Does Nostalgia Last 20 Minutes?

[Arkhan]

HAH I am a loophole in this stupid equation!

 

 

It's not nostalgia for me. All of this stuff is from before I was born, basically!

 

and, it lasts way more than 20 minutes.

 

 

Especially because it takes like an hour to roll up a party of duders in Pool of Radiance for C64.

 

 

seriously though, my nostalgia I guess would be NES/Turbo Grafx etc.

 

I still play those, and spend more than 20 minutes!

 

 

and for all those old disk machines, I sit around all day and play with them !

[+doctorclu]

Donjn, love this topic and the points you initially brought up.

 

I liked what Huey Lewis and the News said about how "The more something changes the more it stays the same."

 

What was it that we liked about Atari back in the day? It was the computer, current technology. We were being introduced to great games, getting to talk to friends online, and it was what we did our homework on.

 

It was not retro, it was cutting edge. Life was going on around you. You had work, school, life, growing up, and other things going on. More than likely games were played relaxing from something going on at the time.

 

Life hasn't gotten much different. The graphics are prettier, the computers are smaller, and the online speed many times faster. But in the end, it is the same song.

 

So to "get back that feeling" you can:

1) Be on the cutting edge just like you were back in the day or...

2) Be on the cutting edge of what is going on with Atari now.

 

That is the beauty of it. There are games and hardware being released for the Atari 8 bit line and other computer platforms all the time. It is wonderful. Honestly when did the 8 bit era end? When the computer was discontinued, when the APE system was created ending the use of real drives for a PC virtual drive, or when we started building in SD drives?

 

Truthfully, I don't think there has really been an end to the Atari 8 bit (to site one example) era, though some years might have been drier than others.

 

Best way to get back that feeling is to live in the moment, and oddly, with games being released and BBSs still out there, there is still a lot at the moment to jump into.

[jmetal88]

HAH I am a loophole in this stupid equation!

 

 

It's not nostalgia for me. All of this stuff is from before I was born, basically!

 

and, it lasts way more than 20 minutes.

 

 

Especially because it takes like an hour to roll up a party of duders in Pool of Radiance for C64.

 

 

seriously though, my nostalgia I guess would be NES/Turbo Grafx etc.

 

I still play those, and spend more than 20 minutes!

 

 

and for all those old disk machines, I sit around all day and play with them !

 

Me, too, dude. Well, not *everything* I have is from before I was born, but a good deal of it is. Most of the stuff that isn't from before I was born was stuff I never had a chance to own as a kid. The Atari 2600 is kind of nostalgic, as I always played it at my Grandma's house when I was growing up, but that's about it. One of these days, I'll get another Gameboy Color or something, and that will likely be pure nostalgia. The Playstation 2 is the only console I have now that I also had during its original life cycle (though it's not the same exact one).

[atarilovesyou]

@ Schizophretard: Emulation lasts a lifetime.

 

Now as ridiculous as it may sound. The best things about the very early VCS games. The first 32 43 cartridges.. Was that each one seemed to have a different smell and atmosphere about it. Different frozen dinners and different weather patterns seemed to go good with certain games, or not. On top of that, the first 32 43 games were special, somehow, in that they had never-before-seen gameplay.

 

Keatah, you and those damn frozen dinners again!...lol!

[Blazing Lazers]

Nostalgia can last far more than 20 minutes- sometimes for 20 years and counting for games that I never stopped playing in the first place.

[DestinedCruz]

In my opinion, a true retro-gamer is not fueled by nostalgia. Nostalgia may motivate a person to revisit the games library of an old game console or home computer from his/her youth, but to stick to retro-gaming as a hobby, you have to prefer the older games over the newer ones.

 

Digging up an old post in this thread, but I just wanted to address it because I don't agree with this at all.

