PixlBit

My my it has been a long time, and so I’d like to apologize to all of you PixlBitters/1Uppers that I’ve inadvertently been ignoring due to work, filming, and the small bits of life in between – I always come back! With that said, earlier, I tweeted something that when I first typed it, didn’t realize how much weight it held. See below:

Remember kids, in another 5-10 years, you will no longer own physical copies of your games, they will be digital, and on top of that...

— Retro Rampage (@theretrorampage) May 29, 2013

...will only last as long as the servers hold out. Try explaining that awesome game you played to your kids when you can't show it to them.

— Retro Rampage (@theretrorampage) May 29, 2013

 

Then PixlBit’s own Angelo Grant made this Tweet, and I didn’t realize the reference at first, but I then saw it.

Our generation will be gaming's "greatest generation."I'm sure of this.

— Angelo Grant (@PixlAJ) May 29, 2013

 

I thought “You’re probably correct, but I wonder why?” So I kept it short and sweet:

@pixlaj Defend.

— Retro Rampage (@theretrorampage) May 29, 2013

@theretrorampage see your previous post.

— Angelo Grant (@PixlAJ) May 29, 2013

 

When I read this, I was both flattered and surprised, because the reality is – the people who grew up during the 8-bit and 16-bit eras have an entirely different outlook on the world of gaming, which isn’t what one outside of that realm would normally expect. If you ask someone who prefers, say, Call of Duty to an obscure 16-bit jRPG, about what they think about retro gamers, you’re surely to get something in the vein of “Oh they play those old shitty games because they can’t afford an Xbox 360/PS3” or “They’re too shitty at modern games so they go play those awful old games lol their graphics are so bad they don’t even have 3D models.” The reality of it is, many retro gamers not only are aware of modern games, but many of them play multiple modern games on top of the classics – myself included. If you’ve read any of my past articles, I most certainly, and admittedly, have a preference for retro games, and often I’m very jaded towards modern games, but this isn’t because I can’t afford them (own a 360), nor is it because I’m bad at them (played CoD 4 once, went 25 and 5, laughed at it, and turned it off), but my reasoning is also not because of nostalgia. While reliving the better parts of my childhood through classic games is definitely a plus, it’s not the sole deciding factor for my gaming preference – it’s the community.

The retro gaming community is something of an enigma to those that aren’t within its ranks, because as mentioned above, people find it hard to believe that we play Super Nintendo over our Xboxes and Playstations, but this community that we have is one that’s strong, supportive, and inclusive to those who wish to learn more. If you decided today that you wanted to try League of Legends, there is a 99% chance that you will be met with vulgarity, judgment, exclusion, and degradation, yet, if someone approached me and said “Hey, I hear you’re into retro games, I was looking to get started, what should I get first?” I wouldn’t respond with “LOL you fucking idiot, you mean you haven’t already played ____ and ____?! You’re hopeless, don’t even bother” because that’s not the way the retro community works.

Part of what makes this formula for inclusion and enjoyment so successful is that at the end of the day, we’re not just playing old games for the nostalgia factor, but we’re preserving one of the, if not THE best time in gaming history. Games were new and exciting, there weren’t full YouTube videos of the entire game on day one of a game’s release – all we had were magazine articles with screenshots, or even less so, word of mouth from a friend at school. This was a time when almost everyone had a Nintendo or a Sega, and you’d argue which was better, and you’d trade tips and tricks, spread rumors about being able to resurrect General Leo in Final Fantasy 3/6. Our enthusiasm as a gaming community was always a driving force in how games were made, how they’ve changed, improved, or even how they were distributed.

I’ve noticed something with the current generation of gamers – the idea of instant gratification is their pure driving force, it’s not longevity or replayability, they want instant satisfaction, and then they want to move on to the next title. I remember a friend of mine was very heavily into Modern Warfare, and when it first came out, all I heard was “This game is the best thing ever, it’s so good, you have to try it, it’s amazing, the graphics, the story, oh my god.” Shortly after when Modern Warfare 2 was announced, I asked him about the first MW game, and all I got was “That game was shit, MW2 is going to be so much better, no lag, better guns” blah blah blah. How could his opinion have changed so much? In the retro gaming world, if a sequel gets bashed for being bad, chances are it’s bad, not just because it’s the older version of that game. Take the Tales series for example, if you ask someone whether Tales of Symphonia is better than Tales of Phantasia, chances are they’ll say something along the lines of “I enjoyed Phantasia very much, and when Symphonia came out for the Gamecube, I loved it! I like them both a ton, and while Symphonia has improvements over Phantasia because of obvious hardware gaps, they’re still great games.” That’s because retro gamers don’t read too much into graphics, storyline, or even controls. Sometimes, even if a game has nightmarish controls or cheap gameplay mechanics, the game can still be a lot of fun! Even if a game doesn’t look truer-than-life-photorealistic-incredible-12D, they can appreciate the gorgeous, huge sprites and hand crafted worlds within that limited color palette.

The reason that our generation of gamers will be looked at in history books as the golden age of gamers is that we have a sense of community, and our will to preserve, analyze, and appreciate the rich history we’re so lucky to have been a part of. Joey and I started Retro Rampage not because we’re seeking fame and glory, but because we’re passionate about these games, they’re a part of our lives, our childhoods, and our present day, and we want to spread the word of these games to the world, and if we can convince even just one person to try a game that they maybe missed growing up, then our mission is complete. Sure we like to get a couple laughs and poke some fun at the games we play, or hell even ourselves, but we really just enjoy the fact that we’ve taken something that we’re passionate about, turned it into a form of entertainment that also doubles as a source of reliable information. This is why we try to give price guidelines and availability at the end of our videos, because chances are if you’re into classic games, you’ve got a small collection going, or you’re planning to start one, so we give that information so that people can prioritize which games they want to get, what they should start off with, and how to go about it.

Don’t get me wrong, there are certain modern games that blew me away (Bayonetta and Catherine to say the least) and I have physical copies of those as well, but they don’t appreciate in value the way my NES and SNES carts/boxes do, and the value that these games hold aren’t just financial, there’s an emotional attachment as well, because these games represent all of us as a generation, and what we enjoyed, what we stand for. I love running into old heads that started off with things like the Amiga, or the Commodore, or Intellivision and Colecovision, because these guys are able to educate me on topics that even I haven’t delved into, and can show me which games are worthwhile, which ones are the most fun. In the end, it’s like a story being passed on from generation to generation in a family, but instead it’s not just a few people, there are tons of us out there. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some fantastic people through social media from the U.K., Australia, and even Spain and parts of South America, these people, while worlds away, share this bond.

All of these things culminate together, and they’re visible, tangible, and measurable. This combination is what will lead future historians to look back and declare that our generation was the golden age of gamers. Sure, we had our console wars, but everything was new, innovative, and creativity was pouring out of every orifice (Dynamite Headdy, seriously, he’s a puppet that can hurl his head in various directions), and all of that is the standard of a generation, one that may be over, but sure as hell isn’t gone.