What Was "Retro Gaming" Like before It Was Considered Cool? - Retro Bird

Everyone knows how popular retro gaming has become, but what was it like to play old games before it got so popular? Why were old games ignored by so many for so long in the first place? I cover all of this in my breakdown of what it was like to play older games back during more simple times :)
What Was "Retro Gaming" Like Before It Was Considered Cool? - Retro Bird / What Was Retro Gaming Like Before it Became Trendy / Popular? / What Was It Like to Play Retro Video Games Before They Were Cool?
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#retrobird

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Games Played: Strider (0:01), Power Stone (0:11), Thunder Force III (0:18), Mega Man 2 (0:55), Shining Force II (1:50)

[@fidelsolis6070]

Good video. I just Retro at malls and a movie called buffy the Vampire..

[@benevans7564]

In our region, companies are transitioning to papee bread bag clips, which while better for the environment, dont survive long enough. As such, i have begun collecting plastic bread bag clips. You were indeed a trailblazer, Retro Bird!

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Ahhh, so it begins :)

[@Butter-Milk]

Yes!

[@twistedsocietytv]

I feel like your videos are so polished, even when your channels only small. I hope you get more popular soon so I can tell stories of before retro bird was popular

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Thank you! I appreciate the positivity :)

[@rdubbyu]

@TrvorNoah is a gamer anybody knows him to have him take a look at this Channel. This guy is a real talent!

[@toof7081]

Retro Bird would be popular if he fucking learned how fucking cuss properly. I like Retro Bird but it's cringey to see someone my age who can't say the word "hell". Not even "shit" which isn't even a bad word.

[@twistedsocietytv]

@@YourChannel-r4v that’s small by todays standards

[@inspica380]

​@Toof why is cussing necessary? Hell, that's the shittiest suggestion for this channel. He's doing fine without it, and might make it more accessible to a younger audience, the type of people he wants to see on his lawn.

[@MrRicheyRich]

"get on my lawn" is my new favorite phrase. Thank you for bringing this joy in to my life. The quality of content your putting out deserves more subscribers.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Thank you! I plan to have hats available at some point (since I've already gotten a number of requests!)

[@primitivepatterns]

@@RetroBirdGaming this is my official request- “Hats please!”

[@letsplayclassicgames5024]

Sign me up for a hat too!

[@totallyfrozen]

Patience, young Jedi.

[@Xero36]

My parents were always very big into yard sales when I was younger. I specifically remember people always having Atari, SNES, and NES items that no one wanted. It seemed like you could find them everywhere and they were considered worthless to most people. Crazy

[@madbart214yomother7]

Thats how it used to be. Every last gen game and system was seen as trash basically. Could get games for .50 or $1 and no one would blink an eye. People know better than that nowadays thanks to ebay and KZbin.

[@asimian8500]

People are obsessed by new, shiny things which is why they discarded the old machines. Then the collectors came and prices went sky high and the "cool" kids came out and claimed they were always hardcore gamers. Right.

[@madbart214yomother7]

@@asimian8500 exactly. Spot on assessment because that's what I tell everyone.

[@FinnSwede906]

My local St. Vincent de Paul usually had nothing for games, except on two occasions, one when I was about 9 I got an Odyssey 2 with a handful of forgettable games and a better score when I was 11 or 12, which was a Commodore 64 with a bunch of games and what I think was an Atari 2600 slot on the back of the big fat keyboard. I had decent fun with the Commodore 64 for a little while.

[@rwiseart2269]

That’s why I wish I could time travel.

[@matthewbain21]

you're right about how short console generations were back then, things were changing so fast, who would want that old stuff? but I noticed a change in 2002, I was an undergrad and I had my SNES with Super Mario All Stars, it charmed and impressed others because just about everybody had played a mario game at that point.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

I believe it. That cartridge is a crowd pleaser if there ever was one :)

[@breakfasthole3851]

I'd say you hit on the year when 16bit games became cool again with young adults. I relate to that, being at uni then too.

[@NYCHeavyHitz212]

Yeah in or around college that’s when you start people being amazed and say “wow, throwback!”. Now, throwin it back to the good old days is a regular thing now. 😊

[@vault129]

I was so disappointed in Super Mario All Stars! I was expecting the original graphics, and I wasn't a fan of the 16-bit "upgrade". I especially was excited to play the real SMB2, but it got the 16-bit treatment as well.

[@alomon7738]

​@@vault129 well, believing that it wasn't an upgrade its just an opinion, not even a point of view... now, saying it was an upgrade, thats a fact.

[@krystianhinz4575]

In regards to the whole "being too old for something" here's one of my favorite quotes: "I think that inside every adult is the heart of a child. We just gradually convince ourselves that we have to act more like adults." ーShigeru Miyamoto

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Great quote. I believe that thoroughly.

[@medmuscle]

Not me. I have it all figured out. I'm about to turn 44 years old in a few days, moved my mother in with me several years back (we split rent, utilities and food), and I have a decent income with zero debt. I'm happily single with no kids. I have an easy job working 7:30 - 3:30 Mon. - Fri. and take an hour or more nap when I get home. Afterwards, it's video games until bedtime. Weekends are all about getting more gaming in. I already had my fun with women. There is no way in hell I wanted to get married and have screaming kids. For me, it's all about peace, quiet, and recreation. 👍

[@medmuscle]

@Rage Kage Yep, and proud of it. You completely missed my point. It was to not give a crap about judgemental people like yourself. I am the happiest person that I know. I have money and I don't have stress from family issues. And that quote isn't just for video games.

