[chongli]

To turn it around on you: what's wrong with old games? Does anyone ask the same about books?:

"What is the appeal with books that are this old?"

Not very often from what I can tell. I do see the sentiment you've expressed regarding games much more often. Why is that? I'm not sure. Perhaps it's just a sign of the immaturity of games as a medium (compared to books, anyway).

[kemayo]

There's a lot of user interface issues in playing an older game. Not so much the graphics -- people like "pixel" styling in modern games, though generally at much higher resolutions and with better color palettes than in old games -- but rather in how you interact with the games.

There's a lot of experimentation in old games about how to approach certain concepts, where eventually something won out and became the way we do it. So it's very strange to go back to e.g. an old first-person game and realize that WASD controls aren't used.

I recently saw this YouTube video ("How System Shock's Reboot Wrestles With Adapting Its Legacy" by Errant Signal) that talks a bit about this take on the issue, which might interest you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDQ24iAkh90

[wavemode]

That's sort of tangential though. A game can have user interface problems and still be fun. A game can be outdated and still be fun.

I would argue the age of a game is entirely orthogonal to whether it is possible to still enjoy playing it.

Will EVERYONE enjoy playing it? Probably not. But some people do. And that's enough to give projects like ScummVM a valuable purpose.

[lillecarl]

Well, technology has progressed quite far while humans are still humans with the same (but slightly better maintained) brain. I have a hard time watching old movies where the FX is crap

[jonhohle]

And many of us who like practical effects feel the opposite. If a movie hasn’t engaged you enough to see past the puppet, makeup, and rigging, there’s probably something else missing.

[bossyTeacher]

Books and games are different. Books is just text (mostly) so there is no expectation of anything else. It is art.

Games are entertainment. So they are supposed to have higher levels of engagement over time