Retro Gamer Wear: The First Gamers are Getting Old

Exactly when is something considered “retro”? Lately, that’s how a lot of my earliest video game memories have felt. It started with this picture of a cuff with the original NES Zapper on it, and then I started looking for other video game-inspired apparel. A lot of what I found harkened back to the days of the first Nintendo, when Mario was fresh on the scene and every arcade had Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, and Pac-Man. That’s when it really hit me: I’m a part of the first generation that’s grown up with video games, and we’ve gotten old.

In 1983, the video game console market took off with the launch of the original Nintendo. Super Mario Brothers was the beginning of many people’s gaming experiences. Some of you may still think back to the green speckled mushroom when you get an extra life. Remember blowing the dust out of cartridges when they didn’t work? A lot of these nostalgic gaming memories have been printed on t-shirts and sold online, billed as retro gaming fashion.

Before the Internet, one of the ways gamers connected was through their clothes. If someone wore a shirt with Mario on it, they probably hung out at the local arcade and capped ducks with their NES Zapper at home. I think that still is true today to some extent, even in an age of far greater gaming connectivity between players.

While shirts based on current popular games like Halo, World of Warcraft, and Guitar Hero are also available, it doesn’t make clothes based on older games any less appealing. If anything, retro gaming gear is becoming more popular with age for the hip, gamer crowd, similar to the way that The Stones’ and The Doors’ gear has become more popular over time with music hipsters.

This kid on the right knows what I’m talking about…