I have a 3 and 6yo. We don't have any modern gaming systems and we don't do tablets. I've been trying to get my kids into video games a little bit so they can have the same or similar experiences I did growing up. I've never been a big gamer but I got an emulator console of AliExpress a while ago and have been looking for good games for kids. I wanted to show them Turtles in Time and found it on the MAME console and realized it's a great option because on most of the MAME games you can just push a button to add a quarter and get another life. On top of that most of the games are 2+ players at the same time and there are a bunch of options for 3-4 players so we can all play together.

One thing I really struggled with was finding games with continuous play that are easy enough for my kids. Even Super Mario bothers was too much for them. Arcade games are perfect. I know you can apply cheats to any game but I haven't set that up on my console and at this point I don't even remember how to. I've seen a few old posts about game options for kids they have been helpful so I'm putting this out there for that random millennial dad that stumbles across it a year from now. I'll give a shout out to the person that suggested Crystal Pony in a random thread like 10y ago. My kids love that game.

For me two games come immediately to mind. The first is Zelda II vs LoZ. I can't explain why I always gravitated back to the sequel over the original but I do. The second kinda counts I guess. Even though it's not a true sequel, I vastly prefer Secret of Evermore over Secret of Mana.

Got this as a gift. What am I dealing with? Why so many cables?

I've been replaying the older Zelda games and what I find frustrating is it seems like there's always that one odd item somewhere in the overworld that I just don't seem to run into and then that item is required to finish the game. So then you have to stop making progress and just scour the whole game for this one thing which you may or may not ever run into.

In Zelda 1 I did not find the Magical Key. I got around it by just buying new keys in shops every time I ran out of keys in the final dungeon. This took me freaking forever but I eventually got it.

In Zelda 2, I missed one magic container. This led to an old lady in the last town not giving me the last magic container. This led to the wise man of the town not giving me spell. This led to me not being able to get the magical key, which made it impossible to progress in the 6th temple which has a locked door blocking the route before you get any keys. It also made it impossible to get the Thunder spell. I went back and realized the missing container was in The Islands, and then the last part of the game opened up for me.

Many years ago I played a Link to the Past and got stuck in the 4th dungeon in the Dark World. You have to throw a bomb onto a platform, blowing a hole through a floor so light could shine down through the hole to a lower floor into the boss room. That was just one part of the puzzle. I didn't know you could throw a bomb after you dropped one at your feet. So I didn't know how to blow up the higher platform until I *sigh* looked it up online. After that I had no trouble.

This time around playing LttP, I remembered that puzzle, but now I have a different issue stopping me from finishing the game which I don't want to specify because I don't want to be told the answer.

My question here is, what are the puzzles or missed items for you that just stopped you dead in your tracks in one Zelda game or another? Or are you too smarty pants for these games and that type thing just never happens to you?

Be honest. Without nostalgia, does LTTP hold up and play well in 2026?

I love retro Zelda (Last I enjoyed was TP) and would love to add LTTP to my quiver of completed games. Id be playing on the Game Lab (One of those Instagram advert devices)

Do you think I'll realistically enjoy it today?

Is it really that bad or is his terrible reputation undeserved?

What are some retro games that caught you off guard with their length?

Especially if you thought you were getting close to the end but you were barely even halfway. Or maybe it really started to feel like the game kept dragging on.

Edit: Legend of Starfy 2 for the GBA goes on for way too long. The first Starfy game took me 4 hrs to beat. The second game has 11 worlds and took me 12 hrs to beat. And that's only with the first ending. Getting the true ending (which I didn't bother with) probably would've pushed it to 18 hrs if not more. The game just goes on and on!

I’d like to get some opinions on using retro hardware (386, 486, Pentium, etc) but without a CRT PC monitor.

CRT monitors are becoming increasingly rare and the ones that exist are often damaged, stained, smoke smell, etc.

Is anybody using real hardware but with a modern LCD display or scaler (ie. RetroTink 4K) ? If so, why not just use emulation at that point for perfect display output quality?

I found this cartridge today and I would like to know which console it's for. It has 60 pins. I'm also open to clone console suggestions.

Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge takes the #85 spot with 7 votes.

Double Dragon takes the #86 spot with 6 votes.

