--- title: The Old School Game Vault – Retro Video Game Blog description: Explore the retro gaming world with The Old School Game Vault. Read expert articles, collector guides, and reviews on classic Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation, and Xbox games canonical_url: https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/blog language: en-GB date: 2025-12-08T20:34:12Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/blog. markdown-tokens: 1393 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/blog. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. [ ![Final Fantasy VII Rebirth open world map showing side quest markers.](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/images/Blog_Images/Intro%20Images/Final-Fantasy-Vii-Rebirth.webp) ](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/blog/articles/too-long-to-beat-rpg-length "Too Long to Beat? The RPG Length Problem") Video games weren't always meant to be finished. You didn't "complete" Pong; you played a match and moved on. But somewhere between the arcade era and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's 90-hour average playthrough, the purpose shifted: games became something to finish. So how did we get here, and is longer actually better? [ ![Captain Novolin SNES title screen showing insulin dose selection in French version](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/images/Blog_Images/Intro%20Images/Captain-Novolin-the-diabeties-game.webp) ](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/blog/articles/health-hero-games-captain-novolin-raya-systems "Captain Novolin and the Health Hero Games Nobody Asked For") Raya Systems made SNES games about diabetes, smoking, and asthma for hospitals. They weren't good games. The research behind them was. [ ![Oregon Trail Apple II screenshot showing the famous You have died of dysentery screen.](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/images/Blog_Images/Intro%20Images/Old-Apple-Oregon-Trail.webp) ](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/blog/articles/classic-educational-games "Oregon Trail, Carmen Sandiego, and the Games That Stuck") Before home computers were common, most kids encountered gaming on classroom computers. For a generation of students, that meant Oregon Trail, Carmen Sandiego, Reader Rabbit, and a few titles so strange they got pulled from schools entirely. [ ![Link from The Legend of Zelda in a dimly lit fantasy room.](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/images/Blog_Images/Intro%20Images/Fictional-Video-Games.webp) ](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/blog/articles/from-crpgs-to-baldurs-gate-3 "Big Games, Big Choices: From the First CRPGs to Baldur's Gate 3") From King's Quest to Baldur's Gate 3, the RPGs I keep coming back to share one thing: they make your choices feel like they actually matter. That's harder to pull off than it sounds. [ ![The Legend of Zelda NES screenshot showing the Take Any One You Want cave reward room.](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/images/Blog_Images/Intro%20Images/NES-Zelda-Take-What-You-Want.webp) ](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/blog/articles/retro-gaming-nostalgia "How First Console Games Shaped Retro Gaming Nostalgia") What makes a game stick in your memory? What are the early games that defined, for you, what games could be and how they could make you feel? [ ![Mario kart racing evolution from SNES to Switch 2 across multiple Nintendo generations.](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/images/Blog_Images/Intro%20Images/Mario-Kart-Evvolution.webp) ](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/blog/articles/kart-racing-games "Kart Racing Games That Never Get Old: Mario Kart to Lego 2K Drive") Kart racing hooked me in the early 90s and never really let go. Here's how the genre followed me from high school through adulthood, and what my kid and I have been playing together now. [ ![Difficulty in retro games graphic with classic old-school NES screenshots.](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/images/Blog_Images/Intro%20Images/How-Hard-NES-Games-Are.webp) ](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/blog/articles/do-old-school-games-build-character "Do Old-School Video Games Build Character?") Old-school games were brutal by design. Here's why that might have been a good thing. [ ![Original Final Fantasy VII PS1 character model compared to the modern Final Fantasy VII Remake Cloud Strife.](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/images/Blog_Images/Intro%20Images/PS1-FFVi-Compared-to-FFvii-Rebirth.webp) ](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/blog/articles/ff7-original-and-remake-at-the-same-time "How Playing the Original FF7 Made Me Fall in Love with the Remake") Before diving into FF7 Remake and Rebirth, I went back to the 1997 original, and it made both games infinitely richer. Here's how I structured the experience. [ ![In-Game Advertising Example: Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds Billboards, IGA](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/images/Blog_Images/Intro%20Images/IGA-Example-Billboards.webp) ](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/blog/articles/635-in-game-advertising-iga "In-Game Advertising: From Billboards to Battle Passes") Shaun White Skateboarding turned Stride gum ads into unlockable achievements in 2010. Now, Fortnite makes you pay to become the ad yourself. How in-game advertising got worse. ### Sell Your Retro Video Games for Cash The Old School Game Vault has been buying since 2008 with an A+ BBB rating and 4.99 on Trustpilot. - Instant quotes, no listing fees - Free shipping - Cash payment in 3 to 4 days [ Sell Your Retro Video Games ](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/search-results) [ ![BBB Accredited Business A+ Rating](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/images/BBB_TheOSGVault-Seal.webp) ](https://www.bbb.org/us/il/morton-grove/profile/video-game-dealers/the-old-school-game-vault-0654-88378868) [ ![4.99 on Trustpilot](https://theoldschoolgamevault.com/images/trustpilot-theosgv-image.webp) ](https://www.trustpilot.com/review/theoldschoolgamevault.com)