Atari 2600

Whatever our successes or failures were with getting playtime on their system, Kelli and I were hooked. We needed to get an Atari. Luckily, Christmas of 1983 was a good one. Our TV at the time couldn't have been more than 13 inches and was on a little cart with wheels. Mom and dad hid the Atari on the bottom shelf and covered it with a sheet, so when it was time to reveal the surprise, it was a lot of fun. We started out with three games; "Pac-Man", "Combat", and "Haunted House". The controller was simply a stick and a button, and the graphics were all big blocks, but we suddenly had something new to do in our lives.

We would end up with a fairly impressive collection of games, including "Pinball", "Chopper Command", "Kangaroo", "Smurfs (yes, Smurfs, it was really good, so shut up!), "Golf", "Breakout", and "Pitfall". Sometime in early 1984, at the age of 9, I uttered my first curse words directed at a video game while playing "Breakout". More on that later. I was never quite as mouthy as my little sister, but I was close. I remember "Chopper Command" fondly because on the box, it said that if you scored something like 100,000 points and could prove it, they would send you a felt badge (not a badge that was simply touched by someone, but made of a material called "felt"). I achieved this, and even took a picture of my TV, but it didn't come out well enough, so I missed out. I also remember turning the board over several times in "Pinball" and going over 100,000 in "Pac-Man", which I now realize was a terrible abomination of a game.

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Pac-Man Video (1981)

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Pitfall Video (1982)

What? Me, not giving love to Paccy? Hey, I love the guy, but his Atari 2600 game sucked. The original arcade version is the one most people think of when talking about the video game. But I had never played it and wouldn't until well into the 80's, so this graphically retarded version that I had was enough for me. Compare the videos above and screenshots below of Activision's "Pitfall" with "Pac-Man":

Pac-Man

Pitfall!

David Crane was the creator/designer of some of the best video games ever during the 1980's. He founded Activision in 1979. His creativity was like magic, especially when so much crap was being released at a rapid rate. "Chopper Command", "Pitfall", "Grand Prix", were some really good ones. If all games had had such good quality, the Atari brand may not have had so many problems later on. Unfortunately, there was little or no quality control, and literally hundreds of games were published for the system. A lot of games barely functioned. Most looked terrible. As a result of this, the video game market nearly died around 1984. Atari would certainly never be the same again.

I got my Atari 800XL in December, 1985. This wasn't exactly a computer, but did a heck of a lot more than just play games. The system itself was basically a keyboard with a slot for cartridge games. But it had 64K of memory and you could actually write programs on it. My dad and I did just that. The picture below shows an actual disk drive, which we didn't have, but we did have the tape drive......yes, we actually saved our data on a cassette. We also got a cool little printer that had maybe four colors and could do all kind of swirls and designs.

Atari 800XL

The games on this system were more advanced than the 2600. Some of my favorites included "River Raid", "Miner 2049er", and "Pitfall II" (which had this really catchy tune that I always liked). But more than playing games, I was actually trying to write them. Using Atari Basic programming language, dad and I spent hours working on different projects. One was called 'The Ninja", which I think we got the furthest on, and another was called "Weapons+Plus". We were able to create nice blocky graphics and even mapped different functions to joystick moves. Unfortunately, I recall one day I accidentally erased the entire tape that we had been using, and a lot of work was lost. That's what you get when you trust an 11 year-old to take care of such precious information.

River Raid

Pac-Man

I still have a notebook filled with code we wrote, and after successfully installing an Atari 8-bit emulator, I may see if I can write out the programs again. Heck, maybe I can even finish, and publish "The Ninja".

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Miner 2049er Video (1983)

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Pitfall 2 Video (1984)

This was going to take more work, though. I don't know what the Atari 2600 had cost, or my 800XL. The basic Nintendo system was $80, and that was a lot of money for my family in those days. Not that my 13 year-old brain could truly appreciate such things. In fact, I remember vividly one night in early 1988, mom took us to Toys 'R' Us to look around and possibly buy the system. When we ended up not being able to, I was so upset that I lay on my bed in one position the rest of the night, and then at bedtime complained that I was "sore". I guess it was my petty way of showing how disgusted I was. I'm sure she didn't care.

