My Gaming Pedigree (1)

So I've been thinkin 'bout how to further introduce myself and perhaps share my gaming background. I've been wondering what is too much and what's not enough in sharing myself this way. I don't want to come off as a bragging/topper/game snob person "(I had X system first! I've been playing since... "). I just really love to play videogames and computer games. So I'll break up the reminiscing in posts cause it *is* fun to review the influences in your life sometimes. Or at least it is to me. And I'll speak the truth as entertainingly as I can muster... :)

In The Beginning...

I think I was barely a tween or preteen when it happened. I probably have the order of these two mixed up but not my feelings about them. I remember that my neighborhood friend down the street had a Commodore 64 which was KICK ass for the graphics and games at that time (Donald Duck/Scrooge game anyone?). The Commodore was my first official computer game system crush.

But, I blame my older brothers for starting the full blown gaming love affair They brought home that little unassuming black box - an Atari 2600, and it seemed to have me from the moment it left the box. It became a homework wrecker, an effective house chore manipulator for our folks and my first hypnotic electric video game hit. It was my gateway system, leading me down a path that demanded I always keep my pocket full of at least $3.00 of quarters, as well as cajole my folks to let me hang out in the local arcade when we were visiting the mall.

My brothers surely didn't intend for me to play with them or to start that sort of emotion for gaming within me. But once they saw how fast I picked games up, my rampant enthusiasm...once my scores rivaled theirs and their pride became engaged I was begrudglingly, let in this club with them. We met regularly on weekends and any weekday nights when we could keep our cheering and exclamations down low enough not to wake up the 'rents and get sent to bed.

The Atari 2600. My "Holy Grail" games initially were Asteroids, Space Invaders and Adventure. I could play both asteroids and Space Invaders until the scores reset to zero multiple times during one game session. I easily recall nights we spent drunk on A&W root beer paired with greasy pizza, laughing in the pale TV screen glow. We ignored the clocks ( the sunrise was abetter time indicator) as we shot space rock into smaller and smaller bits and tried not to sabotage each other in the process. Or we defended our planetary bases from the relentless advancing hordes of two-dimensional aliens, always trying to get that little %%^%^% space ship as it flew random fly-bys. Or my favorite, especially when my brothers unceremoniously rediscovered girls and their mysteries leaving me to play with the Atari alone ~ Adventure. Running about as a genderless, sexless, ethnic devoid cursor searching for keys and a sword, slaying a dragon (which now I realize was actually a mutated seahorse with a really bad attitude), negotiating through labryinths and avoiding that $%$%$ psycho-klepto bat. It was all about Adventure...Then Pitfall. Then Frogger. Then Breakout..then some football game I can't recall the name of and then, to appease my mother who loved it so, Pong. And so on - many more games. Good times.

But time goes by, and two key events happen: One: I grow a little older. Two: I discover a game in the arcade that rocked my world and apparently many others - Pac-Man. How to explain the attraction if you don't already know? I think, it's the thrill of the chase, the capture and the game. Being both the hunter and the hunted at any moment and out foxing any ghost seeking to take you down. What was not to love about Pac-Man? Some guy even made a horribly tacky song about it and it played in clubs (My older sisters spoke in horrified tones of people trying to peform a "Pac-Man" dance - they were clueless!). And if I wasn't playing Pac-Man, then you probably found me in the arcade playing one of these: Joust, Galaxia, Dig-Dug, Centipede, and Tempest (With special mentions Tron and the annoying yet charming whiner, Qbert)

Oh yeah, one other game that had that hunter/hunted thing happening in a different way...Donkey Kong Of course, "Kong" became even more of an influence for me when for my birthday the family gifted me with a newer system, boasting better graphics, deeper story lines, more ram and much more sophisticated gameplay.

That will be my second Gaming Pedigree post at some point. How the Ninendo 8-bit system wooed me so skillfully and lead to my break up with the Atari...and then how some blue mammal on crack totally seduced me away.

By the way, I'm sure you've been asked elsewhere but I'd loved to know and be happy if you shared it here...when did your gameplay love affair begin? What was that first thrill when you knew you were on to something special?

Thanks for looking!