Today’s podcast topic is retro games and retro gaming as a whole, a subject near and dear to my heart as The Punished Backlog’s resident Old Games Guy. As much as gamers constantly look to the future for the newest and coolest experiences, revisiting and revering the past remains a crucial part of gaming culture.
When I was growing up, the difference between what was modern vs. “retro” was fairly stark and easy to identify: pixelated, 2D arcade games or blocky, early 3D titles were easy to call old and retro (or, in some ways, “dated”) compared to things like Mass Effect, Skyrim, and Gears of War. As time has gone on, however, the lines have blurred, as it still feels weird to call games from the mid-to-late-2000s “retro” when they’re not quite as different from their modern counterparts.
In the latest Punished Podcast episode, we discuss the definition of retro, what retro games still hold up, what game companies owe to preserving game history, and much, much more. Plus, we even have a little WHO YA GOT competition based on retro gaming later in the episode!
– Sam Martinelli, Editor
The Punished Podcast Episode 16
MP3 Download | Spotify | Apple Podcasts
Timestamps
- 0:00 – Introductions
- 3:49 – What Do We Define As Retro?
- 11:17 – How Gameplay Helps Define Retro
- 25:34 – Should You Play Older Games on Their Original Hardware?
- 29:40 – Retro vs. “Modern” Games
- 38:32 – Arcades, Culture of Retro, and Co-Op
- 46:00 – Many Games Don’t End These Days!
- 52:12 – Preservation in Games
- 1:01:35 – Who Ya Got: Retro Edition
- 1:20:00 – Outro: What’re You Playing Now?
Excerpts: Retro Video Games Podcast
Here’s a few quotes from throughout our conversation:
David: “I think there’s a public necessity to preserve these games and a way to partner with private companies to make it happen. But I would also argue that for the big publishers of the world—Amanda, you and I, we’re in marketing—it helps your brand to assure gamers that you care about your history because then gamers give a shit about your future.”
Vaughn: “It’s honestly embarrassing that big game companies lose source code. I’ve seen this stat that like 90% of source code from before 2010 is lost. Like, if you’re Square Enix, and you don’t have the source code for Final Fantasy VIII, and you have to rebuild it from someone’s copy? Like these games have won multiple awards. You don’t just have a copy of it on a disc in a case on a frame on the wall, break in case of emergency?”
Amanda: “Some of those games y’all described, like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), I might think of as ‘old school,’ but I don’t think of them as ‘retro.’ I have a very 1980s aesthetic idea of retro. It’s big CRT arcade boxes. It’s these standalone booths. It’s Atari, it’s Pac-Man. It’s pixelated, it’s beep boop beep boop. Trying to define anything from the 2000s as ‘retro’ is hard for me, even if it’s been almost 20 years since a game like Mass Effect (2007) came out.”
Sam: “I think once platform-specific feel went away… that’s when things kind of stopped feeling retro. For example, we’re all big Xbox 360 fans here. If I play an Xbox 360 game on my Xbox Series X, it pretty much feels the same. It’s basically the same experience. I just can also play a new game at the same time. Whereas if you play an N64 game on Nintendo Switch Online, you can tell that it’s weird, that it’s different, that it feels off, because you’ve just copied and pasted something old onto something new.”
Song Credits
- “Title Screen” from Earthbound (1995), composed Hirokazu Tanaka by Keiichi Suzuki
- “Stage Intro” from Galaga (1981), composed by Nobuyuki Ohnogi
- “Middle Age” from Tekken 3 (1997), composed by Nobuyoshi Sano and Keiichi Okabe
- “Spiritual Stone Get” from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), composed by Koji Kando
- “Opening Title” from Harvest Moon (1996), composed by Tsuyoshi Tanaka
Want More Old Games Content?
Check out the pieces below!
The Punished Podcast
- The Punished Podcast: Episode 1 – Remakes vs. Remasters
- The Punished Podcast: Episode 11 – Visual Art Styles
Game Diaries / Op-Eds
- Opinion: Please, Play More Old Games
- 30 Years of Tekken: A Retrospective
- The Quiet Shame of Buying the Same Game Multiple Times
Punished Series
- Punished Chat: Superfans and a Final Fantasy Newbie Discuss VII Remake
- Punished Favorites: The 19 Best PlayStation 2 Games of All Time
- Punished Favorites: The 10 Best SNES Games of All Time
- Punished Favorites: 11 Video Game Remakes We Want To See
- Punished Hall of Fame: The Xbox 360
- Punished Hall of Fame: Donkey Kong Country 2
Lists
- 6 Franchises Nintendo Needs to Resurrect on Switch (or Switch 2)
- The Absolutely Perfect, Objectively Correct Ranking of the Best 8 Roguelikes
- Best Baseball Video Games: Why Mario Superstar Baseball Still Can’t Be Beat
Sam has been playing video games since his earliest years and has been writing about them since 2016. He’s a big fan of Nintendo games and complaining about The Last of Us Part II. You either agree wholeheartedly with his opinions or despise them. There is no in between. A lifelong New Yorker, Sam views gaming as far more than a silly little pastime, and hopes though critical analysis and in-depth reviews to better understand the medium's artistic merit. Twitter: @sam_martinelli.
David is the founder of The Punished Backlog. He has a problem finishing games he starts. Just beat: Nine Sols, UFO 50. Working on: Metaphor: ReFantazio. Can't wait for: Hollow Knight: Silksong. Follow David on Twitter at @David_Silbert to keep up to date with all things The Punished Backlog.
Amanda Tien (she/her or they) loves video games where she can pet dogs, punch bad guys, make friends, and have a good cry. She started writing for the site in 2020, and became an editor in 2022. She enjoys writing about mystery games, indies, and strong femme protagonists. Her work has also been published in Unwinnable Monthly (click here to read her cover feature on Nancy Drew games), Salt Hill Journal, Poets.org, Litro Magazine, Public Books, and more. She was the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Columbia University's Culinarian Magazine, and served for two years as the Managing Editor of Aster(ix) Literary Journal. She recently graduated with a MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. Her writing, art, graphic design, and marketing work can be viewed at www.amandatien.com. She does not post a lot on social, but you can find her on X and on Instagram.
Vaughn Hunt is writer who has loved video games since he picked up a controller. His parents wouldn't let him buy swords as a child (he wanted the real ones) so he started writing, reading, and playing video games about them. A historian at heart, you'll often find him deep into a rabbit hole of culture, comics, or music.
1 Comment
This is a great episode