Nostalgia

[Gribble]

When I was a kid I went to a private school the next town over. I couldn't play with my schoolyard chums at home and there wasn't a kid my age within miles. My parents were (and I suppose still are) pretty shitty, so I was forced to entertain myself.

That meant I did a lot of reading and a lot of gaming.

These last couple of weeks I've been dredging up many of the games I loved in the past. I broke out my old Nintendo and loaded up Punch Out. Anyone remember that game? It was all about patterns. Each individual boxer could only be defeated a certain way. You had to know how to dodge or block attacks, when to attack and how to avoid super moves, all of which could only be learned through trial and error. To my surprise I fought my way nearly to the end on one life. I last played Punch Out about 18 years ago.

Next up I played my way through Super Mario Bros. 1-3. Again I was shocked by how much I remembered, particularly in the third game. I was uncovering secrets left and right, collecting whistles, and teleporting all over the place.

I don't think I've had so much fun playing games since... well, since the heyday of the NES. Today's games are really little more than polygonal pornography. They are, despite apperances, simple, unoriginal and unchallenging. Playing through some of the latter stages of a Mario game is no small feat. Few games today seem capable of or willing to provide a real challenge. Sort of eliminates the fun if you ask me.

Next up on the agenda, I downloaded the game that originally got me hooked on the computer as a gaming platform. Relentless (AKA Little BIg Adventure). I doubt anyone of you have heard of it, which is a real shame. Back then the game was mindblowng. It was--and still is--beautiful. The plot wasn't anything special, I suppose. You're a guy trying to save your beloved and overthrow an evil dictator. However, the world was rich and gorgeous and the characters memorable. As a child I was absolutely enthralled. No game since has filled me with such wonder.

Now all I need to do is read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and my stroll down memory lane will be complete.

I could prattle on about the smell of my great grandmother's perfume, the taste homemade fudge, the woods around my family's cabin, or any number of other things. I'm kind of a grumpy guy sometimes, but all this nostalgia makes me want to wrap the world up in a big hug and smile from ear to ear. Before you know it I'll have my midriff exposed and there'll be a diamond in my right ear.

So how 'bout you? What gets the nostalgia flowing?

[vashti]

So how 'bout you? What gets the nostalgia flowing?

I love looking at pictures of when my son was little. Those were the happiest days of my life. I actually don't do it much these days since he is leaving home soon - it makes me too sad.

As far as childhood nostalgia, not much. My childhood was pretty far from idyllic. However, driving through farmland reminds me of playing hide-n-seek in cornfields in Illinois as a child.

Also, certain music will do it for me.

[Mish]

Ofcourse I remember Little big adventure. I played it back in the days when it was considered a technological break through (As well as Syndicate, Dune2 and UFO enemy unknown).

What I miss? Too numerous to mention.

[doppelgaenger]

Fishing. Been doing it my whole life. Every time I see a natural body of water, it puts me in a nostalgic mood.

NES and SNES were also a big part of my childhood. Stangely enough, those are the only games I still enjoy playing after years have passed. Thank god for emulators... though it will never be the same as with those 2-4 button controllers on oversized cathode tvs.

Painting and drawing also puts me in a nostalgic mood. That's why I love it. S'why I do it. In my free time, when I am able to, I paint what I remember from my childhood... various plazas I remember shopping at with my family, places where I've sat and pondered for hours, and even just trying to capture the ambience of a memory purely through a selection of colors, because when I was 6 years old, the sun was brighter and warmer. And well, the parts I don't remember, I fill in with my retrospective, nostalgic feelings. It's like each painting is a record of my experience, where I've been, and how it's changed me.

[DoesntMatter]

I'm nostalgic for my youthful priapism that would last for days

[Junket]

Grim Fandango is one the most memorable and original games I have ever played.



But I hear ya.

I was talking to my friend the other day about how him and me, and my old gaming friends. We've played games for so long, and play them so well that they're just about patterns.

Casual gamers play games and get immersed in the worlds and stories and fancy graphics developers make for them. But it's hard for me to get immersed in the average game, anymore.

