Looking Forward

Last week, my major focus was on the past – the pleasures and perils of nostalgia, of retrieving and re-playing the past. This week, I wish to examine the temporality of engagement in another direction. This is where my own research really starts coming into play – as I am currently exploring fan anticipation surrounding the The Hobbit film adaptations, I now have a great opportunity to apply my research to a different type of text – the videogame.

For those of us who like games, we get excited about playing upcoming titles. The waiting period may be torturous, but it can also be a rewarding period. We build up expectations; ask ourselves questions about what the game will be like, eagerly count down the days until it’s released… Sometimes the game will live up to our expectations, sometimes it may not – but as soon as we play the game we’ve been waiting weeks or months for, a large part of the experience is over. True, it replaced by a new, arguably more important part of the experience - that of actually experiencing the title. But I know for myself that part of the fun of gaming involves the period long before and after the playing.

In looking forward to a game, we may turn to various sources of information. It could be a gaming magazine, or promotional material distributed by the company - but most likely these days, this source will be the Internet. There is no shortage of material available online for us to pursue our interest in an upcoming title. We have gaming websites such as IGN and Gamestop, which offer previews, videos and images of games months before we get to play them for ourselves. We could turn to sites like Youtube for video previews. We could also turn to the multitude of fan-created websites specifically focused on gathering information on the games we’re most interested in.

However, just as dangers may exist in retrospective engagement with games, so looking forward to new releases in not without its perils. In my next post, I will offer some examples of my own experience of ‘pre-gaming’. Part of being a videogame fan, as I have suggested, is realising that the experience transcends the simple act of playing the game. It is often not as simple as just dashing into a store, grabbing the nearest title off the shelf, shoving it into our gaming systems and playing it from start to end. It could be that simple – and many without much awareness of gaming would argue it is – But very often the process will involve more thought, more effort and more time than such claims could possibly allow for. It is certainly the case for the fans of The Hobbit that I am following through online discussion boards – and it is certainly the case for me. But just as nostalgia is a fine thing that should be encouraged, as there is nothing more pleasurable than suddenly remembering something wonderful from one’s past, I suggested that too much looking back is potentially harmful to those memories. Precisely the same thing is true of pre-gaming. Looking forward is fun, but as I will discuss in more detail tomorrow, too much looking forward is capable of tarnishing one’s experience with the final product.

Critical Question

A nice, short entry to start the week off. When I begun this blog, about a week ago, I said that it would take a critical look at my experience with video games. This was not such a simple task as first appeared. In fact, it’s not easy to think critically about something you enjoy so much. As a student of Film & Media, I’ve had to think critically about my relationship with film and television – this is something that I can handle considerably well. I know of others, however, who claim their enjoyment of various media forms has been ruined by subjecting that media to study. Putting a film under the microscope in the way we do in the discipline is bound to have some impact on the way we engage with those films in our own time. And to a certain extent this is also the case for me – I know how certain shots are put together to create a particular effect, for example. It’s not something I’ll automatically think about when I sit down to watch part 1 of the Deathly Hallows later tonight, but it’s impossible not to have one’s viewing somewhat affected by what one’s learnt. As I said though, for me, this is an exceedingly minor problem. Perhaps because I don’t view films with the same amount of passion as videogames. So the question becomes, how do I feel about analysing the videogame world and my place in it? I’m going to cheat somewhat here and say I don’t have a definitive answer. Rather, I believe this blog will continue to explore the question of how far I’m willing to go in casting a critical eye over my beloved pastime.

My Gaming Memories

To make up for yesterday’s rather lengthy post, and partly to account for the lack of readership at this time… I’d like to take the opportunity today to simply present a list of the games that touched me growing up. This follows my previous posts on Nostalgia (check them out if you haven’t already). So… from past to present, here is part one of my gaming experience highlights:

Merlin’s Castle / The Lost Frog (BBC Micro) – Two early text adventures I remember playing for the BBC Micro. We didn’t actually own the computer – my Dad would borrow it from a colleague at the school where he worked. The games were so much fun – I remember doing them with my Dad. We spent a lot of time stuck on those puzzles…

Killer Gorilla (BBC Micro) – Probably my favourite game for the BBC. This was a blatant rip-off of Donkey Kong (Nintendo Entertainment System). But I didn’t know that then. My Dad used to watch me play, and was impressed by how far I could get. Man, I was so proud!

