From a technical point-of-view, everybody knows it´s pointless to compare games from that era to today´s games.

As someone said before, today gaming is more of a set science than the trial-and-error designs that was common in other times.

But even saying that they can´t be amazing is totally subjective. They were amazing when they launched. That´s why I said people need to be open-minded when checking old games. Taking any old piece of art, music, movie, game, book etc. without understanding the era when it was produced may lend to innacurate conclusions.

I just love good games and it's not surprising with an industry that has been producing games for about 40 years that games of the past have many classics. I've got favourite games that date back to the late 70's and other games that I used to love but I'm not bothered with now. The key part is playability. Still like Space Invaders and Asteroids from the 70s.

I'm a fan of Thief and Grim Fandango. Grim Fandango is in my top 10 best games even. It is however pretty bad by today's standards. I played it again on ps4, enjoyed it alot with the commentary yet have to admit it has aged pretty badly. The tank controls were already lacking in 1998 and the new camera based controls aren't any better. Some of the puzzles are so ludicrous I had to look them up again, forgotten you have to barf all over the floor and freeze it to disable the security system. The dialogue and voice work is still outstanding, the rest doesn't hold up.
Thief was a lot of fun, wouldn't want to play it again though. I can't get immersed in it anymore after VR.

Hal-life another awesome title. Played the Black Mesa remake for a bit, lost interest after an hour. It was revolutionary at the time, yet the formula has been improved upon over and over and over.

ICO, amazing game, controls aged badly. If you think TLG controls are bad, try ICO. Still love the game despite the controls.

Duke Nukem 3D, so much fun when it came out. Yet imagine going back to playing fps with the arrow keys!

Wolfenstein 3D, enjoyed it plenty on ps3, not as much as back then though. The controls are improved in the remake making it easier and faster, the maze like levels start to grate a lot sooner nowadays.

Baldur's gate II. Played it on my laptop in high-res. Enjoyed it again for 8 hours before I lost interest. Perhaps I don't have the patience anymore. Last RPG I played for 80 hours was Fallout 4. Baldur's gate might be the better game in my memory, yet I had a lot more fun playing Fallout 4.

Gen 2 and 3 had the only real games tbx.

Today's standards and expectations are based on these older games existing. Devs have figured out most gamers want graphics over performance, hand holding over freedom, frequent forgiving checkpoints rather than 'git gud,' and open world over crafted linearity. Whole genres have evolved out of past experiments. Not all 'important cornerstone' titles are worth playing, yet some hold up quite well.

I actually think the standarts today are terrible: regenerating energy, games releases with missing pieces and parts, neverending cutscenes, retarded gameplay (press x to save the world) and much more stuff.
I think about nes games, even those that are considered terrible, like Die Hard, Bart vs the World or Roger Rabbit, and they are adorable.
The good ones are legendary, Mario, Zelda, Megaman, Castlevania, Tiny Toons, etc, etc;;;

but thats kinda his point though...... and I have to agree with him.

I have been gaming since I was like 8 and that was around 27yrs ago. And I know too well just hwow decieving a thing nostalgia is... which really is what everything you justr mentioned is. Nostalgia. Those games really don't hold a candle to what we have today. Storywise, atmosphere, music and even gameplay. 

And the same way you say third person shooters and fps military shooters is the same way how looking back then there were a ton of side scrollers and top down games. Or did you forget that?

If there is anything about modern gaming I can knock at its that the games have generally become easier. And this is mostly due to the market having grown and them needingto be more accessible and of course the tech available today allowing us have things like save points and checkpoints. The latter two basically has changed game design as we know it cause now there isn't a need for "lives" starting from the beginning when we die and those save codes anymore. I think most people don't realize that majority of all the games back then could be finished in under 5 hrs if we had something as simple as a save function of checkpoints. In modern gaming, you basically have to pick the hardest setting to get a decent challenge outr of the game.

For most the time I won't reply to clickbait thread like this one, but I have something I must say

Most today games are terrible by future standards

You don't know whatchu talking about. I play Thief fan missions because they are a lot of fun, it has nothing to do with nostalgia. There is no modern game that can replace Thief, hence the community is so big and active. If you didn't know, Thief reboot (2014) was a disaster. So much for old games are terrible by todays standards...

Side scrollers and top down games were always foreign to me, I started on PC in 1997 and never had a console up till 2011. You could torture me with side scroller platformers and top down shooters, I had zero interest in them even as a kid when visiting friends and cousins. Those genres are very american, not many europeans play(ed) them.

I recently got Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies from GOG, and I have a lot fun playing it. It has a VGA resolution, for gods sake. Still I think it looks and plays great until today. While I do like Zen Pinball as a modern game (some tables at least), I still think Punball Dreams/Fantasies is enjoyable and comparable in the fun to Zen Pinball.

Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle are another example. Actually they're more, no modern game can beat these games. While some modern adventures are enjoyable, these old ones still are better.

I do play nethack (or the variant slash'em) from time to time. It is pretty much too hard for me, but still it is fun for me to see if I can get deeper into the dungeons without dying. No modern game is comparable.

The original XCOM:UFO is great and replayable until today, although some modern games bring a similar experience.

The original Baldur's Gate is still great, with Pillar's of Eternity is a similar (but not better) modern game available.

I might be not up to date, but which game beats the gameplay of the original Starcraft?

I got into Resident Evil with 4. But after playing it I think until today the first is the best game. Although I admit, that the remakes do make it better.

There are surely some games that are terrible today, but either they were terrible back then or the only thing for them was advanced graphic. This gets older. But if the gameplay, the feeling, the immersion, the feeling about successes was great back then, then it is still today.