I previously purchased and just now received (a month later) a Retroid Pocket 6 (RP6).

The total was $275. “But, Azuriel, don’t you already have two retro handhelds?” I do. “Then surely you are using them so much that an upgraded experience is warranted?” Hahaha.

Here’s the thing: I considered the RP6 a defensive purchase. Do I need it? No, my PC plays everything I could possibly want, including the very games being emulated. But will I always be able to power my PC to play some dumb game or another? Who knows. Plus, prices are only going up.

I’m not here saying that the RP6 is necessarily a prepping item, but I do know that it is a complete package that is capable of playing all the games I have nostalgia for. My prior handhelds could do up to PS1/N64, but the lack of an analog stick made those difficult (despite the PS1 not having a stick…). Plus, you know, it also does Switch, a bunch of Steam games via GameNative, Android ports, and some fancy shit like plugging into a TV and operating like a mini-console. We’ll see how that works out.

That phrase though, “All the games I have nostalgia for,” got me thinking. When I look back, the PS2 is very much the caboose of my nostalgia train. I technically had a GameCube and a PS3, but the library of games I played on those two combined are dwarfed by anything I played elsewhere. I never purchased a PS4 or PS5, nor any Xbox console. I pretty much went from PS2 to a straight PC, playing Battlefield 2, then Magic Online, then World of Warcraft, then a decade-long fugue state and yada yada here we are.

But… why? Why do I feel no nostalgia for games past PS2?

The simple answer that comes to mind is the coincidental end of an age: I had graduated college and started the 9-5 drudgery of adult existence right when the PS2 “ended.” That feels about right. At the same time though… it doesn’t really explain why I don’t feel nostalgia for games like Command & Conquer, Diablo 2, DOOM, and Fallout 1 & 2, all of which I played on PC within that same window.

Is it because the PC “era” more fuzzy? I have changed computers several times over the intervening decades, but still interact with the games using the same keyboard and mouse interface. In contrast, I had to relearn like nine different controller types in that same period. Hmm. Nah, that doesn’t feel like a legitimate reason.

The only thing left that comes to mind is, perhaps, that the nostalgia is tied to specific (social) memories. Games like FF7 blew my high school mind, but it was further cemented in memory when I then started bringing all my friends over to watch the cinematics (after loading one of the many specific save files curated for that purpose). There was nostalgia for GoldenEye after probably a dozen or more weeks of split-screen multiplayer deathmatch parties. Facility + Proximity Mine only = hilarity ensued. I have some very formative (and social!) memories surrounding Command & Conquer that I may share at a later time, but few other kids my age had PCs available, let alone games for them.

Anyway, there it is. Retroid Pocket 6 acquired.