Dr. Morbis

That's a great point, plus think about how much you forget about the games you've played as the years go by; I have games listed on my NES beaten list that I played in the early 2000's that I scarcely even remember booting up. If I went back to beat them again at this point, it would essentially feel like playing a brand new game. Times that by hundreds or thousands, in addition to all of your all-time favourites and old standby's, and the best choice in this poll for anyone with decades of video game experience under his belt becomes abundantly clear...

You could say that about a lot of the points made in this thread, but the bottom line is that the two topics are intrinsically related: by choosing to only play games you've played before, you are, in effect, choosing to never play a "new" or modern video game released after the date of your decision ever again for the sake of all the games you've already played in your lifetime, most of which will be from generations past. As a result, all of the arguments for "only new games" and against the "only games you've played" people lean on the "fear of the unknown / no time to figure out new games / old fuddy duddies stuck in their ways" viewpoint that has been expressed over and over, ad infinitum...

The flaw to your logic is that you're considering video games from all eras to be equally comparable, and assuming that any random "gamer" would logically prefer the best games from all eras, hence why you'd want to stick with an industry that is releasing more and more content year over year. But the truth is that people like you (who play games from all eras) are exceedingly rare, and looking at games from a broader scope (across generations), one quickly finds that it is no longer an apples to apples comparison. NES games in 2023 are more like a genre than anything else at this point, and finding someone who loves playing video games from all eras is akin to finding a movie buff who enjoys watching every genre of movie. To wit, if someone loved watching silent movies and avoided most modern movies because they weren't his bag, would you tell him he's just an old man who doesn't have the energy to figure modern movies out, or would you understand that silent movies and modern movies in 2023 can scarcely be considered the same medium at this point? Because that's where we're at with video games: playing NES or Atari and playing Elden Ring aren't really relatable to each other at all in any logical sense, other than to say that yeah, they're both "video games." Saying that someone doesn't play modern games "because keeping up with the constant flood of new content requires way too much time, energy, and money," really is missing the mark completely on why most of us who exclusively play retro games actually play what we play. Some people just don't care for what modern "video games" have become and prefer the style of games that the industry was releasing at some point in the past, and it's not because they're old and crusty and set in their ways; they just prefer a different style of game, and the constant "you're just old and set in your ways" schtick is getting really tired...

Plus one extra vote for worst from @LeatherRebel5150 even though he hasn't even seen it yet!

I have nothing against point-scumming if there's some sort of risk/reward component attached to it. So, using Toxic Crusaders as an example, if I had been making the rules, it would have been progress first, then points as the tie-breaker; that way you still need to have the skillz to perform when it matters and get through the level carrying your 99,900 points after all those hours of point scumming, or it's all for naught. I was able to beat the level with all my points intact, others were not... just saying...

Naw, I include famicom titles (that weren't released here) as well, so I've got a lot more ground to cover. I'm into the 400's now though, so slowly but surely...

That never seemed to work for me (probably because I was tapping the direction in order to not move my player) but I also have less than an hour of total play time on this game in my life, so I'll keep this in mind whenever the time comes for me to do a deep dive. I'm on a lifelong quest to beat every game in the library, so I'll get to it eventually...

So would I, but I think it only lets you continue at the start of each world, so beating some of those later worlds of the second quest in one game is going to be a bear. It's actually a quality game but the "tapping a direction doesn't move you" controls kinda kill it. It feels like the first Mega Man where if you tap right, he just wiggles his toe instead of moving a pixel; in Boulder Dash, if you tap right, you think you'll move one full square (since it's a grid system) but you don't move at all: you need a sustained input on the D-pad to make him move, which is counter-intuitive for NES players used to every other game in the library. They also should have let you push skulls without holding the button down as well. Those two changes would have put the game in the upper echelons of NES puzzlers since the level design, graphics, music, etc are all top notch.

Just don't blame us for the controls in Boulder Dash. I swear every death was because of them. It doesn't even blank the screen when you pause so I would pause to plan my moves, then as soon as I try to do something, the game is like, nope - you dead!

