Retro gaming is very much alive and well however I reckon the community that surrounds it is grim and fractured beyond repair. You have the big sell out YouTubers who glom onto every trend going and wear snapbacks and affect American accents, and see themselves as above everyone. Then there’s the likes of Nostalgia Nerd who clearly never had any interest in retro but made a revenue stream from at least pretending that it’s their passion. Then you have the amateur “content creator” types who promote each others videos and jerk each other off, while decreeing that everyone else is enjoying their hobby wrong. Then there’s the old men who are equally miserable if you mention any computers other than the one they simp for. And then we have the drama hounds, the ones who make mediocre content but generate sympathy by getting caught cheating and being kicked out by their spouses, or having gender identity crisis, or falling foul of copyright, or accidentally murdering their pets.
yes mate it’s all a fucking mess. the one thing that unites those bastards you’ve mentioned is that none of them seem to actively enjoy gaming. they seem to resent that it’s what they’re “known for”, despite using it as the initial launchpad from which to establish themselves as a (yawn) “personality”. This has led to a lot of diversification of what these people actually now represent as they desperately try to distance/differentiate themselves from the hordes of other cap wearing twats who’re pandering to american clicks, or “cash for pity” or whatever it is that floats their current enterprise. in many ways, it’s great that the wheels have come off these bastards vehicles and they’ve had to get out and push. as i’ve said many, many times, the whole scene needs an enema. i think the main issue i have is that there are a million and one total arseholes all trying to make exactly the same content. the youtubers i DO watch (no retrogamers, for the most part) get my views because they provide something that everyone else does NOT. I see no need for a multitude of people all covering the same tired stuff and all having the same “wacky” scripts etc. the fact that octavius is now a scriptwriter for other youtubers is simply signposting the fact that the entire lot of them are in the toilet, drowning in all the shits that they themselves put there.
Another week, another youtuber on the Retro Hour sigh…. They’re now interrupting the interviews half-way to shove another advert. So that’s a 3rd party advert at the start, a plug for bitmap books, a midway advert and a 3rd party one at the end. No more, I’ll finish this weeks and that’s it.
lol i don’t even pay them any attention. they’re utter cunts and i find their schtick genuinely insufferable. a lot of gaming youtubers (most) are like that too. i was watching someone talking about initial d today and after the third signposted “joke” and just trying to be “wacky” continually i had to turn it off. it was doing my head in. i think it had over a million views so there must be some right spastics out there if that’s what passes for credible content in their minds.
I bailed at the right time. First step was leaving the discord, some guy was ticking me off because I said I hate Mac computers, I used them 2007-2018 but got fed up with Apple. He was trying to pick faults in my arguments. This on a supposed “friendly community”.
To be fair, telling a Mac person that Apple products conceived during the Second Coming of Jobs is like going to a Muslim’s house and telling them that Muhammad was a nonce.
I put forward perfectly valid arguments. Lack of expandability on their laptops but calling them “pro” products, my first Macbook Pro had RAM slots and could have the disk replaced. Apple thinking 16GB is a sensible amount of RAM on some models. That alone caused many Photoshop users to bail as it’s unusable without at least 32GB if you’re working on magazine resolution images.
Also, who in Hollywood uses Final Cut these days? probably nobody, despite it once being very popular. Apple has dumbed down their “pro” products to be prosumer. They only have the Logic DAW left, I’m sure they’ll mess that up eventually.
It’s so dead that on the 30th I’m having all my friends over for an 8 and 16-bit games night. I did some years ago but it’s a right faff setting up about 4-5 games consoles and computers, just finding all the controllers and power bricks takes a while.
Although I have actual retro hardware, I am seriously thinking of selling the lot as 100% of my retro gaming is now emulation.
I no longer have the time nor the space to have various gaming setups and like you said – playing the emulated game is no different from playing it on original hard wear except in the odd few games that emulators have issues running, but they soon get resolved.
I have said it for a few years now, but I am going to be getting rid of all my original systems and they might as well go to someone who might use them as they are getting bugger all use from me.
As for retro gaming dying – complete and total piss as although the old guard from the 8bit days will eventually die off, then there will be those who grew up in the 16 bit days and then the 32 bit days etc etc, its not dying it is simply evolving.
