Love For Older Gaming Systems

Am I the only one who has a passion for older gaming systems? I think not. Surely I cannot be the only person who gets excited at the sight of an Atari cartridge! Upon a recent visit to a thrift store and 2nd & Charles, I stood staring at old games. Many of them brought back memories of good times.

One example was E.T. for Atari. I still remember the Christmas when my parents assured me that our family could NOT afford an expensive gaming system. Christmas morning my siblings and I ascended the stairs only to hear a foreign sound. The sound was the E.T. game intro playing in a shiny new Atari. We played that game for hours, never getting bored, ignoring all our other gifts. Sure, there were some fights over who got to go next, but still, good times.

After that was the Nintendo and Super Mario Brothers. Hours were spent trying to complete that game, siblings by my side, trying to see who was best. I will freely admit that I was never the best, but I certainly did have a lot of fun trying to get Mario to do what I wanted him to do!

Sega Genesis. Oh, how I love thee! So many games, so little time. Skitchin', a roller blade game in which the player took risks that would have surely killed them in real life was one of my favorites. I saw this game in the thrift store and was tempted to buy it despite the fact that I no longer own a Sega Genesis. Our cable company even offered a Sega Channel that cycled games each month and allowed you to play games without the need to own them. Man, those were the days.

Other gaming systems would follow once I was a "grown up." I married at a young age. One of my husbands friends introduced us to the Sega Dreamcast. This system was completely overlooked. Maybe Sega did not market it correctly, because the graphics were and are awesome. My 20 year old son still owns one of these systems. I hope he keeps it forever.

Playstation and Playstation 2 changed the game. By this time I had kids. I purchased Rugrats Golf for my son, and could not wait for him to get on the school bus so that I could play it. Once the PS2 came along, I was once again reconnected with my siblings through various sports games, ATV racing, Guitar Hero and more. As adults, the same competitive spirit still exists. It never ends, and I would not want it to.

Today, my brother and sister both own the most modern systems - PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360. I will freely admit that interactive gaming is a lot of fun (despite the fact that one of the Olympics games blew my knee out). Still, nothing will ever take the place of the old systems. I fully plan to repurchase a number of older gaming systems and use them as much as possible. No, they will not offer state of the art graphics and game play, but they will offer me a way to reconnect to some of the best times in my life.