 retro games? 

 

By my age / definition, retro is basically anything early 6th gen console or prior. 

• Halo CE (PC)
• Super Smash Bros. (N64)
• Perfect Dark (N64)
• Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 (PC)
• Sim City 3000 (PC)

 

Metroid Prime is my all time favourite game but doesn't feel "Retro". I can play that game over and over again. I was ecstatic when it was re-released on Switch. Now, going into the list... 

 

Halo CE -> It was my first "3D polygonal" PC game that I can remember. I played the demo, bought it and eventually I bought two copies because... why buy one?. No, not really, I lost the CD so I bought a second copy. Either way, it was exceptional on PC. There were extra maps, weapons (flamethrower), special warthog that shot missles, and custom modes and maps. You could drive a warthog reskined as a Epona in Hyrule field shooting arrows. Was it fun? No, not really but it really opened up my eyes to PC modding. It's one of my all time favourites.

 

Super Smash Bros. -> Arguably the GOAT of N64 multiplayer. Sorry Mario Kart, take a back seat. The idea of all these Nintendo characters bashing each other over the head with hammers and star rods was genius! I love the franchise and I think without Sakurai, this world would be a slightly darker place. Smash Brothers Ultimate on Switch is this crazy culmination of gaming history all packaged together. So many different 3rd parities. characters, stages, sound tracks... all in one game. Wouldn't have been possible without Smash 64 laying the ground work. 

 

Perfect Dark -> Wow! Somehow... someway, they took everything from GoldenEye, and made it even better. More maps, more weapons, co-op modes, counter-ops modes, a freakin' laptop gun? What about that sniper that lets you see enemies via xray vision and snipe them through walls? Amazing. All made possible with the little expansion pack for the N64. Even though that game is multiplayer, I would spend so many hours playing solo against bots. I love it and the 360 port is fantastic. Supports 1080p / 60 fps. I think it runs at 4K on Series X. Online multiplayer too. Definitely missing out not having that game on PC. 

 

Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 -> PC gaming to me has always been 3 things. Strategy, simulation, and pushing the boundaries. I think nothing culminates those 3 strengths more than the original RC series. The amount of customization and mods is staggering. Even today, people still play and stream these games. The sprites hold up very well and it has a very rewarding gameplay loop. I would spend stupid amounts of time making custom coasters. Usually ones that would lead my patrons to their death but oh well, it was in the name of R&D! 

 

Sim City 3000 -> Similar to RC, you have a very good set of tools and simulation to build out your city. Yes, sometimes the residents and city members would be complaining over the most minute issues but who cares - just send the aliens! Joking aside, the game has an excellent sound track and something was just oddly satisfying about connecting sewer pipes and watching the tiles spill fresh water to various zones. It's the only "Sim" game, besides 2000, I've ever really enjoyed. I recently just repurchased it on GOG and it still holds up well. 

 

[Slaughtahouse]

Add me to the club. Consoles I own:

 

Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Switch, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite, Nintendo 3DS, SNES Classic, Xbox 360, Xbox Series X, Meta Quest 2. 

[neurotix]

Thanks for your reply @Slaughtahouse and your list. Definitely different from my preferences, it's great to see what different people rate as their top 5.

 

I will surely add you to the club. Welcome. Will be adding you right now. EDIT: added. Had to exclude a few consoles that aren't retro.

Edited February 28 by neurotix

[Slaughtahouse]

3 hours ago, neurotix said:

Thanks for your reply @Slaughtahouse and your list. Definitely different from my preferences, it's great to see what different people rate as their top 5.

 

I will surely add you to the club. Welcome. Will be adding you right now. EDIT: added. Had to exclude a few consoles that aren't retro.

Ah thanks for the edit. I just went ham with everything. I noticed you have quantities listed and even types like fat / slim. I need to check my 360 count because it is intense.

