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[Allnamestakenlol]

I have that Pikachu thing, I still love it nowadays haha
Had lot of fun as a kid, what a badass tamagotchi like thing it was

I had one of those Pikachu devices, too, and it was rad. Tho, I was probably 20 at the time... Lol

 

[cireza]

You will never have this feeling of discovery again. Its 2019. That time is over. You're getting older and losing hair. The dreams you used to have are but a distant memory as you have gradually resigned yourself to a life of dull work and an overall unambitious life. Your family will pass away. Your friends will drift away. The cartridges and compact discs that housed these wondrous adventures will rot as they crash against the waves of time. They will be relegated to digital preservation. Future generations will play them as a passing novelty at best. These games of video and the moments of joy they gave you were fleeting stars in a dark universe.

Or you can have kids, and they WILL be interested in video-games, and you can have them play some NES, MegaDrive or Master System, and they WILL like it. Because this is exactly what is happening in my life. And I am not forcing them into it, it is pretty much the opposite. But you see, whatever I throw at them, it is always about playing Sonic on MegaDrive in the end. These are good kids.

Sure nowadays we live in a world where we are over informed of everything and anything in only a few hours, so discovering stuff in magazines or directly in a shop does not exist. And let's be honest for a second : nothing interests me in your scan. Where are the Saturn and Dreamcast games ?

And I am not losing my hair. I actually have long hair, like those guys in metal bands.

 

[DeepEnigma]

No, but disintegration, loss, and death are fundamental truths. In the end, we are all alone and destined to suffer and die. You can see this in everything, including newborns. The cult of positivity wants to ignore this, which just makes it worse.



Hmm. I am no monk nor do i profess to know what nirvana is. But from what i have read, and heard (never experienced) it is about being able to apprehend reality free from delusion and escape the cycle of death and rebirth we are trapped in.

Fully living in the moment is more of a Western psychotherapeutic appropriation of meditative techniques, usually done to sell books written by people who have bank accounts and have no use for religion.

That’s basically what I meant, I wasn’t talking about the western version of the phrase. I was talking about the Tibetan Buddhist teachings of living in the now.

I’ve seen a lot of interviews where they related to what they are seeking, to that of when you were a child. Free from distraction, etc.. Full of imagination, never worrying about yesterday or tomorrow, etc..

I miss that as a child.

 

[petran79]

Well another option is to learn Japanese and rediscover video games

 

[Dragon Lord]

Nice thread, OP. I think you captured the existential angst at the heart of nostalgia.

That out of the way, video games today blow me away. If anything, my nostalgia leans more in the direction of, "Why couldn't I have played this as a kid, during that age of discovery?"

But you know what? IT's pretty darn awesome finding games that can blow my mind as an adult, so I'm happy about that.

 

[darkangel-212559]

This is an uplifting thread.

EDIT: I mean, I get it. We all look back wistfully on things important to us and that first touch of newness and discovery. But to me, I look at it like fucking. The first time was new, but it damn sure wasn't the best. And I don't like it any less now than I did ten years ago, and I do it better than these young punks any way. Gaming is the same way. We older gamers have a broader sense of perspective that is missing from the new generation. What they have maybe read about, we experienced firsthand. We were there for the crash and fucking Bushnell and Baer and Jarvis and Miyamoto and Kojima and the list could go on and on. We were there when Zelda came on a gold fucking cartridge. We were there before storage was even a thing. We were there when Robotron was still an arcade game and you could smoke in an arcade.

And we're still here now, still playing. Life is good.

Man I feel that way about the first time I ever experienced the jump from 2D to 3D gaming in Mario 64, or the first time I entered Hyrule Field in OOT.

Or how about the first time connecting to Planet Ring online on the Dreamcast and experiencing online gaming? Or playing Shenmue and being blown away by the very first open world game experience?

Jaw dropping, truly life changing epic moments in gaming that the younger generations of gamers will never get to experience.

I may be older but I feel damn lucky to have been able to experience that.

