It is true that some games cannot stand the test of time, but I still find most of my old games playable, or even more enjoyable than recently released titles. Heck, I can hardly mention any game that is better than the N64 title Conker's Bad Fur Day, and it was only like one year ago or so that I played it for the first time.
Nostalgia is based on memories, and has nothing to do with the gameplay value and/or content of video games. Some people let their memories affect their views on some old titles' content, but that's completely irrelevant: Some games are timeless, even for those who never experienced them 20 years ago when they were released.
And remember that nostalgia works both ways. It can also downgrade some of our oldest games if we sucked at them back then, for instance. And that doesn't mean that games released about 15 years ago automatically are worse than recent titles. Thus ridiculing the last sentences in the OP.
