Well that's a given as the industry matures for ebtter or worse. I do miss physical hake manuals. I realize the reason they are gone but I was thrown off when Mass Effect 3 didn't come with one at all.

Not having to pay £10 extra for the full game; not having to make sure the DLC code expiry date hasn't run out; not having to install updates when you play a game for the first time or in a while; not having go to a website without fanboys/trolls spamming the comments sections; and the wonderful, wonderful 30 page full colour manuals...

Connecting the Gameboy / Gameboy Color games to the Nintendo 64 and connecting the Gameboy Advance to the Gamecube. The fact I could bring my character from Mario Tenneis from the GBC version to the N64 was awesome. It is a shame Sonic Adventure 2 for the Xbox 360 won't support the Choa GBA Transfer. Damn you Microsoft!

I find it funny the Nintendo DS can connect to the Wii, but no games did anything cool like "Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles" or "Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (GC version)".

I miss the instruction manuals. They were works of art back in the day. I'm glad they're dying out as they're a waste of paper, but I'm glad I still have my collection.

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My words exactly. not only arcades, but cheap ones too. I have to pay $1.00 for every dang machine nowadays... back then it was 1 token for every machine.

I also miss the horror genre of the 90's. ZombiU has my full attention as a comeback. But back then I couldn't play Silent Hill without shaking.

Also miss when Capcom and Konami were the coolest, before DLC existed. I know there are like 20 versions of Street Fighter 2 on Snes and Genesis. But they didn't do that to any other game, like today. Konami is still cool though.

I do too see them as a work of art too along with the boxesand heck some complete copies of games nowadays are priced like art. The NES and SNES covered a period of what less than 10 years? Such a short time overall really but to me that is the special time for video games. It was like the industry was at the awkward teenage rebellious fun stage yet to settle down and matrure.

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Along with being works of art (and including incredible artwork/drawings), they provided backstory and information you wouldn't find in the games themselves, especially those text-limited. You got more than just "Bowser kidnaps Peach... AGAIN" from a SMB instruction booklet. With the bare-bones instructions we're sure to get with NSMB 2 (if you get a physical copy), we'll be lucky if it's even said "Bowser kidnaps Peach... AGAIN" anywhere, it'll just be assumed. Thing about settling down and maturing is it can make you boring and uninspiring. (kind of like me )

Right. As I recall, the Ocarina of Time 3D "manual" was little more than a poster describing the controls.
And the one part of the Steel Diver paper manual that wasn't covered in the tutorial level pretty much just said "go read the in-game manual".

Gaming with my friends in the same room, and not having a care in the world!

I miss that too. Inviting friends over to duke it out in Smash Bros. or having our own little MK championship races to see who was really the best(or luckiest).
Ahh, good times.

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.

The pure Simplicity of it all, the 80's and early early 90's zany beyond colorful and imaginitive crazy-amazing magical commercials, No Microsoft, Games were obviously more challenging(I'm talkin' the NES-era!), rewarding, INtense and made you work for your bits! Unlike the overabundance of modern shinanigans(PS3/XBOX 360) that constantly holds you by the hand and gives you save points every 5 minutes. Plus back then, there were just Retail Console games or Portable titles unlike todays ridiculous VideoGame jungle which is oversaturated with so much junk that would even make Uncle Scrooge Mc'Duck's nasty noggin explode!

Think about it... Wii, WiiWare, Wii VC, PS3, PSN, XBOX, XBOX Live, 3DS, 3DS VC, 3DSWare, DSiWare, Vita and now WiiU, WiiUWare and Wii U VC. Even if you just stick with Nintendo you're in over your Mondolicious Dynomite Heady! I also miss the NES and SNES Nintendo Power era.

I also miss Toon Mario from SMB2 & 3.

The ArtWOrk for SMB2,3, Super Mario Land 1 & 2 are far more appealing than Plastic Artifical simple CG Mario in the NSMB series...I'd love it if Nintendo hired GoodFeel to do a new SMB Sidescroller with cartoon based animation. Something different from the norm, instead of the unsuprising stuff
we've been getting as of late.

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.