 

[DansDans]

I had a Toys R Us ad of the SNES launch games sitting in my room when I was in the 7th grade. Mom and Dad made a deal with the kids that if we got straight As for the semester we could get anything up to $500. I remember working my tail off and looking at that ad every night for three months! I can still remember coming home in late November with my report card being so excited and then going to the closest KMart to get it with Pilotwings, SimCity, and FZero. That ad meant more to me than anything as it was the first time I ever really achieved a goal.

Nowadays what your parents did would be considered child abuse

 

[Dirk Benedict]

I have a respectable hairline and the first 20 or so issues of Nintendo Power AND..... my original NES with the pins replaced a few years ago.
However, I am guilty of escapism by proxy of nostalgia. This thread is a wakeup call to the nerd and geek of yesterday. Still enjoying life.

 

[danielberg]

Yeah everyone has these feels for old memories/stuff but keep in mind nostalgia is a bit of a liar/rose colored glasses lol

 

[zenspider]

Not feeling it.
As much as I loved that time period in games, the less cynical media and general enthusiasm, the hobby has never been better.
I'm buried in games I've been hyped for, and I'm discovering new games all the time for a fraction of the price.

 

[Isa]

Touching

Cloth?

I'm 35, have a sexy af Mexicana girlfriend who let's me collect games, art, and adult/ecchi figures, likes pr0n, I have all my (long) hair, and as I am a metalhead, my favorite genre is death in all its myriad forms and I welcome and embrace it. While much of that sense of discovery is perhaps gone, since most stories are the same anyway, I find the difference in the characters and storytelling. I'm about that journey, and of course supporting those who endeavor to explore new avenues in media. It can help to expand one's horizons, as limiting oneself to certain genres and types of games can ruin any sense of wonder or discovery. Try a visual novel, a tactics rpg, a hentai game. Go for a hike, go on holiday, then go back to your Zelda's, Duties, and dragon's. Variety is the spice of life.

 

[Pejo]

OP, I've been having the same thoughts lately. I think this is the GenX/Old Millennial mid life crisis time, so pull up a chair and stay a while.

 

[Knightime_X]

Meh.
100 years later someone will make a post how 2019 was old and forgettable and it's all about 2119.
They'll never get to see the growth and innovation as it evolved though.

 

[Garnox]

I’m a high school teacher and have a 18 month old daughter, so I’m surrounded by that energetic youth that I once grew up knowing. My students keep me feeling fresh and I can’t wait for when I get to explore the interests my daughter will develop (hopefully some Zelda/Pokémon is in her future)

I don’t look it as “good days are gone”, but rather that the days now are changing and it’s up to me to make the “good days” for others now, whether it be my students or my own family.

Gotta get your priorities straight OP.

 

[Esppiral]

I read that line about reading the newspaper and I thought what year is it? , and after reading the lost now I understand lol

 

[AlteredForms]

Unfortunately I cannot relate with you all as my old man was a miser. You may have loved and lost, but I neved loved at all. Wonder which one is worse...

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

Meh.
100 years later someone will make a post how 2019 was old and forgettable and it's all about 2119.
They'll never get to see the growth and innovation as it evolved though.

But in 60 years humanity will wipe itself out after the resource wars.

Spoilers

 

[BlackTron]

To be fair, this generation uniquely had a front-row seat to the evolution of gaming tech and the Internet. Only we intimately know both sides -what it was like both before and after the Internet took over, and what it was like to be there at the dawn of 3D gaming. Across the board everything advanced rapidly.

This meant that many fundamental innovations and design choices took place as we bore witness. Everything was new -there was immense potential, and we were hit with a barrage of different ideas and solutions. Some of them didn't stick, some did and defined convention for years. It was like an explosion.

Despite all the excellent software we have now, nothing will ever convey what it was like to actually be there. Personally, I feel privileged. The Internet, computers and the accompanying software (including phones, consoles, games etc, it's all computers and software) are a significant milestone of human achievement and only one generation got to see their take off and evolution from infancy.