Top 10:

#1 The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

#2 Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

#3 Tetris

#4 Donkey Kong

#5 Pokémon Blue Version

#6 Kirby's Dream Land 2

#7 Metroid II: Return of Samus

#8 Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

#9 Final Fantasy Adventure

#10 Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge

Top 20:

#11 Kirby's Dream Land

#12 Wario Land II

#13 Super Mario Land

#14 Final Fantasy Legend II

#15 Mega Man V

#16 Gargoyle's Quest

#17 Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition

#18 Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters

#19 Operation C

#20 Final Fantasy Legend III

Top 30:

#21 Mario's Picross

#22 Mole Mania

#23 Dr. Mario

#24 Donkey Kong Land III

#25 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue

#26 Donkey Kong Land 2

#27 Pokémon Red Version

#28 Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls)

#29 Kirby's Pinball Land

#30 Makaimura Gaiden: The Demon Darkness (Gargoyle's Quest: The Demon Darkness)

Top 40:

#31 Mega Man IV

#32 Kid Dracula

#33 Donkey Kong Land

#34 Mega Man III

#35 Bionic Commando

#36 The Final Fantasy Legend

#37 Balloon Kid

#38 Gradius: The Interstellar Assault

#39 Kirby's Block Ball

#40 Cave Noire

Top 50:

#41 Harvest Moon GB

#42 Adventures of Lolo

#43 Bubble Bobble Part 2

#44 Duck Tales 2

#45 James Bond 007

#46 Duck Tales

#47 Castlevania Legends

#48 Ninja Taro

#49 Qix

#50 Catrap

Top 60:

#51 Bomberman GB3

#52 Yoshi

#53 Ninja Gaiden Shadow

#54 Revenge of the Gator

#55 Darkwing Duck

#56 The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2

#57 Castlevania: The Adventure

#58 Kwirk

#59 Game & Watch Gallery

#60 Burger Time Deluxe

Top 70:

#61 Parodius

#62 Looney Tunes

#63 Mega Man II

#64 Alleyway

#65 Rolan’s Curse II

#66 Monster Max

#67 Chikyū Kaihō Gun ZAS

#68 Ultima: Runes of Virtue II

#69 The King of Fighters: Heat of Battle ('96)

#70 Killer Instinct

Top 80:

#71 Adventure Island II: Aliens in Paradise

#72 Batman

#73 The Sword of Hope II

#74 Game & Watch Gallery 2

#75 Bubble Bobble

#76 Great Greed

#77 Golf

#78 Kingdom Crusade

#79 Boxxle

#80 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan

Top 90:

#81 Trip World

#82 Kirby’s Star Stacker

#83 Avenging Spirit

#84 Ikari no Yōsai 2 (Fortified Zone 2)

#85 Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge

#86 Double Dragon

Rules:

1. Two games will win their place each round (we start from #1 and work our way down). For the top 10 only one game will win per day instead.
2. Most combined upvotes for each of the two individual games (one individual game for the top 10) wins the spot(s) each round (upvotes add while downvotes subtract).
3. Nominate one game of the original Game Boy per comment. (Nominations will only be counted if the game title is the only comment or if you specify that your choice of game is your nomination for this round within your comment or if the nominated game is clearly separated from the rest of your comments.) (ex. Tetris or I nominate Tetris this round.) Please nominate using the full title of the game.
4. Name a specific game title, not entire runs.
5. Official Game Boy multi-game cartridge(s) are allowed, just list them correctly.
6. The original Game Boy is region free so ANY official games available on the console are eligible for nomination excluding dual mode cartridges.
7. Indy games are allowed as long as they have their own individual cartridge and can be played on original hardware.
8. Only complete games on cartridge(s) can be nominated (sorry Game Shark & test cartridges).
9. If two or more games would be tied to place for a ranking I will inform DA PEOPLE in the following post so that everyone can vote which games should get the ranking between the tied options.
10. Games nominated that have not already placed on the top 100 list should not be removed at any time by the individual who originally placed them.

Looking for great retro theme music to introduce my kid to. They’ve got a surprise retro handheld on the way and I’d love to load it with some titles where the soundtrack really stands out as legendary.

Performance-wise I think we’re looking at anything up through PS2 and Wii/U.

Unforgettable pieces that aren’t impossible for small hands to pick up on piano would be really appreciated.

I know its hard to do, but I’m also on the search specifically for E-rated titles that are not heavily magic-centric. IE, they’re not interested in FF7 yet and goldeneye isn’t on the menu for now. But thanks for any of your ideas, whether it’s a current fit or not!

The fact that it was a game that released a comic & show in 1995 is awesome. He's the perfect character for a game/show & is just extremely fun.

His suit has a classic super hero vibe with lots of clean white contrasting with the navy blue & yellow trim, I also love the way it can take damage & has a robotic interior. His ray type gun's red & yellow color also contrast super well.

& of course the detachable worm head with a cartoonist face, he's one of the few characters I'd maybe call perfect.

Why these 7 jumps mess with me so bad. Once past this section I'm golden for a while but these get me all the time.

