Someone said that if you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss will also gaze into you: setting aside philosophical contexts that do not concern us, I wanted to take up this famous aphorism to underline how vast the gap is between the latest consoles, those of the ninth generation, which represent the surrounding reality with a degree of realism greater than reality itself as we perceive it, and the first glorious gaming machines, with their pixels visible to the naked eye, without much frill and aiming at the heart of things: gameplay and immediate fun.
An abyss of worlds, colors and levels in which it is easy and pleasant to get lost, looking at it with modern eyes, and it is precisely from the depths of these video game chasms that those mystical objects called Adapters were born, true passes that allowed the players of "Back then" to enjoy experiences that were precluded to those who no longer owned consoles, and that after so many years, still today, remain indispensable for collectors and those who want to retrace those ancient steps.
One of the most famous adapters is certainly the Tri-Star, also known as Super 8 among insiders. The gray color naturally echoed the famous color shade of the Super Nintendo, that legendary "Snes" that saw us as the protagonists of countless adventures, from Donkey Kong to Super Mario, to mention only two of the sacred monsters that landed on the 16-bit console from the launching ramp that was the Nes, the younger eight-bit sister, and the Famicom, as it is called in Japan!
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Ed it is precisely the Nintendo Entertainment System that is emulated by the Tri-Star, thus allowing you to play with the cartridges of the console that preceded it. This unlicensed peripheral, and therefore not officially released by Nintendo, saw the light in 1995, a seminal year for the sixteen bits of which the Snes was the proud standard-bearer. Without dwelling too much on the strictly technical aspects of the peripheral, basically by inserting the NES or Famicom cartridge into one of the three ports, a rather simple and immediate menu appears that allows you to select the port and the game, so that you can enjoy it in complete peace.
I speak of it in the present tense because, like all relics of a bygone era, glorious and never forgotten, the Tri-Star (which, among other things, received an upgrade for the Nintendo 64 with the same features) has not been lost to time: sought after by enthusiasts and collectors, it owes its fame to the very essence of its existence, the missing link between two generations of consoles that were themselves a watershed in the video game landscape.
Today, perhaps, its usefulness has faded, thanks to the Internet and the endless possibilities that the stores of current consoles offer to gamers, with nostalgia operations and the like, but it goes without saying that the appeal of a tangible peripheral, one that can be touched and handled, free from fleeting digital influences, certainly cannot be ignored.
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.
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