Personally I think it was best early-mid 2000s. You had all the incredible 90's games easy to acquire, 3D gaming got a much needed performance bump, online gaming was fresh and broadband was getting more readily available. The influence of the internet was a lot more innocent -social media had not yet so negatively hampered our culture and no one worried about getting a VPN.

Having been there is a good thing, if you feel bad, remember countless generations of people both before and after you will have never had the same opportunity.

 

[CrustyBritches]

This thread needs more apathy. I'm locked out of the box forever and can't get back inside to feel again...

Spoiler

 

[Meesh]

I feel more depressed now and less celebratory.

 

[Trojita]

Sub_Level is a leading cause of depression.

 

[Komatsu]

I don’t actually miss the 90s that much - sure, I miss being a kid and the world before 9/11 was a less paranoid place. You didn’t even have to take your shoes off when going through security!

What I miss is the sheer breath of experimentation that can only happen in an industry still in its infancy. There’s a great thread about Xenogears making the now - Xeno would never have been made by an AAA developer/publisher in 2019.

A lot of my favorite memories of gaming (Chrono Cross, Jet Set Radio, Phantasy Star Online) come from that time from the mid 1990s to the early 2000s.

Games are very big business now and as mainly a single-player/RPG enthusiast with occasional forays into other genres, I have absolutely no interest in the MOBA, GaaS world of 2019.

That being said, as long as Japan remains a big exporter of interactive entertainment, there will be hope.

 

[Chiggs]

Sub-level is my favorite poster ever. I’m officially starting a fan club. Anyone who says anything even remotely cross about him will have to deal with an angry e-mob of Sub-levelers.

 

[Barnabot]

Well I still played every Mega Man X game avaliable. Every Ace Combat. Almost every Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Mario Bros, Street Fighter II onwards, Gran Turismo, KoF, Fire Pro Wrestling. Almost every Twisted Metal and Vigilante 8 and that freaking WMNNWLHTSCUCLH cheat code branded in my brain.

That'd I say to my kid if he ever mocked me about the past and I'm sure he'd reply back "and we had Fortnite and Apex Legends old fart".

 

[NikuNashi]

Damn I think about the old days too much. This hit me hard. I remember going on holiday with my parents in around 1990ish? I bought a magazine at the airport with a review of Street Fighter 2 in it. I spent most of the holiday looking at all the screen shots on those 4 pages dreaming about owning that game. I think it scored either 96% or 98%. I did eventually own the game much later after saving up for it by doing work after school, I truly loved that game.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Damn I think about the old days too much. This hit me hard. I remember going on holiday with my parents in around 1990ish? I bought a magazine at the airport with a review of Street Fighter 2 in it. I spent most of the holiday looking at all the screen shots on those 4 pages dreaming about owning that game. I think it scored either 96% or 98%. I did eventually own the game much later after saving up for it by doing work after school, I truly loved that game.

Ya. Great game memories.

We'd get game mags back then too. And back in the 80s, ,we'd get game mags that could also specialize in arcade games, not just home gaming.

When me and my siblings were in the 80s and early 90s, we'd play board games and video games/PC games together all the time. But when you get older it all disappears. I'm the only one left who plays video games, and even I don't play much anymore.

For any young people who grew up playing games online by yourself on the couch, you missed the old days of MP.... sitting beside other people on the couch or ground, or playing hot seat gaming on computers. Back then games were more about high score, so everyone took turns trying to beat the guy with the highest score where we'd all write down out high scores on crumpled pieces of paper. On one hand, you want someone to progress and get higher levels and scores, but selfishly you'd also want him to fail so you are still champ. lol

Back then when there was a hot game to get, we'd pool our money and a couple of us would go to the store to get it. My older brother would drive, we'd get the game and on the way back pick up McDonalds or Burger King for everyone at home.

I had SFII on SNES. Among the best SNES games ever. We were amazed how good it was compared to the arcade.

 

[MayauMiao]

On the other hand, we do have the money to get the console we want, access to games we like at anytime and anywhere, ability to play games against many other gamers not your brother or friends who can be bad at games, and discover how some friends are really assholes and we're better off without them.