[@rosstee]

@@medmuscle Glad to hear you're happy. I'm similar age (45) and I am married but no kids - neither of us wanted them. Makes life nice and low stress.

[@IndohNintendo]

I got into retro gaming circa 2008-2009. What triggered it was my realization that I obsessed over the GBA during it's lifespan, yet being a kid, only managed to sucker my parents into buying me about 7 titles. I was about 3 years removed from high school in 08, and now able to buy my own toys. KZbin gave me plenty of recommendations on just how many awesome titles I missed out on. Great content as always, Retro Bird!

[@trevorwiant8838]

I am profoundly delighted to report that there was never any stigma around playing old video games among my friends and I. We would go to each other's houses and get a chance to play retro games on systems we never owned. We would trot out our Super Nintendos and Sega Genesisiseses and PSones with pride and geek right out. I'm so grateful for that.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

That's great to hear!

[@SlasherMiniFilms]

YES! Killer cameo from the fabled bread bag clip collection! And bananas too! This video has everything haha.

[@snkfan7506]

Excellent video. 42 years old here. Never stopped playing older games. Wore it as a badge of honor actually. Although, I did get into newer consoles as generations progressed, did get laughed by friends and family at many times for dusting off my older consoles when they came by. Began collecting in the mid '90s when i was in high school. I would have been one of those kids who traded away his wares had my dad (RIP) not stopped me at the door the first time that I tried to take a box of my old games to trade for pennies on the dollar at Funcoland. I credit him with getting me to start keeping my games and then I became a game hoarder and the rest is history. My collection even outlived my marriage; although, we used to throw game parties and would have our friends from college come by. By then, the Retro craze had taken hold. Used to hate the word "retro" when it was first being used in association with gaming as it sounded too trendy but, i'm happy that younger folks are playing older games now. Keeping them alive! I do want one of those "Get Off My Lawn" hats though. Lol.

[@zonesproductions]

For me the term 'retro gaming' started being a thing at the end of the PS2 era. Up until then what are considered retro games were still being sold and played. The n64 would even connect to the gameboy games. They were still relevant in some way.

[@CalebRazzleberry]

Yeah, I think once collections of older games could be sold on newer consoles, people started to become a bit more sentimental

[@ringfitmaster3079]

For me personally for a very long time I used to collect just Gamecube games as it was my first console and only console even after the launched of the 360, PS3 & Wii to the point nowadays I have over 80% of the entire North American library. However one day I got an N64 because it was a system that always fascinated me. Had fun with it for a while then a couole years after I got an N64 I later found a model 1 Sega Saturn with one controller and the necessary hookups for & 50 CAD bundled with a North American long copy of Night Warriors Darkstalkers Revenge cib or the game separately for $30.00. At the time I didn't even know what a Sega Saturn was as I never heard of it up to that point. Took it home and after dinner and finished my college homework plugged in that console and had a blast. Would quickly find out however the games were on the console. By the time I started collecting Retro games I think it was already considered cool but for a very long time I was the only person who collected these retro games. Grateful I kept all my GC games from my childhood. Now I'm the cool one in my group because I have most of the best games in the console that are extremely unaffordable to the average person who just wants a few games for the console. :P

[@mariowalker9048]

Most people in the 90s didn't know what the Saturn was back then.

[@apexanomaly]

I'll be honest I didn't really think about what it meant to play older games until fairly recently like within the past few years. If a game was older but fun then I enjoyed playing it, I didn't really get too sentimental about it. I sort of took for granted the notion of preservation and having the ability to play these games. Now I see it as something that needs to be maintained so that everyone can as you say "get on our lawn."

[@mattkeller9791]

I know its a small part but I love the continuity with the banana and bread clip jokes. classic.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Well then you are in luck going forward!

[@Sammmmmmmm617]

I got into Retro Gaming in the early 2010s. I was a late kid/early teen, so I'm glad I was able to get some favorite games before they got expensive 😅. KZbinrs who were into older games actually got me interested it in back then.

[@CalebRazzleberry]

I was the same way, although I had a lot of games handed down to me when I was a kid. My uncle gave me his Sega Genesis, N64, NES, and even his PS2 all when I was around seven or so because “they were old and for kids” in 2008. Lol, he asked for the NES back like five years ago

[@lstacey143]

Freshmen year of college (2004), my neighbor in the dorm room would invite his friends over to play Goldeneye. They would play only wearing there whitey tighties and called it “bonding with Bond.” I thought it was awesome but everyone else on my floor thought they were weird.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Sounds like a blast!

[@Sparkys_World-0]

As someone who got into collecting just moments before the prices went through the roof, I can confirm that folks like AVGN almost single-handedly established the modern conception of a “retro-gamer” and kicked off the collecting boom. As far as just playing old games, discovering emulators around 2009 may still be the single most revelatory moment in my gaming life. I’d always been invested in the historicity of games, but as a kid the the odds of ever owning more than one console was exactly 0%. Every stray PS1 game I came across, I treasured like a precious relic of a bygone era. To suddenly be exposed to so many masterpieces in such a short window through emulation was just unreal. Incidentally, this was a really well put together video!

[@johnforbes8577]

You're a real treasure Retro Bird. Keep the family friendly format. I love it ❤

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Thank you! Glad you like it :)

[@shoesifergmr5182]

Found your channel yesterday, top notch love it!