Whilst i’m no longer a gamer myself, my wonderful partner hates gaming and my rest days are spent with her and my step daughter…
My PlayStation 4 is set up in the spare bedroom as a media device, my DC, PSP and GBA etc collection sat in storage, awaiting sale to a friend of mine…
There’s absolutely no sign of Retro Gaming being poorly, let alone dead 🙄
It’s YT creators who’ve run out of content to cover, so push out absurd click bait videos.
Nobody was ever bullied for being a gamer, that’s just absolute nonsense.
We bunked off school to game at a mates, go down the arcades.
There are entire new generations out there who’s first platforms were things like the PlayStation, Saturn, N64..
Who look on at disbelief at those of us who grew up on platforms like the ZX81, Atari 2600,as they are so primitive in comparison.
As you say, YT revenues are drying up for many, as they’ve all covered the same content, badly..
There’s shed loads of things to cover. But they just don’t always make for engaging content and if you don’t get loads of views then you don’t get the ad money or the patreons. So instead of doing interesting stuff like for example 8-bit show and tell does, they go for a tabloid sensationalist stuff.
There’s a whole goldmine of dodgy budget C64 games you could cover and have a laugh with but that doesn’t get the US audience viewing it.
above and beyond all that mate these are just not interesting people. that’s the bottom line. if they were then i’d happily listen to them waffle about anything. interesting people have interesting stuff to say, more or less. what we have here are boring, one dimensional pricks trying to convince people they’re fractal. it doesn’t work and they just end up scrabbling over the same low tier garbage because they perceive that it’s what will get them views. no, having a personality will get you views and having your own style. however, as they don’t have personalities they have to just fall back on “It’s HOTEL MARIO on the CD-i !”. their audience is transitory at best, and they’re all on borrowed time as their empires are built on sand.
good point mate. “is my channel DEAD ?” videos will be rife, with the E or the A blocked out of the word DEAD as they all fear using it in their thumbnails in case someone reports it and they get demonetize. the lengths they’ll go to to srabble about for coins are appalling.
It’s not practical for many people. I have an entire drawer full of wires, PSUs and controllers for old systems and it’s all tangled up as you’d expect.
Some of it just was sort of for bragging rights. Showing off your collection. In the case of someone like Metal Jesus it was “look at my latest pickups” and standing in front of $20,000+ of games then e-begging to fix your leaky wall.
Hi George, eventually found you on Google after the YouTube situation! Was watching for a few months before it all vanished.
This is close to my heart. For people who actually want to play retro games we are living in a golden age with software emulation, FPGA, flash carts, drive emulators, mini consoles, modern re-releases. Never been more ways to play, it’s ace.
Plus the arcade games still getting emulated. Fans translating old games into different languages, that has gone crazy over the last few years. People doing hacks to fix and improve old games. Or all new versions of games, homebrew on old systems. Hard to keep up with so much going on.
If you still want to play on real hardware there’s a whole scene of people making repair and upgrade parts. It’s getting to the stage where some systems can be built from the ground up with new parts. Amazing stuff and very much not from a dying scene but a very active one that exists outside of these YouTube pox people who can’t be bothered to come up with original content so they just talk about the state of “the scene” all day, bottom feeders like RGT85 and the people who ape him in the hope of snatching some views.
I would prefer if you could get old games cheap, but I’m sick of being lectured about how bad the situation is by YouTubers sat in front of a hoard of stuff they never even play, just a background for them to cut between while they read the Wikipedia page for the Amiga CD32 and talk over stolen footage. Wish the companies would start running off new batches of old games and watch their faces drop as their £600 Mega CD Snatcher suddenly turns into a £40 one.
great stuff mate good to have you back and yes, there’s never been a better time to enjoy retro games, or games in general ! if you enjoy the GAMES and not putting them behind glass and never playing them then, if you’re broke like me, you can still play everything more or less perfectly on emulation. it’s an absolute no brainer. the youtubers sitting in front of a hoard of games is irksome, yes, but you have to remember that they don’t have a personality and are attempting to adopt the meta that “everyone else has who is successful” and they truly believe that by hoarding all of this stuff it somehow masks the fact that they have zero personality and nothing interesting to say. RGT85 is as good an example as any, really. the majority of them can’t even fucking play games. i’ve watched some “gameplay” videos of big youtubers in the past and they play like fucking retards. it shows, to me, that they’re not really interested in gaming at all. either that or they’re thick as fuck, as if you’ve played games “all your life” and can’t time a jump properly in some ancient 2d game then you fucked up somewhere along the lines for sure ! again good to have you back mate there’s loads of content for you to watch since “the Youtube situation” lol and to be honest i’m much happier OFF Youtube, i can say what i want here and that’s a massive benefit. Youtube is getting more and more restrictive.
