My first dedicated gaming system was the PS1, and in general I have no trouble going back to the sprites and chunky polygons of the mid-to-late 90s, whether on consoles or computers
spoiler
as long as I can upscale them to 1080P
Beyond that it gets a bit hit and miss- SNES and Mega Drive games look and sound fine to me and I’ve played plenty of 16 bit console games as an adult. On PC, I can enjoy 2D stuff like Sam & Max Hit the Road or the original X-Com but most early 3D, like the original System Shock, looks a bit too much like visual vomit.
Going to 8-bit, while the vast majority of NES games are too primitive to my eyes and ears, I have no problems with Game Boy/Game Boy Color games.
spoiler
(Well, at least the good ones, mostly made by Nintendo)
Is it just nostalgia because I had a GBC as a kid or is it because Game Boy games came later and had more developed visual aesthetics?
My limit is probably the very late 80s
I can play SNES games like Super Mario World or A Link to the past…mind you there is little reason for me to play those games since I already played all the ones I wanted to play back in the day and I have little desire to revisit them.
I feel like it’s really PS2 era for me that I can say I like without nitpicking too much. Before that? Maybe Starcraft and Pokemon, but those are exceptions
I still often play early NES games. The NES Mario trio, Zeldas, Metroid, and Final Fantasy games get play from me from time to time. Most recently have played the original Final Fantasy which I enjoy a lot for some reason. Super Mario Bros. 3 gets several plays per year from me. I’ve played that game hundreds of times and will probably never stop playing it.
Pong matches still get hype.
As a millennial my grandma got me a Nintendo as a small child and probably doomed me to being uncool. I will still sometimes load up some Nintendo games on my phone and play some. Some of them are fun and hold up.
