It seems there are two good ways of making me feel old these days. One is to speak to younger gamers; the other is to browse XBox Arcade. When these two things meet, it is... well, I find myself looking for grey hairs.
I met a friend on Sunday who could neither be described as old or hairy, but definitely a gamer. So naturally, while chatting about job prospects (incidentally, I've been pitching articles; hurrah? Fingers crossed for the prospective freelancer here, please) and mutual friends we also tend onto games.
They're like our war stories - "I remember when...", veterans telling each other about the where and when and how. The thing is, we talk about different generations of gaming; he looks back at the N64 as his starting point whereas I remember it as the flashy gadget that made my NES look even more like a breeze block. At least it was good common ground, remembering the brutal unforgiving nature of PvP in Perfect Dark where respawning involved returning empty handed, ready to be gunned down by the fully-armed guy who'd just tagged you before.
It's weird that we miss that, when things have moved on. At least, we think we miss that - years of Halo/Call of Duty/Epic Testosterone Shooter have changed what we expect from a game (largely to expecting something easier); and we both have the cartridge and console to hand if we wanted to play. We talk of the game fondly, and could go back and relive it whenever we choose. Consciously or not, we choose not to.
I cannot deny having some great memories of filling an Easter holiday running and re-running the game on Agent and Secret Agent difficulties (before hitting what felt like a wall with Perfect Agent - though I've seen videos of people running missions and just ignoring enemies... it makes me feel like a fool in retrospect!), but I'm not sure I'd be able to do that again. I won't deny that there is something about old games that appeals in a way new ones don't, but at least part of that I'm sure is the "I remember when..." moment. If we try to relive them, we may find the experience bitter-sweet if the memories turn out to be wrong.
We both had that, veterans remembering weapon functions and snipe points and how bizarrely natural the trident shaped joypad actually was. But at the same time... To me, Perfect Dark seems like too "new" a game to have on XBA* - I'm used to browsing around at Golden Axe and Final Fight, things I remember paying 20p to play in dubious establishments on the route home from school (the best place was at a cheap restaurant which twice had people thrown through the window. Never when I was there I should mention, but I feel it establishes the general quality of venue for arcade machines locally at the time). In my mind something from the 32/64 bit era has kept that buzz of being "advanced", and somehow isn't old enough to be retro for me.
I think he didn't feel surprise in the same way, and it was more the surprise at having a blast from the past return instead... yes, I feel old. But the memories are nice, so it's old in a good way.
* = And with that said - yes, my mind blew when I saw that Resident Evil 4 is available now too.
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