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September 10, 2010 2:18 PM

Retro video games have come back into the public consciousness. (See previously)

There are several blogs where the authors set out to play every game on a particular retro system, including one by MeFi's own theichibun.

There are also sites that resurrect games labeled as abandonware for the amusement of future generations.

posted by reenum (18 comments total)

I've only gotten into the first minute and a half of a video that 1up linked to as "unheard of glitches like Yoshi walking on lava, which is a sad misrepresentation of the 9 minute long clip. I paused the video so I could read the YouTube captions. penangbenny, my hat is off to you. (Also, I had no idea that there might be a whole community dedicated to hacking Super Mario Bros.)

As you were.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:30 PM on September 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

Seconding filthy light thief. Watch that video and weep, realizing you are not as good at Mario Brothers as you think you are.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 2:47 PM on September 10, 2010

Don't feel that way, Buddha! That video is a tool-assisted speedrun.
posted by tapesonthefloor at 3:03 PM on September 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

even tool assisted, that video is insane.
posted by shmegegge at 3:04 PM on September 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

It is insane. I'm still at 6:17, and closely examining every millisecond. It must be Friday evening.
posted by tapesonthefloor at 3:07 PM on September 10, 2010

Well, all I can say is Thank Goodness For This. Because once the controllers started adding buttons that went beyond the original Nintendo controller, it all became too much for me and I stopped playing nearly altogether. Plus, there's something sweet about the abstract nature of a lot of retro videogames. I can understand the appeal of modern games (even if I don't play them), but damn if I don't have a spot in my heart for the strangeness of the games I grew up with in the 80s and early 90s.
posted by hippybear at 3:31 PM on September 10, 2010

The link to "classicpcgames.com" doesn't seem to go to an actual site.

The Item Abuse video is awesome, though.
posted by fearthehat at 3:56 PM on September 10, 2010

Funny, I was just saw this before coming here. Seems...related, at least.
posted by Red Loop at 4:08 PM on September 10, 2010

Man I used to play one of the super hard Super Mario World hacks. Whichever was one of the first and was sort of the gold standard at the time. It was sure hard, but it didn't require exploiting bugs and I never saw anyone claim to have beaten that without tools. Mainly just save states, I think. That's all I used. The the sensibility of my lawn, frame by frame slo-mo steps over the line of cheating.

The point is: wtf
posted by cmoj at 4:24 PM on September 10, 2010

You call that retro? This is retro!
posted by fings at 6:05 PM on September 10, 2010 [5 favorites]

I was playing retro games before playing retro games became retro.

I played fucking Pong ironically in 1974, suckas.
posted by Aquaman at 6:11 PM on September 10, 2010

How strange, I was just talking about starting a project just like this yesterday.
posted by zerolives at 6:30 PM on September 10, 2010

Gameboy Advance? RETRO??? REALLY?? I guess none of you whippersnappers want to hear about the Ms. Pacman cocktail machine I picked up earlier this week, seein' as how it came out before your parents were born.

I'm too young to feel this old.
posted by luvcraft at 9:49 PM on September 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

I had never heard of The Irate Gamer from the third link in the OP, but could there be a more flagrant rip-off of the schtick of the original Angry Video Game Nerd?
posted by fairmettle at 3:28 AM on September 11, 2010

A Ms. Pac-Man table game?! (DROOL)
posted by JHarris at 4:12 AM on September 11, 2010

even tool assisted, that video is insane.

Not as insane as you might think. Playing a video using tools is less like actually playing it and more like arranging music, or animation: determining just what inputs are active during every frame of the game. With a good emulator, you can endlessly back up to the frame before the input in question, making the process of "playing" a laborious sequence of trying button presses in different frames until the desired effect occurs, at which time you advance to the next key frame. Making a tool-assisted video tests in-depth game knowledge and patience, but not so much playing skill.
posted by JHarris at 4:18 AM on September 11, 2010

With a good emulator, you can endlessly back up to the frame before the input in question, making the process of "playing" a laborious sequence of trying button presses in different frames until the desired effect occurs, at which time you advance to the next key frame.

I think that's precisely why tool-assisted videos are also insane.
posted by Herschel at 6:55 AM on September 11, 2010

How did I miss a thread about me? This is amazing. reenum, you are a good man.
posted by theichibun at 6:13 PM on September 13, 2010