The Roots of All (My) Gaming, Part 1

I've been thinking a lot recently about where I came from, in a gaming sense.  Talking to my nephews (I inherited about seven of them thanks to marriage) about what I played when I was a kid is fascinating for all involved.  It's amazing to think that the new generation just going in to secondary school mostly have no idea what a SNES is.  My eldest nephew's first console was a Playstation 2!  It's mind boggling, the difference in the landscape of the gaming world between me and them.  They didn't know that games haven't always been 3D.  It's that much of a given to them.  Never heard of Virtua Fighter, never even seen a Mega Drive to this day.

I intend to educate them in the ways of the gaming world.  My plan has been to collect games consoles for a long time, and it is still my plan, but now I know what I can then DO with them.  I can teach the younger generation of future gamers the VALUE of what came before, and they will further appreciate what they have now!

When I was three or four years old I made a friend called Robert Vogan, who's big brother had a Master System with Alex the Kidd loaded onto it.  We played that game for hours upon hours when his bro was out.  I only really have vague memories of the game now, but I remember a castle with spiked chandeliers that come down to squish/stab you and the rage that came after.  I don't think we ever played any other Master System games, but a year or so later my dearest Mother bought me a Mega Drive with Sonic the Hedgehog and Aladdin.  It was incredible!  I played for as long as I was allowed (and probably a little longer), this was the hobby for me most definitely!  During those years I had all sorts of games that I played through.  Streets of Rage (all 3), the whole Sonic series, and lots more that I can't remember right now.  Intermittently I would borrow my mate's SNES and play Street Fighter on it (and ONLY Street Fighter).  I missed out on a lot of great games, though, mostly due to being so young.

For my 10th birthday my darling Mother bought me a Nintendo 64, only 3 months after release and I was incredibly happy.  I had tried out the demos in Comet of the Playstation, the Saturn and the Nintendo 64 and the Nintendo was my favourite of them.  I got it with Shadows of the Empire - a Star Wars third person shooter that I still own and occasionally play (that's value for money kids).  The next day I went out with my birthday money and bought Super Mario 64, and thus was born a new era in my gaming life.  The 3D years!

Eventually I completed Shadows of the Empire, even on Hard.  I finished GoldenEye and Lylat Wars, I completed Jet Force Gemini and I defeated Perfect Dark, but Super Mario 64 eluded me.  For all those years I was stuck at around 90 stars.  I had all but given up and moved on.  I dedicated about a year maybe to finally smacking down the beast (I didn't have many friends) and eventually I emerged victorious with my beautiful set of 120 stars.

I still have my Nintendo 64, actually, alongside almost all the games I ever had on it.  I lost track of Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time along the way but I recently bought them again.

More to follow...