Rediscovering A Love for Gaming

Juan Villela

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 I only remember going there because my batteries ran out. However, life hit me hard, and I lost interest in gaming.

Around the same time, everyone started going into lockdowns, and 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 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 with each other what we were doing and our experiences. This excitement was 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, but we do play often enough. I’ve re-discovered my love for JRPGs and am deep into Xenoblade Chronicles. I also resurfaced a nostalgia for my childhood gaming days. Maybe I should do something about it and hunt down the stuff I used to play with as a kid.

I went down the GameBoy modding rabbit hole. But it seems everyone got the same idea because any crusty-looking GBA goes for about $150 on eBay these days. So instead, I opted for a 3DS to ensure I could play anything I wanted. I installed custom firmware to emulate all the GameBoy, 3DS, and DS games. This was far more expensive because I had to hunt down one with an IPS display. But it was worth it. I’ll post some pics on Twitter in a month when it arrives from Japan.

And that’s it. That’s the post. I wanted to share my newfound excitement for gaming. I’m sure I’ll have a couple more retro systems and an overpriced CRT TV by the end of the year.

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