2007-03-18
Video Games
I like video games. I guess I should say "liked" video games. When I was little we had an Atari 2600. United Super would have consoles and cartridges a couple times a year and I always looked forward to getting new games. My favorites were Combat and Grand Prix, the my Uncle Terry owned. Gran Prix was really funny since I didn't know that the "x" was silent. Later though I was addicted to Megamania. I would sit in my room and play Megamania while I listened to "Paul Boutique." These were a tightly coupled soundtrack, I would be at the same place in the game and album every time I played it.
When the NES came out and hit the first price drop my grandparents bought me one. I was already pretty good at Super Mario Bros. from playing it at the Bar my Dad went to. There were two video rental places in town that rented NES games. Contra, Castlevania, Zelda, Super Dodge Ball, The Mario Series and Rygar were recurring rentals. I also owned 1942 and the Nintendo joystick that had the "turbo" switch. 1942 was brutal without the switch.
At the same time period the Odessa Ice Cream factory was still a place full of games. Ikari Warriors, Super Bike and which ever pinball machine the had got nearly every quarter I could scrounge up.
When my grandparents would take my sister and I to the lake they would make sure to stop at the places that had the best games. Grandma and Grandpa would settle in for some beers and Jocy and I would get pockets full of quarters.
We got a Super Nintendo and played Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country 3 like crazy. Playing video games was one of the few times when Jocy and I wouldn't fight when we were younger.
Just past high school I was skating (board and inline) a lot and we played a lot of Tony Hawk Pro Skater. It had just come out and it was great when the weather was bad or we needed some "pumping up" before we started hitting our favortie skate spots.
Somewhere though I got lost, like I was above games. I said, "I've got no time for games." We recently brought the SNES home and I've been playing every so often. Today I played Super Mario World on a Nintendo DS and had a riot!
As I look back at the games I played and loved they were unique. There was a fantasy aspect that required some suspension of belief. They were fun, puzzling, varying and in many cases simple. These games didn't seem to exist for a long time. After Quake the first person shooter was so prevalent and I just don't like those. I loved Doom the first time I played it, that was such and amazing change to game play from the side-scroller, but that seems like the beginning and end of the genre. I get almost no enjoyment out of the first person shooters. I don't like immersing myself in some dire situation. I don't need a simulation of a real experience. I want to be entertained and have fun. I want the drug induced concepts in the Mario series. I want jumping monkeys throwing barrels. I want pointy eared elven creatures attacking with a shooting sword. I want a hedgehog that spins. Fun.
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