Saturday, April 21, 2012

Video Game Legacy – Crash Course

Due to various factors like getting married and stuff, my relationship with video games has changed a lot in the last several years. I have to carefully prioritize which new games are “must play”, and replaying old ones pretty much doesn’t happen. I haven’t introduced my kids to them, largely because I want them to develop their own imaginations and learn to manage time and stuff first. But I kind of hope they eventually discover the awesomeness of classic video games. The thing is, the games of today just aren’t the same. Even the cool additions to the classic series don’t necessarily capture the nostalgia of the originals.

So how does one introduce a new generation (or interested parties in the current generation) to the legacy of where video games came from? The most straightforward method would be to sit someone down and have him or her play one game after another. But there’s a problem with that, even if you ignore the time it would take and the modern standard for graphics and sound quality: those old games were hard! There’s no way to save in Mario 3, for example. (Of course, there’s the All Stars version, but then you miss out on the old graphics.)

So I had this great idea: I’ll set out a set of “tasks” that someone can go through to get a taste of the stuff that made me love these games, without devoting days of effort and without the frustration of getting past the really hard parts.

The list is on my SkyDrive site. Take a look if you need some cultural enlightenment!

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