History

My gaming history started many years ago, in the arcades of my home town, on my way home from school. I wasn’t really an avid gamer but would play with my friends for a little while, taking it in turns on games like Space Invaders, Galaxian and Asteroids. I wasn’t particularly good, but enjoyed hanging out and just playing for fun. The arcades were always busy, so it was hard to get very good at these games unless you were extremely motivated. I wasn’t.

Along came the next decade and the emergence of Nintendo, Donkey Kong and Mario Brothers appeared, as well as games such as Defender and Track and Field. I played a bit more in the 80s and got a bit better at these games. The Nintendo games, in particular, caught my interest, but I still didn’t really play enough to be at the level of some of the more hardcore gamers. It was fun but was still just something to pass a bit of time.

All of this changed in the 80s. The arcade giants, Nintendo and Sega brought gaming into the home with their consoles, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the Sega Master System. For me, this changed everything, being able to while away the hours gaming with my friends, without having to stand in line, and without having to leave my room/house/flat.

Most of the A List games were platformers, which weren’t really my thing, but I still had a lot of fun playing these games and spent hours on the first 3 Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong and, my particular favourite, the non platform Legend of Zelda.

I was very much in the Nintendo camp, with regards to the games that I spent the most time playing.

Moving forward, the 90s saw in the advent of the Sega Mega Drive, though I spent a bit more time in the Sega camp, particularly with its better version of Mortal Kombat, and I enjoyed games, such as Ecco the Dolphin.

But then came Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo (SNES) and I was back,  spending most of my time on Nintendo games. The original was possibly the best multi player game ever made, and the fact that you could have a party while playing games with your mates, meant it was a favourite for many of us over multiple evenings and weekends in the 90s.

I wouldn’t like to guess how much time I spent playing this game over a number of years.

PC games were getting better and I spent countless hours on my pc, playing Doom and Doom 2 as well as getting to grips with Championship Manager. Between the party games while playing Super Mario Kart, and various versions of Mortal Kombat, and my time playing Doom and Doom 2, I was spending a lot of time playing video games. Probably too much. I was holding down a job, but not really taking work too seriously. I would rather not think about how many days work I missed and how many work related exams I didn’t take because I spent so much time trying to defeat Johnny Cage or to get the BFG 9000 in Doom.

Enough was enough, it was time to put away childish things and take my work life, and my personal life, more seriously. I gradually was weaning myself off gaming and living a more responsible adult life. And then came 1997, with the Nintendo 64 as well as the Sony Playstation. Rather than it being the time that I put my games away, this ended up being the Golden Age of my gaming life.

I had pretty much bought every console that Nintendo and Sega has produced up to this point. The early 90s were a bit of blur, jobs came and went, partners came and went… I had been ‘wasting’ all those years gaming with friends and not taking anything else seriously at all.

I’d finally decided to get my head down and lead a more responsible life; except Nintendo produced the N64. Sony had released the Playstation about a year earlier and I hadn’t paid much attention to it, but that soon changed.

Over the next couple of years, a number of games were released that caught my eye. Mario Kart 64, then Goldeneye, which was just as good a multi player game, and finally, The Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time. Just at the time when I had decided that I would put the games down, I arrived at possibly the most exciting time, for me, in gaming history. Not to mention that football games were now much better than they had ever been and FIFA and International Superstar Soccer were taking up a lot of time as well. Nights into Dreams, on the Sega Saturn, was another that kept me hooked.

I’d not really taken a lot of notice of the Sony Playstation, up to 1997. I had intended to give up gaming, failed, and found myself totally hooked on my N64. I started buying more gaming magazines, Gamesmaster, CVG, and started to read about some of the games that were upcoming, or had already been released, on Sony Playstation. All of a sudden, or maybe not, instead of playing less games and giving them up, I had every Nintendo and Sega console that had ever been made,  was playing games on my PC and now was eyeing the Sony Playstation.

Clearly, I had decided to quit gaming at the worst possible time. Resident Evil, Final Fantasy 7, Metal Gear Solid came along, and that was the end of that.

In the years between the late 90s and present day, I didn’t play as often. Needless to say, I continued with the Playstation 2, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo Gamecube, Wii, Xbox, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Playstation 4. And I needed to buy much better PCs after Football Manager burned my graphics card, probably from overuse.

I balance my time, between playing and not playing, a lot better these days, although I still have the odd game that I will immerse myself in for a few weeks in the evenings and pretty much all weekend.

In the end, while I managed to be fairly proficient in certain games, I am now a casual gamer these days. But still, unashamedly a Gamer4Life.

I think there are many people with a similar story. They love games but aren’t necessarily interested in high scores, 100% completion rates or sacrificing all their time to play. It’s a pastime. It’s a good option to entertain yourself for hours on end, if you so wish, but being the best gamer or spending your life doing it isn’t really realistic for many of us these days. I also think that it is a viable option for people of all ages to partake in and there is, particularly, a lot of value in the older generation taking an interest in gaming, it is fun, entertaining and you get a sense of achievement out of finishing, or even just playing, a good game.

I’ve mentioned a few of my favourite games over the years, but there are too many great games for me to list here. There’s so much great stuff out there that I think is worth sharing. It’s not just games, anime, manga, art; my intention is to have fun sharing my favourite forms of entertainment and I hope that the lists will be interesting for some of you.

Whether you are new to gaming or not, I hope there will be something of interest for anyone who visits this site.

Happy Gaming