If you know people who have the ps3/x360 you could get them a gift of something like the megadrive collection for xmas, that collection has some amazing 2d titles on there and some of the finest megadrive offerings, I think if you want to show someone why we well up with joy for the retro stuff nothing beats sitting down on the couch and punching your way through streets of rage with a mate.

Fantastic emulation of the titles in this as well, I've 1000pts in it on the X360 :D

I, for one, know that when I eventually have kids, I have every intention of educating them properly on the classics before letting them touch modern games. Kids nowadays don't have the patience to beat the old games, that's why we went from Nintendo Hard to Nintendo Easy and games are compared to Dark Souls if they teach you game mechanics through dying or failing. I'm not trying one of those "back in my day" types, I just really think something has been lost in modern game design.

This is unfortunate result of publishers dumbing-down (a.k.a. streamlining) games for at least last two last decades to attract more people. Net result is that some genres have been transformed into pale shadows of it former self.

I have two sons (now almost 12 and 10), I started introducing them to gaming when they were fairly young (around 4 or so) with very simple flash games, transitioned to Wii games, and only then introduced them to retro arcade and console classics - some of them they really like, some don't. In the meantime they grew up, they both played and loved Dark Souls (older even beat DS III by himself). Nudge them in the right direction while they're young.

Lately, I've been introducing them to some of computer retro classics from ZX, C64 and Amiga days, like Knight Lore, Last Ninja and Alien Breed, respectively.

I am expecting twins at the end of the year, and I have every intention of doing this. Not necessarily banning modern games from them, but definitely making retro games readily available and be there with them as they start getting into gaming.

Or they could just end up being Fortnite players.  Who knows?

Well I'm certainly not opposed to them playing modern games, I just want them to be familiar with the classic ones. We don't teach video games in school, and that's probably for the best, but we have kids read Charles Dickens because there's stuff to learn about literature in classic literature, even if modern literature is written in ways that appeal more to modern people. It's not all nostalgia, there's really elegant game design in the classics that I want them to appreciate. Then there's the culture that we stand to lose if kids don't understand the history. A lot has happened in just 30 years or so, and I think something of value is lost if it isn't passed on to the next generation. Also, I worry that if I started my kids on modern games, they might find the classics too hard. The classics teach you to appreciate challenge. They also have a way of teaching you the basics of gaming in a way that doesn't hand hold but instead encourages you to just figure it out, which I think will make you a better gamer in the long run.

Ah flash games. I wonder if anyone on here is nostalgic for old flash game sites like Newgrounds or Kongregate? And that's not a bad introduction to games either. The computer retro consoles were before my time, though it would be interesting to try them someday. I maintain that classics are a better way to introduce kids to games, though. Start 'em young and have them learn what the classics teach. The old classics didn't dumb down games or have handholding tutorials. They taught you to play by baking the learning process into the actual game design of the first levels. You just kind of had to figure out how to play by experimenting, and it was fun to do so. And that's exactly how kids learn anyway. I'd say this holds true up into the 5th gen, since game designers had to teach everyone to navigate 3D environments at the advent of 3D gaming.