My Early Days As A Gamer
My First Games
I can honestly say I've loved Video Games since the first time I started playing. I can't remember the first game I played, but I do know it was at an arcade.
My Dad took me to an arcade when I was little. I don't remember what it was called, and I couldn't tell you what games were there, mainly because I could barely read at the time, but I remember that it was fun. From that point on, I tried to get my Dad to take me whenever he could.
Unfortunately, I couldn't go to the arcade nearly as much as I wanted. Things got better for me as a gamer though. It wasn't long before I met my neighbor across the street. He had an NES. I spent most of my free time going over to his house and playing any two-player games he had. Now, I may have been decent at the games, but my friend was amazing. I eventually discovered he had a subscription to Nintendo Power, which I wanted to get. But before that, I knew I'd need my own Nintendo.
Console Gamer
One Christmas, I finally got my wish. My very own NES. My Grandfather, having heard that the only TV my Mother and I had at our house was an old Black & White one, had also gotten us a Color TV for me to play it on.
Over the course of a few years, I built up an impressive collection of NES games. I even got a subscription to Nintendo Power. Unfortunately, today, I've lost my Original NES, though I still have most of the games.
Over time, I've had a Game Boy, a Super Nintendo, a Game Boy Color, and an N64, a GameCube and a Game boy Advanced. I still have most of these systems in storage. I even own a few consoles outside of Nintendo, including a Sega Genesis and Dreamcast, though I purchased both of these after they stopped making them.
Early Computer Gamer
The first computer game I ever played I'm sure is the first for a lot of people my age, Oregon Trail. It was a simple game with simple graphics and very simple sound. I think the only reason people played it was because it was the only game the computers at school had.
For the longest time, my only experience with games were educational games. Don't get me wrong, they were fun, but they always seemed to remind you that you were a kid. Eventually my mom got a computer. Still, the games back then didn't draw me in like the console games.
The first game that made me feel like the PC was a real gaming platform was an RPG called Ultima VII. This game brought me into its world with its characters and its huge, fully explorable world. I have to say, ever since I played that game, I've loved gaming on the PC as well as RPGs. Over the years other games have drawn me in: SimCity, The Civilization Series, The Sims, but none will ever hold a candle to Ultima VII, my first real Computer Video Game.
