When I was at Carl's wedding reception in May of this year, I had a conversation with one of his friends about older video games. I found myself thinking about my experiences and decided to write a few pages. I ended up with 11 or 12 pages and stopped for about a month. It felt like a waste of time. But I decided to take a writing course this fall and realized I could finish this essay as a warm-up.

So I started writing again and added about 35 pages. I deleted the first 10 pages and rewrote them. In total, I wrote about 36,000 words. If you want to hunt for grammatical errors, please do so (and tell me about them).

http://quarkcognition.blogspot.com/

I wanted to write another chapter, not about my experiences, but about game systems I never had. Due to the amazing content on Wikipedia, I feel it would be redundant and also not in line with my personal retrospection.

can you read it out loud to me? i don't feel like clicking this morning

That was a very enjoyable read. Time well spent. Thank you for sharing!

It's nice to read through people's game history. I've read a bit of it. I think everyone should do something like this here.

Some nitpicks: You should remove the word "gameplay" and just write game. You avoided doing this for most of the NES section up till Faxandu.

instead of that write this:

or

Next nitpick is that you changed from writing 'cutscenes' to 'cut scene' starting at this paragraph.

"Also, you can write "cutscene" or "cut-scene" but not "cut scene". "Cut scene" means to cut a scene, whereas the other two spellings are used to designate a specific object -- the cutscene."

The paragraph you wrote is dead-on. Games are about playing, not watching like a movie. The Ninja Gaiden series handled cutscenes tastefully by making them very short (seconds). JRPG developers missed the point and continue focusing on crafting piss-poor stories and amazing music instead of improving game mechanics. If you want story read a book. If you want to watch something instead of playing it then watch a movie. It's so obvious, but yet I still see morons whining for better stories in Mario games. Ugh.

Yea, I always had to go out to neighbors or friends houses' to play NES. I always wonder about who are the people (demographic) who had parents who got them the NES right away before the other kids. You really were at the mercy of where your parents took you and who you hung out with. Looking up at unknown games behind the glass was a special experience -- "which one do you want?" -- and now it's pretty much all digitally exposed beforehand with previews, reviews, boxart reveals, box openings, constant news, etc.

Better times. Good times.

That's a lot of games, man. You must have a really big collection.

Word 'games' is missing in this sentence after N64:

Jodo - I've had some time to let this marinate, and I thought about your essay on the way into work today and why I enjoyed it so much. It wasn't just something topical about games and about what you liked and didn't like about each (although it did have that stuff in there); for me, it was like holding a mirror to my own video game career. While our experiences did differ with some specifics, I felt like I was re-discovering old games that I had played and how I felt when I first experienced them as I was reading. I played Link to the Past a year or two ago - it was good, but that playthrough didn't bring me back like it used to. Reading your experience with the game actually transported my mind back to how it felt when I first played it, more than I felt when I last actually experienced the game; I somehow experienced it with "Beginner's Mind" for the first time in a long, long time. The same happened for Street Fighter II (I bought it for $30 off of some kid named John in my class. He used to live down the street from me, so he walked the game over [cart only] and I gave him $30 of my paper route money on my front porch and spent days playing that damn game), the first Zelda (my dad pulled out his back and was unable to get around for a couple of weeks when I was young, and he spent hours a day on the couch playing Zelda) and Mega Man 2 (I rented that game for the first time and did something stupid and got grounded - no TV for the weekend that I had the game rented. My parents would be outside doing yardwork and I'd play it with the sound off and would turn the NES off when they came back inside. I'd keep turning it on and off, experiencing levels in fragments or having to start over from scratch, and I loved every minute of it).