I had to search “is retrogaming dead” on YT in an incognito window (because I don’t need that shit clogging up my algorithm). Two of the top results are videos by some bint with big jugs in a tank top pulling a retarded face in the thumbnail. One of these videos was published in the last 24 hours, the other was published 4 years ago…
Spot on as per, George. It’s a hobby like any other and won’t die out so long as people are alive to enjoy them.
Also, if I can just say, as a bit of feedback – I much prefer these straight shot videos without the heavy editing and sound effects observed in the last few videos. Personally, I’ve found them a little distracting from what you’re saying, and I’m not sure they add much in the way of presentation. I obviously can’t speak for others, but I tend to listen to your videos instead of watching, so the additional sound effects often seem quite unnecessary. Maybe it’s just the frequency of them, or perhaps the volume? I’m unsure. But it would be remiss of me to give a bit of feedback when I can. Cheers mate!
To add to my previous comment, the reach you have had and with just a jpeg background and a desktop microphone is evidence enough that you don’t need all this expensive gear to make a YouTube channel. You have a personality that, while perhaps divisive, is yours and yours alone (and another reason I feel the sound effects and additional editing is unnecessary!) I think when these shit channels are professing “Retro gaming is dead!”, I think they mean the creation of milquetoast, garden variety, dull, common as muck top 10’s and “did you know…” videos and such like are coming to an end. If so, GOOD. None of these tossers have a shred of personality or originality between them. All they’ve done is artificially raise the price of this stuff and make it unattainable for those who genuinely are interested in discovering these old games.
exactly mate, i do like to think i provide something different for people and while it’s divisive as you rightly say there’s not another broadcaster out there like me and that is a good thing ! there are a million standard, run of the mill youtube channels picking the low hanging fruit continually. I prefer to look into more odd things or just ramble off on tangents, that’s what i enjoy to do and with not scripting anything it makes things much more fun for me as i have to keep the stream of consciousness going so i never know how each video will turn out !
and with regards to discovering the games i think emulation has it mostly cornered now mate i appreciate people like the real stuff but for me especially with being disabled it was a genuine hassle to rewire everything for different consoles etc and now i have my new pc (finally after about 3 years of waiting lol) i can put most of the games i want on that and just play them from there so i have everything in one place and i can upscale or add filters etc. for me it’s just a better way to play. i’m in no way a gaming elitist and if i have a few ms of lag on some game or other i’m hardly even likely to notice. i’m no spring chicken and my brain is slow anyway ! i love gaming for the places it takes me to and the escapism. it’s like a good journey mate and as long as the bus isn’t falling apart or physically dangerous the view out of the window is the same if you sit at the front or the back ! i have just been playing demons souls and i’m back in the inappropriately named “prison of hope”. chilling !
no mate i quite understand it, those last few videos (which started with the SLOPS one) are actually directed in a roundabout way at some arsehole online who said i only do rambling videos because i CAN’T do editing etc. don’t worry mate i think normal service is about ready to resume, the last amiga video proved the point :p i mich prefer just being able to talk without spending hours on micro edits. they’re for young children to keep them enthralled and it’s a tactic usually employed by people with not much to say, hence me never doing it mate. point heard and agreed with, don’t worry !
Cheers for the quick response mate. Happy to hear the edits won’t be a regular addition to your videos. Like you said, all the quick edits, or in the case of camera appearances – jump cuts, are all just manipulative ways to both hide how boring the presenter is that they have to try and artificially give energy to their videos because they can’t speak a full sentence without having to chop up every word, OR it just undermines the intelligence and attention span of their audience. Either way, it’s for the birds. As far as retro gaming itself is concerned, I can definitely see where you’re coming from. In your situation, emulation is simply far more convenient (as it is in 99% of cases). I’m one of those who would rather play on original hardware when possible, and am fortunate enough to have amassed a collection before these grifting BASTARDS tried to make it a profitable hobby, but have absolutely nothing against emulation. It’s a supremely effective way to get into these old games, and in many cases the ONLY way. More power to you. If you’re having fun, who gives a fuck?
