A trip back through video game history

Kris Ketonen · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 01, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

With shelves afloat of classical games and consoles, a sojourn to Thunder Bay's Retro North Games is similar taking a travel backmost done video crippled history.

The store, located on Algoma Street, has accumulated thousands of classical gaming items, including games and consoles. And they're selling overmuch amended than proprietor Matt Carr expected.

"We primitively were gonna bash this conscionable for our website, conscionable online," Carr says. "We started putting immoderate worldly out, and I'd accidental now, our online is astir apt matched, oregon adjacent in-store, I'd say, is possibly higher than online."

Carr said the concern finds its retro gaming products successful assorted places, including auctions. The banal includes assorted classical consoles — those include the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Nintendo 64, PSP, 3DO, a Sega Genesis-Sega CD combo, adjacent a Virtual Boy — and shelves of controllers, and games.

And portion the store does person in-the-box collectors' items — similar an unopened Game Boy and Virtual Boy — astir radical that acquisition from Retro North Games bash truthful to play, Carr said.

"We'll usually spot 3 antithetic reasons," helium said. "The archetypal crushed is puerility memories, nostalgia, idiosyncratic wants to play a crippled they utilized to play erstwhile they were a kid."

"The different 1 is forcing their kids to play the games they utilized to play, that happens each the time," Carr said. "And for younger kids, it is easier to prime up a crippled with a controller that lone has a mates of buttons versus similar a PS5 controller."

"And past the 3rd 1 would be collectors, radical that conscionable privation to person it connected display, oregon amusement it off."

Frank Cifaldi, laminitis and manager of the Video Game History Foundation successful Okaland, Calif., said the involvement successful retro gaming is "50-50 nostalgia and, honestly, caller radical discovering aged games."

I've really been astir video crippled collectors for a precise agelong time, since it was new," said Cifaldi. "I started collecting games erstwhile you could find them successful thrift stores, and yeah, a batch of radical are nostalgic for their past, and are benignant of trying to possibly capable successful the gaps, right?"

"There's a batch of radical who, let's say, cod aged games similar they're shot cards oregon something, wherever they place with a circumstantial console they like," helium said. "Maybe you similar the 8 spot Nintendo. And they deliberation it mightiness beryllium amusive to fig retired what each the games are and cod them arsenic a afloat set. That's 1 benignant of collector."

But younger gamers who are discovering classical gaming play a large role, too, Cifaldi said.

"There is benignant of a civilization online astir not lone playing but besides watching radical play aged games," helium said. "They're a batch more, let's say, easy accessible successful presumption of immediately-gratifying entertainment."

"You crook it connected and you property commencement and you conscionable commencement playing, and it's casual to benignant of grasp the rules....that mightiness beryllium easier to instantly recognize and beryllium entertained by, than possibly a more-modern crippled that mightiness person a small spot much of a learning curve, oregon you know, cutscenes with stories successful them."

"I deliberation a batch of radical are discovering that you tin get a $5 crippled from two Xboxes agone and beryllium conscionable astir arsenic entertained arsenic thing you get for $60.00 caller now," helium said. "I expect a batch of radical are conscionable looking for inexpensive amusive games to bargain from that benignant of era, similar the early-to-mid-2000s tends to beryllium a large chunk of what I've I've seen from retro crippled stores."

Cifaldi, who's worked successful the video crippled industry, has been funny successful preserving video since his precocious schoolhouse days.

"I ever felt that it was hard to get the accusation 1 mightiness request to explicate video crippled history," helium said. "For example, libraries didn't clasp connected to magazines that reported connected games."

"They tended to propulsion them distant erstwhile they were done, and truthful determination was nary backtracking and seeing what radical thought astir games successful their time, oregon however games were marketed backmost successful the aged days," helium said. "I founded the Video Game History Foundation that really precisely nine years agone this Friday."

The instauration includes an archive of informational worldly for researchers, including a integer room with magazines, concern records, and different game-related documentation.

"It's gratifying to maine to spot that determination is an progressive involvement successful discovering wherever we came from successful presumption of the creation of video crippled creation," Cifaldi said. "I deliberation that video games are the champion signifier of amusement to beryllium invented successful the past similar 50 years, and and it's thing that I consciousness that we've hardly scratched the aboveground on, what games are susceptible of adjacent similar socially, fto unsocial entertainment-wise."

"It's similar erstwhile we were successful school, and we were asking our parents and teachers to warrant wherefore we request to larn history," helium said. "It's to larn wherever we came from to, to not marque the aforesaid mistakes that we made successful the past. It's to benignant of  physique thing caller and amended by knowing however we did things before."

"I consciousness precise powerfully that video games are the amusement of the future, and that they lone get amended the much we recognize wherever they came from, and truthful it's been truly bully for maine to to spot that there's inactive an progressive involvement successful looking backward and knowing it."