What I find very touching in relation to my own experience was the general overall commentary of the progression of both the game industry and of your own life, the imminent and gradual change hanging over like a cloud, becoming thicker and darker as time goes on. Whereas some of my favorite experiences game-related experiences in life are back from the good ol' days when I was a kid and had nothing to worry about besides elementary school, video games and making sure I didn't have peanut butter and Fluff all over my face (actually, I didn't really care about that last one. who am I kidding). As time went on and life happened, I lost that innocent and genuine spark that I had playing games when I was kid. As the years went on, it became more and more of more and more of more. Instead of buying a game, I'd buy dozens; instead of finding things on my own, I'd read GameFAQs or forums and would have the experience tinted with other people's opinions and knowledge. To me, that's really the death knell of old VS new video games; the added responsibilities of life, the gradual shift in the industry, and the advent of widespread usage of the internet. Other things that really resonated with me was your notes about the "drop" items in Symphony of the night and your metaphor about RPG (building VS driving the car). I never really thought of it that way, even though I've played RPGs for years, but it completely makes sense. There's something visceral about playing an old NES game where one minor mistake can send you back to the title screen compared to the type of intensity you have when battling a boss in an RPG. It's a battle of reflexes VS the mind (or skill VS patience). Very interesting stuff.

The overall thread of your experiences with Castlevania sums things up for me. As the series went on, the games (and industry) changed to the point where something that was called "Castlevania" was no longer the essence of Castlevania. Item drops, the shift to the third dimension, and a complete redesign of the series that was reiterated to the point Capcom-esque oversaturation. The first four titles all had something unique to offer, but as time goes on who really gaves a huge shit about Harmony of Dissonance or Portrait of Ruin? Sure, they were fun games, but they're not the Castlevania that started it all, the Castlevania that shaped your childhood (and mine), or the Castlevania that embodied the essence of what it means to play video games.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, I told my girlfriend about the essay and she took my meaning and applied it to her experience with Super Mario Galaxy 2. This isn't a direct quote, but it's pretty close:

"I just wanted to play the game, and then Mario was a flower, and he was a cloud, and then I didn't know what the Christ was going on. I just wanted to run around and collect coins, why do I have to put on a fuckin' cloud suit? How does that even make sense? Just let me run from left to right and have fun."

Truth.

Good read, Jodo. Very insightful. Loved it.

I liked it as well - it reminded me of much of my childhood.  We sometimes forget that we've grown up with these things and so we're used to game mechanics and the purpose behind things, and then we're confronted with people trying them for the first time and getting bewildered by the response of "I just want to have fun, what's with all this other stuff???"

As someone who never saw the big deal about Symphony of Night and wants Iga barred from the series for all eternity, I've been saying this for nearly 15 years. Castlevania ain't Castlevania without platforming deaths to me.

Cheery read, Jodo. Amazed you remember that much early stuff. I scanned through also liked the post about your VGM collection. I was thinking of doing something similar to that, as I actually remember stuff about my various albums than I do specifically about games (probably because I was older when I started).

As someone to whom Castlevania was never a big deal during the NES era, I didn't actually start enjoying the series until SotN. The staple of the series had always been frustrating difficulty largely due to unnecessarily clunky controls (not being able to move during a jump is an incredibly cheap way to make your games hard), so I welcomed SotN with open arms when it arrived.

I was (and still am) a Mega Man... uh... Man through-and-through, and I thought (and still think) that the old Castlevania games are vastly inferior in every possible way. Simon's Quest is about as big an affront to video games as Zelda II was IMHO.

Anyhoo, on-topic: I'm still slogging through the essay (not much time to read, and I'm not the fastest reader on the planet), but it's interesting to see all the memories you have for these games.
I'd also love to write something like this, but I probably wouldn't even be able to remember 10% of it.

Also, since you asked, Jodo, I'm working on a list of grammatical errors as well

Oldschool Castlevania is definitely love or hate, but the point was that they changed it. They never really gave the series a chance to correct the problems with it (yes, I'm not a big fan of the controls), Iga just kind of took over and was like, "well, I'm gonna change everything cuz I don't like what's in place" and low and behold: 10+ years of cranking out this new consumer-friendly gameplay formula with RPG elements taking the place of oldschool elements like lives/platform deaths/blocked levels. Castlevania III with the controls of SOTN would have been amazing. The equipment/RPG elements and mapping just seemed like a cop-out to get around designing good, but challenging levels.

If they would have made it a new series, I would have been fine with it. Then again, I'm one of the ones who still believe Final Fantasy really ended when Sakaguchi left Square.

