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Continuing on from Benoit’s entry on how he was introduced to video games, let me tell you my story:

I recall playing a Colecovision in Gaspe and didn’t really understand what was going on. Then I moved up towards Atari over at the Suddard’s where I am going to be honest here…I thought it sucked. What was with that lousy joystick?

Alright…here’s where we step it up a notch for the best 10 years of my life. I don’t know how I afforded it, but I remember that I ordered a Nintendo Enterntainment System from Nanny down in Florida. Supposedly the games were cheaper down there but I have to wonder now…anyhow I got home one day from school and Mom said Dad needed help downstairs with something and I thought that was strange since he was usually at work by this time. Then she said he needed help playing Police Quest (which will be explained later in my post of how I loved computer games). I went downstairs and lo and behold, there was Dad hooking up the Nintendo. Whoa. What a feeling. You know how you can’t remember half the stuff you’ve done in your life, but there are certain moments where you can recall them like they happened yesterday? This is one of those moments. Dad went to work and I played Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt all night and woke up early the next morning to play it again.

Nintendo became my life. That’s right…I was a video game geek. Lucky for me, I meet Marc who lived a few doors down who shared my passion. I can still remember the countless hours we spent playing Dragon Warrior just to build up enough experience to progress into dangerous territory with harder enemies. Man, RPGs were not made well back then. Now they are built so you don’t have to really build up experience…you just keep playing the game. Actually, this brings up a good rant as to how experience points are not really needed anymore in video games.

Then came the time where the Super NES came out and I needed it. However, my parents didn’t see the sense of having two video game systems (Heaven forbid!) and to get a Super NES, I had to sell my NES and all its games. It was a sad moment in my life, but on the horizon I could see the new Zelda game inserted into the Super NES console (BTW, probably my favourite video game. Perhaps I should sit down and make a top 10 list).

Over the years, I became lest enthused with Super NES and moved towards computer games – mostly the Sierra Quest series – King’s, Police, Space, Leisure Suit Larry…you name it, I played it. I loved those games. I’ll go more into computer games in another post.

When I moved to college, I played video games here and there but never really felt the itch to sit down for hours anymore in front of the television set. I am disappointed with how I turned from the uber-geek of video games to someone who isn’t even interested in them anymore.

Last year I thought that I was becoming bored with the monotony of going to work and coming home, that I may want to try a new video game console since Carrie and I used to play quite a few video games all the time. Carrie and Philipp bought a Gamecube which we played religiously for awhile and I ended up getting an XBox last Christmas.

However, I’ll be honest with you, I probably played it 10 times.

Gone are the days where I was interested in video games. I don’t know why I am this way. It saddens me actually that I am this way. How could something that was such a part of my life, just wither and die?

So there you have it..my video game history! I suggest you go see Benoit’s entry since he has a very keen interest in the video game industry and it was an entertaining read. I also encourage you to write about your first forray into it!

iplaying: Release – Live in Kingston 2005-07-15 – The Tea Party