Reminiscence

Let's take a walk back through the "good old days" of gaming, shall we? How many of you out there remember your first video game love affair? C'mon! Let's see a show of hands.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. How could you ever forget it? Just like a real life first love, it's nearly impossible to forget the first time you became enamored with a video game to the exclusion of all else. Your hands sweat, you can't stop thinking about it, and all you want to do is get back to that oh-so-happy place and enjoy yourself. Oh sure, you may have dabbled around elsewhere, but in the end you came running back to the one you loved.

Then something happened. You had settled nicely into this relationship and had pretty well mastered it's intricacies when something incredible happened. You found your attentions being drawn away from your love and towards the latest and greatest...the new sexy model. It had things your first love didn't, held your attention in ways you had forgotten it could be held. Then you noticed another, and another. Soon you found yourself dabbling in anything that caught your eye. It was an arcade orgy that never stopped...not that you would have wanted it to!

That was all fine and good for a while, but then you got a little older and maybe, just maybe, a wee bit wiser. You decided that the party life wasn't for you anymore. You were ready to settle down and take one of these lovely ladies home. You wanted stability, security, something you didn't have to feed money all the time for it to keep you happy.

So you found one you liked and you brought it home to Mom and Dad. They were maybe not as happy about it as you were, but they accepted the new relationship none the less. You had truly found your happy place. There was never a dull moment and your new love was happy enough for you to spend all of your time at home. You had found true happiness!

But wait...one relationship just wasn't going to be good enough. After all, there were other choices and they all had desirable attributes. Plus, everyone else had more than one...so why not you? So you delved in and got into as many different relationships as possible. Noone seemed to mind. You had finally reached true nirvana.

It turned into a never ending progression, it just kept getting better. With every new thing that came along, it was sweeter looking and did things the others just couldn't do. So now as you have attained true adulthood, you still manage to lose yourself in the moment and continually get to experience that feeling of puppy love that you thought you had lost long ago.

For me, my first true love was Asteriods. I would be a rich man had I saved all of those quarters (or even half of them!) for a rainy day. I played it non-stop...dropped every spare bit of money I had into it. Then I found Galaga. Then the Atari 2600 was introduced and I had to have one to play at home. No more quarters! I still remember the heartbreak when I was told I wasn't getting Ms. Pac-Man on the 2600 for my birthday. I saved my money and bought it myself at the ripe old age of 11. It was the first in a long line of purchases.

I moved from there into a nice Sega Genesis and then on to the first Nintendo. I dabbled with the Sega CD system. I've owned virtually every game console ever produced until the Xbox was introduced. I bought my Xbox for the sole reason that it had a hard drive in it. I was picking out a couple of games and a guy shopping at Best Buy (I still maintain he was an angel sent from heaven) strongly encouraged me to buy Halo. I didn't do it.

Now that you've recovered from that shock...it was a temporary setback. My neice brought her copy over shortly thereafter and following an 8 hour coop campaign session, I was hooked. I then got my very good friend Jeff (Pro356 for those of you in the Senior Citizens) to get a box and Halo and he and his wife proceeded to play Zan and I over XBConnect nearly nightly for almost a year.

Then Halo2 hit, I found the Senior Citizens clan and have never looked back. I cannot fathom cheating on Bill Gates and ever getting a Playstation. I don't have my 360 yet, but will. I will be playing Halo3 at launch. I have found my home. I have found my family with the SC's, and I can't imagine being anywhere else.

What I want from you all is to share your memories here. What was your first love? What was the journey like that brought you to where you are today? Isn't reminiscing wonderful?