Jason Ocampo Associate Editor

Now Playing: Civilization III: Conquests (PC), Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna (PC), TacOps 4 (PC), Call of Duty (PC) Dying to Play: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (PC), Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC)

Nostalgia Ain't What It Used to Be

I'll admit it: I'm a pack rat. Maybe it's because I have a degree in history, but I place a lot of nostalgic value in things, especially games. I have trouble throwing games out because I tell myself there may be a day when I'll want to play EF2000 again, or there's going to be a moment when I'll want to load up the original Age of Empires. So, I figure it's better to hold on to them now instead of having to buy them back at a ridiculously high price on eBay later.

Then something happens in life that forces you to revaluate everything you've hoarded. My cathartic experience was moving...literally. I recently moved from Seattle to San Francisco to take this job at GameSpot. Since everything had to fit in my car, I went through my own personal judgment day that caused me to get rid of a lot of my belongings. It's an eye-opening experience, because you never realize just how much stuff you have until you're forced to part with it.

For instance, I practically had the entire collection of Jane's flight sims, from Jane's AH-64D Longbow all the way to Jane's World War II Fighters, all in their original boxes. And for some odd reason, I had about four separate copies of SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle. Even better, I had six different versions of Falcon 4.0, including three copies of the original three-ring binder edition, two regular boxed editions, and even a Mac edition! How or why I ended up with that many, I don't know. I had literally dozens and dozens of games, and it took me the good part of a day to go through them all.

I ended up selling most of them at a used-book store/software store. It wasn't an easy thing to do, but, in retrospect, it was the right thing. There's no scientific data to back this up, but I suspect that a lot of computer and video game players are pack rats like me. We hold on tight to games, especially the ones we like. After all, there's nothing better on a dark winter's day than to boot up a classic game that you love.

The problem is that you tend to accumulate a lot of these games, and as the years pass, you just don't realize how dated they've become. Those Jane's sims, for instance, were made to run on 3dfx Voodoo-based video cards. But 3dfx went out of business years ago. And most of those other games were built to run on much slower hardware, with ancient versions of DirectX.

Now there are ways to tweak Windows XP's compatibility mode so it can run old games, and I used to spend hours researching on the Internet, downloading the latest Glide wrapper and figuring out ways to trick a game into thinking my 2GHz Athlon XP was actually a 133MHz Pentium. But after this effort, I'd usually get a game up and running only to discover that my memory was a lot kinder than reality.

And as I was sorting through all my old games, it hit me: It was time to let go. I was like the guy who shows up to his high school reunion still wearing his letterman's jacket. There are so many great new games out there, and I was stuck in the past. Seriously, what were the chances I would load up the original Age of Empires again when there's the seriously great Rise of Nations? Or when am I actually going to play EF2000, a 1997-era flight sim that runs in 640x480 with no 3D acceleration, when Lock On: Modern Air Combat is jaw-droppingly gorgeous?

So I let go and sold them all for a bargain price. I realize I could have probably made out like a small bandit on eBay, but that would have required more time and effort than I could afford. Not to mention, one of the little joys in life is when you're browsing at a used-book store and make an amazing find. Hopefully those games will find some new owners who will enjoy them as much as I did.

If you're a pack rat like me, do yourself a favor and empty out the closet. It's time to move on.