I finally bought the system myself on Feburary 20, 1988. I had saved up enough birthday and allowance money, but oddly enough, I didn't get any games for it right away. It came with a Player's Guide, which I'm sure was very thrilling to look through while I was busy not playing video games. An April 1 diary entry talks about how I would be able to play Nintendo on weekends after a supposedly good report card (I list 2 Fs and an Unsatisfactory, but apparently since 5 other grades went up, that was really good going for me at the time). So, I was "allowed" to play on weekends, but still had no games. Hmm, maybe my grades really weren't very good at all and mom was a lot smarter than me.

Super Mario Bros 2

Mega Man

Tetris

Metroid

Finally, on April 17, John and I traded my Player's Guide with his copy of "Super Mario Bros" for a weekend. I'm sure I had been playing at his house before, but the fact that it took two months just to get a single game in my house to play is sad. The sadness would continue until June 4, when I finally bought my first game, Baseball. It took over 100 days to get one, but over the next three years, I would accumulate well over 30 games and beat just about every one.

Although Nintendo is now seen as something of a lightweight when it comes to mature content, when the original system arrived in the 1980s, it was leading the pack in controversy. It shared the spotlight with the Sega system, but back then, a single drop of pixellated blood could cause mothers to gather in the streets with torches and scythes. There were still no rating systems, so it was all up to the poor parents to actually check on what their child was playing. Nobody ever checked me, but luckily, I was never into the bloody fighting games.

My favorites were "Blaster Master", "Metroid", "Kid Icaurus", "Contra", "Jaws", "Super Mario Bros 2" (which nobody else liked, but it was my favorite of all of them), "Mega Man", "Marble Madness", "Ninja Gaiden", "Mike Tyson's PunchOut!", and "Tetris". Along with better graphics, the music in most of these games was terrific. A few of the best are available below:

I don't have any recordings of me playing my Nintendo, but if memory serves, it was during this time that my vocabulary really took off. My vile, horrible, rotten vocabulary. My temper was short, and when I would lose at a game, I would scream profanities that surely the outside world could hear every now and then. I honestly don't know how my parents dealt with it. Even after I got a TV in my room and moved the Nintnedo into my private quarters, the closed door was no match for my decibel output.

So I spent much of my time mastering video games, and I should mention that for a few years, I had continually written down all my points records for games going back to our Atari 2600 system. They still exist, scattered among hundreds of notebook pages, and have been transferred here.

I would trade games with friends often, and virtually all of my money went into them. They were anywhere from $25 to $50, and I imagine if I had had a job during that time, my collection would have grown to well over 100. One unfortunate friend of mine became the victim of a stupid prank where, after letting me borrow "Super Mario Bros 3" for a few days, he got back "Rampage". I had unscrewed the game case and simply switched the actual circuit cards out. I think I may have tried to convince him that there was a problem with the game itself, but I'm sure I didn't get very far with it.

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Metroid Video (1987)

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Bionic Commando Video (1988)

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Blaster Master Video (1988)

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Contra Video (1988)

In early 1991, I was preapring to get my driver's license and a job. I wanted a car, and decided to sell my entire video game collection. There is no mention in my diary about why I was suddenly willing to give this up. The lure of an automobile in my name must have been enough. So, in Feburary, three years after it had arrived, the Nintendo was gone. It would be more than three years before I would own a gaming system again.

These games were being designed and produced at the same time as the first generation of Nintendo and Sega consoles, and I don't think these early PC games were quite as good. Screenshots and videos are below. You could call Nintendo's graphics "blocky" in comparison to today's games, but the images looked like they could be replicated with Legos. The big difference with computer games was that you could save your progress, and often get a much longer, more in-depth story than with consoles.

In 1992, a game released by ID Software got a bit of attention. "Return To Castle Wolfenstein" was played in a first-person view, opposed to the side-view that dominated many games of that era. It was one of the first real three-dimensional games. I remember playing it, but not being all that interested. For all it was doing to try to change the gaming landscape, I was happy with the old style.

