N64 has kind of resurfaced in pop culture and I've jumped on the bandwagon, taking the opportunity to jump back in and play some classics, while sharing my experience on youtube.

Part of it is nostalgia. I had so many fun times playing Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing, LEGO Racers and various Star Wars games with my siblings. I played Turok, Perfect Dark, 007, and other violent games at my friend's houses who had more permissive parents!

I definitely miss those days, but I know I can't go back. Time for new memories on an old console, then! I've been enjoying playing Super Mario 64 with my 5 year old niece. She loves to play as Mario on the easy parts, but she'll usually pass me the controller to get her through the hard parts. I always do it with a smile!

Part of it is FOMO. N64 has nearly 400 games and I only played probably 50! I love games, I love that era, and there are so many of those experiences that I want for myself.

Part of it is stress reduction. I've been pursuing entrepreneurship for 6-7 years and I've been coping with workaholism and burnout. Picking up gaming has brought excitement, joy, and moderation back into my life.

Part of it is to show myself that I can progress towards my goals. "Organizations are fractals" is something I think about a lot. In a company, the CEO's habits and policies trickle down and influence every worker. In my own life, beating a difficult game is a small-scale version of finishing a major project. In other words, if I don't give up on the small scale, it makes it easier to be persistent with the big scale.

Part of it is rewarding myself. I recently resumed landscaping and it's so satisfying to work hard, clean up, then wind down by playing an hour or three of Army Men Sarge's Heroes.

Games can be found cheap at garage sales, or flea markets. For finding something specific, eBay is the best. Reproduction games can be found on aliexpress for less, and they often work better than old worn out authentic carts.

I dove down the physical cart rabbit hole. I learned how to identify authentic vs. reproduction. I watched dozens of youtube videos about how to clean and refurbish old cartridges. It's a hobby and a discipline in itself, requiring patience, commitment, and storage space. I went all in, buying cotton swabs, Goo Gone, Isopropyl alcohol, and specialty screwdriver bits. Along the way, I increased my confidence in my ability to move slow and repair things. If it was '95, I could totally work as a Nintendo repair technician!

So far, I've beat Army Men Sarge's Heroes, and Battletanx. Army Men was a huge struggle, one I wanted to give up so many times. Several levels were so gruelingly difficult and a few took me 5+ hours to beat. There are 16 levels, each with their own frustrating challenges. I never want to play that game again!

I let my viewers choose which game I play next. I build a little webapp to keep track of the votes. It uses an HTML table as input and creates a graphical output that I can display in my videos. I love building fun little projects like this!

I think one of my viewers hates me 😛, because they voted for me to play Army Men Sarge's Heroes 2! It's what I'll be playing next, after I clock the excellent Sin & Punishment.

I've made some connections I never thought possible. The world record holder for speedrunning Army Men Sarge's Heroes ended up watching my playthrough, and now he's watching what I'm playing next. I'm pleasantly surprised to see new chatters share their passion for the game I'm playing!

There's a new wave of N64 remakes that seem to be revitalizing the old medium. Analogue 3D and ModRetro M64 are the big ones. They've got wireless controller support, overclocking, firmware updates, HDMI output, lots of modern quality of life stuff that gamers want.

I'm planning on buying a M64 which is releasing later this month. I'm really excited to use it's overclocking feature to improve performance on games that tend to chug on original hardware. There is also a new game Xeno Crisis which looks like a blast. I'm so excited to play!

So yeah, that's my TED talk for today. I'm having a lot of fun with retro gaming. Can anyone relate?