The Quiet Peace of Retro Gaming

An oasis of calm in a loud world

I don’t think I’m going to blow anyone’s mind here by saying that the modern world is noisy. It’s a constant cacophony of notifications, adverts and pop-ups. Looking at your phone to reply to a message can easily end up with you reading an article about what happened to the Olsen Twins, without you really knowing how you ended up there.

Gaming is not immune to this. If I want to play a game on Steam, I turn on my computer. Oh look, a couple emails in my outlook I want to read. I open up Steam. Ah, there’s a sale on, maybe I’ll have a look at a few of the games on there. That one looks interesting, let’s look up some reviews online. Maybe I’ll add this to my wish list. Oh what’s that, one of my games has been updated let’s read the patch notes. People are arguing about it in the comments section, looks like its not well received. Thirty minutes later I’m playing the game I turned on my computer to play.

Console gaming has a similiar issue. Turn on the PlayStation 5, and there’s news updates from a load of games, updates, new game sales, you name it. You might notice a friend is playing a certain game, you might have to wait for a game to update, you might check out a few other things on the store whilst you are waiting. It’s all noise.

And then comes along retro gaming. Now, I’ve never been a particularly huge fan of the term retro gaming, to me it’s just gaming. It sort of creates this artificial divide between old and new, which only hampers the efforts to treat video games as a legitimate art form. You don’t hear anyone talking about the Mona Lisa as a ‘retro painting’.

That being said, I do get it, and for me, the divide comes between whether a device is currently connected to live internet services, or not. I’m not talking about devices like the Dreamcast which can technically connect to the internet through fan-made modern revivals, but ones which have current, live services provided by the hardware maker.

The gaming experience, is so different. I sit down in front of my TV. I put the cartridge into my Super Nintendo. I turn it on. I’m playing the game. There’s no advertisements, no distractions, nothing before the game. When I’m in the game, I’m not getting notifications, I’m not getting trophies pop-up, I’m not seeing what my friends are playing. I’m just, playing a game.

It really creates this overwhelming sense of tranquillity. It’s something of an oasis in the modern world, a little garden of peace, where you can relax, disconnect, and just enjoy playing a game. You can ‘switch off’ so to speak. It’s interesting to me this feeling, because it’s a positive defined by lacking a feature, not a feature they actually intended.

I’ve been getting back into my Dreamcast a lot lately, and for me, this isolation is a big part of the appeal. I just like being able to play a game without feeling like I’m plugging myself into the Matrix. This all might play into why I’ve always preferred single player games to multi player ones. I like a good couch multi player session, but online gaming has always felt to me like climbing a ladder with nothing at the top of it.

SEEEEGAAAAA

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a luddite, I understand all the benefits of technology and can appreciate the modern gaming experiences that can be achieved when everything comes together. But once in a while, if I just want a bit of peace, then retro gaming is my haven.