Well said George, and I imagine this reflects the sentiments of many who actually enjoy gaming on most levels. I did laugh re your reference around thumbnails of YouTube pricks holding their chins with some arbitrary question inserted (usually in capitals) – this is a shameless tactic that can be seen on about 90% of retro gaming channels. What has always surprised me with YouTubers (along with how similar and boring they are) is how little these fuckers actually play games on their channels, which is surely what it’s all about? Along with your humorous and insightful commentary, I actually like the fact you play the games which is the part I enjoy most on your site. When you also do your discussions (like the ones with Simon), it’s also clear that you aren’t really a raving lunatic all of the time(😉), and that you actually know your onions about gaming and have some interesting views on this. I also like Mamemeister’s channel for this reason – there’s no razzmatazz there – just a normal bloke with standard equipment, who appears to genuinely like and plays the games he features – whether he’s good at them or not. No top tens, no failed systems features, no regurgitated features and no repeated requests to like and subscribe. Retro gaming of course isn’t dead, but fingers crossed as you say – hopefully it’s shit content from banal grifting fuckwits that is instead now on its way down the u-bend, rather than you hobby itself
yes mate mamemeister is someone i have a lot of time for he’s a really good guy and actually enjoys games. that’s unusual in a gaming channel, lol, as you say ! was late to reply on this as i’ve been punishing myself with demons souls again for the umpteenth time lol. i do indeed love gaming mate ! i’m going to do a podcast with him really soon i think, i just need to find some time !
Like anything, there comes a point where it gets harder to find some old retro game story that’s not been told. When talking with a friend of mine about youtube he said he didn’t watch Slops and preferred Mr “hello you”. But he told me recently he’s been watching Slops, almost like he’s run out of stuff to watch on youtube.
i actually like to hear from people and to hear their own personal stories. slops and his ilk are dogshit as they just parade facts. there’s nothing inherently interesting nor unique about that. anyone can do it, hence them all being on borrowed time and all copying content from one another. they’re probably not even copying, most of the time, it’s just that there’s only 1 wikipedia and with no personality to speak of they just come off as bots.
Retro gaming is very much alive and well however I reckon the community that surrounds it is grim and fractured beyond repair. You have the big sell out YouTubers who glom onto every trend going and wear snapbacks and affect American accents, and see themselves as above everyone. Then there’s the likes of Nostalgia Nerd who clearly never had any interest in retro but made a revenue stream from at least pretending that it’s their passion. Then you have the amateur “content creator” types who promote each others videos and jerk each other off, while decreeing that everyone else is enjoying their hobby wrong. Then there’s the old men who are equally miserable if you mention any computers other than the one they simp for. And then we have the drama hounds, the ones who make mediocre content but generate sympathy by getting caught cheating and being kicked out by their spouses, or having gender identity crisis, or falling foul of copyright, or accidentally murdering their pets.
yes mate it’s all a fucking mess. the one thing that unites those bastards you’ve mentioned is that none of them seem to actively enjoy gaming. they seem to resent that it’s what they’re “known for”, despite using it as the initial launchpad from which to establish themselves as a (yawn) “personality”. This has led to a lot of diversification of what these people actually now represent as they desperately try to distance/differentiate themselves from the hordes of other cap wearing twats who’re pandering to american clicks, or “cash for pity” or whatever it is that floats their current enterprise. in many ways, it’s great that the wheels have come off these bastards vehicles and they’ve had to get out and push. as i’ve said many, many times, the whole scene needs an enema. i think the main issue i have is that there are a million and one total arseholes all trying to make exactly the same content. the youtubers i DO watch (no retrogamers, for the most part) get my views because they provide something that everyone else does NOT. I see no need for a multitude of people all covering the same tired stuff and all having the same “wacky” scripts etc. the fact that octavius is now a scriptwriter for other youtubers is simply signposting the fact that the entire lot of them are in the toilet, drowning in all the shits that they themselves put there.
Another week, another youtuber on the Retro Hour sigh…. They’re now interrupting the interviews half-way to shove another advert. So that’s a 3rd party advert at the start, a plug for bitmap books, a midway advert and a 3rd party one at the end. No more, I’ll finish this weeks and that’s it.
So it’s not that retro gaming is dying, it’s that retro gaming youtubers are money grubbing twits who have run out of ideas.
yes. that’s it in a nutshell.
lol i don’t even pay them any attention. they’re utter cunts and i find their schtick genuinely insufferable. a lot of gaming youtubers (most) are like that too. i was watching someone talking about initial d today and after the third signposted “joke” and just trying to be “wacky” continually i had to turn it off. it was doing my head in. i think it had over a million views so there must be some right spastics out there if that’s what passes for credible content in their minds.
