27 replies to this topic

[gooner73]

Hi all

i have been dissilusioned for some time now about vintage and retro console gaming in general, it seems to be full of rude/moaning people!!!

it is a niche market and hobby that should be about fun-it seems that many do not view it this way,anyway after seeing all the great work being done on the zx spectrum scene i feel it is time more people give it a go!

there are loads of programmers making games for fun-not trying to create a game that only a select few can enjoy, with no thought of making collectors rich!

The mojon twins and cronosoft are making some amazing games and due to the tape format are able to sell them at £3.99 per tape or free to download!

If you are a genuine retro gaming and computer fan, i urge you to check out the homebrew scene on the speccy!
It really is fun and the people involved are genuine fans without ego's or illusions of greatness , which seems to me to be the curse of console gaming.
if you are a leprechaun style collector who wants to sit on a game that only has 50 copies available then this is not for you, but if like me you just appreciate vintage gaming then make your way on to the vibrant and enjoyable speccy scene!

I am not trying to insult or belittle people's methods of enjoyment , but i just feel it is time to turn a great hobby back into fun and not just profit and egotism.
If attitudes were to change i believe that vintage gaming would become a far bigger and indeed if you really wanted it , more profitable!

For myself and i am sure many others, i want to enjoy and not feel that i am involved in a war of words and money!

That's my two pence worth anyway, please do check out the spectrum scene, i was really amazed at the quality of homebrew and attitudes involved within!

Edited by gooner73, Sun Dec 11, 2011 6:36 AM.

[Mirage]

gooner73, on Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:42 AM, said:

it seems to be full of greed and very rude/moaning people!!!

Can you please cite examples?

[gooner73]

Not trying to pinpoint individuals or create a war of words, if you have not read these kind of posts then i don't want to quote other people as they would not see how their attitude appears to "outsiders".
This is just my personal feeling on this subject and if you check out the speccy forums and scene you will see a massive difference in attitude and realise the fun that should be being had within this hobby.

[gooner73]

This is not about offending people, it is merely my own observations regarding this matter, after months of reading through posts on here.

[Mirage]

I just think that the attitudes you mention are the minority. I think greed and rudeness are the exceptions, so your saying "vintage and retro console gaming in general, it seems to be full of rude/moaning people" is, to me, an overstatement. My asking for examples was actually rhetorical. I know there's examples of this sort of behavior and attitude, but to make the statement you're making is throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I'm sure the Speccy scene has a lot to offer, as do the other scenes. I'm somewhat interested in the Sinclair machines, but only very passively, since most of them were never popular in the USA where I grew up and live.

I think this is a good community and a good scene with a lot of positive things happening. Just ignore the few negative situations and enjoy the rest, or focus on the Speccy stuff if that's your cup of tea.

[Mirage]

The thread title reads like an advertising slogan to me... just sayin'.

[desiv]

gooner73, on Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:42 AM, said:

it is a niche market and hobby that should be about fun-it seems that many do not view it this way...

That would be nice, but I'm not bothered "much" that it isn't always..
I'm a huge Vectrex fan...
There are some great Vec homebrews... Incredible...
And some are available as downloads.. I can put them in my VecMulti and play them. Awesome...
Some are fairly inexpensive carts... Awesome...

Some are very expensive.... So much so that I can't justify buying them for my hobby...
It's unfortunate for me, but if the guy (or whomever) can make incredible games and still sell them in this day and age...
More power to him, and I wish him all the best...

I just won't be a customer...
So I won't own every game... There's still plenty..

Same with other systems..

As for the Spectrum, I'd try it if it weren't for the NTSC/PAL issues...

desiv

[VertigoProcess]

Mirage, on Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:48 AM, said:

The thread title reads like an advertising slogan to me... just sayin'.

Besides the whole first part with the vintage gaming community bashing, it all sounds like a ad... at first I thought it may have been a spammer... and I really don't see the greed and rudeness... maybe you're referring to the arguments we have? Which is part of the fun of being part of a community... atleast that's how I feel about it...

