The Golden Age of Gaming

I know that many of the visitors to this site first heard of Zelda during the days of Ocarina of Time. I know that many of you have never owned a system before the 64/Playstation Age. I feel sorry you. You are the group of gamers that missed out on the first 3 generations of consoles. The Atari started things off for us. It showed the companies what games worked and what games didn't. It formed mini-genres that would be expanded later. Better than that, it prepared us for the Golden Age of Gaming. GAG began in 1986, when Nintendo first entered the battle of the consoles. Amazingly, Nintendo managed to crush all opposition. Nowadays, gamers are split between X-Box, Gamecube, and Playstation2. Back then, the Nintendo Entertainment system supplied all your gaming needs. Capcom made side-scrollers like Megaman and fighters like Street Fighter. Squaresoft made RPG's like Final Fantasy. And, of course, Nintendo brought us our Mario and Zelda. Many games were made almost impossibly hard, but kept gamers interested and busy for weeks. Throughout the rest of the decade and the beginning of the next, the Golden Age shown brightly in its own 8-bit world. However, technology was doomed to advance. In 1993 the NES was dying out(a sad year to remember), but the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was just beginning to shine. Chrono Trigger, Super Mario World, A Link to the Past. Games like these continued to blow the competition away. Games were still difficult, and quality was King. By the time the SNES had run its course, the Golden Age had gone on for about a decade. Legends were made and series were created. But why am I telling you? Because you missed out. You can never know how much I feel your pain, even if you don't. Here's what I want you to do. Go to a pawn shop. Find and NES. There's a place in my town that sells games for $4. Buy some. Live through the ages. Don't be concerned with graphics or even plot. In GAG, gameplay rules. Nothing else matters...

~Daniel Rendleman