I moved out of the house right after high school graduation, and would not live with a computer for over a year. But in-between, in 1993, ID Software released a follow-up to Wolfenstein, called "Doom". This is the game that would put PC gaming on the map and really change gaming. The graphics were the best anyone had ever seen, and it was downright scary. Monsters would spawn in the darkest corners of Hell, and you would often be fighting a dozen of them at a time. However, my interest wasn't piqued by it. The first time I caught a glimpse was when I was visiting my dad's office and he proudly displayed it. I wasn't living in town and had no computer of my own, so while I thought it was a cool looking game, I really wasn't into that stuff at the time.

When I finally did get my own computer, in 1994, "Doom" and "Doom 2" immediately became favorites. "Rise Of The Triad" came out in 1995 and allowed you to look up and down, and even jump, which the "Doom" games never did. When ID Software released "Quake" in 1996, it featured all the mobility of other games, plus more gore than most. It was also one of the first games to license "real" music by having Nine Inch Nails perform all the tracks.

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Doom Video (1993)

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Quake2 Video (1997)

"Quake" was great, but in terms of pure fun, it was trumped by "Duke Nukem 3-D", the first-person sequel to the previous two side-scrollers. Not only could you jump and do everything that you could in other games, but you could also play pool, go to the bathroom, watch strippers dance for you, and say lots of crude stuff that would make Pac-Man blush. It was awesome fun.....so much so that in 1997, another sequel was announced. And in the single biggest cases of "vaporware" in gaming history, "Duke Nukem Fourever" is still not out, after 11 years.

I played my first game set in the Star Wars universe in 1996. "Dark Forces" gave you a completely new character named Kyle Katarn, and set a story around him. You got to shoot stormtroopers, and the Star Wars music was prevalent throughout. I never finished the game though, mostly because of a terrible save system where you basically were unable to autosave your game, and had to finish the level you were on before the game saved for you.

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Unreal Video (1998)

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Unreal Tournament Video (1999)

1997 turned out to be one of the biggest years ever. For me, anyway. "Quake 2" came out, and powered by Glide 3D-FX graphics, looked amazing. For the first time, we were seeing a smoothness in shading and lines that we never had before. Of course, many other games used this technology, but ID Software was #1 at the time, so its games were getting the most attention. "Quake 2" was the first game that I ever played multiplayer. From our respective homes, my dad and I connected via 28800 modems and killed each other many times. The connection was often choppy, and we couldn't add bots (computer-generated players to fight against), so we would often be running around levels just looking for each other. You can read more about these matches and the history of our multiplayer experiences here.

"Need For Speed II" came out that spring, and was the first racing game I had played in a while. That summer would mark the first time I went to my dad's to play. While the setup was primitive, we got a lot out of it. NFSII also utilizied Glide technology, and we were amazed by the graphics. This would start our love affair with the Need For Speed series, one that would last for nearly a decade.

Dad and I had played the Links golf games back in the early '90's, but when LinksLS came out in 1997, it was a defining moment for computer golf games. They let you play on real-world courses and the golfers were digitized videos of actual people, so when you swung the club, you would see the person swing. Several sequels would spawn from this, each getting a bit better. I would end up playing hundreds of hours over several years on these games, keeping track of all my course records along the way. Unfrotunately, they stopped making Links games after the 2004 edition.

The universal Game of the Year in 1997 was "Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight". The sequel to "Dark Forces" sported some of the best level design I had ever seen, and they still stand up today. That, and playing with light sabres made this a totally addicting game that I played several times over.

1998 would bring us "Unreal", which was huge. Another first-person shooter, it provided the most detailed graphics yet, and some interesting gameplay. It started you on a crashed ship, and you don't actually fight until after you have made your way through the ship and seen some very nasty looking bad guys kill and dismember a couple people. Once you emerge from the ship, you get to start fighting, but it was tough to even get into that until you had soaked in the visuals. The waterfalls, moving clouds in the sky, and little animals running and flying around (which you could kill, if you had a nasty streak.....which I did) gave the game an atmosphere like no other game had. It took things to a new level.

"Unreal", however, was not Game of the Year in 1998. That belonged to "Half-Life", another shooter, but not just another shooter. This one had an actual story. You weren't just a guy with a gun, shooting bad guys. You were a scientist who accidentally triggers a catastrophic event that opens a portal to another world. The game is similar to "Unreal" in the way it begins.....slowly, drawing you in. but "Half-Life" goes much further with the story, allowing you to interact with characters, even have them help you on certain missions. The game sold over 8 million copies, and remains the best-selling first-person shooter of all time.