Although I didn't care for Simon's Quest. It is basically a more difficult Metroidvania with better music to me. Bloody Tears > Michiru Yamane. CV1, CV3, Super and later on, Rondo are basically the "big 4" to me.

And I probably enjoyed Zelda II more than the original Zelda, but that was more because there was some serious buzz about that game in my neighborhood whenever something was discovered, back when it was new. I had people that didn't believe me that there was an entire other area to explore! And I still remember waking up early before school to take shots at the final level.

Umm Castlevania 3 is amazing as it is.

It is indeed. I just feel like they should have kept improving the formula it laid down (different characters, different paths, sick level designs) as opposed to changing it. Even Rondo and IV are regressions in some ways. The controls are something I'll gladly concede, as a possible improvement, for imaginary future installments. Symphony controls would be just fine.

If they added this super lax playstation noob friendly controls of strafing or total aerial mobility character control and double jumping of newer games, they'd have to redesign the whole game. I guarantee it would be much worse too.

What problem people had with the controls is not being properly explained. The controls are "clunkier" because it is a slower game. Your character and oncoming enemies or projectiles do not move fast like in Ninja Gaiden or Contra. It's a slower game that rewards you for knowing when to jump and punishing you for jumping at the wrong time when it comes to timed obstacles to get around (floor gate opens, spikes pop out, etc.), enemies to get around, or positioning to achieve like a far out low platform that results in falling death -- there are no handholding anti-platforming additions that let you negate making a stupid jump in a direction. The medusa heads can be hell at times to deal with, but that is what makes overcoming them satisfying. Everything is as responsive as it should be.

So that's just advancing through the level. I disagree that controls make fighting bosses frustrating. What boss did the controls get in the way for you?

Now if the game speed wasn't fast enough for you -- character's walking speed is not fast enough for you (i.e. the time it takes walking up the stairs) -- that I could understand. (Has the original Zelda aged well for those members here who played it around its release? Link isn't exactly a speed walker.) However, the rooms you move through are much better designed around your character than the Playstation and onwards games as they don't feel like f---ing boxes and you aren't going to be bored walking long distances with nothing really happening. (Sidenote: Orders of Ecclessia got this right in the beginning of the game when it was layering enemy waves to kill you while you walked a long flat distance. After that it got super boring.)

Your liking to jrpgs disables you from criticizing their poor game design that ruin the Castlevania experience (i.e. grinding for hearts and levels) because it gives off a false sense of accomplishment. Everything got worse, as GoldfishX wrote, since the tight platforming was replaced with fighting enemies instead of falling to your death. The only thing vastly inferior in regards to Castlevania 1-3 is your playing skill of them.

Simon's Quest was the most creative of all the early Castlevania games. I love how you describe Zelda II as an "affront to video games" so definitely, as if you expect everyone to share that opinion

What the hell is wrong with everyone? Zelda 2 was just fine.

And it totally has the better soundtrack I like that sequels in the NES days could be truly new games, as if game developers (except maybe Capcom ) had more ideas than they knew what to do with.

I'm reading through the essay at a leisurely pace, but I found an error I thought worth pointing out:

Actually, you were setting bombs. That's why each Cobra base explodes after you defeat the boss G.I. Joe is still one of my favorite NES games and I highly recommend the game and soundtrack to anyone with an interest in such things, regardless of your interest (or lack of) in the license's source material.

There are 4 very big letters at the end of that statement that imply otherwise, my friend.

OK, I just read it as "my opinion of Simon's Quest is that it's just as bad as Zelda II, which obviously no one likes". You hadn't mentioned anything about Zelda II before that.

I wonder how many clicks my essay has if read aloud in Xhosa?

Fixed. (I watched youtube videos of that last night. I forgot how damned hard those levels were.)

vert1: I changed all of the "cut scenes" to "cutscene". I added the word "games".

I believe the Castlevania series reached a peak with Castlevania IV. Dracula X took a step backwards, by providing worse play control. Symphony of the Night is just some game that copied Super Metroid and included randomly generated drop items, which gamers looked for to pass the time. The series reached a minor peak with the N64 titles because it re-introduced the whip, which is essential.

Everyone, thanks for reading. I enjoyed reading your comments and I'll continue to improve the essay, as more errors are found.