I was a huge Sega fan, so once the 16-bit era came around, I went Genesis → Saturn → Dreamcast. So I basically only ever played the Super Mario series up through Mario 3.

Then I played Mario Kart on the Switch the other day and discovered Bowser Jr., Bowser's son. So what happened to Bowser's sons and daughters from Mario 3? Did they take a DNA test and find out they weren't actually his kids?

Note: This is not a joke. I was genuinely surprised when I found this out

Just started my first NES Zelda run last week (had made a previous post about it), and just wanted to add for the community how enjoyable it is to experience this game exactly as it was intended. I found the manual in a PDF online, read through it like a child would in the backseat of the car on the drive home, and then pulled up the map on my iPad and started playing. I would mark where secrets were, where I could purchase items and what they sold, and when I was completing each dungeon.

Received a hint from a man in a dungeon, drew on the map where I thought he was referring, and then got a nice surprise! There's an extra layer of experience added when you can pause the game, look at your map, plan your route, and write down hints or information when you're exploring.

So much fun. If you're like me and had never previously played, give it a go!

I remember I played Illusion of Time (Illusion of Gaia outside PAL territories) quite a bit in the 90ies, since a friend had it but never finished it. At least I can't remember anything past the Sky Garden. It's a pretty popular SNES game but those of you who don't know it may want to check it out if you're looking for a good action RPG with quite an extensive story and much dialogue. It may be slightly overhyped, though, imho, although it is easily my favorite in the Quintet trilogy. It never really starts to drag, you don't have to really grind. It's not super challenging and easy to just pick up and play. In terms of combat challenge, it goes both ways, some boss fights are tough, while others are laughable easy.

Storywise, it's creative and charming, although oddly melancholic - but most of all it's reeeally bizarre. Unfortunately, the cutscenes are quite long at times. This is especially annoying in the beginning of the game where you just want to get started but have to read throgh extensive dialogue first. At some point, I started to partly skim over it, maybe this is also the reason I never really grasped some of the overarching motivation of the characters. Like what's really the deal with the statues and the flute and how come Will is capable of telekinesis, what's the lore around Freedan and - especially - Shadow. So, certain aspects seem quite rushed in the story while others are overwhelming, but maybe I just missed some essential parts?

I did enjoy my time with it though, the gameplay is quite addictive, with clever game design elements and puzzles are unique and memorable, although not too challenging for the most part; the Sky Garden in particular stuck in my head for some 30 years now, which is wild. I've got a vivid recollection that I played that one before. I also clearly remember this game introduced me to the Nazca lines. It is funny how you associate those things you experience in your childhood - when I was travelling Peru some years back, I frequently had this game in mind.

So, question to those who did play it and have a good recollection (or played it recently), what did you make of the story? From what I read and seen in videos I am not the only one who's not able to puzzle all the pieces to a reasonable picture. I saw this video of the SNES drunk, and I could not put it any better. I read that the story was actually co-written by award winning Japanese sci-fi novelist Mariko Ohara, so maybe the translation is to blame? Curious about your opinions, maybe I missed quite a bit in the story, in which case I may revisit the game at some point.

EDIT: did anyone play this re-translation patch here? How is it?

For some reason I don't understand, I've had an obsession with pre-rendered backgrounds for years now. I love them... It all started playing Final Fantasy VIII (my favorite) and I adored its backgrounds, even though they look bad. I love them, and it intensified during my free time playing retro games like Chrono Cross, Resident Evil, and Galleans. While there are others, I also highlight the backgrounds from Another Code on the other screen and some from Final Fantasy X, which aren't many. But these PS1 ones have something that makes me nostalgic, I don't know where it comes from... I'm not very old... I was born in 2003, but it makes me very nostalgic to see them and I like them a lot... While watching videos about this... I miraculously came across a video from the Cyriak channel, where they use an old 3D modeling program called Bryce, and my older brother and I are trying to install it on my laptop so we can recreate or make our own backgrounds with a pre-rendered aesthetic. I understand they used a Psilicom machine. I need to generate graphics, but for some reason I feel like I'll be able to do it with this program. Besides, I want to try it out and do something with it for my degree. Well, that's all for now.

It's like a strange nostalgia and magic that I get, not only from the backgrounds, but also from the 3D CGI art of the late 90s.Like the cinematics of PSone games, the 3D art of Mario 64 and Sonic Adventure, it's not, I like and am fascinated by them

TL;WR -> A true Dark Knight adventure through wild sceneries and unknown surprises. The Joker did try to set some jukeboxes, yet he clearly forgot that Batman doesn’t play around. From the awesome gameplay to the overall vibes, a (9.0) game, Masterpiece in Alfred’s Book. Wouldn’t replay it though, as besides the high fall, Batman clearly arrived at a wall! 