[@vlairallan3679]

Personally I was always kindof a generation behind all my friends. Being in a poor family we always got the games and consoles at the end of their respective generations as stores would clear them out, but that also means that I was jealous when I went over to my buddies and they were playing DKC or Starfox and all I had was Mega Man 4 and RC Pro Am. I think that's what made me appreciate them more, just not having access to the latest and greatest made me enjoy what I had, instead of the latest trend.

[@Malcoladdin]

Over the last few years, I have started collecting vintage picture books with quality art from my childhood, but also from the 60s to early 2000s. Some people think it is a bit weird, but I love these amazing stories and pictures! I have bought 95% of them for very little

[@mattlockwood6089]

In 2003 me and a buddy printed an complete list of all the snes games released and went through it and circled all the games we wanted (about 20 each)and went pawn shopping and found them all locally. We still have them and play them. Probably $3-$8 each

[@atombabomb4268]

Growing up in the 90s my father used to take me to the arcades and had me playing the classics. Now that I'm in my 30s I collect and restore them. I have come to learn that I enjoy fixing them and watching people play them more than playing them myself. Gaming is a gift that is much appreciated.

[@Jburneyjr]

My most memorable story is my aunt telling my mom did my brother and I want their old Nintendo collection. Mind you this was right on the heels of the PS2 being two or three years old at this point, I jumped at the chance since we only had 4 games. They had like 22 or 23. So I literally spent 5 to 10 mins with just about every game to figure out which ones I really wanted to dig into. And then I fell in love with a game called Rescue. We also played athletic world since we used to play that with my older cousins when I was little at their get togethers.

[@leviwarren6222]

It was high school, 2004-'08 and I was still bringing the 64 and SSB to school on late start days with a portable DVD player for a screen. Back in the day, it wasn't seen as retro, it was more that everybody knew that SSB was awesome. Sometimes toward the end of high school, I'd bring the Wii and Brawl but people definitely respected the game for what it was back then. Plus, most of us had nostalgia for it.

[@johnsgamingandmore1237]

I can't get over all the faces you make throughout the video...had me rolling. 👍

[@apacaseptic8300]

This Channel is golden, very underrated.

[@tomb8430]

I love how you call these retro games an artefact. And that's what they are. Programmers busted a gut to put these out there, and they are a snapshot of the time when they were created. It's fascinating to look at it from that angle. Especially when you get to know the background to some of these franchises.

[@erickmonroy5363]

This channel needs more subscribers!! Best gaming channel ever!!

[@jakesmith5278]

Love your channel dude. It can sometime makes me feel less old.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Good to hear!

[@les-os]

I get so excited when I see your new vidz, keep up the awesome work yeeee

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Thank you! Glad you like 'em :)

[@VBYTP]

I got into this hobby back in 2009 and although it was kinda cool then, it wasn't nearly as cool as it is now. Thanks for making it even cooler!

[@xenos_n.]

Oh man, if only I could go back to the days where all the old games cost a few bucks. ... You know, this video made me think back to being a huge Earthbound fan and in the earlier days of the internet, feeling like there was only a very small group of people who loved the game and that it was almost forgotten. The world felt smaller and eventually I realized oh wow no, I'm absolutely not the only one that loved that game.

[@Finfection]

I can remember going to stores that sold used games back between 2004-2008 and you could find just about anything for dirt cheap. I mean entire shelves and isles of retro games for less than 10 bucks each. You could buy a handful of Super Mario World cartridges for the price one cartridge goes for today. Stores back then had so many retro games and consoles in stock that they didn't know what to do with them. People weren't buying them and were instead tossing them out of their closet. Nothing was behind glass cases either. Even stacks of copies of Mega Man X2 and X3 sat on a normal shelf with everything else. Good times. lol

[@madbart214yomother7]

Movie trading company had whole walls full of super Nintendo games and PS1 and I would dig through them to get what I didn't have. Now, you can literally walk by and read the titles in 3 mins and move along. Luigi's mansion were plentiful on the shelf cause everyone pooped on it. Same goes for wind waker and most GameCube games cept for smash. N64 were plentiful too. Trash system I have always said but hey whatever. Even back in the day it looked terrible.

[@Bootyhunter1971]

Yep and Thrift stores had consoles and games galore for CHEAP! I bought a Gamecube for $8 at a Salvation Army once. Now they all know the worth of retro games (or their perception of it, overpricing alot of common stuff) and you just cant get those deals anymore. I used to make my rounds of a group of thrift stores and pawn shops, basically filled my gaming room with stuff I wanted for nothing. But sure wish I had known about some of the more obscure and pricey games and actively seeked those out. I will be honest, although I was 24 in 1995, I never heard of the Sega Saturn back then and I had been in to games from Atari, through Nes, Snes, and then got a PS1 instead of the N64 because I was "over" cartridges lol. But the Saturn escaped me. What piss poor marketing. Anywho, I probably glossed right over a fortune in Saturn games making my rounds years ago 😞

[@kurtshastany1945]

Im 39 years old, i never sold anything, kept all my childhood friends and now have a son of my own. Atari, coleco nes genesis and snes have always been major parts of my life, and my social interaction. Saturn, playstation, jaguar, 3do all seemed half cooked and not that great, so a lot of trust in the industry was broken as i simply continued what i always loved, n64 had a few killer titles but it was quickly clear it was just good at like 3 different things, and that the software couldnt match the hardwares ability, after that everything just continues to try to be overly immersive, and way too long... ive continued to stay with what worked and continued to play it side by side, on a couch with the same people i was doing it with four decades ago. Needless to say, i still get the most guests, and nobody has ever thought it was weird. Then again, we also still think throwing frisbees and playing with action figures is perfectly normal adult activity, so maybe we just got lucky. Online only friends arent real friends, hell they might not even be real people. Also, if they win, how will you be able to confirm if they are or arent cheating???

