In the summer of 1997, I went to his house to try the new racing game for the PC, "Need For Speed 2: Special Edition". He only had one computer, but the game allowed two players, one on either side of the keyboard. I would take the right, dad the left, and we would hunch over it, peering into the 14" monitor. It was less than ideal, but we had a blast. We still didn't play on a regular basis, but we were both getting more into it. Around this time, we also started playing "Quake 2" over 28.8 baud modems from our respective homes. The connection was never very solid, but we still had a lot of fun with it.

Over the next few years, we would get together or play online, occasionally trying out new games, like "Half-Life" and "Links 1997". But it wasn't until Thanksgiving in 2000 that everything changed. After the feast was finished, I went home and brought back my computer and monitor. We hooked up on "Unreal Tournament", a first-person shooter designed solely for multiplayer. This was Game Of The Year in 1999, and with good reason. We had a great LAN connection, and had one of the best shared gaming experiences ever.

From that point on, we decided to get together every week. We played on Tuesdays for about a year before switching permanently to Thursday. Though we played "Unreal Tournament" for the most part, we always tried out new games, and the "Need For Speed" series always kept things fresh with annual installments. We went through a bad patch from 2002-03 when I was struggling with jobs, and didn't get to play very much, but since then, have been pretty consistent. We average about 50 matches a night, whether it be killing or racing, and over the course of several years, have just about broke even. Dad is much better at racing, I kill him at the shooting games. Our stats, as of the end of 2007, are below: