Meanwhile, over at Just Games Retro

“I never realized how many people were actually running sites like this until a few weeks ago. And if not their own sites, then talking over vid captures on YouTube, or swarming meta-review sites or Gamefaqs with their opinions. It’s a little disheartening, I suppose, that I’m not as fresh and edgy as I thought. I think it’s part of the reason that a review of the original Mega Man is currently dead on paragraph three. Maybe Tycho’s right.
Too bad the Abandonware Blog is still down, this would be a good topic. Maybe the boys at FFG will pick it up? Hmmmm?”

Consider it done.

So, did you see any particularly good ones? I don’t really like to look for the same reason.

I guess it shouldn’t come as a massive shock that there are lots of people out there who play and enjoy old games and are capable of stringing a few sentences together. Puncturing of egos aside, I think it can only be a good thing for old games if people are putting together and maintaining decent review sites. It’s more disheartening to log onto MobyGames and observe the plethora of poorly written user reviews on there.

As for the Penny Arcade thing, I’d like to think that it really is the reviews of the likes of Pac-Man and Solitaire that they’re criticising as completely unnecessary, but I guess it could be taken to mean that we’re all wasting our time here. Certainly, when covering games like Monkey Island or Half-Life, you can sort of feel like you’re reviewing Star Wars, but it’s an easy trap to fall into to assume that everyone’s played and enjoyed them already. For example, I’ve just started to play Fallout, a classic in most people’s eyes, for the first time. I’d have to say that reading a few well-written reviews and features (such as on JGR) beforehand were a significant factor in me giving it a go.

Sorry – I seem to have hijacked JMan’s original point here, so I’ll cease my rambling. Anyone got any thoughts?