Golden Apple (ZX Spectrum) – Another text adventure, this time for the ZX Spectrum. This was a hard game. Once again, my best memories of this was playing with my parents - putting our heads together to work out what commands the stupid thing would let us try!

Dizzy series (ZX Spectrum) – I’ve talked about this one already. Dizzy was a great series growing up. It’s a game that I played by myself, and sometimes with my parents watching me. I loved everything about them – the music, the puzzles, the graphics… suffice to say, it was EGGSellent (groan)

Seymour Goes to Hollywood (ZX Spectrum) – Now this was a game very much like Dizzy, both in style and gameplay. Instead of an egg, you controlled a walking marshmallow (apparently… I had no idea what he was at the time). But this game must have had something special if it could tear me away from my favourite Egg hero.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Megadrive) – My (rather late) introduction to console gaming. I used to secretly yearn for the Megadrive, after seeing it on TV. Also, on the last day of term in primary school, kids could bring in their favourite toys. I remember crowding around the TV while others showed off the system. Finally, I got it as a surprise for Christmas. Sonic was a game that came with it. So, naturally, it continues to hold a special place in my memories.

Castlevania: The New Generation (Sega Megadrive) – An early(ish) game I got for the Megadrive. I was initially rather unenthused with this one. But as I preserved, I was blown away by the awesome music, the spectacular boss fights, and the graphics. It served as my introduction to the Castlevania series, of which I remain a big fan, having only recently purchased the latest instalment, Lords of Shadow, for the XBOX 360.

Each of these titles holds a special place in my heart for the unique memories they created. There are others, going back to the days of the BBC Micro, but I simply can’t remember enough about them. If you read my previous posts, you’ll know that I consider this both a blessing and a curse (mostly the former). I’ll be taking a break over the weekend, then I’ll be delving into more videogame discussion. Part 2 of my trip down gaming memory lane will resume in the near future. In the meantime, feel free to discuss your own game-related memories in the comments below. Have I brought back any memories for you? Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend, everyone!

We Will Always Have the Memories… Won’t We?

Ah… So many memories... Writing my post yesterday on a few of my earliest gaming memories sent a tide of nostalgia washing over me. It sent me on a quest online for dates, pictures and all the other info that I needed to compile my post. In doing so, I came across video and pictures of some of those games I discussed, as well as some other stuff I had completely forgotten about. It was a great feeling.




I used to get this magazine - it came with a tape containing a bunch of game demos


My post today, however, turns to what I consider to be the darker side of nostalgia. On the one hand, re-capturing moments from the past is awesome. Nothing describes the feeling one gets from watching a video of a TV show one enjoyed as a child, or discovering a website that provides a wealth of info one’s favourite movie, book, or game. Sometimes, just hearing the title of some long-forgotten thing is enough to spark a fountain of memories inside.

Indeed, I hope that through my recent posts I have encouraged you to reflect on your own early gaming experiences. However, a word of caution from one who knows: Dig too deeply into those half-forgotten memories, and you may find yourself regretting it. Sometime over the last few years, I embarked on a nostalgic spree – that is, I begun seeking out info on all of those things I cherished the most growing up. Many of these included TV Shows like Thundercats, Knightmare, Real Ghostbusters, and Watt on Earth. These were shows that I simply loved as a child. In fact, during a time where school was most certainly not included on my best-memories list, it was these shows that pulled me through, giving me something to look forward to at the end of each day, and through the following week.

