Random I'm gonna take you back to the past....

[TheSoulWalker TheSoulWalker]

Not to play some shitty games that suck ass, but to show you what I've done to keep myself healthily detached from the modern age.

Last week I've hit the age of 30, and leading up to it I realized that I was already hitting a mid-life crisis. All 4 family members are working full time, friends I grew up with are moving into their own places, having kids, getting married. it's an exceedingly nerve racking time. We all grow at our own pace but I began to think that as I was growing up and maturing, why did I feel like I was missing something? Something had disconnected from me that I could not put my finger on exactly outside the feeling that I was missing.

I was a freshman in college. slaving away at school, then going immediately to work the very same day. Go home, work on homework and finally detox with my games 'til 3 AM. I wake up at 6 AM the following morning. Effectively, I was killing myself. Lack of sleep, lack of food, lack of my social health. I had a girlfriend at the time sure, but she definitely didn't help me make any responsible decisions.... Anyway. Around my college years I was twiddling away at playing various MMOs, most notably Final Fantasy XIV. Heavensward was just around the corner, the game was on sale for $20.

The year is 2014, I'm in the process of my English 101 and our final was to do a free form report on whatever topic we wanted with a few stipulations. I decided to tackle the idea of modern censorship in media as my topic and tied it in while reviewing The South Park Movie. Sitting down and actually watching the movie of my own volition really gave a bit of clarity on where to start. I started watching older YouTube videos; AVGN, Nostalgia Critic, Old Red Vs Blue, etc. It dawned on me right then and there, I needed to re-experience the games from my childhood. One thing led to another and I started talking about it at work. My boss at the time mentioned that he had a Dreamcast that his son never uses anymore and was willing to give it to me. I asked if he had Marvel vs Capcom and he said yes, money was not even close to being on my mind and I said yes eagerly. Searching around Amazon I went and found a clone console to play NES and SNES titles, picked up a couple games and that marked the beginning of my end with modern consoles.

Piece by piece over these last 10+ years I have been slowly building my Retro library, making new memories with my old library as an adult. I dropped Final Fantasy XIV for a while because of costs and found a new love in playing PSO, experiencing BBU for the first time on PC. I had no idea what a dreampi was, or what modding retro consoles could be done outside putting the homebrew channel on the wii. There was just this magic that I could not properly put into words that I was receiving from rolling back a bit at the time. I was playing Fallout 4 on the side, having a good time with it, but nothing was hitting the same compared to what I was experiencing.

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Fast forward a few years right before COVID, I go to Anime Milwaukee. By now I've scooped up an Xbox Original and am putting hours into that. I got X-link Kai set up and was ready to put some solid hours into Halo after having not touched that game since '05.

Time moves on, and so I started moving backward. the fulfilling feeling of putting real time into a game where progression felt like it meant something. You unlocked something because you wanted to unlock it not because you felt like you had to unlock it. No other game has gotten me that feeling like it used to. So over the course of the 10+ years I've twiddled away and focused a healthy amount on both my retro gaming and my PC experience. Investing in my GOG library, making my retro lineup just right.

And Now....

I think so now, that I made it.

 

[Samatonic Samatonic]

You're living a part of life right now that you'll remember, a part that some might have wanted. You don't need to rush, you just need to take up a few good habits, not big, just some small ones to begin with, then it starts to become a part of you.

I know the whole advice thing is something many have heard, but thats the best part, it works, that's why it's still told today.

Plus your collection looks great, alot of room for improvement and designing as well.

 

[Rocket2049]

i wish i could setup like this, it looks like a lot of work and money
I got rid of a LOT of my old stuff, because i can emulate and it was just collecting dust really.
love your collection though

 

[PrismRed]

I'm happy for you but you desperately need some cable management.

 

[contrail_]

Sounds a bit existential, but I can dig it.
I had a pretty similar setup, consoles, guitars, crts and all around 10 years ago.
Now... I own more than 10 crt tvs. Thread lightly and don't get more than 3 nice ones.

 

[Pearly]

I was the other way around, met my wife, got married in my late teens, lived a simple life in my twenties before deciding to get a degree in computer science shortly after turning 30, the covid thing hitting made me just give in and get a degree at long last. The economy was bad when I finished school and it just got worse.

I also did the same for consoles being the other way around, I had many older consoles and older games, I did not have the room for them for I parted with almost all of it. I kept my dreamcast though and a few games for it, my gameboy pocket and my sega megadrive 2, keeping all games for mega drive.

I also don't mind having most things digitally and I definitely don't have an issue with emulation.

Only a few people I know are raising kids though, it's financial suicide unless both parents are earning plenty.

 

[Jdan-S]

I'm a 90s kid, so I grew up before social media. I know what life was like without internet or with slow dial-up speeds, so I remember what people used to do before smartphones and tablets. In my case, that would be watching cartoons, reading some books, drawing or other art crafts, using simple electronics like the Speak & Math or "brick game" handhelds, etc.

My way of detaching from the modern age is to try and recreate that experience and invest in things that don't require me to be always online. Part of the reason why I'm here in the forums is for the Repo, so that I can find roms for my retrogaming handhelds. Instead of buying a smartwatch, I got bitten by the Casio bug. I invested in a Kindle for focused reading. I also prefer having a collection of MP3s over streaming.

I'm tempted to collect retro hardware like what you have there, but I think I already have too much as it is, since I seldom get rid of anything. I still have stuff from the early days, along with some modern replacements that have the same feel.

 

[TheSoulWalker TheSoulWalker]

I'm happy for you but you desperately need some cable management.

So while yes, the hard thing right now is getting it to look better than it is currently. My biggest issue is that I have power strips daisy chained and luckily that's only a $60 job to do. That said, everything is capable of being streamed, including the possibility of streaming Time Crisis. I can also freely unplug consoles without having to completely undo everything in order to get it.