Growing up a gamer.

Decided to write about something a little different today. About how I grew up a gamer and what it means to me.

Games and gaming in general have changed alot since I have been alive. Although I'm only 26, I've seen gaming make the conversion from 2D to 3D. I've seen companies rise to the top and companies fall into nothing. I've seen franchises begin and end. Gaming has been more than a hobby to me. Its been a lifestyle since I could hold a controller.

My first console was a Atari 2600. And it wasn't even my console. It was my aunts system. But she went away to college and left it to me. I was 6 at the time. The year was 1986. The NES was released that year, but I didnt see one until late 87. Didnt own one until 88. But I played Yars Revenge, Mouse Trap, Empire Strikes Back, Asteroids and Combat until I was blue in the face and my joystick refused to work any longer. My gaming obsession had begun.

Keep in mind I did have friends I hung out with and played Transformers and G.I.Joes with. But when it came down to it the Atari always came out for a bit at some point in the evening. Star Wars was also a huge part of my life around this time. I was a T.V. and movie fiend.

Then the NES changed all that. I got one, although I don't remember from who or how exactly. I just remember one day I had one. And I was playing Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt. Alot of other people played Final Fantasy and the Zeldas. But being more of a platformer, I never was interested in those kinds of games. I was busy killing robot masters in Mega Man and setting highest jump scores in Excite Bike. Zelda would not make its way into my heart until the SNES, and Final Fantasy continued to lurk in the shadows.

Once the SNES dropped, I didnt think gaming could get any better. But then a new avenue of gaming made itself known to me in a big way. Arcades. In 1991 a single video game rocked my foundation and helped shape me into the young nerd I am today. Street Fighter II. Never before had I played an arcade game, or ever been to an arcade. Technically a grocery store wasnt a arcade, but at that time Arcades were just budding in my area. The Food Lion down the street from me had Street Fighter 2, thats all I cared about. So whenever my mom would ask if I wanted to go grocery shopping with her, my face would light up and I would grasp my small Spiderman wallet, making sure my weekly allowance was still safely inside. I spent probably a good $1000 or more just in that damn grocery store. But that game gave me many good childhood memories.

People may have teased me at school, I may not have had that many friends, but I knew I could kick your ass in Street Fighter. And I kicked many an ass in that game. Even some of the older highschool kids were amazed at how fast I could throw those Hadokens and Shoryukens without breaking a sweat. I had the highest score on that machine for at least 10 months and was the first person to beat the machine. Then it came out on the SNES, and my arcade days seemed to be finished. Until I went to school one day and heard of a game with characters called Raiden and Sub-Zero. I heard a rival of mine speaking of this game that had realistic looking people, and the game was super gory, and how you could pull peoples heads off. I didn't know it was Mortal Kombat at the time, but once I went into the local mall arcade, I was awe-struck a 2nd time by a fighting game.

Before that week was out, I knew every move for all 7 characters, all of their fatalities and some of the great techniques no one else knew yet. My rival at that time was a young douche-bag known as Chris Guyton. He and I often got confused with each other because we had the same first name. This bizarro Chris, although I hated him with every fiber of my being, showed me yet another classic game that will forever be part of my history. But man did I kick his ass in Street Fighter II! I could beat him with just 1 button, no supers. We were equal in Mortal Kombat, but only because we used the same character, and we ended up always fighting each other in the arcade. We were rivals and training partners at the same time. It was a great time in my life.

The SNES, Arcade duels, comic books, and a rather lucrative game and comic-card trading business under my belt, middle school flew by. And I had money to support my gaming addiction. Afternoons of Thundercats and evenings filled with Pizza and Street Fighter tourneys with friends was the norm. This was my life for middle school.

While in middle school I met my current best friend, Joe Chaney. He showed me the world of Sega Genesis. Although I swore an oath on my Nintendo Power magazine subscription that Nintendo had my soul, I humored my friend and we played Sonic and Shinobi on his Genesis until well into high school. He and I had numerous debates over which console was better. Even with his blood-filled version of Mortal Kombat, I really felt my SNES blood-less version looked and played better. Joe also introduced me into the world of Japanese Anime with Ranma 1/2 and Bio-Booster Armor Guyver.

High school came about and gaming took the back burner for a while. Comics and studying took over. I still gamed a bit, but not as often as I had in middle school. I mean cmon, Wolverine had his adamintium taken out, and Superman had died! The world had more important things going on than Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Lol. Doom made its way onto my Dads computer a few times as well. Although I wasnt a hardcore PC gamer.

