To come to the guy's defense, it is easy to lose what made you fall in love with a game when you start cramming them for Nostalgia reasons. Wing Commander is a reasonable example. I just recently managed to get it going again, and I have to say. First impressions were "Gee, I don't remember it being this *bad*." After all, all the fighters turn clunky, the keyboard works better than the joystick, the lock doesn't auto-toggle fighters, and I keep running out of afterburner fuel!
Then, I stepped back. I realized that I was playing the game as if it was a modern Wing Commander variant. I was constantly tapping the afterburner, husbanding my shots (on the Hornet's laser of all things!), and avoiding playing chicken with the bad guys. "Wait a miniute," I thought. "This isn't how I played the game originally!"
So, I then "forgot" everything I learned about flying in the later WC games and concentrated on relearning the old controls. And low and behold, I had fun again! But how many poeple take time to get past that initial reaction?
Another example. He mentioned the C64 controller. Well, I gave the Ms. Pac Man controller to my son for Christmas. He loves it to death (he's only 5), but I noticed that it was far too easy for an adult to get bored with the games. Then one day my sister's husband and I got into a Pole Position duel while I was over at my parent's house. Our little duel attracted the attention of the rest of the family, and soon everyone was having fun! Now why hadn't I remembered that the friendly competition in the arcades was the part that made those old games fun? After all, that's why the high score feature was there! Interesting how we forget those things.