“Are you not covering game content anymore?” 

This was a question I got out of the blue on Facebook messenger through Noise From the Basements Facebook page over the weekend. It was from a longtime follower on Facebook, as well as of the blog back when it was on Blogger.com. If you’re reading this you know who you are, thank you for the question and hope this works as a belated answer not only to you but my other readers. 

At first I wanted to write back right away, and say yes, and guide him to my content on Midwest Gaming Classics, as a more recent example. When I looked at the blog though, I was astonished to see that in fact I haven’t really posted a lot of gaming content since 2019. As a matter of fact I haven’t even done a 2022 Gamers New Years Resolutions article this year either. You’d think with two years of on and off quarantines, and life coming to a halt in early 2020 that I’d have gaming content galore, but sadly it hasn’t worked out that way. I will admit I’ve been gaming, I play the mobile game Azur Lane daily, and I’ve indulged myself in hours of Ace Combat 7, and GTA 5 on Xbox in early 2020. I also tried to get back into writing 8-bit Friday articles in late summer of 2021, but most have gone unpublished, but perhaps I’ll still clean them up and add them. 

I’ll also admit that I’ve added and/or expanded into a few other hobbies as well. My blog and Facebook content has added articles talking about model rocketry, plastic model building, RC planes, and record collecting. They’re all hobbies that interest me, yet still all have a vintage vibe and a connection to childhood nostalgia I’ve always wanted Noise From the Basement to have. These hobbies do take away from retro gaming, but in the warm weather when I can actually do some of these hobbies I don’t really want to be inside in front of a TV all day anyway. Record collecting on the other hand, is an indoor hobby, but it’s a passive hobby you can do while doing other things including, cooking, entertaining, building a model kit, or even a bit of handheld or mobile gaming. 

Retro gaming on the other hand, especially if you really want to experience a game, requires an investment of a few hours in front of a TV. Not that this isn’t fun, and that I haven’t practiced hours of this, but it’s not always easy to do in a busy house. This is also compounded by the fact that my plans of re-doing my basement have yet to work out since I moved into my house nearly seven years ago, as household repairs and maintenance go more into the main living and entertaining areas and rightfully so. My home office has filled a little of this gap, but to be honest on a Friday night I sometimes don’t want to go back into my home office till Monday morning, especially after a hard week of work. So rather than 8-bit Fridays, I instead spend Friday evenings falling asleep in front of the TV, around the same time of night I was formally playing games. I know that sounds very anti-climatic, but it’s just how it is.

Overall, what I think it comes down to is the lack of a personal and comfortable space to play games like I used to when I started my first 8-bit Fridays years ago. The partially finished basement I had in my old house was comfortable, and had a nice place to sit and play games, that was completely away from my work areas.  Back in those days my collections of games and consoles expanded, but I was able to take the time to play all of them. Now I have piles of unplayed games dating back to 2017, and consoles dating back to 2018.

Now I know what your saying, “Sounds like a hard problem to have!”,in a sarcastic tone. Of course it’s hard for me to disagree with you as this is truly a first world problem, where I’m sitting here complaining about something that is more or less a hobby, and how I can’t indulge in said hobby because the place I have to play it isn’t comfortable enough. 

But finally to bring this overly long story to an end, and to answer the question I started this post with, yes, I am still covering gaming content. To add to that, I do plan on getting back into gaming a little more in 2022, and by a little more at least trying to put up more than one post in 2022 and even do a few 8-bit Fridays. I have some ideas I’m think may work as a compromise between the old days and the new, on gaming I may also try.  

Until then, thank you for the question, and I hope you’ll like the gaming content I will be putting up in 2022.