Thinking back to these shows later in life was both rewarding and torturous. Trying to remember what a particular character looked like, or how that theme music actually sounded like, was fun, but also frustrating as the vast majority of the details would elude me. However, we now live in an age where such problems are a thing of the past. The Internet is the main culprit here. Scouring sites like Youtube and Wikipedia over recent years has yielded a ton of material: everything from the intros to the shows and thorough episode guides, through to full online episodes. Not to mention, the wealth on fan-sites which allow members to discuss everything they remember about the shows.
However, all this is well and good – up to a point. As I mentioned, I went through a period where I actively sought information on these shows. Finding episode guides and the occasional uploaded episode was a great moment – after all, this is exactly what I went looking for. But the best part was they only offered a partial glimpse into those shining memories. They gave me a burst of nostalgic joy. They helped jog my memory. But they didn’t tell me everything… so I still had to rely of what I could (barely) remember for myself. That is, until now. When I tracked down entire compilations of the series on DVD. Now I have all the answers. Now, suddenly, my quest for recollections came to an end. Oh, the moment of actually getting the DVDs, and playing them once, even twice, was a totally thrilling experience, full of “Oh! I remember that!” moments. But when that rush was over, it left a somewhat depressing emptiness in its wake.

Who needs CDs, when you can have your games on tape?

Now, wait. Isn’t this supposed to be a blog about videogames? Yes it is, and trust me, I’m getting there. For everything I’ve said so far about my experience with the TV shows has also been true of certain games. In yesterday’s post, I talked about the loading screen – while I was thinking and writing about that, I found myself trying to remember exactly what it looked and sounded like. Exactly what colour were those flickering lines? Was that noise really how I thought I remembered it? Last night, out of curiosity, I looked on Youtube, typed in the words “ZX Spectrum loading screen”, and saw a result for a video which showed the entire loading period of a Spectrum title. Not the game itself, just the loading screen I discussed. I watched it, of course, and – just like that. I once again know exactly what it was like. All those questions, answered with a mere two minutes’ work, and a brief 10-minute video.

Remember Dizzy: That game all about the egg I mentioned yesterday… I have actually re-played that title in recent years. All because it was available to download over the Internet and play through a program designed to emulate the ZX Spectrum. Also yesterday, I came across a fan website for the Dizzy series: Yolkfolk.com (check it out here). It’s a fantastic website were fans of the games gather to reflect on their experiences, as well as providing a wealth of info about the games. As before, I am both grateful that all this stuff is out there, but at the same time, a little annoyed. I know it’s my choice if I want to go trawling through the web looking for this kind of thing, but that part of me that so desperately wants to remember is a difficult beast to tame.

To wrap up an (unexpectedly) long rant, I believe that Nostalgia, in the way I have been thinking about it, is at risk of becoming, ironically, a thing of the past. I’m glad that I reached the age where I began yearning for things from my childhood, before a time when retrieving such memories became so darned effortless. Kids growing up these days will still get those same nostalgic cravings at some time in their life, but, for them, I fear the ease of satisfying those cravings will do away with the whole point – that is: wanting to remember, just not too much.

I’ll Always Have the Memories

Today, I’m moving on to something different. One of my intentions with this blog was to think critically about my own personal experience with videogames. Today, I want to think back to some of my earliest memories of gaming. And the host of many of these memories was the ZX Spectrum, a personal computer developed in the 1980s. I had actually played games before – courtesy of a BBC Micro (an even more retro experience), but this was limited to some basic education-style games at my primary school. The Spectrum, then, became my introduction to home gaming. I had never played in an Arcade, or anything like that.

We received our Spectrum as a gift from my uncle around 1991. I don’t remember exactly why he gave it to us – as I recall; it was not a new computer, (probably one he had owned previously and was giving away after purchasing something newer). Anyway, the computer came with a bunch of games. An awful LOT of games, in fact. Well, it was actually a mixture of games and various kinds of software – but the fact was, I felt overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I could explore and try out. Thinking back now, it is quite remarkable to think that all my games took the form of old tape cassettes. Something even harder to imagine was having to wait, probably up to half-hour, for one of these games to actually load up so it was playable on the computer! While it was loading, the game would display an illustration, surrounded by a border of flickering lines of different colours. This was accompanied by an infernal screeching kind of noise that would last the whole duration (in fact, I wonder now while I never muted the TV). With the game finally loaded, I would take a seat, directly in front of the TV (so to be able to reach the keyboard) and would spent the next hour, two hours, or whatever, playing my game.

