Retro Video Games Create a Community on Long Island
Filed for WSHU Public Radio
Long Island and video games have a history as old as the medium.
It’s generally held that the very first video game, Tennis for Two, was developed in 1958 by William Higinbotham of Brookhaven National Labs.
When Nintendo released their Nintendo Entertainment System — or N-E-S — in 1985, the North American home video games market was stagnant and there was no guarantee of success. They were seen as a novelty, and no longer profitable after the failure of Atari, the biggest player in the industry at the time.
But Nintendo pulled it off, igniting what is now the most profitable entertainment industry in the world, worth over 91-billion-dollars.
Joseph Lerner, an IT worker and father of three from Saint James on Long Island is the proud owner of one of these first 50,000 systems. But he wasn’t in line to buy it day-one.
He’s a collector, and for him, like many retro games enthusiasts on Long Island, a childhood pastime became a lifetime passion through buying and trading.
“That’s what I grew up on. That was the thing. The Nintendo, Super Nintendo — I remember when I first got Mortal Kombat, everyone was at my house. They were all like ‘You’re the only person who got it!’ All day — then we’d go outside and play games.”
Mike Burd, owner of retro-focused shop, Video Game Trading Post in Levittown shared a similar sentiment.
“It's my generation buying their childhood back.”
Burd opened his shop in 2015 as the retro games market began to boom. Now independently owned games shops catering primarily to the retro market are popping up all over Long Island. He uses the example of classic NES game, Contra.
“When I see Contra back in 2007 selling for 10, 15 bucks and now it’s selling for 40-45 bucks — pretty much it’s tripled over.”
Burd had been selling and trading games out of his shed before then.
Leroy Raymond, co-founder of the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo says these casual meetups are a hallmark of the retro gaming community.
“We started the expo, it was me and two other guys. We met just through the Facebook group and trading games in Target parking lots and places like that on Long Island.”
The first expo was in 2015 and saw huge success.
“We were expecting, you know, a third of of the amount of people that showed up. So it’s a great problem to have when a lot of people are really into it.”
This year’s expo was held this past weekend at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City and was expanded to include a second day.
Vendors, internet personalities and players turned out to share their love of retro gaming through play, discussion, transaction — and competition.
Many attendees first heard about the event through the Long Island Retro Gaming Facebook group, which boasts nearly three-thousand members.
Burd says that social media has played a huge role in the current popularity of retro games.
“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn't for social media — Facebook, Google. It's tremendous.”
It makes it easier to find the games and hardware you’re looking for, but for collectors like Joseph Lerner, this ease brings stiff competition.
"It helps because I’ve met a lot of cool people, but for the average person going hunting — because I love treasure hunting, I love finding this stuff — there’s so many people. They’ve just slimmed it down — ‘Oh you’re the tenth person here.’”
This popularity hasn’t gone unnoticed by the industry either.
Last year Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition, a miniature version of the original NES with a selection of popular titles built-in.
The demand far outweighed the supply. The system, which costs $60 at retail, can currently sell for as much $350 on eBay.
Its follow-up, modeled after 1990’s Super Nintendo Entertainment System will be released this month and similar systems are coming soon from Sega and Atari.
These systems are a great opportunity for the casual audience to enjoy these classic games, but enthusiasts have been using the same technology behind them to play console games since the mid-90s.
Software emulation allows anything from a personal computer to a cellphone, or even a different video game console to read and play digital copies of a video game.
While many say that emulation is important for preserving video game history...
Raymond: “They were kind of designed to be ephemeral. I don’t think they were designed to last. So I think emulation serves a purpose in that we’re at least able to preserve these things.”
Everyone agreed that nothing beats the real thing.
Burd: “I like playing them on my actual controller. I plug my NES in, I push the cartridge in...and just play — the way it should be.”
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