I got an emulator controller for Nintendo Gamecube, the video game system I was playing as a teenager. So it’s like a little time machine, and out of the gate the first thing I’m realizing is that I was way more cheerful/willing to fail at that age. These games are punishing by modern standards.
I’ve always been pretty skeptical about nostalgia, partially because most of the good things in my past I try to keep around. Dealing with things from a new angle, I’m hoping to learn more about myself, maybe recapture that optimism, that hope.
currently playing Luigi’s Mansion and Pikmin, which are still an amazing deal for the $12 the controller cost
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Games were way less user-friendly back then. I wasted so many hours dying because I’d slightly misjudged a jump. But I didn’t mind, because I had no real awareness that my time on this planet is limited. Kind of wish I’d used all that time to learn a skill instead, but options were more scarce back then.
The thing with nostalgia is you only tend to remember the good parts. Any negatives that aren’t significant enough to be traumatic get memory-holed. I think I mainly played games as a kid as an escape from negative feelings (same as now.) But now I remember the positive feelings from playing more vividly than I do the negative feelings I was running from.