I just got done playing Jumpman, the Commodore 64 version, that I grew up with. I made it to the level called "Vampire" - the one with the three bats that pursue you as you collect more of those circular items needed to complete the levels.

THAT was fun. No broad philosophies on life, no broad complexity beyond properly timed jumps - great fun! But there WAS long load times! XD The Commodore 64 wasn't exactly known for blazing fast load times. Believe people when they say the NES was a big time phenomenon. Back then, it wasn't exactly commonplace that all those old pixel games loaded in milliseconds flat, and the NES seemed to achieve that in some respects. I was always more a Sega Genesis and Playstation 1 guy, but I had many a great and exciting time with the NES we had through the 4 games we owned, and a ton of rentals. Same with the Sega Genesis, except we owned a total of 6 Sega Genesis titles.

I've been more minimalist lately, and that was great fun. Recently, I was on itch.io downloading lots of their free games. I swear, people will have you caught up in dismal predictions with video games, but when you look around, gaming is still going strong. The idea that indies don't sell game consoles isn't 100% true. Not everyone loves their NES for Mario and the Nintendo mascots, and not everyone loves their Sega Genesis for Sonic, though all those brand mascots put forth compelling, strong video games of old, and some, of the new or fairly late. Itch.io has got some genuinely interesting game development talents floating around, especially if you're an old fogy like me who can appreciate the most basic of video games as though they were system-selling triple A titles.

Give it a look if you've never been there! https://itch.io/

Also, the "Games for Gamers" website, http://www.g4g.it/ , does a great job at archiving newer and "mid very old" game efforts done in several small events across the internet. They've got links to things you could find on itch.io in some places, but in bulk! I've downloaded whole compos of small project, freely distributed video games from g4g.it, and you can too! They're a great source of info for what's going on in the world of free gaming.

And if you're a Mugen fighting game fan like me, give the Mugen Player website a go! They come out with new mugen compilations VERY often! http://mugenplayer.blogspot.com/

Speaking of Mugen, here's a link to a really interesting, free authentic NES Nintendo characters mugen, called "Famicom Fighters!" http://mcjimmy.net/fcf

Also, a Castlevania fighter mugen! It may be a little work properly setting it up though. http://serio.piiym.net/cvbla/

 

These are all links to places where you can play some awesome games completely free of charge, though on itch.io you have the option of financially supporting the various developers, while some games there are paid purchase only. I think there are some genuinely amazing games on itch.io, and I would definitely buy some of them.

Happy gaming! :D