Topic: What is the thing you miss most about retro gaming & consoles?

SEGA and Nintendo being popular, and Apple wasn't worshipped by those too incompetent to use a computer.

Agreed with everything but the Apple statement. Don't have a Mac (and don't plan to ever get one...not at those prices ), but I don't dislike Apple as much as the rest of the internet seems to.

Back on topic, I wonder what the gaming world would be like if PSOne or PS2 failed and Dreamcast ended up selling the most of it's generation. Man...

i miss : Most of the things that have been said already, but mostly i miss just plugging in a game and playing it. That plug-in-and-play has just gone.

You turn on a console now and you either have to 'sign in' or 'adjust infra red bar' or wait til it connects to the internet, or blah blah blah blah blah and it's just terrible, Xbox 360 especially, where player 1 becomes a designated profile and you really have to restart the console to get the right pads to the right people.

I also miss split-screen multiplayer, i miss LEVELS, not 'chapters' (which just go on for too long, and you cant just play a chapter- which brings us back to no more plug-in-and-playability.)

Also, im disappointed to find games generally dont have instruction booklets these days. I like a thing describing each craft in Rogue Squadron's booklet, i like the exclusive art, and i especially like the fact that most instruction booklets were made before the game was finished so in the 'Story' page or in the characters/items pages you usually get 'beta' versions of things.

Just getting a sheet of paper that essentially says "Thanks for giving us some money! Now give us some more money by going online/ buying next game", totally blows, and having a booklet full of exclusive art, and beta designs, totally rules.

The things I miss about retro gaming have more to do with me growing up and becoming able to understand both english and how games work than with anything else.

Back then, games were almost mystical new experiences, new codes that my kid self had to crack. Now they're just things I'm used to.
The lack of internet helped to build that magic, too.

I miss the simplicity. Controllers have too many buttons these days, for me anyway

@Waveboy I agree, the new art isn't much art at all, it just looks like gameplay. That's what screenshots are for, not art.

For me personally, it's cheat codes. I always loved playing a game and finding little codes that didn't really do much, but still added a layer of coolness to the game. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 2 did it really well.

I guess I could say local multiplayer, but Nintendo and Microsoft actually do a pretty good job with it, so I'm okay.
I'd also say load times, but over the course of this generation they've actually gone down, at least with most of the games I've played. Developers have learned lots of tricks to either quicken or disguise the loading times. Still, cartridges will always have an edge over disks in that department.

Nothing. I did not own any consoles prior to the Gamecube but now i've got almost all of them and i still play them from time to time. So i miss nothing.

The simplicity.

The replayability.

Shame on you, people who told EA it's okay to turn cheats into a DLC feature (though I recall Namco also being one of the earlier offenders with one of the Tales games).

I miss the way you used to buy videogames at Toys R Us. They still sell games of course, but it's just not the same. When I was a kid, you would pick out a game and bring a slip of paper over to the little stockroom where the guy would go and pull out your game. Just standing there at the counter waiting for your game to come out was so exciting.

They used to carry D&D at Toys Я Us too. Until Tom Hanks put a stop to that.

I remember that too in fact I was thinking about that the other day. I remember a few times when my brother and I would go to Toys R Us to buy TMNT figures we would go down the isle that had the pictures of the games with the tickets below them in plastic sleeves. If we came across a game that we really wanted but didnt have enough money for it we would grab all the tickets out of the sleeves thinking that will keep the store from selling out of the game lol.

Until the time you get your slip, pay for the game and go to the counter to be told they have none left in stock lol. I can laugh about it now

I actually never had that happen. I think they made sure that how many slips they had matched how many copies of the game they had in stock so that wouldnt happen.

Not having to install updates every time you turn on the system -_-
Also, not having to worry about online passes

The pure simplicity of the consoles and all the funky accessories like the light gun. Something about it just feel right.
The Zany creativeness that results in games like Earthworm Jim, ZAMN, and Tomba
The awesome but wrongfully overlooked genres like beat em ups and side-scrolling shooters, full blown retail ones.
That sense of care, passion, and I don't know how else to put it, soul. That little magical spark that tells you the developers put a lot of time and effort into their creation.

Its weird but while I'm a 90's kid i feel like I could have just as easily grew up in the 80's, I miss the Zany style and how everything was funky, hip, or rad. I'm with @Waveboy on this one, Hooray for Youtube.

It happened to me

I miss the fact that it would take you several hours instead of many days to finish them. It used to be an average of 1 to 2 hours. Now it's 40.