Looking Back...At The 90's
Weird to think that I'm done discussing the 90's in video games. For me personally, the 90's were some of the best times to grow up in if you were just trying to find good games to play. As you've noticed throughout this month so far, a **** ton of great games released during that time. I was born in 91, so granted I may have been way too young to truly experience the games that were coming out back then, but luckily some of those games followed the community to the current time with emulation etc. I know people still play a **** ton of Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, and the likes. Unfortunately for the most obscure titles, they sort of just...well stayed in obscurity. Not implying the games were bad or anything. But evidently as time moved on, games improved, developers got better at what they do, and the games that fell through the cracks sort of just...stayed there.
My experience as a gamer growing up was probably the same experience that a lot of people had. I had an original NES and SNES because my parents were cool and bought the family both of them even tho money was scarce. When the Nintendo 64 came out, same thing. Christmas rolled around and we all opened a brand new Nintendo 64, and thus the journey truly began. I remember playing through Super Mario 64 for the first time and just being amazed. Happened with a lot of games honestly. It didn't take long for my brothers and I to also realize how ****ing awesome Banjo Kazooie is because that's a game we also played through during the lifespan of the Nintendo 64. Other games include Wipeout 64, Goldeneye 007, we were playing them all. Eventually as the years went on, only my younger brother and I stuck to the whole gaming thing. From the early 2000's all the way to now, I sort of became super infatuated with the concept of gaming, and in early 2000 again, I decided to give Runescape a try.
While this may have been a horrible idea, I created my first account and eventually played Runescape for a solid 15 years. I recently quit the game actually. Well, I say recently but it was almost a year ago now. That game took over my life. As it did most people. But it was one of the first games, well...maybe the first for me, where I was able to truly see what it was like to play a game with a community of people who also wanted to succeed at the game. Online gaming nowadays is fantastic, don't get me wrong. I love it. I love playing with friends online and all that. Back in the Runescape days, you would just meet up with random people and explore the world together. You have to remember, back when this game was in its classic days, there wasn't a whole lot discovered yet. Everybody was trying to figure out how the armor system worked, or how skills played a role in the game. It was the sense of discovery and the hugeness of the world that made Runescape so addicting back in the day. Now it's sort of a grindfest and if you aren't maxed, you're pretty much a laughing stock of the community. Fair enough. All games have elitist *******s that think they're better than everybody. It's just a shame to see one of the strongest part of the games, the community, take a nosedive for the worst. But, I believe Runescape was my true and blue first real taste of what it meant to be a gamer. I even went to summer school because of it so.
After that, I sort of just stuck to PC gaming, and eventually got my own and off I went into another world. Back in the 90's, you'd be surprised to find that not everybody owned a computer to play games. People weren't even thinking that PC gaming would get popular and match up against next gen consoles, but hey, it does. I own both a PC and a next gen console and I can tell you that the only real difference is the fact that my PS4 has a bigger TV. Otherwise both play extremely well for what they do.
I cherish how I grew up with games because I feel like it had an enormous impact on me as a gamer today. Going through the hardships of the older consoles and trying to beat the games that were built to fight back, it made me come to respect video games as a whole, and appreciate what they good ones do. It also made me realize that the developers behind the games always deserve credit where credit is due. There's certainly a lot to be said about a good developers, but we won't get too far into that.
It's funny, because the games that I played back then and the experience I had with games back then with friends are some of the only memories I can truly vividly remember from my childhood. Other things just sort of blend together, but when it comes to remembering games, I can remember it like it happened yesterday. I remember playing Neverwinter Nights at my friends house on his Alienware PC. I remember sitting with my cousin and his friend in Virginia and playing Unreal Tournament. I even remember taking a nap while Super Mario Bros was still on the TV. I was in the basement at the time. I think I was...maybe 6? Idk.
90's were great. I look forward to talking about the 2000's though.