Some days I feel I’m living the past.

I find myself often thinking that comedies today aren’t what they used to be.

I still mainly listen to music from the nineties and before.

I favourite films include The Goonies and Labyrinth

I believe in queuing politely and having good manners.

Therefore, it goes almost without saying that at times I hanker for the return of some of my old gaming favourites.

My recent sojourn into the world of FIFA 95, Sunset Riders and Alex Kidd in Miracle world got me thinking about those games that I used to enjoy that could do with a refresh. Now I’m well aware that some things are best left alone, that nostalgia doesn’t always translate well into the here and now, but some games would, I genuinely believe, work really well today.

There has been some recent success in resurrecting the dead. A very successful Kickstarter project has seen Elite brought up to date in Elite Dangerous.

From the few people I’ve spoken with about it, its a pretty fine game. One not so successful attempt has been the petition to have a new Timesplitters game made. Now this is one that I think could be a real winner. I even signed the petition but not enough names were gained and it fizzled out with little note or fight. However, a little bit of searching this morning has lead me to Timesplitters Rewind.

This appears to be a fan remake of the games and a little more searching indicates it has the backing of Crytek, the original developers (previously known as Free Radical Design).

I’ll be watching carefully…..

I’ve also discovered just this morning, Road Redemption.

I’ve wanted a new Road Rash years but this has entirely passed me by! Again, it appears to be a Kickstarter project that did really well and has nothing to do with EA,  so it’s not a remake as such, but it looks pretty close to one.

Now, if someone would bring back the ‘Quest’ games I’d be over the moon! The original Quest For Glory game was, and still is, one of the most entertaining games I’ve ever played. It was remade with updated VGA graphics in ’92 but MUST be due another take on it about now!

Now I shouldn’t get my hopes up too much I guess based on previous experience. For example, has any Tetris recaptured the magic of the Gameboy version? I only very recently picked up Tetris Ultimate (only because I get a really good deal on MS points). It’s poor. Even at £7.99 it’s poor value. Street Fighter games don’t feel as satisfying as the SNES SF2 after many updates despite not being massively different. Leisure Suit Larry games? Give me the text based original or even the point and click earlier ones than the more recent versions. Syndicate? The original was a fantastic game (even if the ending was hugely gutting) but the EA FPS on the 360 didn’t hit the spot in quite the same way.

I don’t underestimate the power of nostalgia. Memories are great and maybe they should be left as that. I can always play some of the old PC games if I want, and it’s not like I can’t dig out the PS2 or Mega Drive, but I can’t help but have this nagging feeling that something fantastic can be made of some of these earlier gems.

Right. Where’s Pong?