Well it looks like it's on like Donkey Kong now. I honestly didn't even consider anyone else a contender; I thought it would be you and I at the top with many points splitting us from third place. But along came.... BlackVega?!?!? I'm going to have to brush up on my Galaga and Gold Medal Challenge skills while you guys are stuffin' yourselves with turkey...

You and I will be tied for second if @NESfiend doesn't pop in last second and drop a deuce on us...

Easiest way is killing the first three dudes then fall in the first whirlpool to reset the level and wash, rinse, repeat. Boring as all f'n get out...

I was wondering the same thing. Once I saw point scumming was legal, I was like, "aw man, how much can I take?" I got about a quarter of the way to max score after about an hour maybe and that's where I found my personal answer. Looks like BlackVega is going to have a healthy point lead after Round 1...

Hmmm... I played through Link's Awakening like 30 years ago and I don't remember ever getting killed by a shopkeeper, though I didn't try to steal anything either. Fuzzy memories, but I may not have even known that trying to steal items was an option for the player...

How do you get killed by a shopkeeper? I don't play modern games, but I feel like any individual in a story who can be killed by a rando shopkeeper isn't really meant to be the hero anyway...

I'm terrible at puzzle games so I'm sure as shit not holding on Boulder Dash. I don't know if I'm even going to be able to beat the first level, but I'll try my damnest to beat your posted score...

I run three monitors and the oldest is a "shitty" Benq from 2013 that's been running just fine for a decade now. I kinda want it to die so I can upgrade, but I can't bring myself to toss a perfectly fine working monitor...

I meant only one US SMB box, but, I can see with you there is no end to the madness. I don't know how you can sleep at night...

Yeah, I think it's awesome that you are recording all this for posterity and taking it to such a ridiculous degree, and I applaud you for it; I'm just saying that: outside of this niche within a niche within a niche, there is only one SMB box

The funny thing about this is that there are really NO variants for the SMB box - there's literally one box design and that's it! It's just crazy how far you can go when you want to start nitpicking, and I'm pretty sure you don't have every "variant" listed above either, as there will be more super rare ones (or misprints or whatever) yet to be discovered. But this isn't like silver Metroid versus yellow Metroid; for the rest of the universe, there is only SMB box...

My big one is when people say, "you're stuck in the past" and should try out new modern games because they're "great" when you tell them you only play older games. Can't I just prefer one thing over another without there having to be some debilitating flaw to my character for not conforming to the popular whim of the masses? If someone told me that they loved country music and hated metal, I wouldn't insult them by insinuating that there is something wrong with them and that they should listen to a metal album right away since metal music roxors!!!! I'd leave them be to listen to all the country music they desire until the day they die. In conclusion, if someone tells you they don't play modern games, don't fucking recommend a modern game that they just have to play that will change their mind...

This and Cable Guy are two "comedies" that inexplicably get really dark in the third act, which is kinda cool to see every once in a blue moon, just for a change of pace...

Toxic Crusaders - 24,500 Boulder Dash - 3,840

Yeah, but the first Superman (Action Comics #1) is absolutely undisputable, whereas the release that you're calling the first SMB is not actually the first SMB; that label belongs to the first print run of the game in Japan on the Famicom, which seems to have been conveniently forgotten by the hype train. It's not even a name change or code change either - the exact identical game with the exact identical name had already been released! Of course Mint sealed NES games will always be worth something, it just isn't going to be seven figures for generations to come like all the WATA/Heritage talk had been leading many to believe...

No it won't, you just haven't been in this hobby long enough to know that. Graded/1st Print collecting is an artificial market because it had no natural demand; it is a new, unnecessary and unwanted market (to the people already in the hobby beforehand) created by the WATA founders to make boat loads of cash. Who ever talked about first print games in the last twenty years before WATA? Oh yeah: nobody! This market is not and will not be cyclical because all of the hype men (WATA founders) have already sold the company and filled their bags and walked away with big-ass smiles smeared across their faces. People like you who have spent thousands on sealed/graded games really don't want to be hearing all of this, so of course you'll be defending your "investments" to Kingdom come, but all I have to say to that is: I hope your video games are not your retirement fund...