In high school I met 2 other friends whom I dont currently keep in contact with. They were into anime, comics and games like me, and even though I was younger than them, they humored me and let me into their "cool" group. On the last day of school the 2nd year, these 2 guys brought in there Playstation. At the time I was like, CD games? Prepostorous! Games only come in cartridges. Stupid huh? ok moving on. Resident Evil was played on that Playstation. And my life was changed yet again. Although I didnt ever own a playstation, I played my sisters whenever I had the chance. I had the N64 (since I was the dedicated Nintendo kid), my sis had the playstation, and Joe had the Saturn. As I began to read more than just comics and Nintendo Power, my gaming knowledge began to grow as I learned of other game companies than Nintendo and Capcom. Just before the N64 took a hard dive off the radar, I had sold it and bought a PSone of my own, along with several classics that are still currently in my collection like Resident Evil 2, Metal Gear Solid and a few others. During this time my arcade visits weren't too frequent, but a few of my favorites stuck out in my mind (MK II, Samurai Shodown, King of the Fighters and a few others.) So gaming goodness was still had.

My cousin from Canada came down to live with my grandparents and go to school so he could better himself. He was a delinquent clubber and was close to being put in prison several times. But once he moved down here he and I got to be good friends since we were both gamers. He and I spent weekends renting new stuff coming out, watching anime and lifting weights together. My buddy Joe and I still hung out alot, and he had gotten Sega's latest beast, the late and still great Dreamcast along with Soul Calibur being the game we played most. I owned that console soon after and almost every great game on it. My oath with Nintendo had long been broken. There was more to the world than Nintendo now, and I was happy about that.

The year the Playstation 2 dropped I was working at a local K-mart and attending Aiken Tech for my first year of college. I had been reading up on it in PSM magazine and what little snippets I could on the internet. The release date was set for October, and I didnt think I wanted one just yet. October came rather quickly. The eve of the PS2s release, my sister and I went to our local Walmart to see if there would be a line or not. When we got there I was in for a big surprise. My town had a line for PS2s...and there were 3 open seats! I did what any gamer would do. I sped home, dropped my sister off, sped back to walmart, hit the teller machine (emptying my bank account) and took my place in line. I met many people I would never see again that night. But we all took part in history. I walked out of there along with 25 others as the first in the U.S. to get there hands on a Playstation 2.

For 2 weeks I didnt own a game for the damn thing. It set me back $315 (tax included). And I had to wait for my next paycheck to snag a game and memory card. Tekken Tag was my first PS2 game, and although I never mastered it, I loved it, and I still own it today. I was able to start playing my spankin new DVD movies on it as well. I watched Alien like 1,000 times on it Im sure.

The Xbox and Gamecube released the following year. But I didnt wait in line for them. Microsoft was a hated company in my eyes, and with the failure of the N64 I had my doubts with Nintendo. I was having too much fun playing Devil May Cry on my PS2 and Berserk on my Dreamcast. I had made my decision that in my mind the console war was over. And Sony was big daddy.

I had met 3 friends at church who all lived together; Garren, Mike and Josh. They bought a Xbox and were trying to get me to play the bastard machine with them. I swore to never play it. But I humored them and came over to watch them play a game called Halo. I wasn't impressed at the time, of course I was only watching. I refused to take in a multiplayer game with them. Besides...if I wanted to shoot friends, I'd play Unreal Tournament or Alien vs. Predator 2 at a LAN party or something.

One day I finally gave in and played the game with them. I was hooked. I wasnt very good at it for a while, but soon Josh needed some extra cash and sold me his Xbox for like $75, including Halo and a few other games of his. So now I had my Ps2, Dreamcast, and my bastard child Xbox. All that was left was the Gamecube, which I had sworn off I thought. That is until Capcom announced Resident Evil was going to be exclusive to it for a while, and they were remaking Resident Evil 1 for it, and it looked fucking incredible. The day Resident Evil for Gamecube was released, I bought a Gamecube for $99.99 along with that game and a memory card. That was the ONLY game I owned on it until RE Zero and Metal Gear Twin Snakes came out. I didnt own anything else for it. Nothing else interested me. And sadly the Sega Dreamcast died here in the U.S. and games have become hard to come by. Although I have never sold my dreamcast. It still sits warm on my shelf next to my Gamecube.

Being a big gaming and anime dork like I am, I was never in the market for a girlfriend. "Girl friend?" I would say to friends who'd ask, "I can't afford one of those. Gaming is expensive." But my thoughts would change when I met my current sweetheart Julia, who is also a gaming and anime dork like me.

Since 2004 she and I have waited in line for several releases (Halo 2 and a few others) together and have spent alot of time together talking of games and anime together.

Life as a gamer has not been a bad one. I currently work for a local print shop doing graphic design layouts and I still game like a fiend. And I hope I never stop. Today I have fellow gaming friends who have travelled along the same path as I have, growing up gamers. My friends and I still hang out and beat each other up in Street Fighter 3 or shoot each other up in Halo 2. Theres alot more games to be played down the road, and gaming Im sure has a few more generations left in it. I just hope I can still pull of Hadokens and Shoryukens when Im 80. :P

FIN.