Nostalgia for childhood games trends with “I grew up on these streets”
Posting screenshots of games from your childhood with the caption “I grew up on these streets” has become popular on X during the last few days. Everyone from official game accounts, developers, influencers and ordinary gamers have been sharing various games from the past.
It is not clear exactly what triggered this outpouring of nostalgia but tracing the citations on several posts led back to an account called Retro Tech Dreams, which shares technology-related images from the 1980s through to the 2000s. On January 6, the account posted a screenshot of the neighborhood from the first game in The Sims series with the caption “I grew up on these streets.” This seems to be a humorous reference to the hours they spent as a child designing houses and shaping the lives of their virtual families.
The post seems to have struck a chord, leading many people to chime in with screenshots of street and town scenes from beloved old games. Official game accounts also jumped on the “I grew up on these streets” bandwagon. The official Sonic the Hedgehog account uploaded an image of Sonic skating down a large hill in 2001’s Sonic Adventures 2. Meanwhile, the official European account of Nippon Ichi Software America posted a shot of Altair City from The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (2011).
The official game accounts’ postings spanned a broad range of genres and decades. The Harvest Moon series’ official account posted a nostalgic image of Forget-me-not Valley, the setting for 2003’s Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. League of Legends uploaded an image of the Summoner’s Rift (an area that was first launched in 2009), while Ubisoft’s UK account went with a still from Rayman 1 (1995).
“I grew up on these streets” seems to have captured the attention of gamers of all ages. Although many individual users posted screenshots of much older games, there were also those who posted relatively new titles. The word “street” seems to have been interpreted in a variety of ways. Although many have posted town and street scenes, people also posted stages from side-scrolling games or even illustrations rather than actual screenshots. The simple caption “I grew up on these streets” has prompted users to try guessing what each game is in the comments. Why not check out “I grew up on these streets” posts and add your own gaming memory?
Written by. Verity Townsend based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2024-01-10 18:30 JST)
