Hello, My Name Is Paul and I am Addicted to Games
Since gaming has taken over as my primary hobby over the last few years -- displacing drawing, comics, martial arts, and lifting as my primary time-waster -- I figure that I should easily be able to fill up a blog with all the game-related material that floats through my head on the average day.
But before I get into more current affairs, let's get into a little background.
The Early Days
The first gaming experience that I can recall was on an ancient IBM home PC, the kind with no harddrive that used two floppy (5.25") drives to boot and run applications. My dad used to get the hook-up from work (no idea why, he worked for a company not connected to gaming in any way) so he brought home classics like Decathalon, Frogger, and Zork on a fairly regular basis. You haven't lived until you've run the 400m dash using only the arrow keys on a keyboard (or at least, so I thought back then).
Shortly after that, we somehow came upon an Atari 2600 (I don't remember getting this, but it was just there one day) and with it Donkey Kong, Pitfall, Asteroids, and the awesome Combat. There were a LOT of good times playing that system on the ancient UHF TV set we had in our basement: this was back when games were simple enough that my parents would play along with me and my sister. To this day (rather, before I moved out and took my games with me), whatever game I'm playing there's a 70% chance that my mom will mention how much she loved watching me play Superman on the Atari. Or playing "that tank game" (Combat). The Atari passed on to Consumer Electronics Heaven after a few years, leaving the PC with no competition for a few years.
There was a lot to love about the PC in the late 80's through the mid 90's (read: before FPS took over). Adventure games made you think while simultaneously entertaining with some truly fun and creative content. I was hooked on the King's Quest series -- basically eating up everything that Sierra threw at me for almost a decade. Space Quest. Quest for Glory. Leisure Suit Larry. Later on, Sam & Max and Grim Fandango. I fondly remember frantically typing "swim" in the first King's Quest -- you had to use text input for much of that game -- in a vain attempt to prevent King Graham from drowning in the lake. My sister had this ego problem about her typing skills at the time, and I remember vividly the time I was watching her and typos sent poor Graham to an early grave. 60 words-per-minute indeed.
Then came Tie Fighter. I played this game through no less than three upgrades to my PC. This game remains the best flight sim I've yet played, and it looks as though that won't change for quite some time (psst! Nintendo? Revolution please!). There was something awesome about how they presented career advancement in that game that kept me running missions over and over to get high scores and get into the "Inner Circle." I wasn't even that much of a Star Wars geek before I played this game; Tie Fighter made me an addict.
On to the 8-Bit
There's really too much in here to recount all at once, so since I'm lazy here are some points about the 8-bit era:
So that's basically how it all started. In future posts I'll go into better detail about the specific games that fed my gaming addition throughout the years, and some of the fun times I've had.
But before I get into more current affairs, let's get into a little background.
The Early Days
The first gaming experience that I can recall was on an ancient IBM home PC, the kind with no harddrive that used two floppy (5.25") drives to boot and run applications. My dad used to get the hook-up from work (no idea why, he worked for a company not connected to gaming in any way) so he brought home classics like Decathalon, Frogger, and Zork on a fairly regular basis. You haven't lived until you've run the 400m dash using only the arrow keys on a keyboard (or at least, so I thought back then).
Shortly after that, we somehow came upon an Atari 2600 (I don't remember getting this, but it was just there one day) and with it Donkey Kong, Pitfall, Asteroids, and the awesome Combat. There were a LOT of good times playing that system on the ancient UHF TV set we had in our basement: this was back when games were simple enough that my parents would play along with me and my sister. To this day (rather, before I moved out and took my games with me), whatever game I'm playing there's a 70% chance that my mom will mention how much she loved watching me play Superman on the Atari. Or playing "that tank game" (Combat). The Atari passed on to Consumer Electronics Heaven after a few years, leaving the PC with no competition for a few years.
There was a lot to love about the PC in the late 80's through the mid 90's (read: before FPS took over). Adventure games made you think while simultaneously entertaining with some truly fun and creative content. I was hooked on the King's Quest series -- basically eating up everything that Sierra threw at me for almost a decade. Space Quest. Quest for Glory. Leisure Suit Larry. Later on, Sam & Max and Grim Fandango. I fondly remember frantically typing "swim" in the first King's Quest -- you had to use text input for much of that game -- in a vain attempt to prevent King Graham from drowning in the lake. My sister had this ego problem about her typing skills at the time, and I remember vividly the time I was watching her and typos sent poor Graham to an early grave. 60 words-per-minute indeed.
Then came Tie Fighter. I played this game through no less than three upgrades to my PC. This game remains the best flight sim I've yet played, and it looks as though that won't change for quite some time (psst! Nintendo? Revolution please!). There was something awesome about how they presented career advancement in that game that kept me running missions over and over to get high scores and get into the "Inner Circle." I wasn't even that much of a Star Wars geek before I played this game; Tie Fighter made me an addict.
On to the 8-Bit
There's really too much in here to recount all at once, so since I'm lazy here are some points about the 8-bit era:
- It took years of badgering, but eventually (around 1989 I think) I was given an NES for Christmas. It was only years later that I found out that it was my sister who earned it -- apparently it was the grand prize in a wrapping paper selling competition at school, and she sold it to my parents for $100.
- Yes, I saw The Wizard in the theatre. So sue me.
- I was one of those cheaters that would put the light gun 4" from the screen in Duck Hunt. I blame it on the TV -- I was obviously awesome at that game, and the dog never laughed at me...
- I think the first time I ever cursed at a game was in the battle with Wart at the end of Super Mario Bros 2. No wait, maybe it was Bayou Billy. No, definitely Blaster Master. That game was a bastard.
- Back then, my sister still played video games. And she was good. Real good. Beat the first Super Mario Bros maybe a year before I did. Now all she plays is DDR at Christmas after a few mimosas.
- There was a coupon for a free Pizza Hut pizza on the back of the TMNT 2 instruction manual. I fought with myself for a few months over whether or not it was O.K. to cut up the manual, and finally gave in to my baser instincts of tasty free food. On a side note, I'd love it if someone can explain to me why the Personal Pan Pizza size is so much more tasty than the normal Pizza Hut Pizza.
- I used to come home for lunch throughout elementary school and play Ikari Warriors with my cousin. A-A-B-B-A holds as much esteem for me as Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A, mostly because of the good memories I have playing this game while munching on Kraft Mac N Cheese. Talk about worth the $1 it cost at a garage sale...
So that's basically how it all started. In future posts I'll go into better detail about the specific games that fed my gaming addition throughout the years, and some of the fun times I've had.
posted by Paul at
4:40 PM
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