Metroid was the “click.” I remember well the first time I realised that Metroid was going to be different – and it wasn’t going to be on a Sega console – I know that sounds sacrilegious since I am a die-hard Sega fan. I am ten years old in 1987 and my neighbour Danny had just gotten this weird Nintendo game that none of us kids could make heads or tails of. We had all…
In the end, I can’t help but say my love for Sonic & Sega is a bit ironic, since I used to be a Nintendo kid. I was never part of a family that loved Sega, I was a Nintendo kid until December of 1991, when my life was flipped upside-down. My parents (bless them) had been picking up on hints for months that I really wanted a Genesis. I mean, I’m talking about putting…
When I read stories about unwrapping NES gifts on Christmas morning and watched videos of kids ripping open grey boxes to discover their brand-new consoles in 1986, I felt like I was flipping through a family photo album that wasn’t mine. I was not there, and neither were many others. At the age of 18, I was working construction with my dad, and saving every penny I could for the impending birth of our child…
There are numerous reasons I’m a 42 yr. Old construction foreman and I’ve had so many vivid memories of obtaining my first handheld video game as a child. I purchased my first Game Boy at a garage sale in 2009 for $5. After my daughter said “retro handhelds”, I spent the next 3 hours trying to figure out why anyone would want to play games on a tiny, dimly lit screen. When I purchased the…
I have kept the Gateway 2000 mouse pad on my desk at work for over 25 years, and I don’t have that mouse pad there for some sort of retro flair – it is there because it is the only one of the many mouse pads I have bought that has survived three moves from one location to another and remained intact. Each time I see those cows, I am reminded of 1994 and the…
When I’m down in my basement game room organising my collection – and my wife tells me that I have obsessive-compulsive disorder; she’s probably right – there is one console that freezes me in place every time. That gorgeous white, curvy beauty on my shelf – my Dreamcast – still takes my breath away every time I glance at it. It didn’t sell enough units to be considered the most successful console of all time,…
At seventeen, I considered myself to be too mature and intelligent for something as…childish looking as Earthbound. All my friends were talking about Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy III (which we later learned was actually Final Fantasy VI), and some other bizarre title with scratch and sniff cards and cartoon style marketing. The box cover art didn’t even look like any of the RPGs I was used to. I just thought it was a marketing…
When I was 13 years old I was a Sega fanboy. I loved the Genesis (or Mega Drive) and I hated Nintendo. Then my cousin Danny got a Super Nintendo for Christmas that year and he brought it over for our Christmas dinner. We were eating turkey and mashed potatoes, etc., and I was bored. So, when Danny booted up A Link to the Past using the gold cartridge, I sat down next to him…
I went to a small game store in Denver — it’s probably gone now — to look for a copy of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. When I got back to my house and booted it up, I was greeted by the opening sequence. Wow! You’re playing as some Belmont dude fighting Dracula and the voice acting is…well, it’s a real thing. “What is a man? A pitiful little pile of secrets!” delivered with all…
Going through those empty corridors – hearing Lara’s boots echoing off stone walls – not knowing what the next room will bring (treasure, an ancient death trap) feels a lot like being 16 years old and walking through my Uncle’s old abandoned silver mine, and only having a flashlight and a whole lot of curiosity to guide you through. The puzzle element also hooked me — although, I’ll admit, many of the puzzles in Tomb…