My fondest childhood memories are of me going on exciting family trips while I spent them glued to my GameBoy. I can recall the triumphant feeling of finishing A Link to the Past DX while visiting the Grand Canyon. And the only reason I remember going there is that my batteries ran out. However, life came at me hard and I sort of lost interest in gaming.
Around the same time, everyone started going into lockdowns, my partner and I decided to buy a couple of Switch Lites. We figured they’d go out of stock for long periods as people figured out what to do indoors. And we all know how that went; everything went out of stock.
We each bought the first thing that was trending at the time that fit our interests. She got Animal Crossing and I got Breath of the Wild. We were hooked. Every possible moment was spent glued to the Switch. Because they were different games, we frequently shared what we were doing. This excitement turned up to 11 when we bought Mario Kart and started playing online together. There was a lot of screaming but so much fun as well.
And that’s how it’s been for the last couple of years. We don’t play as intensely as before, we do play often enough. I’ve re-discovered my love for JRPGs and am currently deep into Xenoblade Chronicles. I also resurfaced a nostalgia for my childhood gaming days. And thought maybe I should do something about it and hunt down the stuff I used to play with when I was a kid
But it seems a lot of people got the same idea because any crusty-looking GBA goes for about $150 on eBay. I went down the GameBoy modding rabbit hole and now I’ve never wanted something this bad in my life. But to ensure I could play pretty much anything I wanted, I opted for a 3DS instead. I can install custom firmware on this one and emulate all the GameBoy catalog, along with the 3DS and DS games. This was far more expensive, more so because I had to hunt down one with an IPS display. But I think it’ll be worth it. I’ll post some pics on Twitter when it arrives from Japan in a month.
And that’s it. That’s the post. I honestly just wanted to share my re-found excitement for gaming. I’m sure that by the end of the year I’ll have a couple more retro systems and an overpriced CRT TV.