In a few short hours we will be in the year 2026, and my lifelong love for gaming is in need of a boost. The current industry feels like it’s leaving me behind, and although I have emulation at my beck and call to play virtually anything released before the seventh generation, I’m losing the motivation to actually play my games, for one reason or another. So before I lose the will and my aging skills to ever play again, enter this effort to rekindle that spark: a series of posts I’m labeling Mini-Gaming.
Over the years I’ve amassed a respectable collection of retro mini consoles, with my mini NES, SNES, Genesis, Genesis 2, PlayStation, and TurboGrafx-16 being joined recently by a NeoGeo. Classical emulation is still my bedrock, but there’s a certain magic to sitting down in front of the TV with a genuine controller (replica) in-hand, and settling in for a good old-fashioned gaming session. There’s a total of 276 titles across each mini, and I highly doubt I’ll clear all of them. But those I do will get a write-up here. After locking in, putting skills and might to the test, I’m sure I’ll have something to say. Maybe I’ll even have, dare I say, fun. Many of these games I’ve mastered in my past, many I’ve never cleared, and many are still brand-new to me.
Starting in 2026, I’ll bounce around my mini libraries, regardless of my past experiences with each game, and give them a fair shot and open mind. As far as I'll be concerned in that room it's the year 199X. I’ll attempt to play them as straight as possible, with their intended controllers, credit/continue limits, in-game saves, and minimal cheats or save states. Internet help will be limited to GameFAQs guides published back in their time. Maybe I’ll follow a trend of games, maybe I’ll bounce around. No matter how, the goal will be to see each game to its end. Hopefully with this blog as motivation, I’ll clear more games this year than in years prior and be able to look back at this project as a time capsule of my accomplishments.
Feel free to join alongside me, for this might be just the thing both of us need!