 

In the past few months I've played through Secret of Mana again with a friend of mine, played through the original Doom on the PSX and Hexen on the Saturn, through Golvellius: Valley of Doom on the SMS, a bunch of Y's on the SMS and Y's III on the SNES, through Terranigma and Illusion of Gaia on the SNES, Startropics on the NES, as well as a ridiculous amount of games like Double Dragon (SMS), Galactic Attack (Saturn), Turtles II (NES) and Turtles in Time (SNES), Knights of the Round (SNES) and much more. Also just got a hold of a copy of H.E.R.O. which has me addicted as all hell again.

 

On the flip side of this, I've also stuck about 200 hours into Borderlands 2 with my roommate since its release (coincidentally the time since BL2 released is the period of time I'm basing this post on), countless hours in MechWarrior Online, Warframe, War Thunder, ArmA 2, Vanquish, Dark Souls, and I just played through the new Tomb Raider. Also watched my roommate play through Ni No Kuni recently which was fantastic.

 

As I type this I have Dragon Force up on my Saturn which I am currently neck deep into and loving it.

 

So no, you don't need to prefer retro games to be a 'true retro gamer' or to have retro gaming as a passion. I think you just need to enjoy playing them as much as anything else.

[Arkhan]

I've been actively replaying Gateway to the Savage Frontier on PC.

 

Reading the journal and all.

 

 

So, yeah, screw that noise. Nostalgia is legit.

[iswitt]

So what I'm gathering here is that there are people who are happy playing old games for under 20 minutes and those who are happy playing over 20 minutes. Everyone is different.

 

Me? I don't really know what to do sometimes. I play my 360 a lot. But I still have my 2600, NES, Genesis, Game Boy and other older systems that I still use. I am an anomaly at my current job. In the world of software development, everyone here has a smartphone, the latest tablet, the latest operating system and are always in search of that new tech fix. I'm the guy (at age 24, mind you) with a cell phone I've had since like four years ago, no tablet and I could care less what the shiny new OS is. My coworkers call me a technology hipster because I play my Game Boy on the bus and listen to CDs. But the way I see it, the things I have already invested money into still work and I have no trouble navigating life without, say, a smartphone, so why let go of my $30/month bill for a much higher bill just to have a fancy new phone?

 

Anyway, I don't really get seized by fits of nostalgia like others do. I live it nearly every day. Each time I pop in a 64 game or a 2600 game, I'm living in the present and past, relishing the fact that I can still experience what it was like to live all those years ago in gaming land and enjoying the time I do it right now. I appreciate the fact that all my older games still work, and when they don't, emulation is always there as a backup. I will try to play as true to the original methods as long as is practical, but I understand my hardware won't last forever. However, it has lasted far longer than the current run of DRM-filled, DLC-ridden, season pass-requiring current games can even hope to last. My heart aches for the future nostalgic impulses of the nine-year-old gamers of today.

[Vic George 2K3]

Considering what went on in my life during the heyday of the technology that I have enjoyed (or try to enjoy) in the bygone years, I'm not sure that I want to go back and experience everything. But I surely would have loved to have gotten an Atari 400 or 800 instead of the Timex/Sinclair 1000 that my family got stuck with. Heck, I would have wanted computers to be part of the school curriculum during the high school years that I spent at St. Vincent's Home. But to endure being harassed all over again just to live those moments over? You can have it if you want.

[Keatah]

Yep. Being beat up and picked on is no fun. I know. But I learned sooner or later and then it me that dished out beatings. A magical time when other kids had to do as I say, or fear for what might happen next.

[Chuck D. Head]

My coworkers call me a technology hipster because I play my Game Boy on the bus and listen to CDs.

 

I refer to myself as a "technological bottomfeeder", enjoying all the same things as the early adopters, but years later at a fraction of the cost. The money my friends would spend on a new game system and a couple games, I would spend on all three of the systems from the previous generation and a buttload of games.

 

This strategy is going the way of the dodo, I suppose. If I wait on some of the current technology, the servers and support will be long gone by the time I find the stuff at a garage sale.

[Vic George 2K3]

"Early adopters"...more like the sacrificial lambs, because they get to be the first to buy the system and see if it's great or terrible, and that with very little software available for it.

