What Was the Golden Era of Video Games? (lemy.lol)

submitted 2 days ago by cm0002@lemy.lol to c/asklemmy@sh.itjust.works

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I used to be a passionate gamer, and I often find myself nostalgic for the golden era of video games when there were new ideas popping left and right.

Now, it feels like we’re caught between long-delayed triple-A titles and a constant stream of indie platformers. Originality seems to have taken a backseat, with many games regurgitating the same concepts.

What do you think defined the golden era of gaming? Are we currently in a rut, or is there a chance for fresh ideas to emerge again?

OQB @MindfulMaverick@piefed.zip

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[-] w24@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I have to agree with this. Steam has facilitated an explosion of amazing indie games. Even if you have a potato PC, you can still pick up Balatro, Loop Hero, Cave Story, Slay the Spire, and more.

The era I'm personally most nostalgic for would be the late 90's. But as you now have the ability to emulate any of those games, I don't see how the generation they originated in could be better than this one.

Correction: Sentence flow. I'm tired

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 2 points 21 hours ago

Yeah, late nineties had some seriously great games. I sometimes get nostalgic for the gen before that too. The SNES in particular had mariokart, and we played a ton of that here. Me, my mom, my sister, and my partner at the time would just dog each other on it lol.

Strangely, I don't get much nostalgia for the older console games from when I was a kid. Now, arcade games, holy crap. I'd love to have pacman and centipede machines in particular, if I was stupid rich. There's something super immersive about the machines that doesn't hit the same with clones. Besides, the track ball on centipede was just so much a part of the gameplay that it isn't fun without it for me.

this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026

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