Are you old enough to remember the release of the Super Nintendo? Child labor was against the law back then but I had a $5 an hour under the table job fueling small planes and washing rental cars at my grandpa's airport in Spearfish, South Dakota. He would take me flying with him sometimes so I got about 2,000 hours of flight training. When summer vacation was over and my friends would ask me what I did over the summer none of them would believe that I was flying Cessnas with my GrandDad. I would also buy big bags of Blow Pops and sell them at school making about $10 a day so I didn't have to beg my mom to buy the Super Nintendo but I remember her feeling I was wasting a ton of money on something stupid that I already had, " The Nintendo."
My mom wasn't alone. Most parents at the time felt Nintendo was just running a scam. They didn't understand why 16-bit was better than 8-bit and they really didn't like how the Super Nintendo couldn't play original Nintendo Entertainment System cartridges.
When the original "Nintendo" came out it felt like something the whole family could enjoy, but it seemed like none of our parents cared about the Super Nintendo or the Sega Genesis. Maybe they were just "over it" or maybe they thought video games were just a fad. The PlayStation and Nintendo 64 were amazing too, but I have zero memories of adults playing with us.
I think the world that our parents and grandparents grew up in was so different from what we had that it created a generational gap that doesn't really exist anymore because kids today like the same stuff that we did. My kids still play Mario, watch Star Wars, know every Disney movie and song by heart, and collect Pokémon cards. One of my favorite memories of being a parent is of my son and his friends screaming and running to me for help. I thought someone fell down and cracked their head open and needed first aid or something but it turned out that they couldn't figure out how to get Mario out of a pit and needed the best video gamer they knew to help them.
Carrying around a Bluetooth controller is inconvenient so I play these old games using the on screen controller. I preferred the OG Nintendo because it had only two action buttons, but using four, A,B,Y, and Z, is OK too. If you're emulating these old-school games on a PC or playing them on a TV they look very digitized and dated, but they look great on the phone.
Thanks for reminiscing with me today about the Super Nintendo and Super Mario World. After playing through it again I realize what a sequel it was to the classic 8-bit Super Mario Bros. 3. One thing I'm really going to miss about 8-bit gaming is the ability to rewind time. I've been unable to find a Super Nintendo emulator that has this ability. Do you know of one?