 

I should have 3 regular white 360s. One of which is the launch edition the silver disk drive, one Arcade version, one standard retail one sent by MS (RMA) and I have the silver, Halo Reach slim limited edition. So a total of 4 360s today lol and I RRoD at least 3 360. I feel I fast tracked Bill Gates’ retirement XD

 

Teal Gameboy Color. Ice Blue N64. Glacier GBA. Black Gamecube. White Wii. Silver / standard DS. Black DS Lite. Cosmo black 3DS. European SNES Classic.

Edited February 29 by Slaughtahouse

[neurotix]

17 hours ago, Slaughtahouse said:

Ah thanks for the edit. I just went ham with everything. I noticed you have quantities listed and even types like fat / slim. I need to check my 360 count because it is intense.

 

I should have 3 regular white 360s. One of which is the launch edition the silver disk drive, one Arcade version, one standard retail one sent by MS (RMA) and I have the silver, Halo Reach slim limited edition. So a total of 4 360s today lol and I RRoD at least 3 360. I feel I fast tracked Bill Gates’ retirement XD

 

Teal Gameboy Color. Ice Blue N64. Glacier GBA. Black Gamecube. White Wii. Silver / standard DS. Black DS Lite. Cosmo black 3DS. European SNES Classic.

I also have a teal GBC. Most of my handhelds were plain black ones, my GBA SP silver was scratched to hell, so I put decals from decalgirl.com that my wife found on most of them.

 

I had a photo of all my handhelds but can't find it on my phone. If you're interested in seeing them with the skins let me know and I'll haul them out and take photos.

Edited February 29 by neurotix

[Slaughtahouse]

23 hours ago, neurotix said:

I also have a teal GBC. Most of my handhelds were plain black ones, my GBA SP silver was scratched to hell, so I put decals from decalgirl.com that my wife found on most of them.

 

I had a photo of all my handhelds but can't find it on my phone. If you're interested in seeing them with the skins let me know and I'll haul them out and take photos.

 

It's your call I just shared all those details because I went back to the OP and noticed you were pretty granular! 

 

On topic, I wanted to add one more game or an honorable mention to "retro" game. Runescape!

 

I played the heck out of it in the early 2000's. I had the subscription, would fish and mine like crazy. Sucked at PvP but I recall beating most of the quests. I have no real drive to ever play it again but it had a good moment before WoW and GuildWars took over, and I never went back to any MMO game.

 

 

I heard it's getting popular again and it's been brought back as Old School Runescape 

[axipher]

2 hours ago, Slaughtahouse said:

 

It's your call I just shared all those details because I went back to the OP and noticed you were pretty granular! 

 

On topic, I wanted to add one more game or an honorable mention to "retro" game. Runescape!

 

I played the heck out of it in the early 2000's. I had the subscription, would fish and mine like crazy. Sucked at PvP but I recall beating most of the quests. I have no real drive to ever play it again but it had a good moment before WoW and GuildWars took over, and I never went back to any MMO game.

 

 

I heard it's getting popular again and it's been brought back as Old School Runescape 

 

Oh all the lunch breaks and spare periods I spend in the high-school library playing Runescape Classic:

[neurotix]

I still play a very old psuedo MMO called Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst. It's essentially a PC port of a Dreamcast game with a lot of added content. It's futuristic, 3rd person dungeon treks. You get lightsabers, light daggers, a ton of guns if you're a Ranger, etc. Pretty much a futuristic Diablo. the max level is 200 and I think my Hunter is 182 and my Ranger is 186. It's a pretty legendary game, being the first online game of its type on a console, and one with a 56k modem but the netcode was so good that the game didn't ever lag, constantly ran at 30fps, and you could kill waves of monsters with character positions and animation and damage showing etc. on a 56k connection.

 

I'll post some photos of it maybe. I was playing this game a ton before I got addicted to Ragnarok Online, Lineage 2, and WoW.

Edited March 2 by neurotix

[Slaughtahouse]

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