The new scene for retro gaming
Surrounded by arcade machines and old posters for video game consoles, Kingsley Alexander, founder of the Houston Retro Gamers, has come to talk to me in the basement of Gameover Video Games, a video games store in Clear Lake.
Q: So, what is retro gaming, and am I wrong in thinking this is a new thing?
A: It’s new in the sense that it’s popular. It’s a very niche culture, its own little subculture within the culture of nerds and pop culture. And it stands out differently than your average gamer. You’ve got your modern gamer, your computer gamer, console versus computer, competitive, sports, it keeps breaking down further and further. A good portion of retro gamers start out as collectors.
We’re in our mid-20s—early 30s. We have proper jobs and money. First you get the stuff you had. Once you’ve filled that void you think, “Man, I remember when I was poor, when I didn’t get that thing on that birthday,” and you go out and get it. So now that I got what I had, I got what I wanted, now I’m collecting for face value. There’s a whole community out there who are asking themselves, “Can I complete a collection? Can I get the full collection of NES titles?”
Q: How did you get into retro gaming?
A: I grew up poor. I didn’t have all the things everyone else had. I got my first personal console, a Sega Genesis, in ’96. My mom got it from a pawn shop in Kemah that mostly sells guns now. I don’t even know what I did to deserve it. I just came home one day and my mom’s like, “I got you something.” And there’s a Genesis hooked up to the TV! Before that, my friend across the street had a Super Nintendo (SNES), but we didn’t really get to play it much because his parents preferred we play outside. The kid a street over had an older brother with a SNES, but we could only play it when he wasn’t there because if we got caught playing it we’d get beat up. Then finally a new kid moved in at the end of the block. Both of his parents worked for NASA so they were classic nerds: pocket protectors, white button ups, huge thick glasses. We’d be hanging out and he said, “Oh, I’m playing this game called Sonic 3.” I played all these Nintendo games, but I was blown away by this.
From there I used to pick up games at flea markets. I never got a new game day of. I bought my last batch of games right before joining the army, sold it all when I left. So three or four years go by that I’m not paying attention to games.
When I got back from the army I had anger issues and anxiety. I was seeing a psychiatrist and he said, “Try doing something that you used to do when you were younger that made you feel happy.” Well, I always loved going to flea markets. So I go to a flea market on the way home from that appointment and there was a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in a box with a bunch of games. I grabbed that, another stack of games and another Sega. I found myself going back every weekend. It was therapy for me.
I eventually ended up with a rare game and thought, “What the hell? Video games are worth money?” And that’s when the snowball started to roll.
Q: What led to you founding the Houston Retro Gamers?
A: Between therapy and collecting retro games, I wanted to meet like-minded individuals. I wanted to figure out how to live in Houston again. I was very introverted. I liked living in my own little world. But introverts are lonely people, and they want to find new friends. As we started to meet up, we realized we were looking for a scene that didn’t exist in Houston. So we made it ourselves.
Four years later we’re going to almost every convention that has to do with retro gaming in Texas: running booths, volunteering and organizing parts of those conventions. Through forcing myself to go to these conventions, starting this group, I’ve forced myself to bloom into this crappy looking flower. But it’s working. It’s nice to meet new people in the gaming community. I want introverts to know there’s a community where they can open up safely. It’s about making friends and growing this community. We live in a time when being a nerd is okay, and I want people who like video games to know that they don’t have to be afraid.
Q: What’s ahead for Houston Retro Gamers?
A: We’re getting ready to do our third year in the charity scene through Extra Life. We get to livestream gaming, hang out with other gamers, and raise money for Texas Children’s Hospital. Until then I’m also helping with Retropalooza in Dallas.
The livestream is going to be on Nov 5, but we’re going to try to do more beforehand. After the livestream, I’m going to be taking the group deeper into social media and onto YouTube. We’re currently looking for an editor. I want to turn Houston Retro Gaming into a very focused media outlet for retro gaming, with Houston as our main audience for now.
Q: Do you get to play games for fun anymore? You sound busy.
A: Honestly, I don’t like to play games alone. I like to sit down with a friend and go, “This game is crap. It’s impossible to beat. Let’s play it.” Or I’ll bring over a stack of games and we’ll go through the stack, spend ten or fifteen minutes on each one. We’re playing, we’re laughing, we’re screaming at the TV and it’s fun. This is about making a community of friends, and that’s always going to be the most important goal for me.
