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• Exploration/Unknown - I agree with the idea of "exploration of the unknown" being a big component of old school play. Getting away from the adventure path would be a major positive step, in my opinion. (I know that there are some classic "adventure path" modules, but many of those were tournament modules, which isn't quite the same as regular old style campaign play.) I love big dungeons with multiple paths, including up/down accessibility. I love the original-style wilderness, where a castle or fortress might have a 20 mile radius of "safe" area, but the rest is dangerous wilderness. I love the hex-crawl. I love the old Judges Guild sighting rules (although they could be simplified a bit -- I think Robert Conley posted some better sighting rules, somewhere).
• Player Choice - I don't mean mechanical stuff like skills and feats (in fact, I don't like the impact of skills and feats in old school D&D), but rather meaningful choices with consequences in play. Letting player decisions determine the "story" of the campaign. Giving players the option of getting in over their heads in a completely unbalanced encounter. The adventure (and the campaign) is not on rails. (This is tied to the first item, above.)
• Real Danger with Bad Consequences - You know, that "not fun" stuff like save or die and level drain. We recently had a big thread on this, so I won't repeat all my reasons. Suffice it to say that I don't think these are bad designs at all. I think there should be meaningful consequences for poor decisions or play. The key, there, is that these "not fun" elements should be used in a manner that allows good decisions and good play to avoid or greatly diminish the danger.
• World Scale Not Dependent on PCs - I don't know how much of this is built into 4e or not, but I've seen discussions where the benefits of a moving scale are extolled. For example, if the PCs are first level, the town guard is scaled to provide an appropriate challenge for them, and if they're 10th level, the town guard is still scaled to provide an appropriate challenge for them. This is not old school, and completely undermines any sense of real progress or gains. The campaign should have a level scale that is independent of the PCs. As they grow in fortune, glory, and power, they'll see the real effects of their advancement displayed against the backdrop of the campaign world.
• The Changing Game - Also already mentioned is the idea of building strongholds at "name level." This is just cool, old school stuff. The rules for clearing an area and establishing a stronghold also closely tie into the "points of light" wilderness guidelines. It also means some sort of dominion management and mass combat rules are a good idea.
• Big Encounters & Morale - old school D&D often has really big encounters with a lot of participants, and this isn't a burden. Part of that is the combat system. Another part of it is the morale rules. Morale rules are not critical -- I often wing it, rather than rolling and applying all the modifiers. However, the concept of morale is very important, and having some rules and guidelines can help establish that.
• Randomness -- Not everything is balanced. Sometimes its fun to play a PC you wouldn't have "built." Sometimes its a challenge. Sometimes something "inappropriate" turns into something really cool that you wouldn't have done, otherwise. Especially in the "preparation" stage of DMing, big random charts and lists and assortments are awesome tools and springboards for creativity.
• Destiny? -- Every PC is not destined to be a 20th level hero. You are not destined to "win." Your "story" might end at the bottom of a 10' deep pit on the second level of the dungeon. You might have three new level PCs die before the fourth one makes it and survives -- but you know that his survival really means something (i.e. good play, good decisions, and maybe a bit of good luck, too).
• Hirelings & Henchmen -- Linkboys and men-at-arms are a big part of old school play, in all the games I've participated in. Charisma is not a dump stat. The ability to recruit and lead loyal men is a big deal. This doesn't mean an endless supply of disposable and willing red-shirts -- treat them bad, and they'll abandon or betray you. Instead, these NPCs are another valuable resource to be managed, and a great tool for role-playing and introducing new elements (plots, twists, etc) into the game.

TheRavyn wrote:

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This has been a challenging design issue with my MegaDungeon project, as random encounters are definitely an important part of the Megadungeon (and old-school in general) feel, and yet can skew the numbers in the carefully plotted xp progressions of 4E adventure design.

TheRavyn wrote:

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One solution I found was to make a certain percentage of the encounters I prepared for a given level random - simply disconnecting them from their room and setting them free to wander.

• A chance for something weird, usually a sub-table with odd noises, smells, or events. Rare.
• Wandering monsters from keyed encounter areas. Killing these reduces the total number of monsters at that keyed location. Most results are like this.
• "Level appropriate" wandering monsters that are not from keyed areas. These are true "blundered into the area" encounters. Uncommon.
• A chance for a roll on a higher level table. Rare.

TheRavyn wrote:

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This also freed up some space for what I consider a lost old-school component of dungeon design: empty rooms, puzzles, and mysterious objects/statues, etc.

A normal "planned" adventure for 4E will consist of 10 encounters to level up a party. Lets say 7 combat areas, two traps, and a skill challenge. For my megadungeon, I would instead plot out the 2 traps, a fixed skill challenge, a "wandering" skill challenge (such as an unaligned but powerful NPC, for instance), 6 combat areas, and 4 random encounters. Now I've got 14 encounters, but I'm going to make the random ones half xp (4E combat is assumed to take terrain and other artifacts into consideration, so this is justifiable), and assign variable xp to my wandering skill challenge, depending on the outcome.

Another option is to be creative with low-level or low-xp creatures for your random encounters. A rat swarm isn't worth much in xp, but it sure is scary to a party that's gone through all its surges and are trying to get two unconcious PCs out of the dungeon fast.