Nostalgia Boner

ChoAniki

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Ahhh, yes, my Nostalgia boner. I made this years ago because I found the term Nostalgia boner funny and did this. But overall I wanted to give my thoughts on nostlagia itself because I find it quite fascinating how it works and what it does.

In this case I want to talk about my favorite console, the N64. Yeah, quite a controversial console, either way you hate the controller or love it. Some games don't age well and graphics too. Luckily I grew up with it so I have a good tolerance for all its faults and can accept it for what it is.

For how I got the N64: I don't really know when we got it, probably at the end of its life cycle and when everyone wanted a PS2, OG Xbox or GameCube. My family was not really wealthy so spending hundreds of Deutsche Mark (old currency before the euro) for videogames wasnt an option. So we got it and well, 3D was a new thing and I was blown away. Before the N64 we had an SNES and jumping from 2D to 3D was amazing, even when we didn't had the SNES for that long. Later we got an PS1 as well but only wanted to play 3D stuff so didn't played the Megaman X stuff which is quite a shame.

I have 2 sisters and 2 brothers and having a console were 4 could play was perfect, probably a reason why my parents bought an N64. Of course we played the typical N64 stuff, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Super Smash Bros, Mario Party 2 and so on. We had also stuff like Blast Corps, Body Harvest (a game which would desperately need a remake) mischiefs makers, Mystical Ninja starring goemon, Space Station Valley, Rush 2 and more. So overall we had the typical 1st Party stuff and other good stuff. My father was a gamer so thats the reason why we had just so little stinkers. When someone wanted to play a single player game we had a clock so everyone gets there time. Sounds good in theory but didn't worked out well because everyone wanted to play and did some tricks to get the controller or manipulated the time clock. Yeah, my parents later bought an another N64 for that reason xD. Overall I had good times with the console, singleplayer and multiplayer wise.

Many years later my nostalgia was growing and I thought about getting the N64 back. Sadly my little brother took every N64 game without telling anyone so yeah, was quite pissed. We had controller and consoles so at least I didn't need to buy that. In the game shop there was the price shock: games don't cost a couple of euros anymore. I was thinking why but later I saw I wasn't the only one wanting there childhood back. Bought a couple of really cheap games that I own as a child and starting playing. Man, I had the graphics better in my memory, didn't helped that I played on a HD television xD.

With the time I got more and more of my childhood games back and oh boy I enjoyed some of them a lot but some of the games where I saw the bitter reality. I played a lot of the collectathons like Banjo Kazooie, Super Mario 64, Donkey Kong 64 but man, I can't really enjoy them anymore. One important aspect was exploring the worlds and doing stuff was fun but when you played them so damn often that you know everything even years later so everything was feeling more like doing a checklist then playing a game. I can't really play the genre anymore, even when I don't know the game. Same is with Pokémon stuff. Played it a lot and loved it but nowadays I can't touch any of them, just absolutely no interest.

That's one thing that irretated me a lot, even when I know I liked them a lot I can't enjoy them anymore. With nostalgia you try to get back to a time where everything was fine and fun but you will never achieve that exact feeling again, even when your filthy rich and have everything you could want. Thats probably why some collectors want to get rid of everything suddenly because of that realisation and they wanted their childhood back, not the games. For me it destroyed some of that magic for N64 and in fact, there aren't that many good games for the system. A lot of mediocre games that are a bit fun but there so much better options and with a full time job, I don't have time for mediocre games when I can have the best of the best. I watched VGL video with every N64 game like 7-8 times just to maybe find that one game more so I can have more new fun with the N64. But after trying about 180 games there isn't really anything left for me. The journey for the N64 is over, there is nothing to explore anymore. Of course I can still explore the N64 collectors side but that doesn't interested me that much.

Overall the N64 is more of a bitter sweet pill to swallow for me. Of course to spend more time you can make your own challenges like speed running, limit yourself and such and in fact I speedran Paper Mario 64 and Super Mario 64. I still enjoy playing the console but to explore the library was very fun too. Maybe a factor why I'm so crazy into this hobby is just to explore new old things that just few people care about is so damn enjoyable for me. Why I wanted to talk about this is because you have so much to collect and play but nobody talks about the ends of librarys and what that means. I never thought about stuff like that so it came much harder. The N64 will forever be near my hearth and even when it seems that I have a more negative view on the N64 I'm still glad I can still have fun with it and enjoy for what it is.
 

