I’m paying very close attention to this stuff.

Previously on Game Restart: [it’s a series]

The thing about arcades is that arcades are expensive. 

Adjusted for inflation, a quarter in early 80s money is approximately 63¢ in today’s money at the time of this writing. Most people probably aren’t used to spending money after the initial investment in the console and then the game for their home, but imagine spending that for every three tries, lives, or continues.

Previously on Game Restart: [it’s a series]

Many people invest a lot in how their games are viewed and played. 

I did not. At least, not for a long time.

“Failure” is often used as a dirty word by gamers, but this is one of the ways in which gamer culture often gets things wrong. If you fail and try again, that’s essentially practice for success.

Previously on Game Restart:
1 of N [recapping later days, but still pretty early]
0 of N [recapping the early days]

In each of the recaps, you may have noticed I haven’t mentioned Nintendo.

Because of the PlayStation, I have Nintendo. (And pretty much only because of Sony.)

That may require unpacking a bit. Back to 1985.

Previously on Game Restart: [recapping intensifies]

I’m not going to suggest that video games were better in the olden days. They absolutely were not; anyone who thinks that they were is probably legally blind or has closed their mind to reality not damaged by Space War for the Atari VCS. At a certain point, video games didn’t exist. And then once they existed, they were objectively terrible for the most part. Being novel was their only saving grace. 

We didn’t have much money. I understand that now, though I didn’t understand it then. 

This meant toys of an electronic nature—especially in the 1970s—were rare, and although I still recall we had a lot of toys, even limited lots of toys like Lego, Micronauts, and some Star Wars figures and (hand-made) vehicles, electrical devices were rare.