Every so often, I contemplate current gaming, and how incredible it would sound to young me. Not for the reasons you might think, either; the most recent thing that has got me thinking this way is the existence of the Sega Ages collection on Nintendo Switch.
Think about it. Back in the '90s it would have been absolutely unthinkable for Sega to be making Nintendo their primary platform. If you'd told someone in the playground that you'd be able to play Alex Kidd, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Thunder Force IV, Gain Ground, Virtua Racing, Out Run and numerous others on a Nintendo console, they would have laughed at you and probably given you a "dead arm".
But here we are today. I can fire up my Switch and, within seconds, be playing any of the above, or Space Harrier, or Phantasy Star, or Fantasy Zone and… soon, hopefully, G-LOC Air Battle.
I'm particularly looking forward to G-LOC as it was an absolute favourite arcade game growing up. Any time we went to the seaside — which was the only time you'd see a gaming arcade here in the UK — I would absolutely always want to play on G-LOC with its awesome hydraulic cabinet and its extortionate (to my Dad) asking price of 50p per credit.
And G-LOC isn't really a game I've had much opportunity to revisit over the years, either; the home ports of it at the time were mostly pretty crap, particularly on the home computers, and the arcade version was, for a long time, a bit dodgy in MAME. It mostly works fine now… but it'll still be nice to have an official version to enjoy for the first time in… well, ever, really.
Gaming's come a long way. But it brings me a certain amount of comfort that so many of these games remain relevant after twenty or thirty years or more… and that companies like Sega are so willing to celebrate them in the best way possible.
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