Retrogaming vs. modern gaming: then and now

[Lady Jaye]

Nowadays, with the 64-bit generation coming of age, the period for chldhood/youth nostalgia can go from the very first generation of consoles (for us over the age of 35) all the way to the days of the N64 and PS1. Nonetheless, I sometimes see rants from younger retrogamers who will claim how (for example) the SNES' games were classic and amazing and how today's games are all uninteresting crap that bring nothing new under the sun.

Here's a reader's letter I found in issue 21 of the Digital Press Zine (Sept./Oct. 1994):

I don't know why today's games are so inferior, maybe it's because the classics are just that -- classics. They remind us of a simpler time where we thought we could be kids forever. We all grew up but keep the classics to remind us of our childhood. I think a lot of people feel the same way. We've come out of the cellar and our numbers are rising. Today's games are style with no substance. They sell the sizzle but not the steak.

Keep in mind that in the above quote, "today's games" span the following consoles: SNES, Genesis/Sega-CD/32X, 3DO, Atari Jaguar, and that to this person, chances are that the previous generation (including the NES) also belongs in that contemporary category. Yes, certain genres and technological advancements were overhyped or aged badly, but it's a bold move to make a blanket statement that implies that a whole generation of games is utter crap. And that's the issue I've always had with the "today = bad, yesteryear = good" approach towards videogames. Every generation has good and bad releases, as well as classics that will be played for years and decades.

In any case, I think it's only normal to see the games of our childhood under rose-colored lens. That'd also explain why the less-popular consoles of the era aren't as much the focus of nostalgia (the Neo Geo case being an exception due to its arcade roots that went much beyond the adoption rate of its home consoles). It is a case of YMMV: for me, true nostalgia spans the Atari 2600 all the way to the SNES, while for others the PS1 is their console of choice for retrogaming (whereas to me it feels like it only came out yesterday).