Wednesday, July 8, 2009

I miss old school gaming

If you're a gamer like me, old school gaming is our baseline on how epic we can judge any game that is current or next gen. We crave for old school schananigans to come back and resurge into a new renaissance (well, at least I do.) We love the feel of a good classic NES controller and all of a sudden, memories of playing Super Mario Bros., Castlevania, Double Dragon, or Contra surface and we enter nostalgic bliss. I can honestly say that dusting off my old copy of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and popping it in my NES is a helluva lot better than downloading Punch-Out featuring Mr. Dream on the Wii's Virtual Console and playing it on a Wii-mote. It's just that I need that natural feeling of an NES controller, a Genesis controller, even an Atari Joystick with it's one button action. ONE BUTTON, INFINITE POSSIBILITIES...

There lots of things that the old school have that the new school doesn't. Although I love the innovation of what possibilities our consoles can produce, I miss the imagination of what the games of old had to offer. And in regard to keeping it old school, there's plenty of variety out there paying homage (sort of speak) to old school titles and systems as well. If you're a gamer like I am, you're probably already know about such internet phenomenons as The Angry Video Game Nerd, Game Heroes, and others out there that speak of exclusively on old school gaming at its finest (or worst in some cases, AVGN and Irate Gamer for example.) But it's kind of like a breath of fresh air to see the old school titles once again.

It's even a sad state of affair when such platforms such as the Sony Playstation, Sega Dreamcast, and even the Nintendo 64 are considered old school. I understand that it's been at least a decade since these systems were available new in the market, but these systems in particular broke ground in making a bridge from then old school to current ventures. The Sony Playstation for mastering first the delivery of a videogame via an optical disc in a graphical sense. Sure other systems tried, but Sony was the one that perfected it first. The Sega Dreamcast mastery of controls on its games and introducing triggers on controllers were phenomenal. Also having an on-board modem that made the system online capable out the box was pioneering to how current generation systems evolved; having broadband readiness available such as wi-fi and ethernet capabilities for a LAN connection. And the Nintendo 64 being the last great cartridge based console. Bringing such unforgettable titles such as Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, and Goldeneye. Classics that have been the baselines for titles in their respected genres; dungeon crawling RPGs, platform games, and first person shooters. Nintendo was the baseline for what gaming should be for the consumer.

So I employ you not to forget old school gaming. Not to forget your gaming roots and pay homage to such. Go to your local used game store, breathe in the stale air of nerd and nostalgia, and even if you don't pick up an old game, at least look at it as a trip through time. A modern day historical museum of videogaming. I know I will.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

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