There are portions of Castlevania that will defeat you. Portions that will make you look back mournfully over your life and the decisions that led you up to this point – your 17th straight death courtesy the Medusa heads.

The late 1970s saw the release of the Atari 2600 and the rise of the home gaming console. But by the early 1980s, it crashed and burned. This was due mostly to gamers’ frustration at sub-par games (“E.T. The Extra Terrestrial,” anyone?). The sentiment effectively killed the home-console market.

The newer generation of gamers may not remember Blockbuster Video. However, for those of us of a certain age the rental behemoth is almost impossible to forget. There was a time about 20 years ago when Blockbuster was as ubiquitous as McDonalds.

These days, game systems come with all kinds of I/O ports—USB, HDMI, Ethernet, Optical Audio and more. These portals are used to do everything from log online to connect digital cameras.

In a previous blog post we touched on five of the most iconic video games of the 1980s. This wasn’t necessarily a compilation of the greatest games (although some, like Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros. will always have re-playability), but rather those titles that defined a decade.

Who’d have thought that after exploding on the scene in the ‘80s and raking in tons of cash, those old Nintendo Entertainment System game cartridges would enjoy a renaissance on the used market decades later?

For fans of retro gaming, few things are more fun than firing up an old console system on a modern flat-screen TV. Seeing how games of yesteryear look in stunning 1080p high definition is a goal unto itself. 

In a previous post, I discuss some classic games that you know and probably played, but that you should give a second look in 2015. Here I’ll discuss a trio of all-but-forgotten retro games. 

Spoiler warning: This post contains spoilers for The Last of Us (little ones), the Left Behind DLC for The Last of Us (big ones), and, well, 1987’s Metroid.

You’ve heard of the games on this list. You’ve probably played at least a couple of them. But have you played them recently? In this millennium? 

Has Mainstream Gaming Gotten Less Patient?          

I remember a time in about 1991 when I borrowed Super Mario Brothers 3 from a friend for a weekend. I wanted to beat it before I gave it back, but this being the relatively early days of console gaming,

A couple years back, while visiting with family over Thanksgiving, my cousins and siblings and I started playing the card game we call King Peasant (though it’s also called a lot of other things around the world). 

Even though video game giants like Sony and Microsoft continue to release their "latest and greatest" hardware in the form of the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, retro gaming is continuing to grow.