Spectrum games were not exactly ‘pretty’ by today’s standards. Colours were plain, music and sounds were just ‘beeps’, and gameplay was simple. Well, ‘simple’ in terms of design – actually, games were very, very hard to beat. And it’s not just because I had little gaming experience back then – replaying some of those same games today (courtesy of emulators – more on this later) has shown me just how tough these games were, especially compared to today’s titles. I was lucky if I successfully beat any of the ones I played back then. One quite amusing example is a game that had something to do with Jack & the Beanstalk: even before I could play the game, I had to input some kind of weird colour code before it would let me load the thing. This was a momentous challenge in itself – I have no idea why this was required, or whether there was simply some other way of doing it that had eluded me, but I have memories of my family gathered around as we tried to painstakingly replicate this tiny coloured grid that came on a card included with the game. And when we finally did succeed, the game itself was so tough that I barely progressed anywhere in it at all…

The memories were not all painful, however. Some of my best gaming memories came from some of the titles that I would play for hours on end. My all-time favourite was Dizzy, a series of games involving a walking egg with boxing gloves, who went around solving puzzles and evading obstacles – still with me? Read all about it here. Two things about the series appealed to me – the thrill of exploring and encountering new areas (even if these were just new screens containing a slightly different arrangement of shrubbery), and the puzzle solving aspect (which I still enjoy in games today). Back in those days, my Dad would buy almost all of my games for me – and I remember getting so excited about the prospect of receiving new titles (often in the form of a surprise). There was nothing quite like the feel of pouring over a new game’s cover, and the rushing upstairs to my room to shove it into the cassette player (followed, of course, by the obligatory waiting period). Interestingly, it is these moments that I tend to remember more than the experience of actually playing the game for the first time.

I could go on and on about my fond memories with the Dizzy series, but suddenly remembering that this is supposed to be a thoughtful, semi-intellectual blog, I think I ought to wrap things up. In my next post, I want to think more about Nostalgia, and how often the sweetest memories are best kept as such – something that is becoming increasingly difficult in an age where pretty much everything I loved from my childhood can be accessed and re-experienced in some form or another.

Links to the Past: Part 3

The final part of my examination into Ocarina’s 3D target gamers addresses those who purchased the game, having already played and/or owned the original. As I mentioned, I am one of these gamers myself. Therefore I am obviously not degrading such people. Nor am I suggesting than all gamers’ reasons for replaying this game are the same. Rather, I propose three areas that might help explain Ocarina’s 3D’s appeal to those of us who already hold the original so close to our heart.

1. What’s New? 

For many who are playing Ocarina of Time for a second, third, fourth etc. time, one of the appeals will be the prospect of new elements which the first game did not possess. The inclusion of 3D will be a big factor. The resurgence of 3D in popular entertainment has displayed itself most prominently in movies – with a steady rise in the number of movies set to be remade or re-released to take advantage of this new technology. Nintendo’s latest portable gaming device, the 3DS relies a great deal on this innovation in attracting consumers. For long-term fans, however, it should be noted that 3D is not always at the top of the list when it comes to new releases, judging by the message boards on several gaming websites. Other additions, meanwhile, include revised graphics, use of the 3DS touch-screen, added game modes, and gyro-enabled motion. All of these allow for an enhanced experience of the original game. For many, it is the prospect of re-capturing their original experience with the game – by instilling a sense of ‘newness’ back into that experience.

2. Change vs. Preservation

So, people wanted change. To a certain extent, that is... For many fans, however, awaiting the new version of Ocarina was a combination of excitement and apprehension. There were many who wanted to see a lot more additions than ended up being in the game – new dungeons, new characters, new quests etc. I must admit that I felt a little disappointed when I realised that none of these would make in into the game. For others, however, any amount of change is too much. For these gamers, anything short of a direct translation of the original (though perhaps with minor graphical improvements) would be considered detrimental to the ‘classic’ Ocarina experience. Of course, there will be plenty of gamers who fall somewhere in between the two extremes, but judging by a lot of the discussions I’ve seen play out in the various forums; this was always one of the more pressing concerns.