[@dad7275]

From a guy who experienced that thing directly i remember going to fleamarkets and seeing and buying Genesis, nes, games and such at very low prices sometimes under $5 when ps2, xbox, and gamecube was the rage. It was a great time to score "retro" games.

[@trainwreck9567]

Yup, you're right. I used to go to flea markets, scoop up old games, pick out the ones I wanted for myself, then cleaned and resold the rest. Nowadays, it feels like every 2-bit vendor is selling at retail or even more.

[@dad7275]

@@trainwreck9567 yep. Only if we knew then what we know now.

[@wulver810]

I'm a throwback gamer, and have a picture of me and my cousins playing SNES in 2001.

[@MalikATL]

I’m 25 and I grew up playing PS1, PS2, OG Xbox, PS3, PSP, DS, Gameboy, and the Wii most people in my generation considered those console to be retro.

[@pat2430]

I got 10 years on you and I miss those sega/snes days

[@sonicmaiden2871]

I grew up playing ps2 and ps3 as well! I also had the psp. I still play on those a few games from time to time!

[@wantsome-zs5sq]

Back in 2003 I was about 27 years old. I was working in a factory and some 18 year old kid worked in the cad department. I had never seen an emulator before. The kid was playing Zelda for the NES. I thought to myself why the hell would anyone want to play that? I was showing the kid where everything was hidden in the game. It sparked my interest in old games so I hunted down a SNES. I didn't know it at the time but that was the start of me retro collecting. I have close to 1000 games now.

[@MultiMarvelGeek]

This is such a great video and neat reminder of how things used to be. I remember the puzzled looks I'd get for wanting to play older consoles and games. My general dislike for modern gaming and admiration for retrogaming still baffles my friends. When the Xbox One reveal event broke the internet with how awful it was supposed be, I asked my dad for an original Xbox instead. He laughed at me and refused. I finally got an OG Xbox in 2019 for $15. The games on it are nothing short of ethereal.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

I really like all the Sega stuff on OG Xbox :)

[@TumoFiji]

Another video, another time well had. Very relatable material. Cheers

[@mazonemayu]

I’m almost 50, nothing was ever old in my day LoL. Hell, I played games off tapes before I actually started using em to listen to music 😅. Living your entire life on the peak of technology sorta gives a different meaning to “old” because at the end of the day, it was literally all new…

[@19Szabolcs91]

For me it feels like the shift was somewhere around 2010, but that might be because that's when I was an adult, much more confident and I didn't give a crap anymore about bullies who looked down on those who play any video games, let alone old ones. Also by that time we got the Virtual Console and youtube shows such as AVGN and their popularity alongside the forums really made it feel like I was not alone anymore.

[@professorjd2023]

I was definitely a retro gamer before the label materialized. I remember during my first year of university (in 2001) moving to a new city, and bringing all my video game systems with me to the room-in-a-house I was renting: the NES, the SNES, and the PlayStation 1. Even though I had one of the newer systems with some great games, all my roommates wanted to play was Blades of Steel for the NES. At least one night a week on a Friday or Saturday, we would grab a case of beer and just play Blades of Steel all night. Sometimes when I hang out with those guys again, we’ll fire up the ol NES and marvel at the the fact the Nintendo’s red “on” light hasn’t burnt out after 35 years.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

That sounds like it was awesome!

[@TheCosmicFool]

For me it was a combination of a few things: 1) One of my best friends who I played regularly with never moved on from the N64; he would play more up to date games but never bought a new console afterwards. As such we would still play Goldeneye etc during the PS2/GameCube generation so that kept me playing older games into my mid to late 20s. 2) Compilations of older games on more modern systems. Things like Sonic Mega Collection allowed me to revisit older games that I’d loved as a kid but in a more convenient way on later systems. This lead me to realise that if a game is good it is always good regardless of how it might now look. 3) Wii Virtual Console. When I got a Wii back in 2009 it was the VC that got me on board. Here I had a cheap way of revisiting games that I’d either once owned but had traded away, played but never owned, always wanted but never got around to buying or still owned but didn’t have access to at the time. When I look back on that first rush of games I downloaded nearly all of them fit into one of those groups. I think it was at that point that ‘retro gaming’ because ‘acceptable’ as it was accessing older games through the convenience of a modern system. It also made me eventually dig out my older systems that were at my parents’ house and they are still set up and played regularly today.

[@Holy_Light65]

I was born in 1995, me and my family just some older systems so i play them. I don't really remember how i got into gaming back then. So i can't really think of any stories.