[R. Jones]

HAH I am a loophole in this stupid equation!

 

 

It's not nostalgia for me. All of this stuff is from before I was born, basically!

 

and, it lasts way more than 20 minutes.

 

 

[ . . . ]

Same here. My family had an Atari 2600 when I was teensie, but they refused to let me play it as a three year old. "You'll break it. Wait till your older." They said, and then _they_ broke it before I had a chance. I got a Genesis and never really misssed the Atari. The age of the machine does have an appeal to me, but more of archaelogical appeal. I don't have fond memories of pitfall and demon attack like so many of the OG's on here.

 

I remember the atari as massive, metal and wood, sitting imposing and forbidden next to the VCR. The few times I saw it being played, there were rainbow fireflies of incandesence zipping and fluttering across the screen to a nonmusical, machine-beat of space explosions. Perhaps that gives some type of mystique. It's just like being able to hop into a shoddy time machine and watch a play at the Parthenon, or watch some Criminals fight malnourished Lions with a trident down at the Colliseum.

[Vic George 2K3]

"Wait 'til you get older to enjoy what we're enjoying now"...and by the time you do reach that age, either something better comes along or you just have no interest whatsoever in whatever captured the attention of those making that comment. Or the world may get in the way of you getting to enjoy anything even remotely resembling what they were enjoying. In any case, the future is a total crapshoot when it comes to that statement, because there is NO GUARANTEE that it will ever come true for you.

Edited March 14, 2013 by Vic George 2K3

[Mr SQL]

None of the systems I own are slower hardware. I can boot up a VCS game instantly with the flip of a switch and there is no video lag on the CRT. With emulation, I have to boot the computer, load Stella, then load the game. Then when I look at the screen, I realize it looks worse than it does on my CRT's. So, I can't play the game yet. I have to adjust the CRT effects, resolution, color,... to get it to look okay enough to maybe tolerate for a few minutes. To play longer, I would have to hook in my original controllers. To play even longer than that, I would have to hook the computer up to a CRT. At that point I'm just using the computer in place of the console but since it is slower to boot/load with video lag after and the keys make horrible switches, I might as well actually be using the console, because I could only tolerate that set up for up to 20 minutes. Does Emulation Last 20 Minutes?

Great perspective Schizophretard, you've asked the right question.

 

I can read a book for hours but reading on a kindle or a nook won't even last 20 minutes; no analougue feel; the UI can't match a real book.

 

I like listening to SID's but prefer to listen to them on my C64 with an early revision 6581; the SID is a subtractive analougue synth and simulation isn't emulation.

 

The 2600 has many analougue parts; Stella is an awesome emulator and tremendous fun, but gaming on a real 2600 is a richer experience and even more fun so it's going to last longer.

 

You're other observations are right on too; forget customising settings, I prefer not to even boot windows and launch apps or navigate pop-up ads in order to read a book or play a game.

[fiddlepaddle]

"Wait 'til you get older to enjoy what we're enjoying now"...and by the time you do reach that age...the future is a total crapshoot...

 

The moral?In the future, enjoy the present, though by choice, your enjoyment may be surpassed by the past.

[Algus]

Ehh, some of my collection is absolutely NOT nostalgia (a wee young for the 2600 era, when I bought my 2600 Jr. a few years ago, it was the first time I'd played the console) and for the stuff that could be, I still have all my original stuff. I got my NES when I was 5, 22 years later it is still going strong.

 

I do get that feeling with some of my oldest games, remembering playing them as a kid with friends that I haven't seen in 20 years but for a lot of my collection it is only stuff I've discovered in the past 6 years or so.

 

Retro-gaming can and probably is all about nostalgia for some people but I suspect that many of the most serious collectors go after these games because its what they enjoy. Most of my friends enjoy playing my old consoles and stuff but they'd never go out and buy those games. For them its more about nostalgia but it isn't something they'd spend money on.