For us nowadays, childhood has become the 'most familiar stranger'. Although we have grown up, the memories of our childhood do not seem to have faded away. You may still remember the days of playing GameBoy under the blanket with a small lamp; you may still dream about the afternoons in front of the TV waiting for the anime to update; you may still recall the Nokia ...... that you once wanted to own in a trance.
These days, we no longer have to put up with point-and-shoot games without backlighting, and we can bite the bullet and buy the phone we want. But everything, it seems, is no longer as fun as it was in the beginning. Just in time for Children's Day, the Minority has prepared a 'Back to Childhood Guide' for you, which will hopefully take you back to your childhood with a smile even when the epidemic is on the rise again.
Find childlike fun in games
From the traditional games such as picture shooting and eagle catching chickens to the new age video games, they all constitute indelible memories of a generation. In a time when 3A masterpieces and niche indie games are dominating, do you still remember the game that used to make you forget to eat and sleep?
Gather round! Animal Mori Friends
These days, there are few games that treat you like a child as much as Assemble! Animal Mori Friends" is a game that treats you like a child. This is so because in Animal Mori, you can take a brief break from the annoying reality and reap the raw, light-hearted joy of being a child. Released in early 2020, this game coincided with the raging epidemic and became a spiritual Eden for many.
In Movimori, players will move to an uninhabited island and live freely on it. You can either build the island into a modern, bustling town or make it into a Japanese street from anime, and everyone can live differently on the island. The game has no mandatory tasks, and every action you take brings enough positive feedback and motivates you to repeat it.
They have their own lives, personalities, and preferences, and they can get into trouble with each other, requiring the player to act as a peacemaker. ...... Islanders are no longer cold NPCs, but "flesh and blood" friends in the virtual world.
The game's multiplayer mode even allows you to connect with friends from other places and meet them on their respective islands. With the game's drawing style, one can't help but become adorable as well. It's like stepping back in time to a childhood when friends would come over and proudly lead them around every corner of the house. If you haven't played Movimori yet, I'm sure it won't disappoint you.
GBA and GBA Simulator
With the release of Pokémon: Emerald in 2004, Ruby and Sapphire also entered the domestic gamers' horizon and drove the sales of domestic GBAs. It allowed more children to add the option of "playing consoles at home" next to the only option of "going out to play".
It was just that the high selling price and product positioning at the time made parents less inclined to acquire such things for their children. Pokémon again, being the most familiar to kids at the time, were loved by a large number of kids. After all, who hadn't watched Pokémon / Pokemon as a kid? Who hasn't loved the adorable Pikachu? It's not like you can have everything you like, but naturally, you can't do that in the real world, but that's okay, GBA emulators can help you. This is why a lot of young gamers flocked to the world of Pokémon through GBA emulators on their computers, just to find one of their favorite "Pokemon".
It's not hard to find a GBA in good condition these days, but if you're looking for "original unmolested" you may have to spend a little more. Also, genuine cassettes are not exactly easy to come by, so it might not be easy to get the original GBA experience back. However, there is an open source GBA emulator on GitHub that will allow you to play the games you loved as a child again and get back to the fun you had back then.
Warcraft 3 Remastered
Even if you haven't played it, you must have heard of Warcraft. This "cross-genre" title is a childhood memory for many, and a glorious piece of Chinese gaming history: in 2005, "King" SKY Li Xiaofeng won the WCG World Finals Warcraft 3, and defended his title the following year. This was a shot in the arm for Chinese e-sports and the video game industry at the time, and drove many young kids into the game.
It's not easy to play Warcraft 3 back then nowadays, for one thing because the original discs are not easy to get hold of, and for another, the graphics quality back then is not easily accepted by gamers today. However, Blizzard's Warcraft 3 Remastered in 2020 can fulfill our dreams of getting back to our childhood.
The remastered version has optimized the graphics, added details to the characters and scenes, and expanded and adjusted the plot accordingly. However, the poor translation and countless bugs make players suffer, and the media rating is only a passing grade, which is partly added by the sentiment. But it's probably a good choice for recapturing childhood memories and looking back on the past. The game is still in beta due to versioning issues, but you can purchase a platform membership at the official site to play the beta. The price is $168 for regular members and $258 for premium members, so we finally have a chance to make up for our past memories.
Reclaiming the "hard feelings" of childhood
In my childhood, the leading mobile phone industry was far and wide known as Nokia. There were all kinds of straight, flip, full keyboard and touch screen phones, and even the 'gaming phones' that are popular in the circles nowadays, Nokia has done it long time ago. Nokia also cooperated with Zeiss to launch many camera phones, and marked the phone with the ZEISS logo near the camera.
The Nokia N9 and the subsequent Lumia 700 / 800 are still the best designs in my mind. Whether it's a bad decision or a lack of progress, they've become the tears of the times. When we see them today, it reminds us of our childhood visions of them or the time we spent with them.
For these old phones, you can find quite a few used items in good condition on idle fish. Many of them are even collectors' items that have not been unpacked. For example, Nokia N9 and Lumia series WP phones. You can go to the appropriate section of Idlefish and find familiar phones that bring back many childhood stories.
The memory of yellowed film
When I was a child, taking pictures was a ritual: we had to buy film, take 36 frames of negatives, and send them to the photo studio for development. At the end, we flipped through the photos one by one with excitement, savoring the scene. Nowadays, it's not uncommon to take a picture, and you can just hold up your phone and take a great picture. The photos can also be immediately sent to social media platforms for sharing.
Get a 20-Year-Old Look with FilmThere are countless film simulation apps that allow you to take quick "film-like" photos without the "ritual. but without the "ritual". Nowadays, film is becoming more and more expensive, and what once cost 30 or 40 dollars can now cost three figures. Therefore, if you want to experience the original "childhood taste", I would recommend you to buy a disposable camera. You don't have to struggle with the choice of film, nor do you have to learn how to set parameters such as aperture and shutter speed, but you can just lift the camera and shoot, which is in line with the current shooting habits.
Reflections in Memories
When I was a kid, I remember that when I came home from school, the thing I looked forward to most was the cartoons that were shown on Star TV at 18:00 every day. Naruto, Detective Conan, and Magic Mimiru Mimiru were the most common topics of conversation among my classmates at that time. With the improvement of licensed channels in China, it has become a very easy task to catch up with the latest episodes and discuss and speculate on the plot with fellow fans.
Currently, most of the licensed anime can be found on platforms such as B-site and Akiyon. But sometimes, too many choices can be a burden, leaving us in the pain of "difficult choices".
Summary
Looking back, there seem to be a lot of childhood things that have faded away as we grew up. Nokia, VCD, GameBoy, VOD ...... Yet, they seem to have taken on new shapes to accompany yet another group of people in their childhood: smartphones, streaming media, Steam, video sites. Each generation's childhood is colored differently by these unique memories. Maybe we can't go back to our childhood, but the memories rooted in our hearts will not fade with it.
In the midst of a troubled reality, take these simple things as a brief escape from the boredom and allow yourself to "go back to being a child" and be a happy child again. Happy Children's Day to all the older kids.