[Jibbajaba]

There are definitely rude and annoying people in this hobby, just as their are rude and annoying people in life in general. Nothing you can really do about it but turn the other cheek.

Chris

[gooner73]

you

Jibbajaba, on Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:12 PM, said:

There are definitely rude and annoying people in this hobby, just as their are rude and annoying people in life in general. Nothing you can really do about it but turn the other cheek.

Chris

your'e right, just felt a bit of retro rage first thing this morning!

[yell0w_lantern]

The PAL/NTSC split is definitely a hurdle although surmountable with the right LCD TV or a converter box of some sort. For me, getting a system is more of financial investment due to the overseas shipping. Plus, like the Amiga, compatability seems to be an issue.

[Random Terrain]

Jibbajaba, on Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:12 PM, said:

. . . Nothing you can really do about it but turn the other cheek.

There are 4. Please be specific.

[Jibbajaba]

Any of the 4 will do the trick.

Chris

[HuckleCat]

The only rudeness or moaning I ever see is when "fanboy" arguments break out.

You know, the Apple 2 vs. C64 vs. A8 arguments, or the Amiga vs. ST ones.

[high voltage]

Trouble with Spectrum is that it's UK-centric, and during the 80s, Spectrum's releases were 99% awful (programmed on a weekend in someone's bedroom), on tape (US/ rest of world was fdd gaming where computers are concerned), and anyone who was into computer gaming used joysticks/paddles etc. The ZX homebrew scene again, still...cassettes?...mostly UK people from WoS are interested in it, rest of the world is not.

Edited by high voltage, Tue Dec 13, 2011 2:47 AM.

[gooner73]

high voltage, on Tue Dec 13, 2011 2:44 AM, said:

Trouble with Spectrum is that it's UK-centric, and during the 80s, Spectrum's releases were 99% awful (programmed on a weekend in someone's bedroom), on tape (US/ rest of world was fdd gaming where computers are concerned), and anyone who was into computer gaming used joysticks/paddles etc. The ZX homebrew scene again, still...cassettes?...mostly UK people from WoS are interested in it, rest of the world is not.

yes partly true , but you can use emulation outside of the uk, and joysticks were essentail to the spectrum as well so not sure where that comes from. It is well worth looking into and seeing the games being made today.Some of the classic games in history are best played on the speccy-Manic miner, jet set willy and hundreds of classic platform and shoot em ups, as for 99% of games being rubbish-play them first and then comment on them

[JamesD]

HuckleCat, on Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:46 PM, said:

The only rudeness or moaning I ever see is when "fanboy" arguments break out.

You know, the Apple 2 vs. C64 vs. A8 arguments, or the Amiga vs. ST ones.

Or Spectrum vs everyone else perhaps?

[Mirage]

[gooner73]

main love is atari, only trying to get the word about some great games being made in the speccy scene, as indeed the c64!
I have no bias toward any format, i can enjoy all platforms and have owned and played nearly all of them so feel confident in my ability to make comments on them.

i don't generalize by saying things like 99% of 2600 were crap or unplayable because they were not. I am merely a lover of vintage games and think if more people sang form the same hymn sheet and simply recognized the possibilities of this hobby then it could be allot better and far more user friendly.

just my own observations.

[Mirage]

I guess I don't see a widespread problem. There's a lot of good going on, lots of people recognize the possibilities. What you're talking about are the minority, the occasional spats or whatever, not the rule, by far.

As for the Sinclair: There are so many retro platforms out there, that most of us can't have, collect for, or have an interest in them all. I, for example, already have too many platforms as interests, and probably should weed them out. And I'm already probably at less than half the platforms that are out there, only counting the ones that were popular in the USA. And that's a lot of them! The Sinclair machines, aside from the TS1000, just don't earn the interest here the way a C64, A8, Apple //, and so on do, because that's what people here in the USA have the memories of, and there's sure no lack of current support, software, homebrews, hardware projects for any of those. That list will vary by country, and will be different in the UK, or any other country. That's just the reality. Sure there are Sinclair users/enthusiasts in the USA, but there's no hope of the interest being anywhere near that of the other machines I mentioned. I must note, I'm a huge Anglophile, always have been, and even I have only a passing interest in the Sinclair machines.