The makers of "Unreal" followed it up in 1999 with "Unreal Tournament", a mainly multiplayer first-person shooter. What the previous title revolutionized as far as graphics and gameplay, "Unreal Tournament" did for multiplayer games. This game allowed an insane amount of customization, some through a very good menu system, but most through .ini files. You had to be somewhat dedciated and knowledgable to be able to make changes to them, and my dad and I were up to the task. We would start playing it together in November, 2000, and as late as 2008, were still playing the very same game on Game Night. It was Game of the Year in 1999, for many great reasons. "Quake III Arena" came out around the same time, and was a departure from the rest of the series in that, like "Unreal Tournament", had no story. It simply wanted you to go online and start shooting. The graphics were great, but when you compared it to UT and saw the utter lack of customizations and gameplay types available, it was clear that UT was the better game.

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Serious Sam Video (2001)

In 2001, "Serious Sam" was released. It didn't get a lot of press, and sold for something like $25 or $30. In an era where the newest, biggest games were $50, something this cheap was surely nothing to be bothered with. Luckily, my brother-in-law Dan played it, and urged me to try it. This game had nice graphics, but the best part was that it was sot of an homage to the older PC games like Doom, where they sent hordes of creatures at you at once. "Serious Sam" ratcheted up by sending dozens, even hundreds of monsters at you. There was a sense of humor prevalent throughout the game, including one headless badguy who came at you screaming, bombs at the end of his arms. The final boss battle (video available) is amazing. You get to fight a creature that is easily 100 feet tall. Best boss ever.

"Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast" was released in 2002. This update featured level design just as good as the first "Jedi Knight" game, but even better gameplay, particuarly with the light sabres. The story was great, as all Star Wars-related stories are, but the best part of this one was the multiplayer. You could go online and have sabre battle with anyone, and it worked great. Dad and I tried it, but he never got hooked into it, but my son Nick and I later did, and had a lot of fun slicing each other apart.

The last Links golf game I played for PC was the 2003 edition, though I wouldn't even pick it up until a year later. They got rid of the video animations for the golfers and started using ones created from the ground up, but overall, the game was better. There were many more courses to play, and you could download user-made ones, including Augusta National, where they play The Masters.

In 2004, Half-Life 2 came out, and was, of course, Game of the Year, just like the first edition. It kept the great storytelling intact while delivering all kinds of new gameplay, including a gravity gun, which allowed you to manipulate objects in the environment in different ways. "Doom 3" was also released, and featured insane graphics, especially the lighting features. However, the story was as bland as always, which kept it from being a great game.

In 2005, two franchises gave us some of their best games. "Quake 4" thankfully brought back a single-player mode, and though the story wasn't very deep (certainly nothing like "Half-Life"), it was a very engaging game. At one point, your character gets "assimilated", his body destroyed and limbs replaced with cybernetic parts.

"Need For Speed: Most Wanted" was also released, and is still my absolute favorite of the series. They had introduced "Hot Pursuit" several years back, which introduced cop cars, and was pretty fun, but this edition expanded on it. When chases started, you could hear the cops chatter on their radios, and there were five levels of "heat" you could build up to. It was a very engaging experience overall.

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Links2003 Video (2003)

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Need For Speed : Most Wanted Video (2005)

2006 would unexpectedly mark the beginning of the end for my PC playing days. Though we got our original XBox in 2004, it wasn't enough to detract from the graphics and gameplay of PC games. When we got our XBox360 in June, 2006, that was a whole different story. I purchased an expansion pack for "Half-Life 2" on the same day I got the 360. I played it a little bit, but found I was increasingly drawn to the 360. If I had free time, I just wasn't playing on the PC. I would never finish that expansion pack, and as of 2008, had not picked up any new PC games.

In June, 2006, we got our XBox 360, and my gaming life really changed. We exchanged the original XBox (which is why I have no videos, as there are no good emulators for it yet), and I have been glued to the 360 sicne Day 1. Well, except for when it's broken and we've had to send it back. There is an XBox 360 section here on this site which will go into further detail. This page has been dedicated to the beginning of my gaming life. Yes, it spanned 23 years, but I'll always be a gamer, even 50 years from now.