My 14 year old daughter Amrita asked me this question today, when she stated that she was playing Dragon Quest 9 and loved it. I told her I liked the game a lot too and I remembered playing Dragon Warrior when I was a kid on the regular nintendo console. She asked me what a regular nintendo was and I felt quite old at that point, but I answered her question. It was Super Mario Bros. and I remember my brother Rob and I played it constantly.
It got me thinking about other video games I had played as a kid. Mario Bros. was fun because my brother and I could play together. Our grandparents got it for us for Christmas and we were so thrilled to finally have one just like all our friends. The music and the bright colors just made for a good time especially when you were a kid. We were given other video games as presents and the ones that stood out the most for me, were Dragon Warrior and Legend Of Zelda. I fell in love with those games. Rob told me when we were adults that he could never get into the RPG games like I did, because he just got so frustrated with the pacing. He is more of a fight and action game person. I however, loved the stories, loved the battles, and loved the music in those games.
Another Christmas Rob and I both got a Nintendo gameboy and a game to go with it. Mine was Final Fantasy Legend II and I played it so much, I would constantly be plugging it in or changing the batteries. Sure, now we have all these wonderful advances, but when I was a kid, that was the thing to have. It was new, wonderful, and exciting.
Then there is the game that makes me smile and has my heart because it got me through a month of chicken pox. That's right, a whole month of chicken pox. When I was 13 and Rob was 8, he got chicken pox. He was fairly resilient for a kid with chicken pox and didn't seem to have it that badly. My grandmother assumed it was alright for me to be around my brother since both my parents had informed her that yes, I had already had chicken pox when I was little. So I helped play nurse to my little brother.
Guess who got chicken pox for the second time in her childhood? The thing about me and illness is that I rarely get sick. When I do become ill, I get it ten times worse than anyone else and you'd think I was dying. This is what happened with the second outbreak of chicken pox. Not only did I get chicken pox, I got super chicken pox. I got something called thrush which is chicken pox in the mouth, on the tongue, and the back of the throat. Trust me, this is not a fun thing to have and it can make eating a hassle. I had to have these tablets that our family doctor prescribed and let them dissolve in my mouth, just so I could eat.
So besides catching up on school homework, resting all the time, and being really upset that I couldn't go to school to see my best friend Miranda, (Who called me every day after school to see how I was doing. There's a reason she's godmother to my daughters) I was also incredibly bored. I couldn't scratch, daytime television sucked, I'd read all my books, and I'd played all my games. Then Rob had borrowed a game from a friend of his at school and said that I could play it while he was at school since I was sick. It was Super Mario Bros 2.
I played it and the game was so much fun with the music and the creative levels, that it was a welcome distraction from me being under quarantine. I even finished the game and played through it a second time because I had enjoyed it so much. It still holds a fond place in my heart because it caused a sick 13 year old girl to forget that she was sick and got her to smile.
Many video games later there are more completed games under my belt and the list of games I love have gotten longer, but I still remember those child hood games and remember them fondly. They were the reason I fell in love with video games after all.
It got me thinking about other video games I had played as a kid. Mario Bros. was fun because my brother and I could play together. Our grandparents got it for us for Christmas and we were so thrilled to finally have one just like all our friends. The music and the bright colors just made for a good time especially when you were a kid. We were given other video games as presents and the ones that stood out the most for me, were Dragon Warrior and Legend Of Zelda. I fell in love with those games. Rob told me when we were adults that he could never get into the RPG games like I did, because he just got so frustrated with the pacing. He is more of a fight and action game person. I however, loved the stories, loved the battles, and loved the music in those games.
Another Christmas Rob and I both got a Nintendo gameboy and a game to go with it. Mine was Final Fantasy Legend II and I played it so much, I would constantly be plugging it in or changing the batteries. Sure, now we have all these wonderful advances, but when I was a kid, that was the thing to have. It was new, wonderful, and exciting.
Then there is the game that makes me smile and has my heart because it got me through a month of chicken pox. That's right, a whole month of chicken pox. When I was 13 and Rob was 8, he got chicken pox. He was fairly resilient for a kid with chicken pox and didn't seem to have it that badly. My grandmother assumed it was alright for me to be around my brother since both my parents had informed her that yes, I had already had chicken pox when I was little. So I helped play nurse to my little brother.
Guess who got chicken pox for the second time in her childhood? The thing about me and illness is that I rarely get sick. When I do become ill, I get it ten times worse than anyone else and you'd think I was dying. This is what happened with the second outbreak of chicken pox. Not only did I get chicken pox, I got super chicken pox. I got something called thrush which is chicken pox in the mouth, on the tongue, and the back of the throat. Trust me, this is not a fun thing to have and it can make eating a hassle. I had to have these tablets that our family doctor prescribed and let them dissolve in my mouth, just so I could eat.
So besides catching up on school homework, resting all the time, and being really upset that I couldn't go to school to see my best friend Miranda, (Who called me every day after school to see how I was doing. There's a reason she's godmother to my daughters) I was also incredibly bored. I couldn't scratch, daytime television sucked, I'd read all my books, and I'd played all my games. Then Rob had borrowed a game from a friend of his at school and said that I could play it while he was at school since I was sick. It was Super Mario Bros 2.
I played it and the game was so much fun with the music and the creative levels, that it was a welcome distraction from me being under quarantine. I even finished the game and played through it a second time because I had enjoyed it so much. It still holds a fond place in my heart because it caused a sick 13 year old girl to forget that she was sick and got her to smile.
Many video games later there are more completed games under my belt and the list of games I love have gotten longer, but I still remember those child hood games and remember them fondly. They were the reason I fell in love with video games after all.
In my case, "Q*Bopper", by Accelerated Software, for the Commodore 64, way back in the 80's. It's pretty much a Q-bert clone. http://spong.com/asset/5628/2/11021729/entity for a screenshot. A sequel to it called "Balls" came out later.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember exactly what the first video game I ever played was. I remember when video games first came out. I remember the Atari 2600 and that Tank game that came with it. I also remember pong, and those games you would shoot targets with on the screen. I also remember playing Space Invaders in the arcade.
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