[jmetal88]

I'll get into the Spectrum scene if you can either ship me one that plays in NTSC, or ship me a normal one plus a PAL TV that can run on 120V/60Hz AC. Please note that I don't have any money to pay for said devices.

Seriously, though, I pretty much have to stick to stuff that was released and is common in the United States.

[Chuck D. Head]

Ummmm, maybe he wandered into the Jag forums? We really ought to put up a fence with warning signs.

[jaybird3rd]

One of these days, I'm finally going to set up a power converter and a PAL CRT television so I can get some hands-on experience with vintage systems from Europe and the UK. My main motivation in doing so is to be able to use a PAL Aquarius here in the States (I have some Aquarius projects in mind that will require testing on PAL and NTSC systems), but I'm also curious about other systems which never really made it to North America. The two that I'm most interested in are the Sharp MZ-700 (just because it looks so interesting) and one of the ZX Spectrum computers. However, I suspect that I'm in the minority on this, and that most other vintage computer users in North America already have their hands full with native NTSC systems.

As for the "moaning and grief" ... I don't see that much of a problem, either. My interaction with the vintage gaming and computing community is almost entirely through AtariAge, and we're a pretty well-behaved lot. Perhaps my impression of the hobby would be different if I was spending my time elsewhere. Of course, there are some notable exceptions ...

Chuck D. Head, on Tue Dec 13, 2011 11:33 AM, said:

Ummmm, maybe he wandered into the Jag forums? We really ought to put up a fence with warning signs.

Heh ... Albert did, in a way, but perhaps it isn't enough. The Jaguar is still the only video game console which needs its own Middle East peace policy.

[potatohead]

I like the Speccy. One of the big elements in play here is whether or not you've got friends on the same machines. If you do, then exploring them works a whole lot better, IMHO.

Re: PAL.

You could also get a nice PC capture card. That's what I use for NTSC / PAL adventures, though I do have one TV that will just display PAL. I rarely use it for that though. The capture works great, and it's right on the desktop, can record movies, screen captures, etc...

[high voltage]

gooner73, on Tue Dec 13, 2011 4:41 AM, said:

high voltage, on Tue Dec 13, 2011 2:44 AM, said:

Trouble with Spectrum is that it's UK-centric, and during the 80s, Spectrum's releases were 99% awful (programmed on a weekend in someone's bedroom), on tape (US/ rest of world was fdd gaming where computers are concerned), and anyone who was into computer gaming used joysticks/paddles etc. The ZX homebrew scene again, still...cassettes?...mostly UK people from WoS are interested in it, rest of the world is not.

yes partly true , but you can use emulation outside of the uk, and joysticks were essentail to the spectrum as well so not sure where that comes from. It is well worth looking into and seeing the games being made today.Some of the classic games in history are best played on the speccy-Manic miner, jet set willy and hundreds of classic platform and shoot em ups, as for 99% of games being rubbish-play them first and then comment on them

We were 3 in the house, my neighbour had a C64/fdd, I had a C128/fdd and an XE/fdd, our poor friend downstairs had a Spectrum, didn't even have joystick ports, as for sounds, don't even wanna go there. We went downstairs trying to play those Spectrum games (and he had loads, copied), but after 1/2 hour even our poor friend said lets go upstairs and play some awesome games in colour with decent sound and joysticks. True story.
So why play poorly designed copies of C64 or Atari classics, when you can have the real thing?

BTW, the 'classic' Manic Miner was a copy of Miner 2049er, as Matthew Smith himself stated.

Edited by high voltage, Tue Dec 13, 2011 4:13 PM.