I have had a Super Nintendo since the early 90s. I cut my gaming teeth on both it and the Game Boy, falling completely in love with all things Mario. Many many hours were spent sitting on the floor in the middle of my parent’s living room as a pre-teen, learning the art of perseverance as I failed many levels of Super Mario World over and over again. Also, many temper tantrums when I just couldn’t quite the hang of things. But get the hang of them slowly I did, and complete

I also discovered a love of racing games – with Micro Machines, Micro Machines 2, Super Mario Kart, and Rock & Roll Racing in my collection, how could I not? But those… those I was good at.

And I still am, it would seem.

You see, that SNES and my 15 or so games has sat in a box in my spare room for the last 8 years because I could not figure out how to hook it up to a modern smart TV. When my betrothed Li found out about this, that box came with me down to her house where she, a proud geek, was able to figure out how to hook it up. There was some cursing, a long-lost power cable that needed replacing, a dead controller, and a…  doohickey of some kind that needed to be purchased… but she was able to do it!

There was a lovely weekend of kicking her ass at Super Mario Kart, at Micro Machines & Micro Machines 2 (and boggling at the improvement/advancement of graphics in just the couple of years between those two). I also discovered that in all Super Mario World, Yoshi’s Island, Super Mario Allstars, and Donkey Kong Country 2 that all my old save files from 30 years ago… are still there. That was completely mindblowing if I’m completely honest.

Sadly, we did discover that 4 of my games no longer work. Not even the tried-and-tested ‘blowing on the cartridge’ helped. And, heartbreakingly, two of them are my favourites – Super Tennis and Rock & Roll Racing (the other two being Lemmings (which is doubly sad because that was my late mum’s favourite game) and Donkey King Country) Li, however, did some reading and it could be as simple as dust on the contacts, and she found a guide to taking apart the cartridge to clean it.

And… if it doesn’t work? It’s not like I can’t replace them.

One thing I did discover was that Rock & Roll Racing was made by Silicon & Synapse, who later became Blizzard… yup, the same Blizzard behind WOW. I also discovered that currently on sale is the Blizzard Arcade Collection which contains Rock & Roll Racing – a remastered edition but also the 1993 SNES edition.

It was super weird to get used to the keyboard controls for the car. It took me a whole FOUR races before me and Katarina Lyons were leading the pack!

5 thoughts on “Retro Gaming Weekend

  1. Wow, that’s amazing that your old saves are still in tact! It’s been a while since I pulled my SNES out, but last time I checked, many of my games also still had saves. These old carts are workhorses for the most part! 🙂

  2. Getting old kit to work with a contemporary TVs is quite an achievement. That’s a blog posy in itself. I foolishly gave both my original NES and SNEs away in 2003 when I moved. Ah well such is life. You can’t hoard everything Or can you?

  3. Kate says:

    There’s nothing quite like pulling out an old console and reliving your childhood!

    I actually purchased quite a few SNES games from GameStop online a few years back! So if you’re interested in replacing your sadly non-working cartridges, maybe check there!

  4. Jen says:

    I remember when “blowing on the cartridge” was the go-to for getting a video game to work. My brother and I spent a whole lot of time playing NES and Super NES games together. He was much better at it than I was, but willing to teach me how to improve. Thanks for the nostalgia!

  5. GamerLadyP says:

    We have SO many dusty gaming consoles around. I try not to think about how little we’ve used our Wii… Our PS3 is actually used to make on of our TVs into a smart TV, LOL. Poor thing, not living up to its purpose.

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