I bailed at the right time. First step was leaving the discord, some guy was ticking me off because I said I hate Mac computers, I used them 2007-2018 but got fed up with Apple. He was trying to pick faults in my arguments. This on a supposed “friendly community”.
To be fair, telling a Mac person that Apple products conceived during the Second Coming of Jobs is like going to a Muslim’s house and telling them that Muhammad was a nonce.
I put forward perfectly valid arguments. Lack of expandability on their laptops but calling them “pro” products, my first Macbook Pro had RAM slots and could have the disk replaced. Apple thinking 16GB is a sensible amount of RAM on some models. That alone caused many Photoshop users to bail as it’s unusable without at least 32GB if you’re working on magazine resolution images.
Also, who in Hollywood uses Final Cut these days? probably nobody, despite it once being very popular. Apple has dumbed down their “pro” products to be prosumer. They only have the Logic DAW left, I’m sure they’ll mess that up eventually.
i hate apple stuff mate it’s always been far too expensive for me anyway !
It’s so dead that on the 30th I’m having all my friends over for an 8 and 16-bit games night. I did some years ago but it’s a right faff setting up about 4-5 games consoles and computers, just finding all the controllers and power bricks takes a while.
Although I have actual retro hardware, I am seriously thinking of selling the lot as 100% of my retro gaming is now emulation.
I no longer have the time nor the space to have various gaming setups and like you said – playing the emulated game is no different from playing it on original hard wear except in the odd few games that emulators have issues running, but they soon get resolved.
I have said it for a few years now, but I am going to be getting rid of all my original systems and they might as well go to someone who might use them as they are getting bugger all use from me.
As for retro gaming dying – complete and total piss as although the old guard from the 8bit days will eventually die off, then there will be those who grew up in the 16 bit days and then the 32 bit days etc etc, its not dying it is simply evolving.
Whilst i’m no longer a gamer myself, my wonderful partner hates gaming and my rest days are spent with her and my step daughter…
My PlayStation 4 is set up in the spare bedroom as a media device, my DC, PSP and GBA etc collection sat in storage, awaiting sale to a friend of mine…
There’s absolutely no sign of Retro Gaming being poorly, let alone dead 🙄
It’s YT creators who’ve run out of content to cover, so push out absurd click bait videos.
Nobody was ever bullied for being a gamer, that’s just absolute nonsense.
We bunked off school to game at a mates, go down the arcades.
There are entire new generations out there who’s first platforms were things like the PlayStation, Saturn, N64..
Who look on at disbelief at those of us who grew up on platforms like the ZX81, Atari 2600,as they are so primitive in comparison.
As you say, YT revenues are drying up for many, as they’ve all covered the same content, badly..
People are switching off from grifters.
There’s shed loads of things to cover. But they just don’t always make for engaging content and if you don’t get loads of views then you don’t get the ad money or the patreons. So instead of doing interesting stuff like for example 8-bit show and tell does, they go for a tabloid sensationalist stuff.
There’s a whole goldmine of dodgy budget C64 games you could cover and have a laugh with but that doesn’t get the US audience viewing it.
above and beyond all that mate these are just not interesting people. that’s the bottom line. if they were then i’d happily listen to them waffle about anything. interesting people have interesting stuff to say, more or less. what we have here are boring, one dimensional pricks trying to convince people they’re fractal. it doesn’t work and they just end up scrabbling over the same low tier garbage because they perceive that it’s what will get them views. no, having a personality will get you views and having your own style. however, as they don’t have personalities they have to just fall back on “It’s HOTEL MARIO on the CD-i !”. their audience is transitory at best, and they’re all on borrowed time as their empires are built on sand.
I wonder….well when these YouTubers time is up…will they make a video about? And will we get a retrospective 😉
good point mate. “is my channel DEAD ?” videos will be rife, with the E or the A blocked out of the word DEAD as they all fear using it in their thumbnails in case someone reports it and they get demonetize. the lengths they’ll go to to srabble about for coins are appalling.
It*
It’s not practical for many people. I have an entire drawer full of wires, PSUs and controllers for old systems and it’s all tangled up as you’d expect.
i had that before i sold the majority of it last year mate was just too much hassle and i wasn’t using any of it !
Some of it just was sort of for bragging rights. Showing off your collection. In the case of someone like Metal Jesus it was “look at my latest pickups” and standing in front of $20,000+ of games then e-begging to fix your leaky wall.
