What Video Games Mean to Me

I've been thinking about video games quite a bit lately.  No, not the Modern Warfare 3 that my students won't quit talking about.  I don't even care about most modern stuff.  I'm talking about video games from back in the day.  My day.

I've been interested in video games for almost as long as I can remember.  I have vague memories of playing on an old, wood-paneled pong console at my grandma's house when I was very small.  My cousins had an Atari 2600 that melted my brain at the time.  The first console I remember getting was an Atari 7800.  Pole Position II, anyone?  Good, because that's the only game we had.

Where the Love Began
But the machine that captured my heart was the Nintendo Entertainment System.  It would go on to be affectionately called the "regular Nintendo" by my brother and me.  I can still feel the adrenaline pumping through my eight-year-old body when my mom said we could rent one.  That's right.  Rent one.

It was one of the most exciting moments of my young life when we came home with that bad boy.  We got to rent several games with it too.  I distinctly remember R.C. Pro-Am and Life Force, for sure.  We finally got that baby hooked up to our old wood-grain console TV.  That's right.  A console TV.  I had played Nintendo at friends' houses, but this was different.  I controlled the games and the pace.  And my brother was the only person I had to take turns with.  Sort of.  I was hooked.

My brother and I finally got our own NES a year later as a combined Christmas present.  Ripping through that cheap, festive wrapping paper on that early December morning made me feel like, well, a kid at Christmas time.  Who would have thought a small gray box would have brought me such untold hours of joy, frustration, and imagination.

But Why Video Games?
Why am I still thinking about this more than 20 years later?  I haven't quite put my finger on it.  There was just something comforting about playing a video game when I was kid.  Video games don't judge you.  A game doesn't care if you're on food stamps or have jeans that are too small.  They don't mind your low-rent apartment.  Video games don't make fun of you if you're not good at sports, or have a lazy eye.

So many kids seemed to care about those things.  But I knew my games wouldn't.  My family moved around quite a bit when I was younger.  Changing schools and towns was tough sometimes.  Things could be so uncertain and unpredictable.  But, as cheesy as this sounds, I always knew Mario, Link, and Mega Man would still be there, and still be the same.

My own children haven't gotten into gaming like I did when I was their age.  Maybe that's for the best.  Maybe it will happen when they're older.  Maybe it will never happen.  I'm not sure.

Back to Ten-Year-Old Me
But games are on my mind right now.  So, over the next few days, I'd like to share the most memorable Nintendo games from way back when.  My way back when.  This is not going to be a TOP 10 BEST NINTENDO GAMES EVER! kind of list.  These will be the most personal and memorable games for me when I was growing up.

There will be a few honorable mentions and then I'll post one game a day until I've reached the top.  Thanks for hanging out with me as I take a trip back to visit ten-year-old me.  So go grab a SqueezeIt and turn up the Vanilla Ice.  It'll be fun.

Photo credit: kenfagerdotcom