Wombatwarlord777
"...What?"
Scary as it seems, I think I might actually be maturing. Well, maybe not. Let me set the scene for you guys.
I recently sold off a lot of the games I've accrued in disc form, including Sonic Adventure DX and 2:Battle and Heroes. For various reasons, though, I held onto a few select games of mine. I kept Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl and Mario Kart Double Dash, mostly because the company that periodically comes around to my place generally likes those games. I've also saved Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Gems Collection, because they contain Sonics 1 through 3+K and CD, games I hold to be sacred and would preserve in the Smithsonian should, by some cosmic error or joke, I suddenly find myself leader of the free world. But I digress...
So, I was bored tonight and, with nothing better to do, popped in Sonic Mega Collection and played some Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Now, that game happens to be one of my favorite games of all time, if not my favorite. So it was odd that, around Marble Garden Zone, I found myself utterly bored.
I know why this happened. I've played this game so many times, for so long, that there's no novelty left in it anymore. I know the levels' various routes and hidden caches for all three characters. I've mastered all the Special Stages and have gotten the seven Super Emeralds. I can beet Doomsday Zone without losing a life. I remember when I first excitedly discovered it, I lost close to 30. There's simply nothing new to discover. I suppose speeding through the levels in an attempt to beat my best times and scores could spark some renewed interest in the game, but I've never really been into that. Besides, when you've got an experience as nice as Sonic 3 and Knuckles, rushing to beat it somehow seems counter-intuitive.
I've considered selling Sonic Mega Collection, seeing as how my experiences with Sonic 3 and Knuckles pretty much apply to all the other games on the disc. For now, though, it'll stay on the self in the basement of my parents' house. Which brings me to the question I want to discuss: What are the reasons we preserve or play old videogames?
I suppose my reasons, other for the games that company enjoys, is that it has to deal a lot with preservation of the games themselves. Before buying Mega Collection, I had all the classic Sonic games as separate cartridges on my old Sega Genesis. As that gradually broke down, I bought compilation collections to preserve the old Sonic games I liked. These games deserve to be preserved, not only because they're fun but because they're good, both wildly creative (perhaps CD moreso than the others) and technically impressive (Sonic 3+K and CD especially). More than that, these games were part of the zeitgeist that helped define the character of popular culture in the first half of the 1990's. Going on that standard alone, I'd say that video games deserve to be preserved and archived as much as era-defining literature, music, and movies.
More personally, though, these games are a part of my personal identity. I can do without memories of Mario, Zelda, or Metriod, or that of Madden Football (the one major video game series that my brother likes). But somehow, the same can't be said about Sonic. Maybe because of the massive amount of time that I spent preoccupied with the franchise's games from such an early age, or the time that I spent anticipating major releases like Sonic Heroes or Sonic Advance 2, or how interest in the games spread to other facets of the franchise (especially SATAM, the Archie Comics, and later on the Sonic OVA). The influence of the franchise has even subtly influenced my own interests and attributes, such as the rough character designs in my on-and-off efforts at cartooning.
Though it sounds cliched, maybe I keep the old videogames that don't really interest me anymore because of the personal significance and memories that they hold. And hell, if nothing else, I can pop in Sonic 3 and Knuckles for my offspring someday and show them how horrible Dad truly had it in the dark days of the 20th Century.
So, what strikes your fancy about old, obsolete games, if anything?
I recently sold off a lot of the games I've accrued in disc form, including Sonic Adventure DX and 2:Battle and Heroes. For various reasons, though, I held onto a few select games of mine. I kept Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl and Mario Kart Double Dash, mostly because the company that periodically comes around to my place generally likes those games. I've also saved Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Gems Collection, because they contain Sonics 1 through 3+K and CD, games I hold to be sacred and would preserve in the Smithsonian should, by some cosmic error or joke, I suddenly find myself leader of the free world. But I digress...
So, I was bored tonight and, with nothing better to do, popped in Sonic Mega Collection and played some Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Now, that game happens to be one of my favorite games of all time, if not my favorite. So it was odd that, around Marble Garden Zone, I found myself utterly bored.
I know why this happened. I've played this game so many times, for so long, that there's no novelty left in it anymore. I know the levels' various routes and hidden caches for all three characters. I've mastered all the Special Stages and have gotten the seven Super Emeralds. I can beet Doomsday Zone without losing a life. I remember when I first excitedly discovered it, I lost close to 30. There's simply nothing new to discover. I suppose speeding through the levels in an attempt to beat my best times and scores could spark some renewed interest in the game, but I've never really been into that. Besides, when you've got an experience as nice as Sonic 3 and Knuckles, rushing to beat it somehow seems counter-intuitive.
I've considered selling Sonic Mega Collection, seeing as how my experiences with Sonic 3 and Knuckles pretty much apply to all the other games on the disc. For now, though, it'll stay on the self in the basement of my parents' house. Which brings me to the question I want to discuss: What are the reasons we preserve or play old videogames?
I suppose my reasons, other for the games that company enjoys, is that it has to deal a lot with preservation of the games themselves. Before buying Mega Collection, I had all the classic Sonic games as separate cartridges on my old Sega Genesis. As that gradually broke down, I bought compilation collections to preserve the old Sonic games I liked. These games deserve to be preserved, not only because they're fun but because they're good, both wildly creative (perhaps CD moreso than the others) and technically impressive (Sonic 3+K and CD especially). More than that, these games were part of the zeitgeist that helped define the character of popular culture in the first half of the 1990's. Going on that standard alone, I'd say that video games deserve to be preserved and archived as much as era-defining literature, music, and movies.
More personally, though, these games are a part of my personal identity. I can do without memories of Mario, Zelda, or Metriod, or that of Madden Football (the one major video game series that my brother likes). But somehow, the same can't be said about Sonic. Maybe because of the massive amount of time that I spent preoccupied with the franchise's games from such an early age, or the time that I spent anticipating major releases like Sonic Heroes or Sonic Advance 2, or how interest in the games spread to other facets of the franchise (especially SATAM, the Archie Comics, and later on the Sonic OVA). The influence of the franchise has even subtly influenced my own interests and attributes, such as the rough character designs in my on-and-off efforts at cartooning.
Though it sounds cliched, maybe I keep the old videogames that don't really interest me anymore because of the personal significance and memories that they hold. And hell, if nothing else, I can pop in Sonic 3 and Knuckles for my offspring someday and show them how horrible Dad truly had it in the dark days of the 20th Century.
So, what strikes your fancy about old, obsolete games, if anything?
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