I believe I was in the 3rd grade, which would have put Joe (my brother) in kindergarden, and Amanda (my sister) would have been a little tike of 2. Mom had been telling us for several days that we had a surprise coming in the mail in a few days, and of course we spent the entire wait trying to guess what the surprise might be. We would never in a million years have guessed that she had won a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) on a Pepsi bottle cap. Who wins anything but maybe a free drink?! The box arrived one evening and I soon as it was opened Joe and I both start to yell, "A Nintendo! A Nintendo! A Nintendo!", and then I realize EXACTLY what it is we're starting at. "Wait Joe, it's a SUPER Nintendo!" Again in unison, "A Super Nintendo! A Super Nintendo!" 
We ended up with quite the variety of games for that particular system, both owned and rented. We started out with your standard Super Mario Bros., and typically rented games before we bought them. Dad fell in love with Gradius III and after several rentals we bought it from the old BEST store in Charlottesville. At the time Joe and I could have come up with many other games we would rather have had, but Gradius did end up being a family favorite. Growing up Dad always conquered all with that game and we spent plenty of time watching him fly through "The Greased Lightning Round" and struggle with "Master's on Parade". Another favorite was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past which was purchased at Toys R Us on the way home from visiting some good family friends in Maryland - we were thrilled that there was a Zelda game available for our SNES. As the game starts out with rescuing Princess Zelda, we thought we had beaten the game in 30 minutes. Little did we know that she would be lost to us again and we would have to fight through 3 dungeons to collect 3 pendents, retrieve the Master Sword, (temporarily) defeat a wizard, fight through 7 dungeons to collect 7 crystals, beat the wizard again, and then FINALLY face Ganon.
As with all electronic devices the SNES became obsolete - we still played it, but there were no new games available and it was time to move onto bigger and better things. Mom and Dad started to rent a PlayStation system and a few games for us during holiday breaks from school, and I cannot remember a single game that we rented during those times except for one, Resident Evil. Joe had actually discovered the game, and I didn't want anything to do with it, convinced that I wouldn't like it based on the game case artwork, which really didn't do the game justice at all. We spent HOURS playing that game, and I think all 3 of us have played every Resident Evil game put out since. The year after we started renting the PlayStation during breaks, Mom and Dad bought us one for Christmas. We thoroughly enjoyed our Resident Evil games (Director's Cut, 2, and 3 were made for the PSOne, and a few other random shooter games that weren't part of the main story line). Then we discovered Parasite Eve - you just can't go wrong with a game that begins with a person spontaneously combusting during an opera! We spend the entire duration of a Thanksgiving Day playing that particular title. All 3 of us loved the "survival horror" genre of games, we loved the story lines, the surprises, but all 3 of us wanted to watch someone else play them instead of actually playing them ourselves - there's something even more creepy about being the one playing the game than being the one watching. The scariest game, by far: Fatal Frame.
In a blur the PlayStation 2, Sega Dreamcast (which we bought only for Resident Evil: Code Veronica X), and a Nintendo 64 (Amanda's) came into the house. The PS2 of course being the favorite of the 3. More Resident Evil, Tomb Raider and Silent Hill games. By this time I was preparing only a year or two from going to college, and was spending less time playing games. My siblings and I had entered places in our lives where we just weren't as interested in sitting in a room together playing games as much as we had been. I purchased an NES with 5 games, 2 controllers and a zapper gun on eBay for $35 the summer before college and spent some time playing it that summer, and a little in college too. My GameBoy color came to college with me, but was lost at some point during my freshman year. In my sophomore year I was introduced to the GameBoy Advance and was thrilled to discover The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (identical to the SNES version) as well as a series of classic NES games. I also had friends with an N64 in their dorm room and we spent time playing Perfect Dark 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Diddy Kong Racing. My senior year in college I brought back the PSOne which had been sitting in Mom and Dad's attic for years, and found a ton of cheap games at GameStop just before they stopped carrying them. Toward the end of the year I upgraded to a PS2.Since then my video game playing has been sporadic. I spent lots of time on Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Outbreak: File 2, several tomb raider games, Shadow of the Colossus (LOVED that one), and a few others. I've been through many games for the Nintendo DS, the 3 Castlevania games, the Phoenix Wright games, and the Trauma Center games being some of my favorites. I also picked up a $30 GameCube after grad school (yea Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil, the remake!) Matt bought a PS3 the year after we got married and I've played a few games on there too: Resident Evil 5, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Tomb Raider Underworld.
I wouldn't say that video games played a big part in my life, but they sure took up a good amount of time. Now a days with a baby I really don't have the time, energy, or motivation to play games too often - I'll think I'm in the mood to play one but then decide I'm not after starting one. We have a Wii which I think will be a lot of fun for Addisyn once she gets older. And I LOVE that we can download our favorite NES and SNES games in their entirety for the equivalent of $5-8 ($10 for Nintendo 64 games)! And to think that when these games first came out they were all selling at $60! On the system now: The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Gradius III, Donkey Kong Country, Super Castlevania IV, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and The Legend of the Mystical Ninja.
I remember mom and I had made a conscious decision NOT to have a game system, not because it would be a waste of time, but because it would be a time waster (as if TV wasn't)! Then she found the bottle cap! Oh well. Res Evil was fun, I remember playing it in your room at the top of the stairs on a TV Dukie donated. Uncle Lee was there and I always got spooked when the zombie at the end of the hall attacked, and all my avatar could do was run in circles as if it had one foot nailed to the floor! Had better luck with Gradius!
ReplyDeleteThat was Joe's room, by that time I was already in the back bedroom. I believe the decision was made that it should go in Joe's room because he would be more inclined to share and let others in to play, or some such nonsense. (:
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