Nostalgia

Ever put on an album you haven't listened to in a long time and it just takes you back in time?

I felt that way this week. My new car doesn't have a CD player (end of an era!) so I mostly listened to the trial satellite radio, which just recently ran out of subscription, the random ambient music that is in my car's library, and podcasts (I know; what a bore!). The other day, I remembered I had actual honest to God music I could be listening to, so I imported my Better than Ezra CD (Closer) and it's been a bit on replay throughout the week.

It's funny to go back to listen to music that was important to you when you were young but doing things that you do as an adult. I like to think that I've changed a lot from childhood to adulthood, but some things don't change. My personality is still kind of my personality, just with new wrinkles.

I sometimes wonder if I just play retro games because I'm nostalgic about the past, but nostalgia isn't the whole thing. I genuinely enjoy playing older things, wrinkles and all. I love the idea that I can start up a game, play for a couple credits (or however many are granted, or whether I want to save state my way to victory?) and then walk away and enjoy my day. Thankfully, pick-up-and-play games still exist, but these have the fringe benefit of being things I already own.

I've touched on replaying old games before, so I won't stick to that topic. Instead, I just wanted to express how that satisfying feeling of going back to something explored before years (or even decades) later goes beyond just games, like music. I don't just live in the past, though. I try to read or watch new things every now and then (I'm still actually reading books, again; what a life!). It's just that sometimes I do like to go back to the old things and experience them with my (slightly) changed perspective. Sometimes, it's cringey. Thankfully, I still enjoyed the album. I can't say the same about all of my music choices when I was younger!

Videogame Challenges, Redux

It wasn't that long ago that I wrote about how videogame challenges could be fun but obsessive. What's funny, though, is that somehow I found myself beating two challenges that I had abandoned:

• Street Fighter II: World Warrior, arcade version, difficulty 3, 1 credit challenge (1CC)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters, NES version, hard difficulty (only 1 credit allowed on hard)

Beating the SF2 challenge was a surprise for me. I still randomly put on old fighting games and play them for fun, and I had been playing a lot of fighting games since Capcom Arcade Fighting Collection 2 came out, so I thought, why not? I was able to beat it as Ryu, with a few rough spots against Balrog and Bison (two very close calls, round 3's if I remember correctly).

TMNT, on the other hand, was super random. I had previously written about how I played Tournament Fighters on NES for the first time and was pleasantly surprised by it. I had just finished reading the first volume of IDW 2011 comics for the series and, being in the mood for more Turtles stuff, decided to try out the Genesis version. That's a wacky game and one I am definitely going to go back to because of its odd nature. However, it also got me back into the NES one, which I had previously beaten on Normal. It took a few tries today, but I finally beat Shredder on hard. I had to be patient and remind myself that it's not a race. I played as Raphael, who has a drill move that resembles the psycho crusher, and his throw was also incredibly useful.

I'd like to point out that in the manual, the Turtles say "No weapons when hyping each other up." Meanwhile, Casey and Shredder both had weapons. Gotta hand it to Raph to sticking to their rule.

I think the difference between last time I tried to beat SF2 with 1 credit and now was that I was having more fun with it. It was fine to just give it a try and, if I failed, then go about doing something else. I've learned the lesson before, but it's a nice reminder to enjoy the process of playing the game. If I get the end result I was aiming for, that's great! However, winning isn't the reason I'm playing the games. It's to have fun. Sometimes that means going for a challenge that I don't normally do (perhaps more thoughts about limited continues or harder difficulties another time). I accomplished the goal and had fun along the way.

A funny sidenote is that last week after I 1 CC'd SF2, I turned around and tried to do a 1CC for Metal Slug and quickly abandoned it, thinking of my old post. Maybe one day, but maybe I can just say low-credit run and go for that? 😅

Breaking Up With Your Phone

I just finished reading a book titled How to Break Up with Your Phone, by Catherine Price (2018). I go through phases where I spend entirely too much time on my phone, but when I do go down a rabbit hole, it can be quite a deep rabbit hole. I hate that feeling where the phone (or just being on the internet) feels more like a requirement than a thing I can enjoy. While I didn't learn a lot of new things from the book (much of the research about social media and compulsive screen time is well-established at this point), the book was a reminder that I don't need to spend so much time on my phone, or the internet in general, to make use of it.

