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Which Classic Games Have Aged Well?

Posted by simoniker on from the like-a-fine-wine dept.

thesp writes "We're all waiting for the releases of the next great games (naming no names) which have been mentioned over and over again here on Slashdot. No doubt they will look gorgeous and even be playable on not-too-unreasonable hardware. But there are some games that have an inherent capability to expand to take advantage of higher resolutions and improved rendering as the technology progressed. Would Slashdot like to suggest other titles that, although consigned to multipacks and bargain bins, have aged well and are even more beautiful in their old age, on modern systems, than they ever could be at the time of their release?" This may be subtly different to titles with "Olympian system requirements" at time of release, a category that definitely includes Ultima IX.

4 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. Nethack by wandazulu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Say what you will, I've played this game off and on for ten years and it's still lots of fun.

    What I've found interesting about the game is that it doesn't have a retro feel, or make me long for the "good ol' days"; because all the levels are randomly generated it's always fresh and new as if playing for the first time.

    1. Re:Nethack by DLWormwood · · Score: 4, Insightful
      What I've found interesting about the game is that it doesn't have a retro feel, or make me long for the "good ol' days"

      Personally, I think most of the posters to this topic have missed the point of the original question. It's not "old games that still play well," but "games that play better on modern hardware."

      That said, some client software for the various Roguelikes have employed incremental improvements over the years. My Angband client supports multiple term windows to outload display of information like monster memories and inventory; something hard to do on the original text terminals that the genre was played on. Also, I'm using a graphical tile set that gives the dungeon and monsters a basic 8-bit console game look. It beats pounding on "D's" and "P's" with my trusty Lead Filled Mace. (-; I've even seen clients providing sound effects now.

      --
      Those who complain about affect & effect on /. should be disemvoweled
  2. Chrono Trigger by bretharder · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Still awesome.
    Thank God for emulators!

  3. Deus Ex by veritron · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Deus Ex's system requirements were unreasonable when the game came out, but the GOTY edition on just about any modern hardware runs great - same with Morrowind, that game on highest settings can still tax a pretty strong computer.

    Serious Sam and Serious Sam II don't seem to have aged at all, and run spectacularly well on modern hardware.