[@rockmanfan5104]

Your videos always have this weird feeling of what im feeling or thinking. Idk how to describe it. You basically hit the nail on the head with everything you talk about. Keep up the great work. I love your humor and channel

[@nattila7713]

for me retro became visible and affordable in 2017 when I bought my first megadrive :D I really thought I am weird buying such old stuff, what did I know about it being COOL by then.... (but in a year I somewhat realized that it's gonna blow ... and here we are, I can't afford most games I would buy and play :D )

[@fossil-bit8439]

Never had a lot of money as a kid, but I’ve always loved older video games even when the Genesis and SNES were current and still releasing games. Since we didn’t have a lot of money growing up, my parents never purchased any other console for us new. Other than our SNES. So I got hand me downs from friends and neighbors. But when i used to get cheap used games at Funcoland and even Kmart sold previously played NES games. I still had to save my own money to buy used ones. I kept everything I had from when I was a kid til this day. I also had a job right after high school cleaning out evicted homes for a mortgage company and kept every gaming item I found, which I still have to this day! I just wished I would’ve kept going to Funcoland when I got my drivers license. But I got out of retro gaming when I was in high school (too busy working and hanging out w/friends) by the time I got back into it, prices had started to go up and I had no clue about the vast knowledge of the stuff on the internet! Hell I didn’t even know it was popular! The reason I got back into it and found out how much it blew up was because I busted out my old NES and it wasn’t working very well. I thought these things didn’t have problems playing games when they were new. So I looked up a KZbin video on how to make your NES work like new again. Boy how I didn’t realize how big the rabbit hole was gonna be…

[@kairyonaznable20]

Ive fallen out of retro gaming channels for years now besides keeping up with AVGN here and there but omg I love your videos. Im not even sure what it is about them They just seem more tailored to the state of the hobby right now than the people who are just trying to be another AVGN or JonTron. Keep it up man keep developing your niche and you will get somewhere im absolutely sure.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Thank you for that. I really love having good folks like yourself here on the channel to talk about video games :)

[@kairyonaznable20]

@@RetroBirdGaming I think thats your thing. You make me wanna interact and talk about collecting and get excited about the topic. You dont just review good or bad games you cover the whole deal. Id love to see you do vids about individual consoles from a retrospective and collector perspective. Anyway thanks again I hope your life is great and thanks for bringing us all a smile!

[@thanliasko2161]

Love your work man! Interesting subjects, short enjoyable videos, great humour and it's all about sharing the excitement and joy we all have for retro gaming! Keep it up! Cheers from Cyprus. ;)

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Thank you and greetings to you all the way out in Cyprus!

[@8BitHorse]

For monetary reasons, I always sold off my games and systems to purchase the new ones, but in college I started missing my old NES. Pawn shops helped me build a collection of my favorite NES games, and that's when I got out of the habit of selling off my old stuff... which is why I have a whole room full of games today.

[@infinityeight8705]

I left high school in 94 and by the end of 95 I was talking my driving test and looking to getting a car - so out went my snes, megadrive, megadrive cd and 32x as I was now growing up and not playing kids games anymore! Fast forward to 97 and I thought the n64 looked awesome, but consoles were for kids? In 99/2000 I picked up a brand new N64 with mario 64 for £50 at a catalogue clearance shop and loved it - as people moved on to ps2/game cube, N64 titles were cheap as chips only costing a few pounds for a used game. I then bought a super nintendo again (and later a megadrive), but for a few years it seamed like everyone was only interested in the new and latest consoles and I was enjoying these older systems and older games for a few pounds each. This time in the early 2000's was the best to me - it felt like my own little secret hobby, that now everyone knows about!

[@ArcadeCabNBud]

Mate you were sooo cool haha

[@infinityeight8705]

@@ArcadeCabNBud Not sure about being cool! - but it was great to get a new game to enjoy each weekend and it never cost much - fast forward to today and it's hard not to spend a lot on a game! The expensive games now we're also seen as expensive then - I thought I was out of my mind paying £35 for a copy of paper mario (very good complete). Back then N64 games were on average £5-6 loose £10-12 boxed complete!

[@metaldiceman]

Back in 2009, I had a friend in a punk rock band. I went to his and his bandmates' house once and noticed an N64 with 4 controllers hooked up and the MK64 cartridge inserted. He told me he and his bandmates would often have Mario Kart parties and order pizza and play for hours. I didn't say anything disparaging but thought to myself, why in the world would they still be playing MK64? The DS version is the definition of perfection! I guess the takeaway from that story is, within the casual audience, retro gaming was cool, but if you were a real gamer then you would know better. At least in this anecdotal scenario. xD My friends and I always played current-gen, and left the old behind. I didn't start getting interested in the older systems until post-college post-kid etc. and life started settling down.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

That reminds me of how people would react to us playing it in 2006!

[@CMDRFlyAuburn]

Dude you only have 16,400 subs? That is going to EXPLODE over the next year I bet. This channel is on fire. Like your hair. And bananas flambé.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Hahah thank you! I appreciate the positivity :)

[@kilkennybrian914]

This guy is basically a different flavor of Scott the Woz yet has a 100th of the subs. I think his day will come. Good channel.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Thank you for that. Comments like yours are very motivating!

[@BigmanDogs]

KZbin definitely got me into retro games. I was accustomed to 2d sprite based graphics already since I grew up mainly playing gba and ds

[@Bkuuzin]

Retro gaming stigma almost makes less sense than regular gaming stigma! Entertainment can still be enjoyable, new and old!

[@megamob5834]

I honestly think that AVGN (of course back then he was known as angry Nintendo nerd) had a lot to do with the resurgence in popularity of older games, at least with the general population. But my brother and I were way ahead of the curve, still playing and collecting for the NES and N64 mostly well into the 2000’s. We had one of those big Tupperware bins full of carts that we never payed more than a couple of bucks for. But alas, after I had moved out for a couple years he sold most of the games only hanging on to a selection of our favorites. My heart broke at this revelation so he gave me everything he hung onto because he felt bad about not discussing the decision with me. So it’s become somewhat of an obsession getting most of that stuff back (with some additional games of course). Most of it has been replaceable for not too much money, still WAY more than we payed back then, except we had a copy of Zombie Nation that will probably never be replaced… not at its current value. WOW that was a rant, sorry. In short, it’s always been cool IMO 😎

[@gaylordfocker7990]

No, he had nothing to do with anything. The world existed before you were born and before the angry douchebags existed on KZbin.

