8 = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OLD SCHOOL GAMIN'
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2002
'80s games have extra life
By Lindsay Hanson Kansan staff writer
Some old-school Nintendo gamers compare themselves to guitarists.
Guitarists often maintain that callouses are imperative to maneuver the strings painlessly and with conviction. Purists of the original Nintendo Entertainment System say hardening a trigger-finger callous is the secret to the game.
Jon Messenger, Kingman senior, said he met his roommates daily to huddle around the television for some thumb-hardening.
"We just grew up playing those games," Messenger said."Now I don't have anything else to do,and I'm still really good at it."
Getting good may not have taken much with the Nintendo control pad's paltry five keys compared to the 16 keys of the control pad of Playstation 2. But Messenger is part of
a subculture of Generation Y kids who have been playing Nintendo since its introduction to the market in 1984, said Dustin Hall, manager for GameCo, 1008 Massachusetts St.
The original Nintendo system reigned as the top-selling system for seven years until 1991, Hall said. A working NES is becoming more difficult to find because the product is approaching its 20th anniversary.
"That's actually the longest run for being number one," Hall said. "Even now, assuming we'd be able to meet the demands for the systems, we would sell upwards of $300 worth of Nintendo merchandise a day."
Ethan Parker, manager of Game Guy, 7 E. 7th St., said he replaced run-down machine parts before putting the systems up for resale.
"I've cracked some open and there have been cockroaches inside," Parker said.
Original Nintendo games sell from $1 to as much as $45 for a version of Pacman that was manufactured illegally for a short period of time.
Hall said his refurbished systems sell for as much as $50. But some gamers are still playing the systems they bought as children. Messenger said he had to use a certain finesse to make his old system play.
you have to blow the dust out of the cartridge. You can't put the game in all the way, and then you have to slam it down and hit reset a few times before it will work."
"I got all kinds of tricks," he said. "First
"The problem is that saliva gets inside and corrodes the leads," he said. "It's a quick fix that no one should do."
Parker said he cringed at the idea of blowing into a game cartridge.
As the original NES begins to disappear, other versions of it gained popularity online. Hall said people had come to GameCo looking for more tangible, original console games.
"Computers have a lot of glitches," he said. "There's something a little more rewarding with an original console."
Seth Rowoldt, Lincoln, Neb., senior said although he spent more than two hours a day perfecting his skills on the NES game Tecmo Superbowl, the game time benefitted his study habits.
"It's a good break," he said. "Plus, it brings back the memories of when I was a cat of 10 or 11."
Contact Hanson at lhanson@kansan.com.
Eric Braem/Kansan
Seth Rowoldt, Lincoln, Neb., senior, vies for a win in Super Tecmo Bowl on his original Nintendo Entertainment System.