I hadn't, no, but Jodo made it clear in his retrospection that he didn't like Zelda II either, although he didn't use the term "affront."

I bet one thing few of us ever considered (if at all) is how collectible some of these games would become. People literally paying thousands of dollars for unopened Nintendo games. Really this shows that video games are viewed as art, since historically it's always been "art" which people purchased as investments. Still, I myself have no desire to start investing in video games (although I do think they will continue to rise in value). I enjoy them when I play them, and that's all that matters to me. By the way, Symphony of the Night will likely always remain my favorite Castlevania (just throwing that out there

I just read this whole post. Wow. Fantastic.

JKast, idk if you're distrusting of "warm&fuzzy feelings" -- but I wanna send some warm&fuzzies your way, sir. You are thoughtful in a way I only wish I could be. Thank you for existing and continuing to exist.

I've never been thanked for my existence before. It's an honor, sir. If I discontinue to exist, then I won't tell anyone. (My new favorite joke is to tell people that "If I die, then I won't tell you". People have been recently concerned about me for some reason.)

Just (finally) finished reading all of it, and it was an interesting read.
I'd write something like this myself, but I don't remember that many details, and I still play video games A LOT.
It's probably easier for someone who stopped playing several years ago.

And, since you asked, here are some of the linguistic errors I found:

- "All I remember doing in baseball was seeing how large of a dust cloud could I kick up" > "I could kick up"
- "Of those 114 games I played, I completed 22 of them" > "Of those 114 games I played, I completed 22"
- "This is because the Japanese and Americans versions have completely different music" > "American versions"
- "I became fairly skilled at the game and could complete the tricky boat section with elan" > "élan"
- "The frustration lain in deciding where to go" > "The frustration lay in deciding where to go"
- "Luckily, the year 1988 does have an ending, and I’ll do so now." > That last part doesn't make sense.
- "Between my brother and I, we owned 4 Game Boy titles" > "Between my brother and me"
- "Despite the dissimilarities between the GB and NES Batmans, there is one glaring, or blaring, similarity. That is the music; both of them kick ass with respect to giving eardrums orgasms." > The word "glaring" is generally used in a negative sense and doesn't really make sense here.
- "A drop item is something dropped to the ground from the space in which an enemy had occupied before its death" > "A drop item is something dropped to the ground from the space an enemy occupied before its death."
- "I ended up enjoying the soundtrack more than the game, which was happened fairly regularly." > "which happened"
- "money screams and spinning eyeballs" > I think you mean "monkey screams."
- You consistently write "a RPG" when it should be "an RPG."
- "That piece of music and the prodding of a neighbor eventually caused me to play the series." > "caused" should be "led." Not sure of the grammatical particulars here, but I think if you use "cause" it implies some kind of logic natural effect, not an independent choice like in this case.
- I have no idea what you mean by "indelicate temple ruins." Do they pick their noses in public?
- "I also played Timesplitters 2 and it was more of the same, but that was not a shame to have more of the same like the previous game." > "it was not a shame"

- Not a linguistic error, but you said Sonic Adventure didn't have similar challenges to Super Mario 64, which isn't true. All stages had new objectives if you went back to them (finishing within a certain time or with a certain score or number of rings etc.), but if I recall correctly the game never really told you about them. I think I missed them too on my first playthrough. There was a whole bunch of Emblems you could earn this way (more than there were stars in Mario 64).

One of the statements you make that I disagree with, by the way, is about watching people play.
I don't think that's boring at all, and comparing it to someone reading a book doesn't really make sense.
What I enjoy about watching people play is seeing how they handle situations. This doesn't apply to books because no active input (other than turning pages) is required. People play video games in radically different ways, and watching people play, even (especially?) people who don't play a lot of video games, can teach you things you might not have thought of yourself.

What I do agree with, however, is your assessment that no other medium can ever be as scary as video games. I've been saying the same thing for years, and I stand by it.

Thanks for the interesting read!

Thanks for finding those mistakes, Amazingu! I changed everything, but I still stand by my analysis of watching someone else play (it really does put me to sleep, unless it's a speedrun, or a longplay that I really, really want to watch).