The Rise of Retrogaming
How do you fix an old NES cart that just won't play? Ask anyone between the ages of twenty and about thirty-five, and they'll say the same thing: blow in it. Blowing in an NES cartridge is so iconic, that there have been t-shirts manufactured depicting the process, so that in wearing said t-shirt you can identify your geeky bretheren. Another method of identification is asking for "The Code". I speak, of course, of the Konami code. Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start. Made famous as the 30 lives code in Contra, it's been featured on a shirt of its own, on The Daily Show, and even as the title of a Deftones song (A and B are transposed, but the spirit is still there). Indeed, the verification of the code is as important as being able to recite it. Get one part wrong and you may get your geek card taken away. As members of this generation grow older, get jobs, disposable income and time, they seem to become more and more obsessed with this brand of video game related nostalgia. What makes us yearn for childhood? Is this need to reflect unique to our generation, or do our parents and grandparents share similar obsessions? A fierce amount of brand loyalty, recently reflected in the console wars, seems to be brought on by this retro-gaming infatuation, and it has caused the industry to take notice and do what they do best: make money.
Even though blowing into the NES cart really did no good in getting that clunky old gray box to work (in fact, it most likely worsened it by oxidizing the circuit board with filthy spittle), we all did it. It was universal. We all have fond memories of sitting down and attempting to play Zelda, having to work the console a bit, and then spending hours scouring labrinthyne dungeons and stabbing spider things with wooden swords. These fond memories are comforting, and we can recreate them with retro gaming. The big three game companies are capitalizing on the retro gaming craze, Nintendo with their Virtual Console, Microsoft with the Live Arcade and Sony with their... whatever they are calling their online service. Each system allows you to purchase and download old games with the intent to relive those warm fuzzy moments (sans blowing). You can even mimic the good ol' days with classic controllers, even joysticks that you plug directly into your TV to play Pac-Man. Hot Topic capitalized on our obsession by coming out with t-shirts that have old video game characters on them with "witty" phrases such as "Byte Me". HAH! HILARITY! All the while, we eat it up.
In 2005, during E3, I visited the i am 8 bit art show in West Hollywood. Gallery 1988 is a smallish space, and during the opening it was jammed full of people of this nostalgia-obsessed generation. Bands were playing in one exhibition area, either with remixed game music or original chiptune melodies played on Gameboys. The ever-tattoed, pale and gorgeous Suicide Girls were behind the bar mixing drinks, and the surrounding art and atmosphere was one giant homage to the 80's. Beautiful paintings of Pac Man as an old man in a wheelchair, stylized versions of Mario and Luigi climbing into hyper-deformed pipes, and Link with a skeleton for a face. These were re-imaginings, expressions of half-remembered memories of childhood. It's strange seeing these types of art pop up in the last couple of years, and it really does cement the idea that we are a child-like generation, hung up on the year 1988.
1988 was an iconic year for me. I was seven, my parents had just got divorced, the cat I had loved since I could remember died of old age and the NES ruled my free time. I spent hours perfecting Super Mario Bros. Ages went by as I trudged through the dungeons of The Legend of Zelda. Hell, I even threw jelly beans at goo with A Boy and His Blob. Games sparked my imagination. A friend and I would draw out our own games on long pieces of paper, diagramming platform levels which essentially were ripoffs of level 1-1. We even had an area where you could to "turtle hopping", except in our game the koopas were replaced with toilets. Did I mention I was seven?
We were obsessed with Super Mario. We watched the cartoon, we played the game, we lived the game. We were the Plumber and the Mechanic, two characters we cleverly made up, and we'd walk around the playground pretending to get power-ups and beating bosses, eagerly anticipating when our parents would come pick us up so we could go home and do the real thing. For me it was certainly escapism. I was going through some hard times, I was frequently angry and violent, frustrated at my parents for getting divorced. I didn't hide from my problems in video games, they helped me relax and center myself. They helped me expand my imagination and be creative. Heck, they even taught me how to draw. I'd doodle Mega Man bosses over and over again. Capcom wishes they had someone at the time who could have come up with something as genious as AwesomeMan (his power being, of course, the pure power of awesome).
We never grew up, but is that a bad thing? Staying child-like keeps us imaginative, creative, and full of a sense of play. We have fun, and demand that our lives be entertaining and worthwhile. You can even see the affect this trend is having on the workplace, with more and more companies focusing on time off, hobbies and benefits rather than overtime and hard working capitalism. We no longer burn the midnight oil, we value our free time, and that's ok. It's just a different way of doing things and companies such as Google celebrate this kind of free-spirited attitude. It's the wave of the future, and I believe that not only did Mario help usher in this new era, but he is certainly benefiting from it.
What say you?!