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By Jason Houle
For The Maine Campus
Ahh.the old Nintendo.
Whether it’s collecting dust in the attic, an active part of your entertainment center or a victim of that fateful day involving your little brother, a ham sandwich and the neighbor’s dog, it remains a classic by all means.
It was the baby sitter of yesteryear, and today the perfect way to waste away those god-awful Sunday afternoons.
The game system featured hundreds of titles in its eight-bit format (read: low-speed processors), offering countless hours of mind-numbing fun. But with the invention of the 16-bit Super Nintendo and eventually the super-speedy PlayStation, the original Nintendo system fell by the wayside with most game players.
So, what is it that keeps this antique alive? What the hell is it that keeps this archaic eight-bit deity popping up in dorm rooms on campus?
It all comes down to one simple little nine-letter word: nostalgia – those cravings for the past, when driving a car was our dream in life and debt was just another four-letter word that mom and dad talked about.
Over time, the original Nintendo has built up a cult following, and has turned into an obsession for many, as groups and clubs full of these eight-bit madmen have popped up all over the country and the world.
“I believe that people obsess over the NES [Nintendo Entertainment System] because it is a little slice of Americana and brings back memories of the late 80′s video game revolution,” said David Kopetsky, founder of the Retro Video Game Club of Indianapolis, Ind.
The Internet has also been a major catalyst for the second wave of Mario lovers everywhere. Internet clubs have formed on Web sites such as `Yahoo! Clubs,’ including names like “The NES Maniac Club” and “The GENUINE NES Club,” all of which insisting to be the “official club.”
Going hand-in-hand with the Internet comes the solution for every hard-core Nintendo fan with a PC that lost his or her beloved system out of a third-story window years ago.
The answer: emulators.
These downloadable lifesavers transform your computer into a living, breathing Nintendo entertainment system and include countless sites with a wealth of classic video games available at the click of a button.
So what exactly is the definition of a classic video game you ask?
“It pulls you in, keeps you there and makes you want it – like sex,” said Cameron Jenness, a UMaine student from Long Island, NY.
Games such as “Super Mario Brothers,” “Zelda,” “Metroid” and “Excitebike” are all examples of classics. Most of these contain words that are not part of the English language and yet they were contemporary masterpieces.
Can we count the hours, days, weeks or months that was spent on these titles? Probably not. But the fact that those hours were completely wasted on what our mothers would call “rubbish” has nothing to do with it. What matters is how we spent that time.
Pulling all-nighters with four of our best friends, a two-liter bottle of Mountain Dew and a bag of potato chips: those were the days that make the Nintendo such a significant part of our lives and the reason we still crave it today.
But no matter how many times we kept losing lives, running out of time or just became frustrated with the whole process (the reason many systems fell from third story windows), we still continued to play, even through the countless times we heard that damned phrase: “Thank you Mario, but our princess is in another castle.”
Bangor Daily News