3. Gotta Get Them All

Finally, another group to consider would be the fans of Nintendo, whose loyalty to the company (and the games it produces) mean they would likely purchase the new game, regardless of how much was changed or left the same. There has been much criticism of the ‘hardcore fan’, Nintendo or otherwise, with many suggesting that such gamers are playing right into the company’s hands by paying several times for the same game. The funny thing is, though, that many of those supposedly ‘gullible’ consumers are well aware of what they are doing, and jokingly express so in their posts. They know they are serving Nintendo’s needs, yet what they get out of it is worth so much more to them that it simply doesn’t matter. Some gamers suggest that Ocarina 3D’s revised graphics and gameplay enable the game to be experienced as it was meant to all along – the ‘definitive’ Ocarina experience. Whether or not this is the case, for many, playing the title is more than a simple case of ‘re-playing’ the original. Rather, it is the unique experiences one carried over from playing the original game, combined with a new awareness of the game’s legacy, and more recent titles in the Zelda series.

Thus ends my brief look at the latest Zelda offering. I may return to this in the future, once I have finally had the pleasure of ‘re-experiencing’ the game for myself and offer some of my thoughts. Until then, as always, feel free to comment on your own experience with Ocarina. I would love to hear from anyone, regardless of whether they fit into any of the categories I discussed. Perhaps none of what I have sad applied to your own experience – in which case, you have my permission to make me sound like an idiot :-)

Links to the Past: Part 2

As I suggested in my previous post, there are two main target groups for Ocarina 3D: First, we have gamers who are new to the game. They will never have played Ocarina before, though they may well be familiar with The Legend of Zelda series from its more recent instalments (which include The Wind Waker for the Gamecube in 2002, and Twilight Princess for the Nintendo Wii in 2006). For these people, Ocarina is appealing for a number of reasons.

1. Old Becomes New:

It may be an old game, but for gamers yet to play it, Ocarina is fresh, a new experience. But, then again, how new is ‘new’? Even if one has never played the game in its original form, there is a good chance that they will know more about the title than I did when I first played the N64 version back in 1999. This is due largely to the Internet, and the abundance of information about the game that now exists – everything from a full plot synopsis on Wikipedia, to videos on Youtube showing the entire game being played from start to finish. Of course, not everyone will necessarily seek out all this info. But consider before the 3D version was even announced. For those who had never played Ocarina 64, yet were keen on the Zelda series (for instance, who had played the newer games in the series), it would be logical for them to want to know more about the game that had passed them by. For some of these ‘new’ gamers, then, the ‘freshness’ of the Ocarina 3D experience will have been coloured by the sheer wealth of content available to them on the web.

2. An Intro to the Zelda Series:

But assume that new gamers had no prior interest in the earlier Ocarina game, or even the Zelda series as a whole. Perhaps they were too young, new to video-gaming altogether, or merely encountering a Nintendo system for the first time. The novelty of the company’s latest 3D-capable device would likely attract some of these ‘Zelda virgins’. For such people, Ocarina 3D offers a fresh experience, one that Nintendo is likely counting on to maintain and increase interest in the franchise.

3. Essential Purchase:

One of the key ideas Nintendo is focussing on in their marketing campaign for Ocarina of Time 3D are the improvements that have been made to the original classic. The other is the very ‘classic-ness’ of the original title. “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D takes the Nintendo 64 classic – one of the most critically acclaimed games ever made…” - so starts the promotion for the game on Nintendo of Australia’s website. Ocarina is an essential purchase for anyone who would consider themselves a ‘serious’ gamer. This concept relies heavily on the hype that was generated before, during and immediately after the original’s release, but also the way this hype has been successfully maintained over the last 13 years. Those who would claim the mantle of ‘core gamer’ would be expected to at least know something of Ocarina. This is especially true of newer Nintendo fans, who will have encountered Ocarina in a number of forms in recent years (one example would be references to the game in Nintendo’s franchise-merging Super Smash Bros. Brawl). In short, this is not a ‘new’ game to a lot of people. Thought the extent to which the experience is new will certainly vary from gamer to gamer, Nintendo has adopted a variety of tactics to ensure that the new version’s glowing reputation preceded it.

Part 2 will turn to, what I consider the more interesting of Ocarina 3D’s players: the gamer who has both played, and owned the original version. Are the enhancements (such as 3D) enough to justify the re-purchase (and in some case re-re-purchase)? For many, including myself, the answer is YES! I will look at why this might be the case. In the meantime, feel free to sound off on any of these ideas below...