ONM Remembered – #402
“We’re not talking CDs here, which aren’t quite as tolerant of having strawberry jam slapped all over them as we might have been led to believe.”
from N64 Magazine issue 11 (January 1998)
Max Everingham uses his column to grumble about video game packaging, and shares some interesting factoids about Japanese recycling circa 1998. It’s actually an interesting little read, and also a rarely discussed topic: video game packaging and the environment. It was probably a bigger deal back then when every single game you bought came with a beefy manual, fold-out cross-sells and other assorted guff. But what colourful guff! Manuals and pack-ins from that era are still treasured by folks today, and I wonder if the fact it’s so fragile is why it feels so cherished. Kinda hard to treasure the box for Tomb Raider Legend when you can kick it across a football stadium with hardly a dent.
Nearly ten years ago Greenpeace produced a campaign against the big name companies and their neglect regarding the chemicals in their products, and pushing for recycling programs for old/faulty games and consoles. Gamers reacted the way they know best by throwing a strop and picking apart the inaccuracies in their Machinima PSA.
It’s still an ongoing problem, what with the rare minerals used even in the production of most phones and tablets nowadays, but I’ve yet to see an awareness campaign that suggests what we can actually do about it besides just raising a stink. To the next person looking to raise awareness, perhaps voice your concern in a manner more mature than most sprite comics? We could do without seeing Mario shit out a mushroom, thanks.
Greenpeace are the bastards who damaged the Nazca lines.
Is Greenpeace to the environment what PETA is to animal rights; doing embarrassing shit that hurts their cause more than helps, because they like attention more than helping?