Quarter Century of Gaming
I have trouble pinning down how old I was when I first held a NES controller. I was born 5 days before Tetris. Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt was the first game I had, released when I was one. But I'm sure I first played it several years after - As a one year old I lacked the dexterity to wield the light zapper. Final Fantasy in '87 stands out in my mind, and by Final Fantasy II in '91 I'd upgraded to a SNES and was busily gaming. Come to think of it, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) for NES released in '89 during my birthday month, and that's a game I probably got right when it was new. I was into the cartoons that started in '87. Was I really glued to Saturday Morning cartoons at only three years old? I remember playing the relatively new Tecmo Bowl, Archon, Anticipation, and Jackal at a friends house... '89,'89,'88, and 88'. So NES ground zero was probably Christmas 1988 when I was 4.5 years old. I still have that console, and it still works perfectly. So 25 plus years I've gamed. Some of the most memorable Titles? Dragon Warrior NES, Third Gen - Pretty sure I got this game for "free" with subscription to Nintendo Power Magazine in 1990. The battle music, low health font turning red, and giant green dragons were terrifying. It's music and pixel art are still etched into my mind.
GRAPHICS SO REAL I CAN'T TELL IT'S A VIDEO GAME!
Final Fantasy III for SNES, 4th Gen - Enter 2nd Gen. Kefka's still haunts me. A long story, a large cast, brilliant art and music direction, I was completely absorbed (and I had the official strategy guide!) Moogles and Chocobos kick ass, too.
Final Fantasy VII PSOne 5th Gen -Jaw dropping Full Motion Video and three, count them, one, two, three dimensions! Even if there were less than twenty polygons in the Picasso-esque character models. Not sure what is sharper - Cloud's hair or sword.
Resident Evil PSOne 5th Gen - First experience with the frustrating "Tank Control" solution to aiming a pistol in three dimensions. Blowing away zombies was immensely satisfying. I developed a fascination with Zippo lighters from the flip lighter in the inventory that persists to this day.
Mario 64 N64 5th Gen- Hundreds of hours spent obtaining every possible star. Dozens of hours spent warping Mario's face in the title screen.
Fallout 2 PC - This game was so gritty, the dialogue was vast and hilarious, secrets were everywhere just waiting to be discovered. So many consequences to your actions. I really loved the isometric style.
Ultima Online PC - My first MMORPG. Many a Friday/Saturday night were spent in my room farming gold from Liches instead of binge drinking with highschool friends. I gained a serious appreciation for Capes as well.
Ultima IX Asscension - The buggiest game there ever was. Ambitious for being an early 3D game. It predated internet patches, so CD's fixing bugs were literally mailed to registered owners to deliver patches. Did not run very well on my $2000 state of the art Dell computer with Rambus RDRAM. Came with a bitching cloth map that I still own.
Final Fantasy X PS2 Sixth Gen- I deliberately purchased a macintosh laptop and skipped the PS2 when I left for college so as not to flunk out spending all my time gaming. In 2004 I caved and bought a PS2 Slim for Final Fantasy X. It was the first Final Fantasy game to make the leap to the then next gen. I was a bit disappointed and boy was the voice acting terrible. Tough I had a logitech third party wireless controller that let me lie in bed while playing, and it was awesome. Can't get enough of that Yoshitaka Amano art style.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots PS3 7th Gen- The graphics were incredible. Hideo Kojima is a real visionary.
Fallout 3 PS3 7th Gen: Being able to revisit the Fallout 2 franchise on modern hardware was a joy. I remember getting my collectors edition copy in a Vault-Tec lunchbox at midnight, and then playing until 4 AM. On a work night.
Resident Evil HD Remaster PS4 8th Gen: The AAA titles are graphicly impressive and you can sink a hundred hours into them, but they are starting to bore me, I find myself enjoying more bite sized and visionary PSN releases more. Resident Evil HD remaster took a great game that hadn't aged well, and gave it modern conveniences we've come to expect.
Shovel Knight PS4 8th Gen: One of the best 8 bit love letters I've ever played. And the soundtrack is ROCKIN.
Here's to another 50 years. It's going to get weird with mainstream virtual reality just around the corner.
