Retrocomputing pleasures me.

Also I am guilty of boasting motives: 'Look what shiny 25 years old sound/video/etc. card I got here!'

DoomGuy II wrote:

Just a thing for my English class in college, though I'd really like to know your thoughts on why retro computing is important to enthusiasts.

For me it's mainly the fact that as an adult I can own a "dream computer" with high-end amazing specs from that era that I wasn't able to have when I was a kid. Nostalgia is also a factor. 😎

Also, there's a feeling of mystery, whe one uncovers the lost secrets of ancient hardware. This mostly concerns rare species which have little to no information available on them.

For me, it's important because there's nothing wrong with many retro items. They were cool and interesting when they were brand new and just because they're old doesn't make them any less interesting or cool... it just means they need more maintenance to keep them in good working order. ;)

That said, I have very little to no interest in retro things which suck. I don't like to collect things I have zero intention of ever really using. :P

Indeed. I love the curiosity of seeing a PowerVR PCX2 run something it shouldn't. If the poster above me had such a card he'll surely sink into making their own games compatible with it 😜

Preservation of history

Nostalgia,-having something you could'nt own when new, learning, doing things that you never thought would be possible 20 or more years ago with them and there's is fun aspect as well. There's also a sence of community being a member of a forum/s for a specific breed of hardware.

The paradox is that some things were too common, and simply regarded as obsolete and junked, that there may be none left.

The early era was vibrant with many different graphics chipsets, some which rose to prominence, others which fell, and others which rose and fell (3dFX). Also, it was the era when what we would now consider to be feeble hardware was expensive, and you had to make the most of it.

The current dual RAM buses, are a reminder of the days of page interleave.

# Preserving the Hardware for future generations.
# Enjoying games in all the APIs without emulation.
# Nostalgia
# collecting 😁

It makes me feel good!

I think it is important to have a sense of context when playing games. First of all, when playing new games a context of what came before is invaluable. Second of all, when playing old games you may judge them incorrectly if you play them emulated or on modern hardware. So to have a sense of history, and get the unfiltered experience of retro gaming, you need to use old hardware (this includes CRT monitors and TVs too).

And who can deny that old games are often much better than new games, for much less money? On balance I think games are better now, but no single game has as much drive and passion behind it as games used to. Part of that was smaller development teams, working for a longer period of time, and working towards a more focused vision for a game.

AidanExamineer wrote:

On balance I think games are better now, but no single game has as much drive and passion behind it as games used to. Part of that was smaller development teams, working for a longer period of time, and working towards a more focused vision for a game.

That and companies didn't milk a franchise to death year after year with slightly different gameplay. *cough* EA Sports *cough* or release a FPS with the same gameplay every release and has a completely sociopathic community *cough* COD *cough*... just kill that damned franchise already!

Chaniyth wrote:

AidanExamineer wrote:

On balance I think games are better now, but no single game has as much drive and passion behind it as games used to. Part of that was smaller development teams, working for a longer period of time, and working towards a more focused vision for a game.

That and companies didn't milk a franchise to death year after year with slightly different gameplay. *cough* EA Sports *cough* or release a FPS with the same gameplay every release and has a completely sociopathic community *cough* COD *cough*... just kill that damned franchise already!

*cough* Doom *cough* Quake *cough*

Dead technology. Certain games were made to utilize now-dead technology like GLide and Aureal 3D, and in many cases, those games are really good games (like Jane's Longbow 2 and Deus EX). That's why retro hardware is necessary to play those games hi-fidelity (as the developer intended).

It is not important. It is Fun. 🤣

To rephrase it, it is only important as any other hobby, not less, not more. And it is only important to us, hobbyists.

For me there are two reasons:
1) As others have mentioned, preservation of software, knowledge, information and such.
2) As a programmer, these old machines challenge me in ways that a modern machine can not. I like the limitations of these old systems, because they challenge and inspire me to find ways around these limitations, to do things that are seemingly impossible, things that have never been done on that machine before, things that the machine was never designed to do.

I participated in a liguistic conference here in Russia back in 2011. Here's the full text I later sent to one of the websites related to the topic: http://www.phantom.sannata.ru/konkurs/2011/kt1108.shtml

The formatting is a bit messed up (the pros/cons table turned into an unstructured list and became harder to get), but it should not affect comprehension. The editor also changed "W" to "Wt" for Watts, so that's not my mistake.

A lot of time has passed since 2011, I now view retro hardware as LEGO for grown-ups, a both hardware and software being a challenging game to play.

I find that I still get "lost" when I play retro games. Been playing some RTCW, with a community patch and 4k Dynamic Super Resolution. That game simply doesn't get old and is heaps of fun.

With modern games, apart from Battlefield 4 online, not much interests me.

For me it is purely nostalgia.