Nostalgia
What is nostalgia? Nostalgia, according to Google, is “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations”. So it means that nostalgia is not only remembering the past, but looking back at memories that make us happy. Reminiscing these make us smile and we somehow wish we were back in a simpler time. A time when we don’t have a lot to worry about. What things evoke nostalgia for you?
Nostalgic in Manila
There is a group in Facebook called Classic Pare® Titos and Titas of Manila. I don’t like to admit it, but I think I am a Tita already. O⋅O For those who do not know, a Tita of Manila is not just an aunt, but I believe it also describes a woman in her 40’s. Anyway, in this group, I see posts that evoke nostalgia. Like:
- Snacks I used to buy when I was in elementary; restaurants I visited (which are now closed)
- Outdated technology like the stereo system, or dial-up Internet
- Old movies I have seen as a child; actors and actresses when they were young or in the prime of movie-making
- Popular singers and songs in the 80’s or 90’s; I still have my “song hits” with me 😀
- The things we used to do in school, like passing folded up notes or answering questions in a “slam book”, haha!
Some childhood memories
During summer breaks from school, I have spent a lot of time in my grandfather’s house in Manila. That’s where my mom worked, thus, that’s where I have hanged out. Most of the time with my youngest brother and our cousins. We played plenty of games together. Their cat gave birth to around six kittens one time; and when these kittens had opened their eyes and could walk, we played with them.
In the bedroom of one of my cousins, below the television sat a game console called Super NES. I remember having played Street Fighter and other games on it. Back home, we had a Family Computer where I played Super Mario Brothers, and a Game & Watch where I played Donkey Kong. There was also a Gameboy where I played Tetris.
Evoke Nostalgia with Plays.org
The games that my children play these days seem much more complicated than what I experienced before. I had a hard time controlling my avatar in Minecraft or Roblox. The virtual environment (is that what it’s called?) seemed to make me dizzy.
For now, I think I’ll stick to simpler games like what we can find on Plays.org. What is Plays.org? It’s “a site offering free and fun online games which can quickly be played from the browser”. These are the pros:
- It’s absolutely free, no ads.
- No special application needed to be installed. I can play this right on the browser.
- Hundreds of games and plenty of categories to choose from.
- There are educational games for the kids. Children could practise Math here. Like this game called Guardians: Defenders of Mathematica.
- No need to register.
- There are ratings for each game, so you can choose which one people rated higher in terms of difficulty, design, etc.
- Your favorite games can be stored.
- There are different games for people across different ages; for teens, toddlers, even grown-ups.
- There are games based on popular cartoons, like Barbie or the Avengers, to pique the children‘s interest.
- There’s even a Bible quiz game.
What I didn’t like:
- The site looks a little bit cluttered.
- There are games that are difficult to play using the laptop controls. Like the bottle throwing game.
- The text parts explaining the site and the instructions per game seem long-winded. As I see it, most people want to get straight to the game. Although, this shows that the game developer takes the time to explain. There are even screenshots.
- I don’t understand why there are random videos of Radiohead and movie clips, though.
- Unfortunately, the Bible quiz game doesn’t give the correct answer whenever I answered wrongly.
Favorite games on Plays.org
The games that reminded me of my childhood were the Tetris-type game called Tetra Blocks, Classic Solitaire, the Barbie Dreamtopia running game that felt like Sonic the Hedgehog game, Space Alien Invaders shooting game, and the Mahjong Solitaire. I realized that over the years, my hand-eye coordination deteriorated. The games here could help.. ahm, more mature people regain this complex cognitive ability. Thank goodness for this website discovery, I could reminisce childhood memories and have simple fun once in a while.
How about you? What were your favorite games as a kid? Do you still play games now?
