Topic: Most annoying gameplay mechanic in retro games?

I think there are more things I like about retro games than dislike but I agree with the falling off the bottom of the screen when you came from there ie. Contra. Password systems is another though it still beats long games that had no option of continuing, you had to pause them for hours if you wanted a break I remember doing this over night sometimes. Button mashing was never much fun though they brought that back in recent years with QTE's and such. Those are even more annoying than anything retro gaming had to offer.

Passwords that use more than 10 figures

Game Over (getting chucked back to title screen to start at the begining), or if you were playing an 8-bit micro, to have to reload the first level of a tape...

Ditto, as well as passwords that use weird characters or that stupid grid system.

Ah, retro passwords.
Pro tip: camera phone. Seriously awesome for recording passwords.

(Hurray for VC suspend play save.)

Lives and passwords, of course.

In the legend of zelda ocarina of time.
Talk to the owl, you got no option.
You press B to fastfoward the text.
Then you notice that B can be used to select options just like A.
Owl says everything again.

I also dislike how in some old games you can't tell who is saying what.

Take Donkey Kong Country for example. A great game for sure, but it ruins the game for me when, after finally beating a level after many tries, you have to few lives to make it through the next level but you can't save because the next save point is not accessible yet.

You should go back and save after beating each boss before attempting the next world. Also go back into one of the earlier levels of the world you are on and grab the first life then start + select to come out of the level and repeat. Its not too bad but repeating yourself to get more lives is kinda tedious still but better than getting a game over and repeating all the levels again until you get to the save point.

One hit deaths and then starting the stage over.

Death count!

One hit deaths, getting sent back to the start of the game after dying, limited continues, flying backwards after getting touched by something, and huge passwords.

Ok, here we go,

1. Autojump where you're trying not to fall of the edge
2. The inability to save whenever you want
3. No difficulty setting for hard games
4. NES games with no checkpoints on stages