[@awesome6323]

In the late 90s and early 2000s when LAN-partys were all the rage, I still played my trusty old C64. I was all into 2D gaming and not interested at all in first person shooters. I got my first Sega Mega Drive around 2000 and a lot of games in the following years. These were the games that gave me joy and that is something you should never feel weird for.

[@brianmaglinger6327]

Once you learn the history of Video games thats what made me start collecting i was attached to video game history! Started collecting NES and i have 107 cartridges now!

[@SwiftBG]

My dad got me a ZX Spectrum for Christmas 1990 when I was 6. My older brother had left home and had a Sega Mega Drive which made me really want to play games too. I hated that Spectrum for being so old. I don't know what happened to it, but I wish I still owned it.

[@TenOfZero1]

Another great video, also can I point out at 222 upvotes and ZERO downvotes is so rare to see, that's awesome !

[@letsplayclassicgames5024]

I was 5 and got my PlayStation for Christmas of 97. The previous part of the year I had been playing a yard sale special NES. Throughout the years growing up as new consoles would come out, I would still drag out my Ps1 a few times a year and play those older games. I done this with Ps2 as well in Gen 7 and Gen 8. In between all that time I had dabbled in NES and N64 but it didnt really stick. No one ever really put me down for it, the most I ever got was a "Why you still playing with that relic". Sometime between 2013 and 2015 when I had a better job, I slowly started buying more and more older consoles along with games for them. It was very organic. Around 2018 I started heavily collecting. I also feel this was about the time gaming was really starting to blow up on KZbin/Twitch. To me, I feel like seeing all of these massive collections and learning about games I had never heard of on youtube really changed the way I collected, from only buying favorite games from my past, to really just buying every game people consider good. I don't regret it because I have come to find out about and love many games I never would have played, but I also feel like it's easy to get caught up in the hype of collecting and the flavor of the month where certain games will skyrocket in price and everyone is trying to find that game at that particular time. I feel like watching channels like John Hancock and Metal Jesus makes you feel the need to have a huge wall to wall library of games(no disrespect to them, I know that's not their intention, and I learned alot from both of them) where channels like yours and Gaming Off The Grid really seem to embrace collections of all sizes and having fun enjoying the collection you already have. I always love hearing "no one will love your game collection like you will" because it is very sobering and a good reminder to collect for my tastes.

[@the_kombinator]

Haha I have two 35 year old cars that were considered shit back in the 90s and now I can't drive them anywhere without compliments and tons of questions (some of which are just amazement as to how a Hyundai from 1987 hasn't a trace of rust on it). Fun times! Uncle Ted from Bobby's World said it the best - "keep something around long enough and it won't go out of style". I guess? I just like driving them ;)

[@apexanomaly]

An orange picker is a deadly weapon, no lie detected.

[@BerserkerRJR]

I started playing video games with the Atari 2600. At 46, there has never been a time since where I didn't play video games.

[@Tamarocker88]

Born in '88, I grew up on the Commodore64 and Atari2600. I got a model 2 Genesis at about 6-7 yrs old and the cool kids were all talking about the SNES and how they already had a Model 1 Genesis and it was old news. I would still play C64 and Atari games into my early teens and I was considered a loser for it. With the short console life spans, I would trade in and trade up. Owned a PS1, PS2, PS3, Gameboy Color, GBA, Nintendo DS, Game Gear, Dreamcast, N64, Gamecube, Xbox360, and Wii all at one point or another. The one thing I did right was to keep my Atari2600 collection all these years.

[@Demokirby]

Big factor of stigma of old games through the 90s at least was video game companies themselves. They pushed so hard for the latest and greatest hardware and only losers play old stuff was in so much adventising. The opening of Donkey Kong Country is almost a microcosm of this mentality.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

You're definitely correct. Because video games are based around specific hardware, the marketing sort of naturally has to attack the prior generation.

[@vitorkk328]

Great content as always :D

[@blackwalls]

Can you do a video of you just dancing with the Genesis games? I remember buying an NES in the year 2000 because I never had one as a kid and the systems and games were so cheap! But sadly only kept them around for a few years when I needed money for some other hobby. I think the wii shop channel may have helped people remember games they used to love. Keep up the great videos!

[@tonyp9313]

So when I was playing Wonder Boy in Monster land back in the day it was totally different than when I play it now. When I was a kid, video games seemed like a huge World you can immerse yourself into. I wasn't good at this game when I was a kid because I lacked knowledge, I found the game really hard. The games themselves because you had nothing to compare it to. You thought these were the absolute best and the graphics were amazing. Games felt like they were really long. Like hours upon hours. When the Sega Genesis came out. I remember not owning one at first. My friends had bought one at the time. Again as a kid you are really more immersed with these video games. I remember they had Golden Axe, NHL hockey & Sonic. When they showed me these games for the 1st time. I was really impressed, I didn't want to play my Sega Master System anymore because these newer games left such a huge impression on me. Nhl the first time they had instant replay in a game, fights looking realistic. Sonic Big leap from Super Mario Bros. Then Golden Axe where I was impressed with all the fighters and the Dragon magic. So it was around 1992. I had gone back to play Wonder Boy in Monster land. It felt old and we are only talking like 4 years gone by. I felt like man this game looks like crap it's not like the Sega Genesis games I have experienced. Of course now I don't think that way. I think all the retro games are special and really good.

