Retro Gaming: It's Not Nostalgia, It's Resistance

Janet Vertesi recounts finding a cache of old consoles and cartridges and uses that rediscovery to argue that retro gaming is less about nostalgia than about resisting contemporary tech and commercial practices. Plugging in a Sega Genesis, Game Boy, and others restored the simple pleasures of single-payment, offline play and highlighted how much gameplay has changed: industry consolidation, platform lock-in, always-on updates, DRM, microtransactions, achievement economies, and attention-hacking mechanics have transformed games into data-gathering, subscription-driven services. The tactile act of inserting a cartridge and playing without downloads, ads, or behavioral nudges felt liberating and exposed how modern gaming increasingly treats players as repeat consumers or predictable data points rather than people who simply want to play.

Vertesi illustrates the point with specifics: a homemade PiBoy emulator that runs hundreds of ROMs undermines the myth of console exclusivity; kids engaging with classic Pokémon and Carmen Sandiego on offline hardware reveal lost modes of ownership and discovery; local Minecraft servers and cartridge-based play keep activity off corporate trackers. She cites recent corporate moves - digital storefront closures and curtailed access to paid content - as evidence that “digital” often means rented, fragile access. Retro tech, in this framing, functions as an intentional air gap and a form of resistance against capture, planned obsolescence, and the behavioral design driving today’s games.