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kernow

The Goob Hunter
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I was hopeful before it arrived, I still geek out on the r&d process with SGI - however it felt so cobbled together - yes, Mario 64 was groundbreaking, but if anyone says that game was anywhere near finished - uh yeah

Nintendo managed to completely cripple it win a 4k texture cache and no RGB in Europe - instant price drop.

N64 was garbage - people still playing Goldeneye and telling me about their mint conkers bad fur day

Ffs
 

Dr Shroom

made it in japan
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Goldeneye wasn't even that good, there were plenty of better FPS on PC at the time which didn't run at 10 fps or some shit.

terrible console with a terrible controller.
 

terry.330

Time? Astonishing!
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I remember going to friends houses and everyone being super excited to play Goldeneye multiplayer on little 20" TVs in 4 player split screen. Fucking awful.
 

Hippo

SEARCH, FUNCTION, GOD!,
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If you owned Ocarina of Time and Wrestlemania 2000. Your library was almost complete awful ass system.
 

city41

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Mario 64 is still my favorite game. So can't hate the n64 too much.
 

ChoAniki

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I can absolutely understand why somebody don't like the N64 but Jesus Christ, it's like some of you saw there loved ones dying because they played with the N64 xD.
 

Azathoth

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with a full time job, I don't have time for mediocre games when I can have the best of the best

I've noticed this a lot with myself over the last few years. I'm hesitant to try any new games (even new retro stuff). I'd rather spend 45 minutes playing a game I already know to be excellent than rolling the dice with the unknown. My time left here is finite so I can't spend 10 hours to get to the "good part".
 

kernow

The Goob Hunter
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I've noticed this a lot with myself over the last few years. I'm hesitant to try any new games (even new retro stuff). I'd rather spend 45 minutes playing a game I already know to be excellent than rolling the dice with the unknown. My time left here is finite so I can't spend 10 hours to get to the "good part".
That sounds like you are wasting time playing the same games over and over
 

Late

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Goldeneye wasn't even that good, there were plenty of better FPS on PC at the time which didn't run at 10 fps or some shit.
Yes, I was playing Quake online while the faggots at the youth centre were playing that godawful split screen crap + Pierce Brosnan sucked as Bond.
 
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terry.330

Time? Astonishing!
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I can absolutely understand why somebody don't like the N64 but Jesus Christ, it's like some of you saw there loved ones dying because they played with the N64 xD.
It's actually a pretty tame reaction for this place.
As long he has fun I don't see the problem.
It's willful ignorance and denial. Have fun playing the same old shit for the 300th time while ignoring an entire ocean of great new games that have the potential to become a new favorite.
 

ChoAniki

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It's willful ignorance and denial. Have fun playing the same old shit for the 300th time while ignoring an entire ocean of great new games that have the potential to become a new favorite.
Yeah, I agree, thats the disadvantage when you only play comfort games, but who am I to judge? When somebody is happy with that it's his choice. Personally I want to play the best games for each console so I do a lot of research so I get everything I want the console have to offer and in the end I invest a lot of time without playing games. You can argue that you can just go for top 10 lists but probably you played them already. Other thing is that you maybe don't like certain genres but still playing them because everyone tells you thats stuff you need to play but didn't enjoy them (for me it's Rpgs). I enjoyed SotN, liked the music and graphics and atmosphere but it was just good for me, not one of the best games ever made. Overall the hobby becomes more enjoyable when you try things out and "risk" playing new stuff but some people just want to enjoy that what they know they will enjoy.
 

Azathoth

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It's willful ignorance and denial. Have fun playing the same old shit for the 300th time while ignoring an entire ocean of great new games that have the potential to become a new favorite.

Maybe I failed to word my reply correctly. I'm not saying that I have this arbitrary cutoff point where I refuse to touch anything past 2005 or beyond a PS2, nor am I sitting in the basement with 5 Nintendo tapes saying these specific titles are the pinnacle of gaming and there's no need to branch out.

The amount of games available to me has reached critical mass, to the point that if I never purchased another tite I still couldn't manage to fully engross myself in the games I already own. The free time I have available for gaming is finite, and like the OP said I just don't have time for mediocrity. Often I find I'm much more interested spending time with games I own (or a series/genre I love) than having anticipation of something brand new or that's not even out yet. Being content with what you have is not necessarily shunning anything new. I'm not hyped to drop $70 on Modern Warfare 2 being that I own a dozen other CoDs all with unfinished campaigns and multiplayer I've barely touched.
 

kernow

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Someone has a backlog of terrible games it seems, because they are surrounded by awful retro games
 

kernow

The Goob Hunter
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I don't have time for mediocrity
*Owns a dozen unfinished call of duty titles*
 
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