Don't you know it's not polite to ask a game its age? Seriously now, I don't consider it relevant as long as you get a kick out of the game you're playing.

Maybe sometimes I'll start up a game I played back in the day just out of pure nostalgia, but if it's not a good game I won't stay around too much to play it. I too have good memories related to HoMM II, and I still think it's a good game, not as good as HoMM III, but something to look back to when you miss those hand-drawn fairy-tale graphics. By comparison, you'll never see me playing HoMM I since I think that's aged terribly, though I remember thinking it was ok when I first played it sometime last century :P.

This is a "have you stopped beating your wife" question. I don't have nostalgia. Things in general have gotten worse, but videogames are unique in having gotten better (music has always been trash, though). And if a new game tries to sell me on an Amerocentric shared childhood experience, it can fuck right off, 0 stars, would not recommend.

That's a lot of it for me. I bought a lot of stuff back in the day when these old titles were new but there were still many games I did not buy. Having a game budget sucked! Haha, yeah. It's nice to be able to at least have a chance to try them again, time willing.

But I have also purchased and tried some for nostalgia's sake (the first few Gold Box titles, for instance) but had trouble getting past the old control scheme and the associated re-learning curve. Suppose it comes down to the particular title; the Crusader games are a bit fiddly with their controls but I was sucked right back in with those titles.
To beat George's high score.

There are lots of old games that I discovered recently, when they were republished on GOG (okay, or, before GOG, through so-called "abandonware" sites, but rebought here since), and that became my favorites. Stuff like "Master of Magic", or "Covert Action", or the first "Wastelands", etc...

No nostalgia there, as these are not attached to distant memories. They just happened to be turn out much more awesome than most current videogames.

I never play games jsut because of nostalgia. If anything, it's the exact opposite. There are some games I'm afraid would not actually be nearly as good as I remember them, so I don't play them, prefering to keep a cherished memory. Then again, I rarely replay games at all, especially the really long ones like RPGs and strategies. There are some games I had nostalgia for that Ireturned to and found them still great, like Lost Vikings, but that's something I was pretty sure would still hold up, not much about it that could have aged badly.

But I often play old games I never played before. I really don't care about a game's age as long as it's still fun. For example I never played Lands of Lore before buying it on GOG, and I absolutely loved it. 10/10, game of the year, all years. Same with the first Jedi Knight, Catacombs 3D, Star Trek 25th Anniversary etc.

I play games because I have fun while playing them.

Nice try but that cabinet was splayed all over the road last time I checked. :P

No, no, and absolutely no. I play games, and some old games in particular, because they are beautiful experiences in themselves. Something like Out of This World, Black Tiger, Diablo I/II, heck even IBM's Alley Cat: each and every one of my "old" games still tells me something, after all these years, which from me is worth coming back.

It's not graphics, it's not "gameplay" alone, or music, or whatever: I play them because they are worth play and will be so forever. This "nostalgia" mantra is crappy journalism, marketing and just poo-poo for brainless idiots.

Really: stop talking about nostalgia. I get angry :-D

No, I'm not a very nostalgic person. I generally find that if a game was good in the past, it's probably still good now, but they often require that the player read a manual or at least have a quick reference card handy to learn the controls and nuances of the game because in-game tutorials are a relatively modern thing.

My one exception is that sports games have generally improved over time, at least the ones that are simulation-minded. Not always, though - wrestling games, for instance, are nowhere near as good now as they were during their peak around 15-20 years ago when the Aki and Fire Pro games were going strong.

Let's be frank:Most games today sacrifice gameplay for eye candy.

It's probably not as many as you think. I can think of many games today that have both. I found The Witcher III to have both incredibly deep and immersive gameplay and jaw-dropping visuals.

Really? I play games to stop global warming and feed the starving children in Ethiopia.

Don't be silly, both of those things are hoaxes. :D

Old games are a bit like a comfort food. Sometimes I just get a mood and I fire up Doom for example. Some old games can even bring back old smells, memories of songs and such.

Other times I'll see something that I missed back in the day and want to give it a try. Saw it a magazine decades passed, drooled over it but just never had the money or saw it in stores. Sometimes these purchases lead to trying a brilliant game that still holds up today... other times something that hasn't aged so well.