What I like about the book is that it's not just saying "never use your phone," though I imagine people may read the title and treat the title as that being the literal meaning of it. It's about being mindful of when we use our phones. What purpose are we using them for? Do we have a specific objective we are trying to accomplish (such as reading the news or checking our email), or is it part of a habit? A lot of times, it is definitely a habit for me. I am looking for ways to cool it on my phone and internet use, to get back to that point where I want to use these things for specific purposes (chat with friends, play games online, share things, read things) rather than let that be my default. I don't want life to pass me by.

Price asks us to consider: how do we want to spend the time in our life? Sometimes it is to be a little distracted, and that's OK too, but is distraction the default mode we want to be in?

If you're looking for a way to lighten up your own tech use, I would personally recommend the book. It's an easy read; I was able to knock it out over a few sittings. I'm already starting to use some of the tips (Discord is uninstalled from my phone once again, and I am limiting my other notifications).

Obsessive Gaming Challenges Part 2

Sometimes obsessive gaming challenges come premediated. Others come organically. I got into playing Resident Evil, the remake on PS4. I've never played any of them in the series before, but I have both that and Code: Veronica X due to a Humble Bundle I purchased years ago. I finally decided I needed to try it since I played Silent Hill and Parasite Eve and loved them. In fact, I enjoyed the RE remake so much that I wound up playing it a few more times in short succession and at some point will buy the first three on PC through Good Old Games. There's just something about the game design that clicked with me. I think it scratched that itch that Metroid-style games do sometimes, where you figure out where to find certain items to get you to certain places. It doesn't have movement-type upgrades like a Metroid would, but when you boil down the components, that's where you ultimately land.

Anyway, I eventually played through the game again with Jill on hard mode. It took a few tries before I was comfortable enough with the beginning to burn an ink ribbon on a save. Not having looked anything up about the difficulty level, I was concerned I would have a very limited number of saves, but it's surprisingly generous. In retrospect, I could have tried doing much less before taking my initial save. Instead, I had to skip past the initial cutscenes multiple times. Considering the amount of time that the version I was playing on took to load, I spent a lot of time waiting. It kind of made me feel like I was playing a PS1 game again. I ultimately made it through. Funnily enough, like Metroid-style games, I found the beginning of the game harder than the end, but that may have been because I tried to conserve a lot of healing items and ammo. It paid off big time when I reached the end. For my efforts, I unlocked Real Survival mode, which unlinks the item boxes (time to get that notebook out and keep track of where I leave things) and implements manual aiming. Geez! Not sure when I'll go back to that. I ended up playing the game three times in a row before I decided I needed to give it a rest. It'll be waiting for me when I get back, though.

Obsessive Game Challenges

What kind of challenges do you find yourself going back to over and over? I find myself going back to arcade games like Metal Slug and Street Fighter II: World Warrior to see if I can do a 1 CC (credit clear). I surprisingly got close to doing it in each game. There's a point, however, where it goes from something you do for fun versus something you have to do.

There was a point where I was sometimes getting to Vega or Sagat doing a 1 CC attempt with Ryu. Around the same time, I was able to reach either the second-to-last or the last mission (I can't remember any more; it's been a couple years). Suddenly I was getting annoyed by every mistake I was making, and next thing I know, I was spending time late at night to try to 1 CC these games. It's like the closer I got, the more enticing it was.

Ultimately, one night, I was on a Discord call with friends. It was past the time I should have reasonably been in bed. I decided "Let's do it one more time." You're probably expecting me to say at this point that I masterfully beat Metal Slug, right? Wrong. Instead, one of my friends, who knew that I was attempting these challenges, decided to quote Sans from Undertale. I'll put the text in spoiler-ese, just in case:

Show Quote

"You'll never give up, evan if there's, uh. . . Absolutely NO benefit to perservering whatsoever. If i can make that clear. No matter what, you'll just keep going. Not out of any desire for good or evil. . . But just because you think you can. And bwcause you "can". . . . . . You "have to."

Thank you, Nick97_ on Reddit for entering that whole dialogue.

I was on Mission 3, and when he said that, I just kind of sat there for a minute, thinking. I've played Undertale, so I know all about the spiel. However, that quote really hit me that night, and I gave up my playthrough and wished him goodnight.

It's been a running joke between us now, but every now and then, I think about it, particuarly when I try to do a particular gaming challenge for no real reason. There's nothing wrong with pushing yourself, but I think you have to balance it. Are you trying it just for fun, or are you trying it because you feel like you have to?

Instead, one of my personal favorites to do is just to replay the game, as normal, and have fun; trust the process. Maybe I'll do better next time; maybe I won't. But at least I'm not (as often) obsessing over silly game challenges!