We often talk about “adult” video games but typically that means violence, nudity, or things otherwise reserved for Rated R movies. This game, commonly referred to as Mother 2, actually has a sequel that was never released in English. One powerful game during the era of the SNES was Earthbound. Mother 3 (GBA, original release, 2006, fan-translation, 2008):
These games, this subculture is a strange but wonderful peak into how potent fandom is. Old, forgotten video games or never translated gems are suddenly reconfigured or thrust into a language that never had a chance to experience them.
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These manipulators of nostalgia re-formulate classic ideas and procedures and update them into the epistemologies of the present. The easiest way to refer to these fans are Fan Translators or those who rip apart the language of a game in order to localize it into another language, Rom Hackers or those who rip apart the procedures and art assets of a game in order to reconfigure it how they see fit, and Custom Cartridge Makers who seek to reproduce the former’s work on an authentic cartridge for that game’s original system. In essence, these fans, through their nostalgia, do not simply stop at purchasing old things that make them smile. It isn’t that this nostalgia is different, it just takes a few steps past consumption or re-consumption of goods. You could call this form of nostalgia enthusiast-oriented. While this cataloging is important, there is a form of nostalgia that we might often miss unless we specifically seek it out. This allows us to know that Mario’s abilities haven’t really changed too much even with the addition of a 3rd axis or that games themselves haven’t truly escaped their initial configurations. Emulators help us relive nostalgia in significant ways by allowing us to not forget the older procedural rhetoric, or as I want to call it our procedural folklore. Every retro game site out there reminisces about past consoles, past characters. Geeks talk about nostalgia a lot and video games are no exception. After all, my nostalgia is far different than yours even if we grew up during the same time and watched or did the same things.
It is used to sell us new products, it compels us to buy old products, and most of all it gives us something to debate. Nostalgia is something powerful in society but even more so Geek Culture.
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