A nod to nostalgia - part one

It’s a strange thing nostalgia. Even the term seems to cast a reflective haze across the old grey matter. Revisiting past memories can often invoke both pleasure and sadness in equal measure. Casting one’s mind back to 'the good old days' often results in an overwhelming sense of retrospective contemplation. As you get older, inevitably, responsibility comes knocking, routines become a formality and the desire to recapture that lost essence of youthful simplicity often kicks around at the back of the mind.

For me, one of the main catalysts for spot of fond and often sombre nostalgia is video games. I’m often caught in a ‘back in the day’ frame of mind when it comes to all things gaming, the feeling constantly surfacing that as much as I love games, I can never quite recreate the same sense of emotive poignancy when playing as I had when I was younger.

Like many dedicated fans, my love for video games spans from a young age through to the present day, encompassing the many changes in the medium throughout that time frame. The following is by no means a list of ‘the greatest games ever’ (although a few could well befit that category), but rather a nostalgic nod to the titles that evoke the most memories to me personally.

I initially got hooked by gaming on the Sega Mega Drive when I was nine, so in that respect there will be no throwbacks to Commodore 64’s, ZX Spectrums or Atari ST’s, sorry folks but I had the unfortunate circumstance of not being born in that era. It would be brilliant to hear which games, old, new, good, bad and ugly make you the most nostalgic and for which reasons. Now that I am stroking my chin and wistfully gazing into the distance, here are a few of mine:

James Pond 2: Codename Robocod (Sega Mega Drive – first played in 1995)

Originally released in 1991, this was one of the first titles I bought after getting my Mega Drive for Christmas 1995. I expect my mum bought me this because it took a year of begging and fervent persuading that owning a games console wouldn’t send me off on a bloodthirsty rampage, and subsequently, all the games I was allowed to play had to happy, shiny and all round wholesome affairs.

Being so painfully unschooled in games in general, let alone the platformer, it took me about a month to figure out that jumping on the first boss’s head (a giant mechanical teddy bear) three times led to him exploding in shower of fireworks. Cue absolute delirium in my living room. I recall my sisters and I dementedly running around, whooping and hollering, screaming at the top of our lungs about having finally conquered our nemesis, a gargantuan robot teddy. It’s scenes such as that, had an outsider seen or overheard, would have probably sent them scrambling for the nearest telephone to get social services involved.


James Pond 2 first introduced me to ‘boss’ characters, the basic nature of platforming, endless frustration and uncontrollable joy at overcoming the most basic of gaming tasks that a younger, inexperienced me found mind bogglingly challenging to beat. It wasn’t until several years later having moved onwards and upwards to the Playstation, that I rebought a Mega Drive and James Pond 2 to relive its sixteen bit charms, and finally actually complete the game. The somewhat dusty cartridge resides in a cupboard back in my parent’s house to this day.

Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament (Sega Mega Drive – first played in 1995)

My first real introduction to the world of multiplayer gaming. The cartridge had two extra controller slots for epic four player shenanigans, no doubt insanely fun, but over excited controller yanking and elaborate arm movements often resulted in a heated race quickly becoming black and white screen fuzz. It may sound painfully clichéd, but this truly was the essence of multiplayer.

All four of you huddling around the tiny, ugly lump of a television set, micro machine clinging on to the toilet seat for dear life, one mistake and a watery pixelated hell-hole awaited. Hours upon hours were spent honing precise shortcut routes in time trial mode, a bitter rivalry of constant one-upmanship emerged staged across all manner of everyday surfaces and contraptions, often resulting the torturous pain of getting stuck in a blob of jam on your final lap. Micro Machines V3 on the Playstation, though still a fun addition to series couldn’t quite compete with the high thrills, drill dodging antics of Turbo Tournament. Spider, Walter, Dwayne and Davey etc… I wholeheartedly salute you.

Tomb Raider (Sony Playstation – first played 1996)

General widespread opinion tends to label the original TR, nearly a decade and a half later, as the best in the series to date. Tomb Raider was the main reason I invested in a Playstation all those years ago, still owning a lowly 16 bit Mega Drive myself, salivating with bitter jealousy when I first set eyes on Miss Croft’s first outing at friend’s house.

It’s almost incomprehensible by today’s standards how good the game looked back then, coupled with deep and intelligent level design, liberated because of the omission of two dimensional constraints. The levels were multi layered 3D playgrounds littered with devious traps and mind bending puzzles. The Lost Valley, Palace Midas, Cistern, the vertigo inducing Obelisk Of Khamoon, Atlantis and the climactic boss fight in The Great Pyramid, all unforgettable pieces of TR’s history.

One of my fondest gaming memories was when my sister and I completed the game from start to finish without dying, a feat I doubt we could come close to repeating now. 2006’s TR: Anniversary was simply a nod to the nostalgic fans amongst us (and one I was grateful for), still craving the sense of epic adventure and discovery the original gave us. Though stirring some fond memories, TR: Anniversary was never going to come close to emulating its ten year old counterpart contextually, in terms of scale, depth and originality. Lara Croft may still live on in current gen instalments and woeful movie cash- ins, but as of yet nothing has exceeded Core Design’s 1996 masterpiece.