There are endless possibilities stretched out before him.
This ancient Toonami bumper has always spoken to me. As I write this, it’s somehow 2024. I’m now the same age as Homer Simpson when ‘The Simpsons’ premiered about a month after I was born; 34. That’s how old my dad was when he had me, too. Bart’s still 10 and Homer’s still in his 30s, but those of us stuck in meat space just keep getting older.
I’ve played video games so as long as I can remember. I’ve never truly stopped completely, though my interest has waxed and waned. There are times in my life, especially when I was younger, where I’ve been a real dedicated “gamer.” I would follow new releases closely, scour the internet to find translations of ROMS never released in the U.S., spend time on message boards talking about them. I even won the GameFAQs 2003 Summer Contest (with what was at the time the closest thing to a perfect bracket). Other times, like in college, the amount of time I spent on video games was pretty marginal.
Since I got a big boy job after grad school, most of the gaming I’ve done has been in-person with friends. We play board games, card games, and local multiplayer games on my Switch. That’s been pretty casual and pretty fun.
But this last year has been tough with family issues and major life changes. A lot of my bandwidth has been dedicated to professional and personal responsibilities, and in some ways, I’ve let my interests and hobbies fall by the wayside. In 2024, I want to try to reconnect with some of the games from my past — or try new-to-me games from past years — to recapture some of the spark I once had for gaming. A few of the games on my list for this year:
- Fallout 1
- Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
- Baldur’s Gate 2
I haven’t played some of these games since high school or maybe undergrad which is at least 12 years ago now. I’d like to regard them again now with a (hopefully) more developed analytic mindset. I also hope writing my thoughts and experiences down here will help facilitate that, and maybe entertain some people along the way. I personally follow a few of this sort of personal video game blog and the format seems to be dying as folks my age grow up and move on in life. This blog is my attempt to help keep the flame lit just a little longer.
So, stay tuned if you like dated Simpsons references, old cRPGs, 2D games from the 16-bit era and other boomer shit like that. Here’s to a productive new year!
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