Maybe it is just the good feeling that
we call nostalgia which has inspired me to spend hours creating
this memorial of my childhood past time. Maybe because I am
growing up too fast and am trying to keep and cherish a part
of the young years. Whatever the reason, I finally contributed
my ideas and stories with those of others in the internet
NES community. I find sharing experiences with people like
you that enjoy the system, instead of the normal: "You
still play that?" remark of onlookers, is healthy.
I have to laugh whenever 'they' use
the 'get with the times' remark since most of them were either
huge SEGA fanatical hedgehogs or were simply not born at that
time. The latter provides the greatest entertainment for me
and should keep their mouths shut - the only game they have
played from that time was Super Mario Brothers, and it was
probably on a different system or their personal computer.
I have two great examples of both:
SEGA boy and youngster.
The first is one of my best friends
since I was five. His idea of gaming was a little different
than mine, being that he was a SEGA fanboy and I a Nintendo
(back before Playstation, or anything else, you either tilted
towards one or the other). He had memories of playing the
Master System at his aunt's house, and I had mine of playing
the Original Nintendo with my cousins. I mentioned to him,
about a month ago, I had been working on NES Player and loved
old school games. Naturally, he agreed that the best games
around were still the old- fashioned kind.
My other example is of one of my cousins,
who is a year younger than me (on my father's side, which
did not share more than a handful of NES memories with). That
one year difference meant a great deal because of being born
at the beginning of Nintendo's reign - '85. He had only played
"Super Mario Bros 3", "Dr Mario", and
a few other games (pretty hardcore) and all this really gave
him was a head start for the sixteen-bit Super Nintendo.
Well, this summer, I packed my NES
(and a handful of games) for our shore trip. He came down
with us for a week and nearly fell on the ground laughing
when I popped out my Nintendo packaged inside a thick see-through
bag. He then asked me: "You brought your PS2, too, right?"
And to his disappointment, I had to say no. After a few grumbles
bubbled and popped outside of his mouth, he looked at my stack
of games. "You have "Final Fantasy 1"?? I just
played the 9th one over my friends house! Is it good?"
One enthusiastic reply was my answer.
As a side note, earlier in that same
year I had introduced him to the so-called "real"
(traditional) RPGs - "Lunar 2" on the Playstation.
Ever since then he has been hooked.
So, after a quick soft blow on the
cart, I saw the red power lit. Selecting my party crew, we
started out, like normal, in the overworld. Before I had even
moved one step, he already had the game judged. "This
is the best FF game, did you say? This game sucks! The graphics
look like they were drawn by a five-year old!" Because
of my secret, natural instinct to defend what one adores,
I tried to make him see things my way. Games back then did
not have the capability of what the newest XX 3000 machine
can achieve. I was the history teacher and, he, an annoyance
to the class that had to be lectured. Following the unsuccessful
teachings to the dunce, I fought a few imps and he kept pestering
me to shut it off. He then proceeded to try my other games
and, like a attention deficit disorder case, he judged each
and every one in record time of, at a maximum, 5 minutes.
These are only two examples, but both
show how much of each side thinks. There are the ones that
love - or at least respect - and the others that close their
minds and automatically hate it. I have not seen more than
a few that were in between these two classes.
Again, some continue to tell me to
get with the times and graphics, even after my attempts of
conversion. I open my lesson book again by explaining patiently
of the fact that I own a PSone, PS2, DC, N64 and still play
the NES (at an average) the most. If they still make fun or
think I am strange, I treat them respectfully ignorant. Obviously,
they do not hold the one thing that everything in the world
has: roots.
We make family trees that display our
ancestors and relatives whom we still remember and reminisce
from time to time, just as with gamers. Why do you think there
is such a huge surrounding towards the Atari 2600, as well?
These newer gamers are oblivious to past consoles and may
base their roots upon the N64 and PSone, which they think
are the best systems ever made.
Everyone, and everything, has roots
and if you don't recognize them and appreciate them together,
you cannot fully involve yourself into new experiences.