[@dahjord]

ive been collecting games since elementary school but i didnt get hard into it till around 2015 then completed my lifelong dream of owning a snes finally and it took off from there

[@chansadres]

As a kid I never got a gaming console. My parents always thought it would turn my brains into mush. Every year I would ask for one but never got it. What I do have was my own old pc. When the first pentium computers got the newest games, I played Wolfenstein, Doom and Commander Keen on my old 486. So when I was a kid, I always played older games. This changed when I got to the age I supposed to be an adult. I got my own appartment, so looked online on Craigslist for some cheaper furniture. And all i saw, was free old games. In some ads they dared to say they would take them to the trash if no one showed up a week later. So I began to adopt these puppies, before they would be demolished. After a year I got a NES, Snes, Master System and multiple Genesis. My innerchild was just glowing. But beside videogames, I found a lot of cds and dvds. They were just throwing them away. I once got a 900 piece cd collection from someone for just 50 bucks. When I asked why, the only response was Spotify. When I loaded the car, I laughed and said "You will be sorry". Few months later, he rang me up. If he could buy his old collection back. Spotify deleted his favourite album. No can do sir. Just remember, some day everything will be retro.

[@kurtshastany1945]

Old stuff doesnt become retro if it was state of the art at the time. Using the stuff in the way it used to be done may be retro, but the technology itself isnt. Retro gaming doesnt automatically mean you are using retro tech.

[@realmetatainment1242]

I have been playing Shining Force 2 because of you. I hope you're happy. I know I am.

[@randominternetuser2]

I kinda want to play it now too, lol. Thanks a lot BIRD

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Hahah glad you're enjoying it! The battle artwork and animations are so nice!

[@turbinegraphics16]

There was a retro scene such as atari age in 2008 but normal gamers certainly thought it was weird to play old games. I told someone I liked shmups in 2008 and their reaction was why would you even play something like that.

[@Zahir658]

I actually started playing retro gaming a long time ago but I didn't know it at that time. When I was a young school boy in Bangladesh, I brought a CD which consists of cool Neo-Geo games and I started playing it along with Road Rash and Virtua Cop 2 in my desktop. At that time, I had no idea that these Neo-Geo games were actually from the arcade and that I was playing it via Kawaks emulator. I still have that emulator to this day. Few years had passed since then and I went to an arcade sector in Australia when I saw a very familiar Neo-Geo game via the arcade machine. My first thought was that "Hey! That game looks really familiar!" so I went to check it on the internet and the information I had saw has welcomed me to the world of retro gaming. I now have the Raspberry Pie with me to have some good time. That is my story :)

[@tcgdarren5865]

I remember the exact moment my passion for retro gaming was kickstarted. I had just bought a deck of yugioh cards to play with my buddies in high school in 2011. It cost me like 10 bucks. Then one of my other buddies offered me an original Game Boy with Kirby's Pinball Land in exchange for my cards. Best trade I ever made. And here I am 10 years later with more video games than I could've ever imagined spending money on lol.

[@alonzor557]

Born in 93 been gaming my whole life NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, PS1/PS2, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox. Video games are one of my favorite hobbies. Thanks mom & dad.

[@SuperNicktendo]

I played my Dad's Intellivision in the late 80s. And it was brutal - basketball was hard to tell which basket your player was supposed to go to, Kool-Aid man was creepy but the controller was fun - the buttons were fun to press and it was shiny. I still have it all these years later. Games were the same for me back then too - Super NES came out and I just packed away the NES and moved on. No point in playing the older stuff when new stuff was coming out. I feel Video games in their early years are the same as movies were in their infancy - people literally threw away film after a movie was done - mainly because of the volatile nitrocellulose used in early films - it could combust and burn entire studios down.

[@breakfasthole3851]

Retro gaming in the late 90s was just buying old crap. I bought Earthworm Jim 2 for the PS1 when we were in the flow of quality 3D games. I got laughed at for buying it! This was the same time when I started buying SNES stuff that I previously sold. I bought a brand new Mega Drive very cheap. It was only the previous console generation but times had changed and people only wanted new stuff. Fast forward a few years when I was at uni. People were warming to playing 16bit games again. I remember two pubs at that time that had a SNES and Mario Kart. It was students enjoying their childhood stuff as young adults and my 16bit games were considered cool again... although not cool enough to hike up the prices yet. It was a niche novelty thing at that point that young adults understood.

[@19Szabolcs91]

I rememmber a review in a video game magazine of Symphony of the Night said said the graphics suck solely because it's a 2D game. Ironically, not onl was it one of the best looking 2D games when it came out, but today it's considered one of the best looking PS1 games.

[@ShinSynZero]

Great vid man and it looks you have at least one banana nut muffin grade banana there. As for playing old games buying current gens, it's never been an issue. I'm guessing b/c it was mainly arcade kind of stuff like fighters like X-Men vs SF or run and guns like Metal Slug whenever I games w/friends and even so they were like minded if you will. As for other retro stuff, I know a few people wonder why I play classic games but most of them get it

[@andrewreviewsgamesandstuff]

Goof troop for the snes is awesome this guy gets ya retrobird .

[@RetroBirdGaming]

All right!

[@vegetafett]

Ah the only good thing about growing up poor in poor schools Most of the time when I played NES and other old consoles when I was in high school in the early 2000s people thought it was cool. But I think that has to do with the fact that most of the kids I knew could never afford the newest consoles. I mean sure one kid would get a PS2 or and Xbox but most of the time we were still rocking original game boys at the time. I didn't even get a PS1 till the PS2 was out lol and I didn't even get an original gameboy till like 2000 or so,and I was stoked to be able to play it. Great video as always keep up the interesting videos man.