Hi George, eventually found you on Google after the YouTube situation! Was watching for a few months before it all vanished.
This is close to my heart. For people who actually want to play retro games we are living in a golden age with software emulation, FPGA, flash carts, drive emulators, mini consoles, modern re-releases. Never been more ways to play, it’s ace.
Plus the arcade games still getting emulated. Fans translating old games into different languages, that has gone crazy over the last few years. People doing hacks to fix and improve old games. Or all new versions of games, homebrew on old systems. Hard to keep up with so much going on.
If you still want to play on real hardware there’s a whole scene of people making repair and upgrade parts. It’s getting to the stage where some systems can be built from the ground up with new parts. Amazing stuff and very much not from a dying scene but a very active one that exists outside of these YouTube pox people who can’t be bothered to come up with original content so they just talk about the state of “the scene” all day, bottom feeders like RGT85 and the people who ape him in the hope of snatching some views.
I would prefer if you could get old games cheap, but I’m sick of being lectured about how bad the situation is by YouTubers sat in front of a hoard of stuff they never even play, just a background for them to cut between while they read the Wikipedia page for the Amiga CD32 and talk over stolen footage. Wish the companies would start running off new batches of old games and watch their faces drop as their £600 Mega CD Snatcher suddenly turns into a £40 one.
great stuff mate good to have you back and yes, there’s never been a better time to enjoy retro games, or games in general ! if you enjoy the GAMES and not putting them behind glass and never playing them then, if you’re broke like me, you can still play everything more or less perfectly on emulation. it’s an absolute no brainer. the youtubers sitting in front of a hoard of games is irksome, yes, but you have to remember that they don’t have a personality and are attempting to adopt the meta that “everyone else has who is successful” and they truly believe that by hoarding all of this stuff it somehow masks the fact that they have zero personality and nothing interesting to say. RGT85 is as good an example as any, really. the majority of them can’t even fucking play games. i’ve watched some “gameplay” videos of big youtubers in the past and they play like fucking retards. it shows, to me, that they’re not really interested in gaming at all. either that or they’re thick as fuck, as if you’ve played games “all your life” and can’t time a jump properly in some ancient 2d game then you fucked up somewhere along the lines for sure ! again good to have you back mate there’s loads of content for you to watch since “the Youtube situation” lol and to be honest i’m much happier OFF Youtube, i can say what i want here and that’s a massive benefit. Youtube is getting more and more restrictive.
I had to search “is retrogaming dead” on YT in an incognito window (because I don’t need that shit clogging up my algorithm). Two of the top results are videos by some bint with big jugs in a tank top pulling a retarded face in the thumbnail. One of these videos was published in the last 24 hours, the other was published 4 years ago…
Enough said.
well that sums it up mate doesn’t it ? fucking pathetic ! they’re even recycling their own content !
Spot on as per, George. It’s a hobby like any other and won’t die out so long as people are alive to enjoy them.
Also, if I can just say, as a bit of feedback – I much prefer these straight shot videos without the heavy editing and sound effects observed in the last few videos. Personally, I’ve found them a little distracting from what you’re saying, and I’m not sure they add much in the way of presentation. I obviously can’t speak for others, but I tend to listen to your videos instead of watching, so the additional sound effects often seem quite unnecessary. Maybe it’s just the frequency of them, or perhaps the volume? I’m unsure. But it would be remiss of me to give a bit of feedback when I can. Cheers mate!
To add to my previous comment, the reach you have had and with just a jpeg background and a desktop microphone is evidence enough that you don’t need all this expensive gear to make a YouTube channel. You have a personality that, while perhaps divisive, is yours and yours alone (and another reason I feel the sound effects and additional editing is unnecessary!) I think when these shit channels are professing “Retro gaming is dead!”, I think they mean the creation of milquetoast, garden variety, dull, common as muck top 10’s and “did you know…” videos and such like are coming to an end. If so, GOOD. None of these tossers have a shred of personality or originality between them. All they’ve done is artificially raise the price of this stuff and make it unattainable for those who genuinely are interested in discovering these old games.
exactly mate, i do like to think i provide something different for people and while it’s divisive as you rightly say there’s not another broadcaster out there like me and that is a good thing ! there are a million standard, run of the mill youtube channels picking the low hanging fruit continually. I prefer to look into more odd things or just ramble off on tangents, that’s what i enjoy to do and with not scripting anything it makes things much more fun for me as i have to keep the stream of consciousness going so i never know how each video will turn out !
