Posted by flying_delorean81 on Apr 27, 2010 17:49 (Apr 27, 2010 17:49)
Do your friends look at you differently once they've seen your stash of old consoles? Are you labelled an outcast and persecuted for your love of oversized cartridges, simple controllers and systems that, heaven forbid, don't even connect to the Internet? Many a retro gamer has fought prejudice such as this and lived to tune another SNES into the TV. But why do retro gamers forsake the norm – current-generation systems – in favour of games from our younger years?
“Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, when I was dead broke, man I couldn't picture this”
Biggie Smalls hit the nail right on the head back in 1994 in his classic hit, Juicy. The fact is, retro systems are generally cheaper than the latest consoles, and eBay makes them incredibly easy to find. Everyone loves a bargain, so if you're not fussed about HD visuals and super powered hardware, a Sega Megadrive complete with games for less than £30 delivered is very attractive, especially to someone with fond memories of playing it in their youth. As gamers have grown up and started to earn disposable incomes, all of a sudden the games they couldn't afford as children are available again, at greatly reduced prices. This is the reason I have 7 consoles and piles of games I have never – and may never – get round to playing. This is the problem with having a cheap hobby... it can be easy to get carried away.
The flipside to growing up and having more money to spend on a hobby such as gaming is that you now have far less free time to devote to it. Gone are the days of getting in from school and playing games until dinner, which was magically created by your parents. Now you get in from work late, tired and with a bunch of boring tasks to complete before you can enjoy leisure time. Real life can seriously impede a gamer.
I'm fairly sure my console stockpiling is a subconscious effort on my part to never be bored again. I'll be ready next time I'm sick off work or too hungover to get out of bed. This is acceptable, but when you start calling in sick at work and brushing off your friends in order to play videogames, you may have a problem...
Retro games are so accessible now it's almost too easy to get hold of them. It literally blows my mind that you can download and play games on a portable telephone. I'm sure I must have inadvertently walked into a Delorean or crossed the streams or something at some point because all of a sudden I'm living in Star Trek, where people speak into blueteeth, Walkmen have shrunk, yet somehow contain waaay more music, and everything is wireless.
Technology is great, but complicated consoles have a way of creating complications. I know my old brick-shaped Game Boy never Red-Ring-Of-Deathed on me. While it couldn't play DVDs (or actually display games in colour, for that matter), it did withstand many a drop to the floor, and many years of good gaming without dying. So the next time a Sony or Microsoft fanboy (they provide enough ammo for a whole separate article, don't worry) turns their nose up at your Dreamcast, explain to them that a game doesn't need the latest graphics or downloadable character costumes to be great. Many games from previous generations have yet to be surpassed in terms of quality, and this is why I'll be a generation or two behind for the foreseeable future.
A good article and I agree whole-heartedly with what is said. Also, as boyo and DonkeySpank say, the memory of playing the games is much more satisfying than actually playing them nowadays. There are still a few I dig out and play and these are the ones that have stood the test of time which is a monument to their greatness. However, a lot of the games I would have plowed weeks of my time into back then now hold my attention for maybe twenty minutes. Maybe that is because I have too many games, as the article points out it's easy to get carried away.
Would I want to go back to those now distant days? Probably not if it meant going back with the knowledge I have now. The memories are good, why ruin them with my future perspective and maybe that is why I prefer to talk about the games rather than play them quite so much. Firing up that game that meant so much to me over the summer of 1984 might lead to sad disappointment and take those good memories away.
I find today's console games lead the player along to an extent they make life too easy and almost play the game for you. I miss my old skills on green beret and r-type where there was no save feature or pass code and quick reactions were needed.
Sometimes the "rose-tinted spectacles of time" cloud my vision and I remember how amazing I thought a particular 8-bit game used to be, how much time I devoted to it as a teen...
Take the speccy versions of Antiriad, Cauldron, Atic Atac or Starquake for instance.
Downloading and playing them today through emulation reveals them to be less than entertaining, in fact they're so impossibly hard to master and so pointlessly irrelevant (has ANYONE completed starquake, ever??) that I gave up within 10 minutes! Unthinkable back in the glory days - it would take 10 minutes just for the game to load!
As boyo says, I find the memory of gaming so much more satisfying than the current-day reality - is that due to age? Or maybe I'm simply too settled living in the ways of the 21st century where everything is disposable and needs to SHOUT to get your attention....
I fear my halcyon days of retro gaming are long gone, which is a shame in one way and a fact of life in another...
...but I take comfort in the fact that if those sunny days really have to end, at least I was there the first time around and managed to squeeze them dry for all the fun they could give!
Good first article and I agree with you totally. With 3 children, a wife and a job to fit into a busy life, there seems to be less and less time for fun.
I seem to reminisce about games more than playing them these days. I had a huge collection of retro goodies but had a major clearout a few months back. If games/systems are not being played, then pass them onto someone else who will get more joy from them. Sad, but true.
May 28, 2011 00:54:17 (
356 days ago
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