[@eymed2023]

I don't imediatelly discard older music (in fact, I do enjoy some older pieces), but I prefer what can be done with modern technology. Digital synths and drums especially. And vocals being cristal-clear (the older a track is, the more eco it tends to have). The best way to ilustrate this? Someone puts on an old favorite: "Ain't no Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrel. Me: Puts on the cover by Freischwimmer and Dionne Bromfield. Take an older song that was pretty good to begin with and make it sound 100x better. One of favorite pieces of music, and DEFINITELY my number 1 pick for "Best Covers Ever Made". The best of older music and modern music combined into a near-perfect 3 minute track.

[@moandaindesigns]

I mainly just stopped selling my games after 1994. Then I was working at a used game store and started buying systems that I had sold long ago. Man, I had smaller paychecks because of that.

[@thomastripp9002]

I've always loved "retro gaming." Even during the late 90s and early 2000's, you could still see me enjoying NES and SNES games (as well as Genesis), even when PS1/PS2/N64/Dreamcast/OG XBOX/GameCube was coming out. During those times, I would make trips to FuncoLand, EB Games and Babbage's to pick up these games as they were cheap back then. I'd even rotate between the "retro" and the then-current "128-bit systems" throughout Middle and High School. I truly became a Retro Gamer during my Sophomore Year in College (2009-10), when I would bring my NES, SNES, Genesis and PS1 to my school's "Game Room" and others would have that "WOW" factor, being that they haven't seen or played them in a very long time and some would play with me on occasion, while others were on PS3 and 360. I even still do this to this very day, when I bring those systems (along with the PS2 and Dreamcast) to Restaurants, etc. with my small CRT TV. Heck, I remember bringing my PSOne w/LCD screen to Hooters in Raleigh, NC before the Pandemic hit and many people would become in awe of how I would pull it off, when I would play Mortal Kombat Trilogy and College Slam.

[@vivadiva2552]

Underrated channel! Keep it up!

[@KnowNothingNerd]

Was Retro Bird like before it was considered cool to sub to him? Just kidding. He's always been awesome and great to see such explosive growth in those sub numbers! Keep it up!

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Haha thanks for the positive vibes as always :)

[@renzorro2001]

Just wanted to say that the setup for showing off the CRT is great, the darkened room with a light shining only on the controller. Man do I want a CRT for my older consoles....

[@chrispy3051]

I've always been interested in retro gaming, but the accessibility was just a little difficult with having to collect and preferably having a CRT. These days, it's so easy to pick up a portable emulator, raspberry pi or buy retro compilations. I used to only play newer games, just because that was the norm. I'm 25, and about 3 years ago I started looking into the SNES, NES and Genesis line and I'm very happy that I'm able to experience these games, and I'm glad there's such a large community for them.

[@datamanmachine]

40 Years old. Over 25 years of Collecting Remember how cheap the 8 bit/16 bit stuff was Back in the late 90s early 2000. Especially Mega Drive here in Europe. Nobody wanted them! I bought everything i could with my first Money. Because i love Videogames Collecting and it was Cheap. Back then i allways got that weird Looks because i collected that "Old" stuff nobody wanted. Collecting Videogames in generall was a totaly strange thing to do.

[@eduardomata4731]

I got into this when it was cheap, actually I got into this BECAUSE it was cheap. Since the begining and to this day I only get games on deals or trades. Even non functioning stuff since it tends to cost a lot less this way. I just got a couple of broken Sega Genesis with 3 malfunctioning controllers and 2 games that just needed some cleaning and soldering for 20 bucks. It took 4 hours of my time and 7ish dollars on materials to got it all back to life, just ready for trades. It has been dry lately tho, now everybody knows old videogames can worth something.

[@pswr2009]

Great video! I kept playing SNES when my friends were all going N64 and PS1. I think my mind froze in the 8 and 16 bit era.

[@MediCali951]

It was awesome! I remember people used to look at me crazy for buying video games as an adult now everybody is doing it. Used to find retro carts at 10 am at the flea market now you gotta show up at 6 am and hope you can find one

[@mimiwilliams1560]

Another fun video to watch!

[@inkfusedgamer]

I grew up at the height of the NES and then Super NES. But, I also spent a lot of time at my Grandmothers, and she only had an Atari 2600. To me, it was gaming. It really didn't occur to me it was old gaming till I brought it up to schoolmates.

[@yujiro424]

I've never held a belief that newer is better and have always played games I consider good regardless of their age. To put this in perspective in the last 3 months I've played Balders Gate 3(PC), Mortal Kombat 1(PS5), Live a Live(Switch), Super Mario Bros 1/2/3(NES),Super Mario World(SNES), Super Mario 64(N64), Castlevania(NES). Earlier this year leading up to Final Fantasy 16 I ran through the other 13 non MMO games mostly on their original systems. I have been that way since the mid 90s when I started gaming.

[@squaresided]

Me and my buddies would stay up all night on weekends playing GoldenEye on the N64 some years ago(slappers only, paintball mode all the things). Then we'd get like 2 hours of sleep before having to go to church and do our duties while the older men looked at us suspiciously. I also refer to myself as a console gamer only. Sure I understand the PC max settings and ease of use of emulators but with some of the risks involved and annoying random errors I just like turning on my console and gaming.