Games You Are Nostalgic For

[jamotide]

Master of Magic has aged extremely well. I even manage to still find the graphics "cute", despite their horrid 320x200 resolution.

I have only found this game 2 years ago and I played it for weeks.

I encourage everyone to stop being nostalgic and just play your old favourites again. They are still good games and you can still enjoy them. 90% of my playtime goes to 10 to 25 year old games. There are only few games I could not get into again, most of the time because of annoying interfaces.
So to be on topic, games I am very nostalgic for, but could not play again:
-Amberstar and Ambermoon (to my shame, I will play them again eventually)
-Seven Gates of Jambala (jump'n runs I could only enjoy at age 10)
-Secret of Monkey Island (adventure games became to simplistic after puberty)
-Dune 2 (interface is a nightmare)
-History Line/Battle Isle (interface again..)
-Rise of Nations (not that old, but recently tried it again and it just seemed tedious and annoying)
-Anarchy Online (MMOs destroy your creativity, wont ever again play any)
-Goal! (dino dinis football masterpiece, cant play properly without joystick)

Some nostalgic games which surprised me in that they were even better today, because I fully understood them:
-Xcom:UFO
-Keef the Theef (fun unique RPG)
-Speedball 2 (it is amazing how much fun this one still is)
-Pizza Connection (love it)
-Capitalism 1&2 (learned to fully appreciate them only when I was older)
-1869 (very surprising that this simple trading game is still fun)


There are tons more, for about 4 years now I pretty much play old games all the time, and if not, I am playing remakes, like Civ4, Fantasy Wars or Kings Bounty. 99% of new games are crap not worth bothering with, in my opinion. The only new games in the past 5 years that were not remakes or new editions and that I somewhat enjoyed were Stalker and Just Cause.

 

[Iranon]

Dune2 without hacks definitely feels strange and clunky today without mass selection of units. Style and feel has remained surprisingly fresh in my opinion though.

Definitely agree about X-Com and Master of Magic still being amazing. X-Com remakes tend to suffer from a common ailment of modern games: They're prettied up, but features you can't implement to the standards people would expect are simply cut, in this case extensive terrain destruction.
Master of Magic is deeply flawed, but the content is rich enough that little things like careless balance or poor AI don't detract much from its depth. I'm not sure this could get a worthy commercial remake; applying current design principles would mean to streamline the life out of the concept.

 

[Rub'Rum]

-Rise of Nations (not that old, but recently tried it again and it just seemed tedious and annoying)

Glad to see I'm not the only one. Also it seems to fail for me at delivering the feeling of ages passing by. I mean it's too fast and meaningless. I don't know, it's just another RTS to me, and an average one.

 

[Akka]

I encourage everyone to stop being nostalgic and just play your old favourites again. They are still good games and you can still enjoy them. 90% of my playtime goes to 10 to 25 year old games. There are only few games I could not get into again, most of the time because of annoying interfaces.

Style and feel has remained surprisingly fresh in my opinion though.

That's my experience too.
One of my pet peeve is the annoyance at the mantra that "if you like something old school it's just because of rose-tinted glasses". For some weird reason, many people tends to think that "newer = better" or that somehow we HAVE to "move with the times", as if there was some kind of cosmic obligation to follow the last trend, even if it's a sh*tty one.

Many old games are from an era that was much more "video games" and much less "INDUSTRY of the video game", and where immersion, concept and feeling were much more alive - and not just because it was all new at the time, but also because it was just not as much formulaic as today.

 

[Rub'Rum]

Two things happen for me. I hear of a game that is supposed to be a classic, or I remember a classic that I want to play again and:

1) It is awesome, I still enjoy it, or I discover a "new" old game that is amazing.

2) It turns out my memory of the game was rose-tinted, or that of the people who gave it 5 stars is, even though the game itself is an important classic.

The two definitely happen.

But yeah, it has become an industry for better or worse.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Recently I've been feeling nostalgic for the Suikoden games. I may need to try to sneak in a playthrough of them all soon. Suikoden 4 will be a chore as always but at least 5 is awesome enough to be a worthy carrot at the end of the stick.

 

[jamotide]

Glad to see I'm not the only one. Also it seems to fail for me at delivering the feeling of ages passing by. I mean it's too fast and meaningless. I don't know, it's just another RTS to me, and an average one.

It was very strange for me, because I used to love this game, I played it endlessly when it came out and had a high opinion of it, but when I tried it again, it just felt bad. This does not happen often for me.

Master of Magic is deeply flawed, but the content is rich enough that little things like careless balance or poor AI don't detract much from its depth. I'm not sure this could get a worthy commercial remake; applying current design principles would mean to streamline the life out of the concept.

It does have some pretty weak AI and some bugs, but I recently found some new fan patches, that sound very promising, next time I play the game I will use them. One unofficial patch is called 2.0 and one 1.40, they are supposed to fix numerous bugs and improve the terrible AI.
Worthy commercial remake is long out,the Age of Wonders series! It only lacks the Civ style city management, the rest is almost identical.

 

[NBAfan]

My nostalgia is Sim City 4 from 6 years ago. Still playing it. I played Civ2 when I was 9, loved it, and Civ 3 later. I can't stand either game now compared to Civ 4.
Now Roller Coaster Tycoon, that is a great game I can still play from 6-8 years ago when I first got it.