Do you ever long for a simpler time; a pre-digital world before the advent of social media, selfies, and the iphone? A time when all you had to worry about was whether you’d be allowed to stay up to watch Baywatch or which Pogs to trade at playtime?
If the answer’s yes, you’re experiencing nostalgia – and you’re not alone. It seems there’s a whole troop of Generation Y kids going through the same thing.
Nostalgia is basically a yearning for the ‘golden age’ of childhood. As adults, most of us try to re-live our past. We don pigtails and ties and going to school disco-themed club nights, listen to Spotify playlists with names like Throwback Thursday, and download movies like the Labyrinth or the entire John Hughes collection. Hell – there’s even a novelty cereal café in East London where you can munch on Lucky Charms and pop tarts while watching Nickelodeon.
For many of us this nostalgia takes the form of consoles and classic arcade video games like Space Invaders, Pac-man and Tetris. Who doesn’t remember the thrill of getting their first Sega Mega Drive, button bashing their way through heated Asteroids sessions, or jumping barrels and climbing ladders on Donkey Kong?
The capital has tapped into our collective nostalgia and marketed this retrotainment. The result? A rash of retro-inspired bars, cafes and club nights and events have popped up all across the city, where you can re-live the magic of playing console battles whilst sipping 80s-inspired cocktails.
One such establishment, the Old School Yard, a pub in London Bridge, offers a pizza-themed menu inspired by the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles, a foosball table, and a Nintendo 64 Console, so you can play Mario Kart as 90s classics spin late into the night.
But you don’t have to be a bespectacled hipster or live in East London to get your retro games fix.
Atari recently launched its very own series of casino games and to celebrate the launch, NetBet is running a pretty awesome retro promotion: the Atari Challenge. All you have to do is play one of the exciting new Atari games (Star Raiders, Black Widow, Asteroids), and you’ll be in with a chance to win an Atari Flashback gaming console or a Vault Video game.
Go old school and play… you know you want to.