[NobodyNada]

There’s more to it than just nostalgia — I’ve spent a lot of time in the past several years writing NES emulators, experimenting with making little “games”/proof-of-concepts, and of course just playing NES games. But I wasn’t born when the NES was around; I didn’t grow up with the NES so I don’t really have any nostalgia for it.

Rather, I find it fun because of the technology and the constraints. The NES’s hardware is straightforward and easy to understand (but filled with cleverness and quirks, like all hardware from that era). The software side is primitive — games are typically hand-written in 6502 assembly, and there’s no operating system or standard library to hide the intricacies of the hardware. There’s something really refreshing about taking a break from our modern complicated tech stacks to go write 6502 assembly.

Some games suffer from the hardware limitations, but most are designed around these limitations, and the good games are very fun to play.

[kingcharles]

Off-topic: What browser/OS are you using? I ask because you have em-dashes and fancy quotes.

[NobodyNada]

I typed that comment on iOS Safari, which defaults to smart punctuation (and I've never bothered to turn it off).

[kingcharles]

Thanks for the info. I prefer the fancy punctuation. I wonder if I can switch it on in other browsers, an extension maybe..