How about remakes gone horribly wrong...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_3D_Noah%27s_Ark

I don't know, a lot of games which were truly revolutionary at the time would probably suffer. What was once a strike of genius will look outdated today, be that storyline, clever software trick, gameplay mechanic...
On the other hand, some games like Gabriel Knight 1 truly need a revamping, I really can't stand those graphics and have been unable to play tha game due to that (and Gabriel being a complete asshole 😜).
In the end, whatever the remake, people will always groan because they have been very attached to the original. Crossing fingers for Tex Murphy 6 btw....

To be honest I don't want remakes. I like the classics just how they are. I wouldn't mind a continuation of various franchises though!

I don't like remakes, I don't understand why people put time, money and energy into these things instead of working on new, original titles.
To me it sounds like "Hey guys, we know you really liked Super Gametitle IV from 15 years ago, and we're sorry that we can't make good games anymore, so we're making Super Gametitle IV again, just with super epic graphics, which will look like crap again in 15 years so we can re-rerelease the rerelease again."

Making old games, in their original form but with updated compatibility and at a low price, available again is great. gog.com and several titles on virtual console/psn/xbla are shining examples of that, although the price of some releases is questionably high.

But creating something, which has already been done by the same people just seems like a waste to me.
Compatibility reasons aside, the main reason for remakes seems to be the visuals. I'm probably a minority there, but I think the dated visuals are part of the game and shouldn't be changed. Geez...I sound like Stan&Kyle when they were crusading against Lucas&Spielberg.

I like the look of old 2D games, and that's not just the nostalgia talking, because I frequently pick up old games I've never played before and still appreciate the visuals for what they are...or were.

I don't know...people say they really like game xyz and want to play it again, but won't because the visuals make them throw up and so they'd like a remake. To me that sounds more like they enjoyed game xyz back in the day and want to play a similar game again, but with up to date graphics. If I like game xyz, I'll play it. If I don't play game xyz "just" because of the visuals, then I don't really like game xyz. The graphics are part of the game and the original experience.

There's a world of difference between bad graphics and outdated graphics, but a lot of people don't understand or see the difference. Most gamers will pick a game with bad, but modern, graphics over a title with good, but outdated graphics, which is pretty sad.
I'm a huge fan of lowres 2D pixelart. It's got a certain look that can't be reproduced. Games like Final Fantasy VI, Heart of Darkness, many first person dungeon crawlers and a lot of the old point&click adventures still look absolutely beautiful to me. And again: I frequently pick up games like these, which I haven't played back when they were fresh and still think they look good.

Nobody goes around saying: "Man I really love Laurel and Hardy, but I can't stand the black&white and SD resolution, so I don't watch it.", because the black&white style is part of the overall experience and atmosphere and if you don't like that, you don't like Laurel and Hardy, because the look is part of the whole.
Of course, classic movies are remade over and over as well...something which I don't get either.

Okay, time to stop ranting...I could go on and on about this topic.

TLDR: I don't like remakes and people should make fresh and original content instead of wasting resources on remaking things that already exist. 😀

Another example would be the three stooges. Eye-gauging in black and white is just as funny as in HD color. That being said, re-releases are just as important. To elaborate on my example, I recently saw a sketch where they fought over a phone line in a wall. Ask a kid to point out the phone in the show and they wouldnt be able to. So if they re-made the stooges the context would have to be updated to match the times. Some jokes would then flop and others would be better. Computer games are the same way. And duke nukem is a good example of this.

Mystery wrote:

There's a world of difference between bad graphics and outdated graphics, but a lot of people don't understand or see the difference. Most gamers will pick a game with bad, but modern, graphics over a title with good, but outdated graphics, which is pretty sad.
I'm a huge fan of lowres 2D pixelart. It's got a certain look that can't be reproduced. Games like Final Fantasy VI, Heart of Darkness, many first person dungeon crawlers and a lot of the old point&click adventures still look absolutely beautiful to me. And again: I frequently pick up games like these, which I haven't played back when they were fresh and still think they look good.

I agree with all of this completely, but I still find remakes interesting. I think it's great to see a new take on the game's art, voiceacting, etc.

It's just like seeing new actors and set design in a play you've seen before. It's kind of puzzling to me that people will complain if a movie or game is remade, but happily go see a play in 100 different productions or listen to a dozen different covers of the same song.

If there has to be remakes, I don't really have anything against remaking of any game.

As long as it's a good remake. Most remakes suck.

I've been recently playing the death rally remake on iphone, and while it's different, and takes a different approach to a lot of things (like the whole purchases thing), it still manages to give you the same feeling when racing. It's different, but it's the same. And it's higher res, full-3d, etc - a much more modern take.

Compare that with a remake of archon, for instance. Ick.

I purchased the two Monkey Island Special Editions as soon as they came out. And as silly as it sounds I found the new graphics absolutely terrible. So I played both games with the old graphics 😀

The second game had improved music and also speech while still featuring VGA graphics. In a way a Monkey Island 2 CD Talkie version which I absolutely loved.

But the improve graphics and new interface? I simply couldn't get used to it. Is simply felt wrong.

Yeah feels like a different game to me too, but found it nice (switching between the modes a lot).
But think many people had the "don't like" effect for monkey3 already, no? I required some time
to really get into that...

I really liked MI2 new graphics, but I didn't like the interface as much.
Commentary was amazing though!

quake

I'd really like to play an updated Magic Carpet.

Seemed ahead of it's time the first time I played it 15 years ago. I don't think there's another game out there like it.