It's all about the goal, and how to overcome the obstacles to reach that goal.

Take cover, shoot, kill, reach the end of a level.

Real time strategy games are even more simplified. You learn how the computer plays and you build your base and units in the best and most efficient manner. You don't need to see that you're building tanks, or infantry or air planes. You get into this zone that they could be circles, squares and triangles attacking other geometric shapes.

It's like how the guy in the matrix explains how he doesn't even see the green code anymore, his comprehension of what's on the screen is on an entirely different level.

It takes games like Portal, and Geometry Wars, and more story driven games to really immerse me anymore.

[DoesntMatter]

lol, you don't know what immersion is until you play a first-person shooter genuinely competitively for years, 10 hours a day every summer day or weekend for years, sweating profusely from the intensitely and constant caffeine flow through your blood to be faster, shoot faster, more accurately, move more skillfully, etc... You would play with your teammates and against other teams all the time...

All the practices, organizing matches, strategy, being forced to use the mauser only against a horde of machine gunners to hone your aiming skills, adjusting your computer system (mouse distance from laptop, height of desk, angle of monitor, etc) until deviation of any of those components by a quarter of an inch would make you fucck up

[Junket]

lol, you don't know what immersion is until you play a first-person shooter genuinely competitively for years, 10 hours a day every summer day or weekend for years, sweating profusely from the intensitely and constant caffeine flow through your blood to be faster, shoot faster, more accurately, move more skillfully, etc... You would play with your teammates and against other teams all the time...

All the practices, organizing matches, strategy, being forced to use the mauser only against a horde of machine gunners to hone your aiming skills, adjusting your computer system (mouse distance from laptop, height of desk, angle of monitor, etc) until deviation of any of those components by a quarter of an inch would make you fucck up

That's my point DM, your immersion doesn't come from the world the developers created for you. You don't need the shiny graphics to get you immersed in the game. Game enthusiasts aren't as easily swayed by those gimmicks.

The average driver is impressed with comfortable seats, a good sound system, A/C, and power everything.

The driver enthusiast is impressed with how the car handles and what's under the hood.

We're not actually disagreeing here at all.

[DoesntMatter]

I am disagreeing with you. Now go lay your girlfriend asshole

[Junket]

I am disagreeing with you. Now go lay your girlfriend asshole

No you're not.

And I did this morning.

[Gribble]

Ofcourse I remember Little big adventure. I played it back in the days when it was considered a technological break through (As well as Syndicate, Dune2 and UFO enemy unknown).

What I miss? Too numerous to mention.

Now that's what I call taste. So what happened? How come we don't have incredibly advanced sequels to LBA and UFO? How come we have crap like God of War instead?

When I was a kid I was fascinated by what the future would hold for gaming. And now that I'm here I see it all pretty much sucks balls.

And Grim Fandango was an excellent game. In a lot of ways it reminded me of LBA.

[Junket]

Now that's what I call taste. So what happened? How come we don't have incredibly advanced sequels to LBA and UFO? How come we have crap like God of War instead?

When I was a kid I was fascinated by what the future would hold for gaming. And now that I'm here I see it all pretty much sucks balls.

Keep in mind, that during those days graphics were so archaic, having wild imaginations as a child helped.

[Gribble]

Yeah, but like I said, I loaded up those old games and played them again. In my opinion they beat the pants off many, if not most, of the top sellers today.

I guess it works out in the end because I don't have to worry about some video game sucking up all my time today. There's not much that can hold my attention for more than an hour or two.

[starbuck]

It sounds cliched, but the change of the seasons always sets off a bit of nostalgia in me. All I have to do is feel a warm breeze in April or May and I get an instant flashback to a spring from high school or college.

[misombra]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu2DA4I4TGw"]YouTube - Poison - Every Rose Has it's Thorn[/ame]

and now i heard you have someone new
and i never meant that much to you
to hear that tears me up inside
and to see you cuts me like a knife
i guess eeeeeeeeevery rooooooooooose has it's thoooooooorns.