Apro la porta without too much enthusiasm, yet another interview
with yet another collector who is a little nerdy and a whole lot antisocial, the retrogame road
is paved with personalities like this, I know that well. Mauro
Corbetta, Indiana Jones hat and Magnum P.I.-style floral shirt, comes
toward me with a big smile. Good morning, I greet him, offering him my hand.
Lui per tutta risposta si tocca la tesa del panama, mi guarda negli occhi come
if he were about to pass me a secret, or perhaps I should be the one to recognize the quote,
which does not happen.
[Mauro Corbetta founder of Retroedicola Video Club]
And that is how our meeting begins, at the main headquarters of Retroedicola Videoludica Club: with an easter egg. We sit down, I am surrounded by consoles from every era watching me warily.
[Historical Archives of Retroedicola Video Club]
“Are you an intruder or a human worthy of enjoying the doses of fun we can
give you?”
I start the interview by asking Mauro what made him passionate about the world of video games. The question is trivial, but the answer is surprising.
“My love for video games comes from video game magazines; dear printed paper is written in my DNA: I come from a family that, over several generations, has dealt with magazines. But not right away, before being a gamer I was a computer enthusiast, probably one of the few kids who had a C64 and didn’t use it to play video games. We get to 1991, with the magazine Computer+Videogiochi, or CVG to friends, the moment when I start devouring video games.”
Rivistas, printed paper, ink. Talking about it today, in
this sector, seems almost surreal, and yet we often forget how
important the screen-paper combination was at the dawn, when the internet and
social media were nothing more than nebulous tools on the horizon.
Mauro looks
at something, points it out to me, smiles. The Commodore 64, one of many present in
the office, is right there, next to a television. Could that be it, his
DeLorean?
«What do you think of Retrogame? A video game that you love and that somehow represents you?» I ask him the questions with the air of someone who thinks they can trip up even the most erudite enthusiast; however, Mauro performs that gesture again: he touches the brim of his hat and replies.
«Super
Hang-On, I used to play it with my father at the neighborhood dairy “down the road” (half bar and half
grocery store, other stories from a time now gone). Speed, gameplay and
that splendid arcade cabinet with that motorcycle-style handlebar, an experience that
still excites me today.»
I move to thank him, but he silences me by grabbing
the action figure of Ryu, the iconic protagonist of the Street Fighter series, and
points it at me: his Hadoken is as menacing as the barrel of a .44 Magnum.
«And for the record, Retrogame does not exist, just as retro cars or retro music do not exist. The Videogame is an entity that has a past, a present, and a future, but we are not talking about different things. Modern video games tend to bury the intimate nature of video games themselves: you turn on the console, start playing right away, have fun and let yourself go, without long tutorials.»
We look at each other, in silence.
I reflect on what he told me and
make it my own. I am about to get up, satisfied and happy, when a hand
grabs my wrist. I turn around, I see Mauro smiling, but above all I still see
that gesture.
«Can you explain what this means?!»
Mauro, in response, takes a joypad, strictly
with a cable, and hands it to me.
“I’ve been challenging you since you came in here.
This is what playing video games means: doing it together.”
I smile, shrug. Why not?
“All right,” I say, “but I choose the game.”
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
TGMGrading
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![[Mauro Corbetta founder of Retroedicola Video Club]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.thegamesmarket.com%2Fapi%2Fv1%2Ffile%2Fproxy%3Fkey%3Dstaging%252Fmagazine%252Fcontent%252Fintervistiamo-mauro-corbetta-di-retroedicola-img-0.png&w=3840&q=75)
![[Historical Archives of Retroedicola Video Club]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.thegamesmarket.com%2Fapi%2Fv1%2Ffile%2Fproxy%3Fkey%3Dstaging%252Fmagazine%252Fcontent%252Fintervistiamo-mauro-corbetta-di-retroedicola-img-1.png&w=3840&q=75)
