I am 17 years old turning 18 on the 2nd of January next year, so as you can see I am a 1993 model fresh out of the package and still growing. However as I come across older people that play games it´s quite common for them to say something along the lines of "The game of today are too easy, it was more fun and harder back in the days". But in stores I only find recent games and online I only find old games that tend to be hard because of bad design (such as for The Elderscrolls II : Arena, where if you hit or not depends on a random number generator (dice-rolls FTW) and it can be hard where you don´t hit at all, or easy when you get lucky and hit all the times).

So the point of this thread is to have all the good people of the far past, suggest games for me that fit this category of "old and hard", I will admit this thread stems partly from frustration generated from the hundreds of comments about the younger generation ruining gaming by expecting to get games that hold your hand and walk you through them and the game producing companies giving in to such expectations (or demands in some cases), with me caught up in all of this without having tested much older games than Hercules and Fighting Force (and those were designed for children so they are even easier than expected) not being able to judge for myself if the games of today are really that easy or not, due to lack of experience with older games.

So yeah, give me some suggestions for old and hard games please.

Edits: Tested the games and overall I see where people are coming from when they say games are easier or too easy these days, however I´m not quite smitten by those games as what captivates me is a good story, perhaps in the future some nice chap will make a good hard game with a rich story to boot.

Well you dont know hard until you go back and play the konami games on the NES and SNES. MAinly gradius and Contra. These games are hard and not because of bad design but of pure awsome design.

Try Battletoads for the Nes also. It should be in the Retro Game Room.

Note: Any crying induced because of this game is not my responsibility.

Touhou.

Making a reply post here instead of a edit to say my thanks for the suggestions, but now I´m also wondering "What production year does a game need to have to classify as 'old' ?"

I say any game that is at least one generation behind. I would not say the Gamecube is old but I would say the the N64 is.

I'd have to go with the original Mega Man games, without cheat codes. I've never beaten one, but they're lots of fun. For a game that's hard to sit through, try the original Final Fantasy. You have so much freedom of movement, that without a guide, it can be almost impossible to find out what to do next.

As far as "old" you can go by the consoles that are on this site. Try the Castlevania, or Mega Man series. Just not Castlevania 2 lol, that wouldn't qualify as hard.

Tested a few of the games (sorry for being slow on updating) and I must say they are challenging but I think I can beat them, however there is one thing that keeps putting me off from them, the reason I like games in the first place.

I have always been fascinated by rich story-lines and what better way to experience a rich storyline than to put yourself in the shoes of one of the characters and to take part in the story, however with for example Gradius I find myself lacking interest every time I start up the game, not because I don´t like the challenge but because in terms of storyline I don´t get rewarded enough. Yes this may sound quite stupid but it just goes to show what kind of a character I am and where my love for games stems from so I may not have tested those games as much as they deserved.

However I still stay by what I say, those games are by far harder than modern game but I think I could beat them however doing so would feel more like a grind to me than entertainment so I am not likely to finish all or any of those games.

Touhou