I've been thinking about my life and the video games I've played...They've had a frighteningly big part in defining me.
In grade three I visited my friend Marcel for a 'sleepover'. This was the first time I actually played a video game. Super Mario Brothers on his NES, to be exact. I lacked the co-ordination to get anywhere past the first pitfall--that's right, the one right after the hidden 1-Up. He didn't let me play Zelda, because it was "too hard" for me.
The 'in-between' over the next year and a bit was filled with playing Super Mario Bros. at the local Safeway as my Mom shopped. I never made it past Level 1-2, but I frigging loved it.
About a year later, I was in the car on the way to school; I heard a radio advertisement announce that you could now rent the NES at one of the local video stores. Uh oh. It took a few weeks of begging, but I finally convinced my mom to rent one for me to try. I invited my friend to come over and play it with me; we rented Super Mario Bros. 2 and Dragon Power. Dragon Power was such a shitty and hard game back then that I won't mention it any further. Super Mario Bros. 2, however, quickly became my favourite game at the time.
The renting continued on various weekends for about a year--whenever I could convince my parents to shell out the money. A select few games reeled me in during that time: Metroid (too obvious if you know anything about me), Zelda, and Megaman.
I'm not going to go into the details of how I developed--if I did, it would take pages. I will say a few things to give you an idea:
1) Of the weekly journals we kept at school, mine detailed absolutely nothing but how far I had gotten on n video game the weekend previous;
2) As an altar boy, I was, on more than one occasion, dragged out of my seat next to the priest by the ear, mid-service, for distracting the congregation because I couldn't keep my hands still. For example, my hands liked to pretend they were tektites, and jumped from knee to knee and back accordingly. Bonus footage: My Altar-Ego ( :roll: ) enjoyed bearing the holy water because of its potential monster burning properties;
3) My first orgasm was almost certainly granted the first time I killed Aquamentus and retrieved my first triforce fragment. Seriously, listen to the music that plays and tell me there isn't fluid that wasn't there before;
4) My Grade 5 birthday party was the last I ever had. Nobody would come to them after that. Why? Well, I had mastered Super Mario Bros. 2 and I insisted that they watch me finish every single level, why else? Jerks. I had fun. It was my birthday.
I suppose I could write a book. The years following the birthday party, I became known as the biggest Nintendo nerd in the town (of about 15,000) I'm also pretty sure that I'm single-handedly responsible for making Video Gaming taboo in my junior high-school. Nobody talked about video games, ever. This happened because the cool kids in my elementary school became the cool kids at the junior high, the only junior high school in the whole town, I might add. They, of course, ensured that the news of my fanaticism would percolate down through the student body, and oft times the teachers themselves would get on my case. That's a whole other bucket of poop in itself, filled with drama, love, et-frigging-cetera. You don't even want to know what happened when the Super Nintendo came out.
Ah, memories.
Edit: If this is better off in Reality Sinks In, feel free to get it the frig outta here.
In grade three I visited my friend Marcel for a 'sleepover'. This was the first time I actually played a video game. Super Mario Brothers on his NES, to be exact. I lacked the co-ordination to get anywhere past the first pitfall--that's right, the one right after the hidden 1-Up. He didn't let me play Zelda, because it was "too hard" for me.
The 'in-between' over the next year and a bit was filled with playing Super Mario Bros. at the local Safeway as my Mom shopped. I never made it past Level 1-2, but I frigging loved it.
About a year later, I was in the car on the way to school; I heard a radio advertisement announce that you could now rent the NES at one of the local video stores. Uh oh. It took a few weeks of begging, but I finally convinced my mom to rent one for me to try. I invited my friend to come over and play it with me; we rented Super Mario Bros. 2 and Dragon Power. Dragon Power was such a shitty and hard game back then that I won't mention it any further. Super Mario Bros. 2, however, quickly became my favourite game at the time.
The renting continued on various weekends for about a year--whenever I could convince my parents to shell out the money. A select few games reeled me in during that time: Metroid (too obvious if you know anything about me), Zelda, and Megaman.
I'm not going to go into the details of how I developed--if I did, it would take pages. I will say a few things to give you an idea:
1) Of the weekly journals we kept at school, mine detailed absolutely nothing but how far I had gotten on n video game the weekend previous;
2) As an altar boy, I was, on more than one occasion, dragged out of my seat next to the priest by the ear, mid-service, for distracting the congregation because I couldn't keep my hands still. For example, my hands liked to pretend they were tektites, and jumped from knee to knee and back accordingly. Bonus footage: My Altar-Ego ( :roll: ) enjoyed bearing the holy water because of its potential monster burning properties;
3) My first orgasm was almost certainly granted the first time I killed Aquamentus and retrieved my first triforce fragment. Seriously, listen to the music that plays and tell me there isn't fluid that wasn't there before;
4) My Grade 5 birthday party was the last I ever had. Nobody would come to them after that. Why? Well, I had mastered Super Mario Bros. 2 and I insisted that they watch me finish every single level, why else? Jerks. I had fun. It was my birthday.
I suppose I could write a book. The years following the birthday party, I became known as the biggest Nintendo nerd in the town (of about 15,000) I'm also pretty sure that I'm single-handedly responsible for making Video Gaming taboo in my junior high-school. Nobody talked about video games, ever. This happened because the cool kids in my elementary school became the cool kids at the junior high, the only junior high school in the whole town, I might add. They, of course, ensured that the news of my fanaticism would percolate down through the student body, and oft times the teachers themselves would get on my case. That's a whole other bucket of poop in itself, filled with drama, love, et-frigging-cetera. You don't even want to know what happened when the Super Nintendo came out.
Ah, memories.
Edit: If this is better off in Reality Sinks In, feel free to get it the frig outta here.
:lol: :lol:
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