Video Games

I’ve always been fascinated with video games. I remember seeing them in the arcade at the old Woodhaven mall, and I wanted to play then and also understand how they worked. Any time I had quarters, if we were there, they disappeared into the machines. Spent a ton of time playing Defender there. The arcade version was so much better than the Atari one. Also played Spy Hunter whenever I got the chance! Asteroids was cool as shit too!

At some point in the Early 80s, my aunt bought us an Atari 2600 for Christmas. We had it hooked up to a small, by today’s standards, 13-inch black-and-white TV. For some time, it was in the basement on a shelf, and we had to sit on a barstool to play it and see it. Pitfall, Yars’ Revenge, and Defender were the ones I played the most on there.

My neighbor across the street had a Nintendo, and she’d let us come over and play it sometimes. She introduced me to Tetris! That was such a fun game to play, and of course, she had Super Mario Bros. I really liked that one too! I was amazed by the graphics. She owned and loved playing Zelda, but we couldn’t play it. For Christmas one year, we got a Nintendo of our own.

Some of my favorite games on that NES we owned were, naturally, Super Mario Bros. 1 and 2. The water levels were annoying but different. Duck Hunt, which came with the Nintendo that our parents had bought us, was pretty fun too, except for the fact that you couldn’t shoot that fucking dog that laughed at you. I really enjoyed the Castlevania games. I can still hear the Castlevania II music. They were slightly different. Along that line, I really enjoyed Metroid. I enjoyed the Megaman games a lot, too. I never did get my own copy of Zelda, which I realize now was a huge mistake.

At some point, we got a Commodore 64. My dad bought it from someone he knew. It came with a ton of games. Which I now realize were mostly, if not all, cracked versions of the games, but I didn’t know then. Maniac Mansion comes to mind with this. I spent too much time on that game, and I ended up with all the possible endings eventually. Another one I really enjoyed on there was Dig Dug.

Some time later, we got a Super Nintendo. I spent way too much time playing that and beating various games. By then, I was renting games. You could get an extra day if you rented them on the weekends at Pharmore, so that’s what I did, and picked up a bunch of used ones over that time.

One summer, I picked up a Sega CD at the pawn shop. First time with a non-Nintendo since we had the Atari, but those were all gifts, so you couldn’t complain too much. Loved playing Sonic, and there were other games I liked a lot too. There was a racing game that played good music, or at least some good choices. Maybe it was called out run? I remember the motorcycles and picking your city.

I eventually got a Nintendo 64, and we played it quite a bit. I’m not sure why we stopped. It got put away when we moved, and I never got it back out. There were some excellent games for that, but I do remember the weird 3d glitches happening at times. The games were becoming too graphically intense for my eyes. They looked awesome, but lost a lot of contrast with the prettiness. The same thing happened with PC games.

Next, I got a Wii. Enjoyed that a lot. Just brought it back down from the attic this past summer and hooked it back up.

Sadly, I no longer have the Nintendos. We were having work done, and one of the workers saw them in the garage and asked if we wanted to get rid of them. He said he has 4 kids and that they’d really enjoy them. I was nice and gave them to him. We weren’t using them at that point, and if it made a kid’s life a bit better, that would be a good thing. The fucker came back the next day, bragging about how much he sold them for. No doubt my niceness bought him drugs. Oh well, nothing can be done about it now.

As of 2021, I’ve rejoined the modern world. I got an Xbox Series X for Christmas, and I have really been enjoying it. I am blown away by how amazing the graphics are. But then again, I haven’t had anything more modern than the Wii, so that doesn’t say a whole lot.

I’m liking Watch Dogs: Legion a lot and have been slowly playing my way through it over the past couple of months. I’ve really liked the storyline and the plot twists, for sure. It’s not the type of game I really ever expected I’d play and enjoy, but I have been. I don’t play every day or for long periods. Lifting and enjoying the nice weather are more important to me.