emulate

i was watching last weeks episode of The Totally Rad Show, and near the end the hosts were talking about something which i, sadly, have thought about and talked about with others over the last few years. the topic they were discussing was if and when should a parent nowadays (presumably the father, sorryto the 40 ladies who play video games) introduce to or force upon their children classic video game systems (nintendo, snes, genesis) to show the value of such great games?

the hosts on the show range in age from late 20's to mid-30's, and even i feel old when i talk about how 18+ years ago i started playing nintendo. bear in mind, most games that we all loved when we (those of us old enough to get drunk and make fools of ourselves legally) were kids still hold up today because of one thing: awesome game-play.

i remember the first time i knocked out King Hippo, but don't recall giving a shit that playing Punch-Out wasn't photo-realistic boxing action. it was all about impressing your friends at school with how bad (as in good) you were at a game most people can't beat.

today, it seems that with the advent of HD-ready everything and the massive size of games compared to Super Mario World (i'm playing that right after i'm done with this), what do you think younger kids make of stuff we used to be obsessed with? are most people like me and interested in old-school or obsolete tech (speak and math, beta max, nintendo 64dd)? or is it like in the tv commercials and kids don't even say words anymore and it's all just 1337-speak?

i don't believe that, and i do believe that keeping old systems around (if you've seen my room at my parents' house you know i do, the apartment is a different story) is important in the sense that i will want my kids to know that stuff we used to play didn't beam directly to our brains. actually, i think that the way games are going towards the ridiculously-expensive end of the spectrum, we'll see a surge in retro arcade style gaming.