Wow, this article from Joystick Division, which I saw them tweet earlier, sums up why I prefer to kick it old school when it comes to video games.

The writer visited the E3 convention for the latest in video game technology, and I think his post title just about says it all: “E3 is Exhausting.” There are so many new crazy consoles and handhelds out there that sometimes it’s enough to make your head spin! If a journalist feels overwhelmed, imagine how we feel!

It’s moments like that when I just stop and think back to a simpler time when only there were only two video game systems in the world that captured my attention and imagination: my good ol’ Nintendo, and my handy Game Gear (occupied 94% of the time by Mortal Kombat, like I said the other day).

Like this Nintendo t-shirt says, I guess I’d call myself “Classically Trained,” so forever I will hold that 8-bit standard nearest and dearest to my heart. Looking at some of the screenshots from these new games, 8-bit feels like it was so forever ago that it’s hard to imagine it ever even existing.

But what worlds it opened up! There I was, at age 10 just one high ace shy of legally entering a casino – but what did that matter?! I was the “Casino Kid,” wheeling and dealing around a remarkably and accurately seedy-looking sin parlor looking for some action at the tables.

And so what if you couldn’t run a full 82 game hockey season on “Blades of Steel” or “Ice Hockey” – I created my own teams and schedules and played out their triumphs and pratfalls using the generic teams provided as pawns. And maybe someday I’ll beat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (non-arcade style version), but it’s doubtful. I still look back fondly on the countless hours I spent in vain trying to defeat it (I know, I never said I was very GOOD). Oh well, I guess some things are just better off left a mystery…

…not Oregon Trail, though, that game was meant to be beaten. I mean, how else would you ever get to meet James K. Polk?