What the author really misses is the ingenuity he had when he started playing video games. Playing an old videogame now is not nearly as fun as it was when I was a kid so it can't be only a graphics issue. Without ingenuity a videogame will never be fun.

How I wish I could play Dwarf Fortress when I was a kid. Now is too late for me. Ingenuity (and free time) had gone.