UNITED STATES—As of late I have been indulging a bit in classic gaming. There is something about old school gaming that just brings a level of nostalgia and takes me back to my childhood. When I was a kid, I would truly spend hours on end playing videogames and it seemed like it took forever to actually finish or be victorious in the game itself.
Nowadays with the internet and technology you have a thing known as Esports. Esports is competitive gaming. Yes, you might think it is foreign and all that talk about gaming being bad for you is not always the case. Now if you’re a grown adult playing video games and you don’t have an actual job that is another story. If you have a job and its more like a side hustle or something you do when you have free time that is another thing.
I have been asked about competitive Esports more times than I can count, but I have never considered it because you have to have time to do it; I work and I work a lot, leaving me very little free time. However, with the internet, I have indulged a bit when I can at looking at old school gaming and for me nothing beats Nintendo. Specifically, the NES entertainment system and SNES entertainment system. The NES was known for its 8-bit gaming system, while the SNES is known for its 16-bit gaming system.
There is no question to me the NES system has some of the most difficult games. Think “Ghouls n’ Ghost” where if you get hit once or twice, that’s it, game over. There is a lot coming at you and just when you think you have accomplished the game you discover you have to do it all over again to be successful. That is not fun, but it tests your skills as a gamer.
Other difficult games include “The Legend of Zelda” (1986) and “Metroid” (1987) these are games with expansive journeys. Guess what, back in the day I don’t recall having a map when playing either videogame. So it was all about exploration. That exploration can be fun and frustrating at the same time, but that’s where gaming is exciting. It forces you to think, it forces you to strategize, it requires focus.
There is more indeed to gaming than just being entertained. You have to look at patterns, study them and find ways to advance on a particular stage or level and how to perhaps defeat a boss who is difficult. If I were to force or ask any of my younger nephews or kids that I know to take a stab at playing any of the games I grew up with, they wouldn’t get far at all. They would be frustrated, just like I am with the new school gaming systems.
I mean you have a controller with just a directional pad (up, down, left, right), select, start and A and B, that’s it. Now the SNES system controller has a few more buttons and some games that are big challenges as well, “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past,” “Super Metroid,” “Super Ghouls n’ Ghosts,” “Secret of Mana” and I can list a ton of others in the process America.
There has been a bit of indulgence in a few games lately and I’ve discovered the amount of time it takes me to complete a game is a lot faster and quicker than when I was a kid. I don’t know if that is about my memory being so much sharper or time is so much different than what it was as a kid, but I love it. The nostalgia just give me an opportunity to sit in bliss of my childhood which is fun. Gaming reminds me when life was simple, easy and there was no responsibilities.
Yes, you age and you become an adult and you realize the things you used to do for hours on end you can no longer do. However, there is always a little bit of time you can take for yourself and go back to your happy place and clear your mind. That is what gaming does for me. It calms the brain and allows me to relax when there is so much unfolding inside my brain at times.
Written By Davy Jones
