I had a pretty strange childhood. I grew up in a military family, moving every 3 years or so, and never really having any friends that lasted more than the time that I lived in any one place. It was a pretty cool way to grow up, because I saw really cool places, but I never really had any friends or meaningful relationships with people that lasted more than a few years. Except for video games, they were always there for me.
My love for video games started when I was living in Japan. I was about seven years old at the time. They had the coolest arcades that were filled with so many different games from fighting, puzzle to adventure games. I spent so much time there just hanging out with my brothers while they were playing all the different games.
That Christmas, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) had come out and my parents got us one. This was the beginning of me becoming an official nerd. The NES came with Super Mario Bros and a few other games. We also had Duck Hunt and the Olympics game with the power pad.
Over the next few months, my brothers and I spent so much time playing Mario, trying to master the game. My oldest brother was able to beat Super Mario Bros without dying or skipping any levels. Talk about super nerd.
They had a pizza place that we would hang out and there was an arcade inside of it. Street Fighter 2 came out in the arcade and it changed everything. Kids would spend hours lined up to battle each other. We would line our quarters up on the machine to secure our place in line and wait our turn to try and be the best.
So after I was introduced into video games, I knew I would always have something to go to when I was new to a place or feeling bored. Video games also was a great way to meet new friends in an area as well because all of the kids were playing games, so it gave me something in common with them.
As I was growing up, we owned every game system that was released since the NES. Mainly because my brothers saved up their money to put towards the systems and games and my parents would get us stuff at Christmas as well. I remember saving up my allowance for so long just to buy Uncle Fester's Quest for the NES, just to be disappointed because that game sucked so bad.
As I got older, the video games got better and more "life like." I put life like in quotations because when the original Playstation came out, I thought the games looked so real, but now looking back, I can barely make out what any of the crap on the screen even was.
I think the original Silent Hill is the only game that actually scared me while I was playing it. This game was amazing. I would play this game at night with all the lights off in my room and my speakers up loud and it would scare the crap out of me. There have been so many spin offs from this game and games that have copied the style, but none of them have been able to match the feeling of the original.
Many people judge a video game system by the graphics and that is how they determine if it is the best or not. But to me, I think the best system ever made was the SNES. There were so many awesome games that I played on that system. I really think that the SNES is the game system that really got my love for video games going.
The SNES had a ton of great games, like Star Fox, F-Zero, Mario Kart, Super Mario, Super Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, Act Raiser, Contra 3, Super Ghouls and Ghosts, Donkey Kong Country, Yoshi's Island, Street Fighter 2, Legend of Zelda: a Link to the Past, and Mortal Kombat 2.
I played Mortal Kombat 2 so much that I had every fatality memorized for all of the players. It was such a fun game. A Link to the Past was a perfect game in every way. There was so much about that game that made it awesome. I think one of the best parts about playing games on the SNES back then was that there was no internet and no YouTube, so everything you did in the game, you had to figure it out on your own. Unless you had a subscription to Nintendo Power and you could get some hints from there.
Everything that you did in gaming back then had a sense of accomplishment and you didn't need achievements popping up every few minutes letting you know that you did something right in the game. Games were different back then. They may not have looked the greatest, but they were challenging, they were complete and they weren't filled with micro transactions or DLCs forcing you to continue to purchase more for the game you just bought.
Let me know what your favorite game system and/or video games are in the comments. Let's nerd it up during #thebeast. I am sure we can get 1300 comments done just talking about nerd stuff. If you are one of those elitist computer master race people, no one cares how cool your computer is and that it is better than a console either. Just remember that you paid a lot more for your computer to play video games just like a console, you can just push a few more pixels and frames out. But I am sure you are playing on a 22 inch computer monitor or something while sitting at a computer desk, while I am relaxing on my couch playing on the big screen.
