Retrogaming

You get older. That’s a fact of life. Nothing makes you feel older than people calling games you played old or retro. I am old, I accept that i’m old. I can’t look away from the grey hairs that are sprouting everywhere now. There seems to be a boom going on right now, the old is new again. Older games are being remastered or remade. There seems to be a market for older games now. 3DS prices are through the roof. Retro emulation handhelds and such are a thing now. Something 20 something me could only dream about with a raspberry pi and some hopes.

Now I own a couple emulation handhelds and I love them. I have one that looks like my original 1989 gameboy that I treasure. All are dear to me, for what they can do and what they do is bring me back to happier times.

That’s why I think retro gaming has such a pull. It brings us back to times that were simpler. Coming home from school, no pressures. Just put the schoolbag down, put the tv on the right channel and game. Or pick up your handheld, shove in the right cartridge. Not working, blow in the cartridge and start gaming. No microtransactions, no extra steps, just pure enjoyment. Multiple tries, couch-co-op, having friends over with pizza and too much soda. Gaming was different back then. If you shouted vulgarities your arm was busted. There was a more social aspect to that kind of gaming. As a kid you had to go over to someone to trade a certain pokemon or lend a certain game or just go over with your collection and both enjoy eachothers games. Times were simpler, different.

We could only dream of how gaming would become, but it is a hellscape now. They nickle and dime you for every cent you got and don’t deliver anything more enjoyable than those old games could deliver. The true craftmanship is in smaller developers that still care about their product. Those that develop even, up to this day, for older systems, or those that develop indie games that you can find for a fraction of the price of those behemoths of gaming that release slop every year that is hardly any different from the slop they threw at you the year before.

Gaming will never die, but it will become simpler again, is my prediction. Retro gaming will always have a place.