This morning, some exciting news ricocheted around the nerd community. After weeks of being sold out everywhere, this Christmas' hottest gift, the NES Mini, went back on sale on Target's website. Geeks like me who grew up in the 1980s haven't been this excited since the Ghostbusters reboot.
The Nintendo Entertainment System is so ancient that there are probably cave paintings of it somewhere. It arrived in Japan in 1983, can only generate a few blocky colours and bleepy sounds, and will be seven generations old when the Nintendo Switch comes out next year. It's so dated that Michael Jackson could have invited you over to play it, and your parents would have said yes.
![Nintendo Classic Mini NES broke many websites.](/web/20161213021718im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/8/w/9/k/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt94kz.png/1481572902115.jpg)
The mini version costs $99, works with modern TVs and has 30 games built in. Roughly half are classics, including several Mario and Zelda games — but there's no way to add any more.
In an era when many of us replace our phones annually and complex 3D multiplayer epics dominate the gaming industry, what can possibly appeal about such ancient technology?
![The Mini NES is much smaller than the original, which earned the nickname 'the toaster' for its bulky size and fragile ...](/web/20161213021718im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/6/7/k/g/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt94kz.png/1481572902115.jpg)
Well, the previous release broke EB Games' website, and I spent more than three hours trying to buy one this morning, only to miss out. And the reason I bothered — apart from the desire to boast on Facebook that I'd tracked one down — was because I've wanted one for nearly 30 years.
I remember when the NES arrived at Crows Nest Toyworld, with its parentally problematic lightgun. And I vividly remember my first game, when my friend Christian invited me over to serve as his jealous audience. Eventually he handed me a controller, and I propelled that pixelated plumber around the screen, enthralled as malevolent turtles killed me.
I was hooked. But I didn't own a TV gaming system until my 20s, and still haven't finished those original Mario games. So while I've been telling myself that an NES Mini would be a perfect gift for my nephew, I'd be lying if I didn't admit to wanting to play myself — $99 isn't much to pay to be transported back to primary school.
So many of the icons of my childhood are still with us. I could never have predicted that I'd be looking forward to a new Star Wars movie shortly before my 40th birthday. Nor would I have expected to see Ninja Turtles, Pokemon and Hot Wheels in a list of Christmas 2016's hottest toys alongside VR headsets and drones.
Our parents look back fondly on cubby-building and go-karting, and had to achieve their sporting glories outside Punch-Out!! — yes, there are two exclamation marks, and yes, it's included on the NES Mini.
But many of my generation's victories were achieved staring at the TV, back when pixels were visible, there were only two dimensions and autosave hadn't been invented. It's no wonder that nostalgia remains a big market now that the kids of the first-ever gaming generation can afford to buy for themselves.
In music, fashion and the big and small screen, the '80s have never really left us, so it's not surprising that retro gaming remains popular. Hamlet is still with us centuries later, and perhaps the story of two plumbers rescuing a princess from a megalomaniac turtle will remain equally perennial.
And while the graphics haven't aged well, there's something to be said for the simple gameplay of Pac-Man, Galaga and Gradius, all of which feature on the Mini. They take two seconds to learn, but hours to master.
Back in the 1980s, you certainly couldn't buy an NES over the internet. Perhaps things haven't changed all that much in 2016 after all.
Dom Knight is a writer, broadcaster and Chaser co-founder.
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