Hello - RE Fan of Old

[UmbrellaTech]

Hello all - I think it was 1998 when I was only 15 I got to play the original RE. Then RE2 within a week.

Needless to say I was hooked completely. We'd never seen anything like that before then. I remember them both being very much "of their time" - in the era of X-Files and the new internet there was unsteady mistrust of big corporations and lots of promise in the development of new entertainment. Resident Evil (and definitely Silent Hill, and probably Metal Gear) moved games away from being the preserve of bedroom losers and kids and out into the mainstream. Probably due to the enthusiastic spreading of the word from kids like me!

Gosh. Nostalgia...

Anyway I've kept up mostly with the saga through YouTube longplays but nothing will ever come close I don't think to the magic of the original two Playstation games. And RE3 a little bit, bless it. Resident Evil 4 was really amazing and had a magic all it's own but I was 22 when that came along and that was really the last piece of the old magic I felt from the series. RE5 was a little bit daft but passable (had that on PC) and 6 was just unplayable tosh - I remember buying it for the Xbox and for a few years had a Christmas ritual of sitting down for a few days to try and get through it but I just couldn't face it.

Well, I could ramble on for ages but I have a sorta specific reason for posting and something of a project I'm pondering. Now I'm getting on for 40 I do look back fondly on those years and those exciting times with Jill and Chris and Leon and Claire! Hello everyone, will enjoy lurking around.

 

[Jen]

Hello and welcome to the forum. :smile:

 

[Romero]

Welcome to the forum. Very nice intro :smile:

 

[Angel]

Welcome, thanks for joining us!

 

[Springhosen]

Welcome!!

 

[UmbrellaTech]

Thank you everybody.

 

[UniqTeas]

Welcome Stranger! I look forward to hearing more of your opinions!

 

[UmbrellaTech]

Welcome Stranger! I look forward to hearing more of your opinions!

Lol, well I could ramble on for ages about it. I don't know if I'm the oldest one here at getting on for 40 but I must be close. So I'll ramble a little, work is slow...

It was the climate of the times that REALLY made it. Honestly back then if you liked computer games you kept your head down - if it wasn't football or cars you were into you definitely didn't shout about it. But then games as teen/adult recreation just got too hard to ignore. It's like we almost faced an 80s-style collapse in gaming, but something (probably the Japanese market) kept pumping out these stellar, new things which we all go our hands on. Still have my original, pre-platinum RE1 discs and box in my living room - I think that's the one with Chris Redfield ACTUALLY SMOKING in the intro! Lol, can't have that now. Well, until Solid Snake smoked constantly throughout MGS then it was fine again. They were times that brought about late-night video game review shows and the determined crawl of gaming into the mainstream despite all social obstacles.

I was on holiday the first time I played RE and it was my first time on an OG PS1 too. I remember having a nightmare that very night about a grainy-graphics zombie trying to bite me and how I'd get out of the bedroom if there was one! Came across hunters the next day and realised just how screwed I'd be if this was real. My friend took over and completed the game as I watched spellbound. The upstairs TV wouldn't play RE2 though (no idea why) so we moved the PS downstairs and completed RE2 over a couple of long, incredible nights. I think I'd got back home and bought and finished RE1 and 2 when Silent Hill came out... of course that's another level of David Lynch-ian nightmare but my dad was particularly intrigued - having done HIS growing up in the 60s all this was INSANE and he wouldn't touch the Playstation for fear of catching some nerd-like syndrome off it... Until Medal of Honour and then he'd literally lose nights on the thing!

So, the potential and inertia behind it kept on being exciting. The internet was new and it was NOT the preserve of slow old industry and slow old money it was fast-paced and new and the domain of young, anarchic principled people. Suddenly it was going to be a new world of information and unseating old powerhouses and establishments. I'll say it again too but the X-files... that show did SO much for riding the climate of those times and RE2 was a perfect, pristine little gem of that zeitgeist. OG RE was the first 'effort' I'd seen in an engaging and movie-style plot full of GRIPPING excitement engage an audience that was literally protagonist and drew you into that immersive universe. For the first time you didn't suspend disbelief you were INVOLVED because you were THERE and the places were almost photo-realistic. Who left that book there? Who knocked that over? Whose clothes/tools/responsibilities were all these? Looking at it now it looks primitive but back then it was BEYOND cutting-edge. Walking around that mansion with the atmosphere like The Shining... immersive is the word. Completely. And coupled with the lo-fi CRT TVs of the day smoothing out the rougher edges of the graphics this only helped things tbf.

Anyway, for the average young gamer the original Alone in the Dark largely passed us by, but that would have been a little too 'campy' for the un-convinced masses back then. Although it was niche I played it years later and definitely saw what RE had leant on.

Maybe more later... I'm enjoying this essay!

 

[Angel]

Lol, well I could ramble on for ages about it. I don't know if I'm the oldest one here at getting on for 40 but I must be close. So I'll ramble a little, work is slow...

Almost 38 here, so fellow Oldie...I think there may be one or two who are older but they keep it very quiet if they are :lol:

When I first started on @Steve 's forums, I was about 23 or so. This was probably the latest one I joined and I would have been about 26/27...seems like a lifetime ago now

 

[UniqTeas]

As a 33 year old, I can respect your views and how well written your essay was. (I also have a BA in Literature with minors in Creative Writing/Teaching so my opinion still means nothing, but you can at least surmise I did read your entire essay! haha)

I had an Uncle who was 9 years older than me who got me started with RE2, so I can view my older companions as people in that age range and understand a little pit of your personalities. And I like it!

 

[Jonipoon]

Welcome to the forums! And I really enjoyed reading your nostalgic stories from the past, I can definitely feel your passion for these things.

I’m pushing 30 myself this year, but my uncle whom introduced me to RE3 and Dino Crisis when I was a kid is 43 now, and I’ve had similar discussions with him about how gaming used to be in the 90’s. Things have definitely changed!