Joystick division

Retro gamers swap, talk and play at
the 10th anniversary of their club

PLAYA LOVER: Zelda fan and social gamer Sarah Szefer

by ERIK LEIJON

Most video game fan groups would rather ogle the latest teaser trailers or brag about their prowess in online shooters, but the Club des Collectionneurs de Jeux Vidéo du Québec (CCJVQ) could care less about the latest must-have hit.

Instead, the members of the CCJVQ—who celebrated their 10th anniversary this past July—are hovering over boxes containing mostly pristine ColecoVisions, Sega Master Systems and even the odd Virtual Boy game. Like a well-preserved classic car or a fine wine, to some the blocky, unfashionable gaming consoles of yesteryear offer more fun than the sleek, overpriced systems of today.

“I don’t have time for new consoles,” says CCJVQ founder and the club’s summer swap meet host Sylvain De Chantal, 40. “But the older consoles, they’re from my generation, I grew up with them.”

A father of two, De Chantal helped found the club in 1999 so likeminded retro gaming fans could “buy, trade and talk about video games.” Over the past decade, he’s been surprised with just how diverse the CCJVQ’s 200-odd members have become. At this particular meet at his Blainville residence, the 20 or so members present—both young and old—are perusing for lost classics hidden among the piles of bulky cartridges. It’s not just the forgotten systems of the ’80s that are present; the defunct late ’90s Sega console Dreamcast is well represented, as are the many iterations of the handheld Nintendo Game Boy.

REVERED GEAR: (clockwise from bottom) ColecoVision’s
Expansion Model 2, fan badges, Nintendo’s R.O.B. the Family Robot

EMULATION, EDUCATION

Thanks in part to emulation, the process by which older games can be played on personal computers or newer consoles, gamers born long after Mario consumed his first mushroom have easy access to cultural touchstones such as Pong or Pac-Man. If anything, the availability of these games on everything from iPhones to CD compilations has made playing the originals on a functional 1977 Atari 2600 all the more special.

The CCJVQ have done their part to educate the next generation on the classics. For four years, they have organized the classic gaming section at the now-defunct Arcadia Festival. “The first year, it was shocking to see 12- and 13-year-olds going nuts over Pong,” says member Sarah Szefer. “It wasn’t the parents who dragged them there either—they were playing and having a blast.

“You would expect younger people to be complaining about the graphics and how boring the older games are, yet they would get hooked on the gameplay. Just shows you how eternal these games are.”

Szefer, a 33 year-old translator and Legend of Zelda fan, already has a pretty extensive collection of Nintendo, Sega and Atari consoles and therefore doesn’t come to the group’s meetings with acquisitions in mind. Like a lot of members of the CCJVQ, the group’s thrice-yearly meetings are more about discussing their favourite games and consoles in-person, an increasingly rare activity given the current gaming generation’s proclivity for anonymous message boards.

“It’s a social role,” Szefer says. “I like to chat with my friends, meet up, play some games. I made a lot of friends out of the club.”

According to a recent American study, 40 per cent of U.S. homes have at least one gaming console, so it’s only natural that more people are curious about gaming’s colourful history. Retro gamers like De Chantal keep coming back to the old standbys because all the new technology in the world makes little difference compared to an old favourite.

“Vanguard is my favourite game,” he says. “It’s just a really good shooter. You don’t need a big instruction manual or a bunch of extras—just a joystick and a fire button is all you need.”