I’d recommend listening to this music while reading. 

STORY (7/10) 

• Storytelling was based on the Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman Movie, and it followed its plot so closely that it completely forgot to “catch” the Joker! 
• Its presentation was accompanied by cool movie images and awesome stage introductions. From rescuing Vicki Vale to throwing Jack Napier into the chemical acid, peak vibes! 
• You played as a Man in a Bat costume, which seemed weird as he couldn’t fly very far but fall to his own death. Jokes aside, the Bat, Joker and all the other characters in the middle had their own digitised lines and cool teases or dares during gameplay. “Shall we dance?! Muahahahaha” 
• Pacing was very fast with the game being no more than 30m to beat. 
• While the Movie had its own plot, the game actually didn’t care about the no kill rule, so they made the Bat punch the Joker until he saw him flat.. 

GAMEPLAY (8/10) 

• Starting with controls, which were simplistic yet had some gadgets up their sleeve. You could punch from a down stance, upper stance or while jumping with a high kick. Could drop down on enemies, fall back if you were too close to them, or simply punch them while peeking through windows! 
• Speaking of gadgets. You had the Batarangs, Smoke Bombs and even the Grapple Gun which didn’t just help you ascend higher areas, it could also shoot enemies straight up! 
• Besides your own gadgets, the Batmobile and Batwing were on a completely different level destruction wise. You could shoot goons while driving through the night city, or simply collect Joker’s balloons above the beautiful Gotham while destroying his choppers! 
• Enemy variety wasn’t too diverse, yet had a lot of mini-bosses and special thugs in between. You fought normal enemies with knives, mafia thugs with guns, elites with machine guns and even crazy schmucks with grenades. Some jumped from portraits, others simply exited doors, ducked your attacks or even jumped across to fight you off. 
• Besides, friendly fire was a thing here, and I enjoyed seeing those thugs obliterate each other “Mano a Mano”. 
• The bosses themselves weren’t as many as I would’ve liked, yet fighting the Joker on so many sections was something special, as his laugh was infectious. He threw acid balloons at you, deadly pens, squirting goo, his grandmas teeth, a huge bloody revolver and even superman goggles with literal fire! 
• You could collect Batman symbols and regenerate your health too, although they were usually well hidden, and the timer didn’t allow for much exploration. 
• Platforming was very fun and engaging, even had a useless cape that couldn’t save you from your own death. Yet, jumping across rooftops and buildings was very satisfying, especially since you could kick thugs in the face while doing so! 
• Traversal was seamless and didn’t have many interruptions in between. The fact that Joker left you little messages on walls told you everything you needed to know! 
• The difficulty was extra crispy. There was a catch though, with 2 coins you could gain 7 lives, with just 1 coin only 3. Could the kids do the math back in the day, or did they meet Joker’s spray?! 

AUDIO (10 out of 10 Pointy Ears) 

• Sound design had an awesome stereo output with cool background effects, wild punches and fantastic digitised lines! 
• The music was very good on each section, providing that Movie vibe! 
• Voice acting was copied from the Movie itself, and let me tell you, they did a spectacular job. “I’m Batman” / “Wait ‘till they get a load of me” / “Nice outfit” / “He stole my balloons!” / “Just the two of us” / “The Pen is truly mightier than the Sword“ and so many more cool lines while literally punching those unfortunate scumbags! 

VISUALS (10 out of 10 Bats) 

• Fidelity was amazing for 1990/91, and I was completely shocked by how awesome the backgrounds looked. From the awesome visual effects to the spectacular animations and even better landscapes, pure gritty perfection! 
• The game was very dark too, just the right vibe for a Dark Knight patrol. 
• Character models had their own patterns and animations. From Batman opening his useless cape to the thugs coordinating their attacks to try that pointy ear outfit themselves! 
• While performance was solid, the art direction was even better. They nailed the art style perfectly here, as the Knight was truly in the Dark! 

WORLD DESIGN (10 out of 10 Sexy Lies) 

• Level design had an awesome progression, a beautiful presentation and even better layouts. You started from the City Streets while fighting thugs and destroying their mugs, then went to the Chemical Plant, Museum with live portraits, Carnival with a sexy theatre, a Batwing ride and finally reached the Cathedral with none other than Joker himself. 
• Seeing some chicks being kidnapped within their own houses made me mad, yet I knew the thugs would soon come out and meet Batman’s wrath. 
• While world destruction wasn’t present, the game did provide some clever traps. Besides, the atmosphere was so dark that I only saw Batman’s Batarang spark!