and with regards to discovering the games i think emulation has it mostly cornered now mate i appreciate people like the real stuff but for me especially with being disabled it was a genuine hassle to rewire everything for different consoles etc and now i have my new pc (finally after about 3 years of waiting lol) i can put most of the games i want on that and just play them from there so i have everything in one place and i can upscale or add filters etc. for me it’s just a better way to play. i’m in no way a gaming elitist and if i have a few ms of lag on some game or other i’m hardly even likely to notice. i’m no spring chicken and my brain is slow anyway ! i love gaming for the places it takes me to and the escapism. it’s like a good journey mate and as long as the bus isn’t falling apart or physically dangerous the view out of the window is the same if you sit at the front or the back ! i have just been playing demons souls and i’m back in the inappropriately named “prison of hope”. chilling !
no mate i quite understand it, those last few videos (which started with the SLOPS one) are actually directed in a roundabout way at some arsehole online who said i only do rambling videos because i CAN’T do editing etc. don’t worry mate i think normal service is about ready to resume, the last amiga video proved the point :p i mich prefer just being able to talk without spending hours on micro edits. they’re for young children to keep them enthralled and it’s a tactic usually employed by people with not much to say, hence me never doing it mate. point heard and agreed with, don’t worry !
Cheers for the quick response mate. Happy to hear the edits won’t be a regular addition to your videos. Like you said, all the quick edits, or in the case of camera appearances – jump cuts, are all just manipulative ways to both hide how boring the presenter is that they have to try and artificially give energy to their videos because they can’t speak a full sentence without having to chop up every word, OR it just undermines the intelligence and attention span of their audience. Either way, it’s for the birds. As far as retro gaming itself is concerned, I can definitely see where you’re coming from. In your situation, emulation is simply far more convenient (as it is in 99% of cases). I’m one of those who would rather play on original hardware when possible, and am fortunate enough to have amassed a collection before these grifting BASTARDS tried to make it a profitable hobby, but have absolutely nothing against emulation. It’s a supremely effective way to get into these old games, and in many cases the ONLY way. More power to you. If you’re having fun, who gives a fuck?
The rambling style is what makes your videos so much fun, George. Fuck the haters.
Well said George, and I imagine this reflects the sentiments of many who actually enjoy gaming on most levels. I did laugh re your reference around thumbnails of YouTube pricks holding their chins with some arbitrary question inserted (usually in capitals) – this is a shameless tactic that can be seen on about 90% of retro gaming channels. What has always surprised me with YouTubers (along with how similar and boring they are) is how little these fuckers actually play games on their channels, which is surely what it’s all about? Along with your humorous and insightful commentary, I actually like the fact you play the games which is the part I enjoy most on your site. When you also do your discussions (like the ones with Simon), it’s also clear that you aren’t really a raving lunatic all of the time(😉), and that you actually know your onions about gaming and have some interesting views on this. I also like Mamemeister’s channel for this reason – there’s no razzmatazz there – just a normal bloke with standard equipment, who appears to genuinely like and plays the games he features – whether he’s good at them or not. No top tens, no failed systems features, no regurgitated features and no repeated requests to like and subscribe. Retro gaming of course isn’t dead, but fingers crossed as you say – hopefully it’s shit content from banal grifting fuckwits that is instead now on its way down the u-bend, rather than you hobby itself
yes mate mamemeister is someone i have a lot of time for he’s a really good guy and actually enjoys games. that’s unusual in a gaming channel, lol, as you say ! was late to reply on this as i’ve been punishing myself with demons souls again for the umpteenth time lol. i do indeed love gaming mate ! i’m going to do a podcast with him really soon i think, i just need to find some time !
Like anything, there comes a point where it gets harder to find some old retro game story that’s not been told. When talking with a friend of mine about youtube he said he didn’t watch Slops and preferred Mr “hello you”. But he told me recently he’s been watching Slops, almost like he’s run out of stuff to watch on youtube.
i actually like to hear from people and to hear their own personal stories. slops and his ilk are dogshit as they just parade facts. there’s nothing inherently interesting nor unique about that. anyone can do it, hence them all being on borrowed time and all copying content from one another. they’re probably not even copying, most of the time, it’s just that there’s only 1 wikipedia and with no personality to speak of they just come off as bots.