In the past I was not a huge video game player- probably because my parents didn't buy me any. There was one exception. We had Pong. I do remember playing that. The intermediate bar was so small and the ball went so fast, I had no chance but I loved playing the lower level. Because of the short bar in intermediate, we began calling the smaller buses the intermediate buses. I may be the only who still calls them that since I was so young when I started using that term. I don't really remember how long we had Pong out. It wasn't all that long, though.
Growing up I had one friend who had an Atari system. I liked playing that. She had Asteroids, which was really great. There was also some kind of haunted house game that I remember playing. And my final Atari memory is that she would not let me play Pit Fall. I had to watch her. Why? I don't know. It was frustrating. Maybe once or twice I got to play, but once a crocodile got me, she wouldn't let me play anymore. The injustice!
Then Nintendo comes to my nephew's house. Thanks to him, I am undefeated champion of Blades of Steel (only because I stopped playing the game altogether on the day my nephew finally caught up to me). The Karate Kid was also a popular one to play for us and I can probably sing along to the music from the game since we did when we played it back then.
Off to college and it turns out that my parents have now bought Nintendo for their house for when the (now 2) nephews come to visit. One Christmas my father got Dragon Warrior. He played it and my nephew and I watched- for hours. At that point, my Dad must have been in his early 60's. I remember him coming home from work and letting me know he had had a strategy talk with some guy and he had missed a bridge or something that was going to keep him from fully completing the game. The hours of RPG were done. I myself didn't play that game and I still don't get into role playing games, but since you know who is controlling the main character (and you can chime in with advice), it can be a lot of fun to watch.
A year later or so, I am home for break and have had my wisdom teeth taken out. At some point, my parents got Tetris. I recovered by playing this game and drinking juice. I don't really drink juice anymore, but I still like Tetris.
And then we enter a long world of no game playing. My nephews went to Sega, my parents gave up the old Nintendo system after it was found out that someone (I won't name names- but it wasn't me, my dad, or my nephews) was chewing the controller wires while they played.
I went to grad school where I would go to the arcade and play driving games for fun and House of the Dead for stress relief. Air hockey and pinball featured pretty highly as well. After grad school, I didn't play. That is, I didn't play until I had a roommate who got the PS2. I got sucked in by Burnout. I loved that game. And then there was Gran Turismo. Loved it. And then they got Grand Theft Auto IV (I think it was IV), which I thought would be another racing game, but chased by cops. I was pretty wrong. After watching the random violence and the storyline, I decided I didn't really need to participate. I just wanted to drive. I withdrew from gaming until I found Nintendo again.
I gave Tim a GameCube for Christmas and said I wouldn't play it, because it was really his toy, not mine. I held onto that for a year. Then I found out about Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix. It was over. With Tim's encouragement, I began playing and finding out how good the good games can be. Now, I am fully involved. I play by myself as much as I play with others, in particular if they are rhythm games, like DDR and Guitar Hero. I have a DS Lite and Tim and I have the Wii. I've bought too many games to play all at once, so I'm slowing down on the purchasing and trying to play through and finish what I've got. Hence, the couple of video game goals I made up.
Last week, I completed Brain Age. I finally completed all the Sudoku puzzles and tested just a couple years away from the absolute best score (best possible score is 20- my last test was 23- although I'm sure I tested at 21 once). Now, of course, I have moved on to Brain Age 2. How brilliant can I get?! I guess it will take a couple months and then we'll see. With Brain Age to sharpen my mind and Dance Dance Revolution to give me an hour of cardio workout everyday, I can only get better.
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