Gamesugar

December 9, 2010

Refresh Rate – Crystalis

Filed under: Archives — Tags: , , , , , , — Nathan White @ 5:49 pm

crystalis
It’s funny how growing up with video games can fragment your perception of them in retrospect. I vividly remember my mom picking up a game for me on her way home from work from Acme Video on a regular basis, and hastily grabbing the most visually pleasing box from the shelf devil-may-care, as she always did.

That habit led to my introduction to Crystalis, which I remembered really liking, but when the time came for the game to return to the store it fell away to new anticipation – would the next game to come home be another Crystalis, or merely a Captain Comic?

Crystalis must have left an impression on me, because later in life, being a grown up and able to pick my own games, my thoughts drifted back to that particular weekend, necessitating a trip to my local video game haunt to find out if my memory was playing tricks on me.

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May 2, 2010

Lazy Sunday – Nostalgia Trip

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , — Jamie Love @ 9:38 am

Nostalgia Trip
Yesterday I took a road trip to Kitchener to meet up with some good friends and a few of my favorite game collector’s at CGCC’s annual videogame swap meet. I’m fairly certain that checking out stacks of classic videogames and shooting the shit for hours about collecting and playing them is what “good times” is all about.

It’s also earnestly refreshing to escape the new release cycle for an afternoon and remember where so many of us came from – there really aren’t that many places to soak in the nostalgia of the games that ruled my childhood and also talk with people about the titles that stood out for them. Every game has a story for someone, and picking up a copy of Megaman X or Castlevania IV and hearing how it came into someone’s collection is the kind of bonus you’ll just never get at a store. We even got to meet two very young kids that were collecting classic Mortal Kombat titles even though they had the newest consoles.

It’s also a great chance to catch up on filling some holes in one’s collection.

I can remember when my own collecting habits were guided almost entirely by the rarity of titles, grabbing them up to sit like fine jewels on the shelf. Lately however, I’m every bit as content finding a few common games that simply bring back good memories or offer a chance to play a game I missed altogether when it originally released. From the title picture it’s clear I have plenty to keep my thumbs busy today, but I did want to share two finds from yesterday that make me ridiculously happy, which is pretty much the guiding principle for any classic game I pick up these days.

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