Ever miss the old days?

I just stumbled on the Killing Rats page, and I can't help but feel nostalgic for EverQuest. About a year ago I got an account with Sony and fired it up again. I don't know how they screwed up Freeport so badly, but the most noticeable thing about the game is that it's just about empty. EverQuest. There was a time I wouldn't have believed it possible, and now I'll never be killing rats and snakes and skeletons and orcs right outside the city walls of Freeport ever again. 
 
Granted, EverQuest is and has always been a terrible game. There are bigger, better games out now. But I'll never be a little kid again. A lot of times I play games to surround myself in a new, exciting, alien world, and EverQuest was my first game of that type. I'll never experience that wonder again. 
 
Anything from your gaming childhood that you miss?

Everquest was the same for me.  The first time I came across the Goblin camp in Butherblock...my god.   
 
I had similar experiences with Zelda: OOT.  My first save I jumped off the Gerudo bridge, got totally lost and restarted the game.

I miss the smell of my new Nintendo Entertainment System. The smell of the four gamepads, that i never fully used.  
 
Playing Nintendo World Cup with friends, the original Ninja Gaiden, Super Mario Bros. without a care in the world. 
 
Those days are gone.  
  
*feeling sappy for the moment*

I miss the old days of being able to return a game after it had been opened because you did not like it.  

Sometimes I miss playing multiplayer on my ps2 with a multitap with my friends, then I remember I have broadband. Still, it was cool to play games with all of my friends there.

I miss great PC gaming in the late 90s.

" I miss great PC gaming in the late 90s. "

No, because the present is what I'm going to be referring to as "the old days" in the future.

I miss not having instant access to guides when I'm frustrated for more than ten minutes. A temple in a Zelda game might be a week long endeavor and I was ok with it.

sure do

" @ChickenPants said:

" I miss great PC gaming in the late 90s. "

"

I miss when I was a kid and I had to either legitimately figure shit out by myself or my brothers would have to help me. Because now if I don't know what to do in a game or I'm looking for something, I can't resist the thinkin that "I'm wasting time" and go look up an FAQ. I don't get the same sense of satisfaction of figuring things out. Or maybe that's because I'm just older and I'm more jaded now. Either way, kind of a dumb bit of nostalgia.

" I miss great PC gaming in the late 90s. "

No, not really.

Zelda OoT. Playing that game the first time when i was four was unbelieveable. Had somebody read me the text. Still play every once and awhile.

" No, not really. "

" I miss when I was a kid and I had to either legitimately figure shit out by myself...

" @Axxol said:

" No, not really. "

wow you're cool "

" @TheFreeMan said:

" I miss when I was a kid and I had to either legitimately figure shit out by myself...

Like...before the internet? When there were 900-numbers to call for tips...or you had to wait for Nintendo Power to show up in the mail...or you had to take an actual picture of yourself in front of the TV next to your high score, get the film developed, then MAIL the picture in? In a real envelope with stamps and everything? "

" @ChickenPants said:

" I miss great PC gaming in the late 90s. "

 Really that entire decade belonged to PC. "

" @TheFreeMan said:

" I miss when I was a kid and I had to either legitimately figure shit out by myself...

Like...before the internet? When there were 900-numbers to call for tips...or you had to wait for Nintendo Power to show up in the mail...or you had to take an actual picture of yourself in front of the TV next to your high score, get the film developed, then MAIL the picture in? In a real envelope with stamps and everything? "

" @Bellum said:

" @ChickenPants said:

" I miss great PC gaming in the late 90s. "

 Really that entire decade belonged to PC. "

 I don't think so. It's when the PC and the consoles seemed the most... separate, perhaps, but that's all. Whether or not that gives one platform a leg up on another is a subject to extreme debate that I'll allude to instead of actively start. "

the great advancements in gaming were almost exclusively PC, sure consoles had great games but the boundaries of what games could be were being pushed by PC games. Now the focus is  on consoles. "

You must have a very selective memory there. The most notable platformers were on consoles. The early nineties saw arcade shooters, fighting games, and beat'em ups come to consoles in force and with genuine quality. Strategy RPGs, however niche they are, were born on consoles. The PC had strategy games, first person shooters, simulation games, and the golden age of adventure games. Both had valuable and groundbreaking RPGs, all in the 90s.

 
Similar, but different. To deny the legacy of one to elevate another is dishonest and incorrect.

Getting a new game was such a big deal when I was younger because I couldint pay for them myself, so I guess I miss the excitement.

Also Counter Strike isint what it used to be anymore, most leagues arint active apart from SGL and all the guys I mixed with have moved on. 

Bummer. 

Oooh Everquest nostalgia.
 
Unfortunately there's no real fix for the server population issue, but you can try EQEmu.  I got so nostalgic for EQ a few years back that I HAD to do that.  Did help.
 
God, I wish I had recorded VHS tapes of Everquest like I did for other games...
 
 @ChickenPants said:

I miss great PC gaming in the early 90s.

" I miss when I was a kid and I had to either legitimately figure shit out by myself or my brothers would have to help me. Because now if I don't know what to do in a game or I'm looking for something, I can't resist the thinkin that "I'm wasting time" and go look up an FAQ. I don't get the same sense of satisfaction of figuring things out. Or maybe that's because I'm just older and I'm more jaded now. Either way, kind of a dumb bit of nostalgia. "

I don't miss old games, but I miss the thrill of loading a new game when every game excited me.
 
I remember feeling an adrenaline rush just loading a new stupid gameboy game like Kid Icarus.  Nowadays even games like SC2 fail to impress me cause I've just seen it all before.  I'm just like "yawn, next mission".

I miss going to the the smoke-filled arcade room at the bowling alley and pumping quarters into Ms. Pac-man, Galaga, and Air Hockey. The attendant smoked a pipe filled with some strange aromatic blend that smelled like a strange mix mix of cherries and cedar. 
 
 I also miss the Dig Dug machine at Pasquale's Pizza which I scratched my girlfriend's name into the back of and the tinge of excitement I felt when my local Pizza Hut got their Super Mario Bros. machine.  Generally speaking I miss the time when there were two arcades in my small hometown of 18000 people and when there were a couple of arcade machines in just about every pizza place, convenience store, and laundromat. 

I miss being blown away by games. While some stuff, like Mass Effect 2 impress me significantly, I miss being naive enough that I could be more than just impressed by a game. I guess the last game that really did that was Oblivion, but I was 13 and the Xbox 360 was new, sooo....
 
However, as far as eras that I never experienced (but still miss), I wish people still cared about first person dungeon crawlers (like Wizardry or Might and Magic. Bethesda's games are a different kind of beast)

I will never forget sitting in my living room with my arms on our rocking chair when I was between 2 and 4, playing Mega Man 5 on the Game Boy and finally beating Sunstar and hearing the amazing music at the end. 
 
@ArbitraryWater said:

" I miss being blown away by games. While some stuff, like Mass Effect 2 impress me significantly, I miss being naive enough that I could be more than just impressed by a game.) "

I kind of miss going round other people's houses to play multiplayer games, I mean I still hang out and play games with friends now but because everyone has live or online in some form now it's less of an event than it was if that makes any sense.