The world of video games is getting closer and closer to particular stagings, to realistic graphics, to actors from the film world who lend their voices (and sometimes their images) to achievements. In short, more than ever, electronic games are trying to imitate modern audiovisual productions.
Despite all this, many people keep the old consoles and indulge in the old games. Besides, even the gaming giants have understood this by offering emulations, "remasters", etc.
So, is it a simple matter of nostalgia as people believe? Not at all, according to Marc Atallah, a professor at UNIL's faculty of literature. In fact, to explain the interest in "retrogramming" only by the sweet memory of yesteryear is for him a serious shortcut. This would be due to the infantilization of popular culture by certain spheres of society. But would we say that a film buff who goes back to the cinema of the 1950s is necessarily nostalgic? No, it may simply be someone wanting to discover titles from the era.
The "retrogamers" who collect these old machines and games are cultural mediators, of sorts, giving younger people the opportunity to experience the thrill of that time period.
Length: 25min15
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