I still remember that the happiest time that summer was when I grabbed the breakfast money I had saved for half a month and ran to the dim video game store at the back door of the school. The boss mysteriously took out a transparent plastic case from under the counter, with a yellow card inserted inside. On the sticker were the words "Ancient God King" crookedly written on it. I didn't even see the cover clearly, so I hurriedly stuffed it into my schoolbag, for fear of being discovered by my parents. 😄
To be honest, there was no sense of authenticity back then. For five yuan a cassette, you buy the excitement of secretly turning on the GBA during class, and the nervous heartbeat of hiding under the covers and turning the backlight to the darkest level, fearing that the teacher on duty will find out when you check your bed. At that time, "The Ancient God King" was actually a pixel scroll fighting game. The characters were as small as ants. When fighting, the screen was filled with light effects, so laggy that even my own mother couldn't recognize it. But we were still playing enthusiastically, and we were still chanting "Watch me awaken the bloodline of the God King", even though the picture quality had nothing to do with "bloodline". 🤣
Later, mobile phones became smarter and smarter, and I switched from GBA to PSP. Later, even PSP became useless, and all my youth was crammed into a small emulator APP. Now that the remastered version of the mobile game "The Ancient God King" is online, my first reaction is to go to the app store to download it, and as soon as I open it - "Huh? The picture quality is clearer than the fairy tale drama I remember? Is this free flight really able to rotate 360 degrees?" ✨
To be honest, as I played, the feeling came back immediately. Although now there is no need to secretly turn off the phone to hide the cassette, and there is no need to figure out the plot in front of the garbled opening animation, but the refreshing feeling of "cultivation against heaven" and "seventh career change" has really continued. While admiring the movie-level fantasy scenes, I teamed up with my friends for a gang fight. It seemed like I was back in the past, squatting under the desk, using two 50-meter button batteries to support the old GBA, and struggling to challenge the "ultimate BOSS" in the afternoon. 🎮
Now the mobile game is officially authorized, the graphics are stunningly beautiful, and the gameplay is also rich - fashionable weapons, ancient mythical beasts, free trade, everything is available. Back then, my entire cassette bag wouldn't have been able to hold so much content. But you have to ask me which one has more flavor? I really have to say that although the pirated cassette back then was stuck at three frames per step, even though the archive was cleared as soon as the power was turned off, and even though the boss said "this is the last value-for-money version", the weight of youth it carries cannot be replaced by any high-definition picture quality. 😭
But, youth actually never goes away, it just continues to accompany us in a different way. Now I can re-encounter "The Ancient God King" on my mobile phone, see those familiar and unfamiliar career systems, listen to the familiar Xianxia BGM, and then invite the old brothers who hid the cassettes together to play black. The feeling of "the youth is back" is no worse than when I cleared the game back then. ❤️
One last question, how many games were hidden in those "dual-slot pirated cards" you used to have? I remember that the "Ancient God King" in my cassette actually crashed as soon as I entered the game, and I could barely play the third level, hahaha. But I played the third level hundreds of times and never got tired of it. Now that I think about it, that is probably the purest happiness. 🎯
Okay, let's not talk anymore. I will go online today to finish the gang war, and catch a mythical beast by the way. My youth has been successfully recharged again! Do you still have those worn-out cassettes from back then? Even if it's just a small archive in your memory, you're welcome to chat in the comment area~🙌