Confusions of a Gamer: Episode 6 - 8-Bit Nostalgia
In the closing days of summer and the ever-so-close aspect of returning to
the place we call school, I join you once again for another episode of
confusions.. this time we're going to be talking about the good ol' days; the
days before gaming became commercial (admit it, they're going that way.. look at
all the ads), the days before gaming was all about murdering, the days before
the games were about graphics and replayability. That's right, I'm talking about
the good ol' 8bit days, Twenty years ago, the dawn of most of our gaming
addictions with the Nintendo Entertainment System.
When we played games back then it wasn't for their graphics or their
replayability, it was for their fun-factor, because face it, we were kids... and
beating a NES game was like winning a trophy, something you do once because if
you try it again, it's not as rewarding. Not at least, for twenty years. One of
the biggest aspect of NES games were their music; all we really had was jumping,
killing, and power-up sounds, so video-game music became something that to us,
rivaled the importance of original scores in movies.
One of the most known composers to us of course is Koji Kondo, the man largely
responsible for the Legend of Zelda series' music, remained completely hidden
from us as children. We didn't know who made the music, who directed the games,
all we know is we enjoyed playing them. And the music made it happen.
Regaling you of similar child-hood stories that we've all shared would be kind
of a moot point, so we fast forward to the present year, 2003. Where most of us
are in our late teens, early-to-mid-twenties, and have long forgotten those
crazy and often quirky themes associated with our child-hood.
When most people who aren't of the gaming generation are asked about childhood
themes they would remember, they often replied with various TV themes, just as
some of us do, but there's nothing like the feeling of hearing the old 8bit
square wave version of Super Mario brothers, or it's water theme. In my own
personal experience, when I hear any music from the original Mario games, I can
easily recognize and tell which theme, level, and game it belongs to. I'm sure
I'm not the only one who has amassed a great library of recognizing video-game
music when you hear it after a number of years.
Recently this happened to me once again by accidentally hearing the theme song
to the original Leisure Suit Larry game -- don't ask me why or how, but it
struck something within me. I can remember trying to answer those questions that
made you 'prove' you were eighteen, and I remember my monochrome monitor on my
old 386 that I played it on. It's a flashback to your childhood when you hear
these themes, it's not so much with Mario any more as it's always rehashed with
each incarnation, but games like SSBM and any new Zelda game always stir
interest once again. With Zelda, Koji Kondo can take themes from the classic
versions and recreate them in orchestrated splendor, while SSBM has remixed and
rearranged versions of those rarely-heard of themes that strike some sort of
familiarity with us. Take Dr. Mario for instance, the fever theme is something
that a lot of people recognize, I know because I used it in a video presentation
to most of the entire school at my old high school, and a number of people
immediately said Dr. Mario. Things like that give me joy, and that nostalgic
feeling is one that can't be reproduced.
Another theme that strikes me personally is the Hammer Bros. / Battle Mode music
from Super Mario Bros 3. I can't help but hum along with it whenever I hear it. Continuing
on, this slight bit of nostalgia compels us to spread it, to regale others with
tales of old and feelings that haven't been felt since we were kids holding
those oh-so-ergonomic controllers. I even went so far as to learn some of the
themes on the piano and guitar, played them in a room full of people, and waited
to see how many people responded to them... The number was outstanding.
As stated in the last COAG article, there are a lot of
coming-out-of-the-darkness gamers who will pipe up when they hear a classic
theme, because they're not afraid to admit they know what it is anymore. With
the advent of OVER CLOCKED REMIXES, other more musical in nature classic-gamers
have helped spread their versions and rearrangements of classic themes across
the web and many of our speakers. Keeping in the Mario-centric tone of this
article, It's not unlikely for me to throw on an OCR of a Mario theme onto a
disc I'm writing, or have them on loop for hours on end; it's a taste of the old
and a bit of the new when it comes to OCR's, and that taste is always so sweet.
Nostalgia has gotten to the point recently, where a lot of us are being affected
by it greatly. A number of people I know, including myself and my girlfriend,
are looking to find working NES systems and games in order to play the classics
once again. Sure emulators are good for a while, but nothing can compare to the
feeling of sitting in front of your TV, using the old controllers, and even
having to blow into the system to make it work. So what does this all mean? I
think it's that we, the 'original gamers' so to speak, are getting tired with
the 'race' that gaming has become, and want to go back to the roots, to remember
what quality and fun was really like, and to forget what crap gaming has turned
into today.
Join me next week when we talk about time travel... or what seems to be time
travel, With the rumours about the mysterious "N5", history is
repeating itself in the over-hyping of the next-generation. Until then, keep
those NSF's playing and those fingers twitching, a NES is just around the
corner.
Dean Bergmann