ARTICLE - Back In My Day: A Brief Look at One Mans Gaming Origins

I don't remember pestering my mum for my first console. What a fantastic start to a retrospective look at my long gaming "career". More importantly, though, I don't remember much about what I did for fun before I unboxed my SEGA Master System II. Probably a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine on VHS. (Have I used enough phrases to indicate how very old I am I wonder.)

Look at it in all its glory!

It was Christmas 1993 and I took to gaming like a fish takes to walking. I wish I was kidding. I was terrified of playing either of the two games (Sonic the Hedgehog and Micky Mouse: Land of Illusion) I had for the MSII. Watching danger crawl/jump/race/dive towards me and risking my very precious lives stopped me playing anywhere past the first couple of levels. I was familiar with the two games "Game Over" screens to say the least. Thankfully my mum was close to hand. The controller would be quickly passed to her and I would see parts of the game that I could only dream of reaching myself. New stage themes, new enemies and bosses. I had no idea how she could brave these trials with only a muttered (or not so muttered) curse whenever she died. It must have been witnessing this determination against the odds that fortified my nerves. Or not, I remember defaulting to "Muuuum, play Sonic/Micky Mouse pleeeeeeease!" a lot. So she did what any good parent would do. She eventually told me to play it myself or it went in the bin. Fear of losing one's joy is greater than fear of losing one's precious lives let me tell you.

I'm pretty sure this is burnt into my retinas.

Road Runner, Populous, Shinobi, MM: Castle of Illusion, Wonder Boy/Alex Kidd. These are a few examples of the games I collected over the years. I had hours of gameplay from these titles. Not because they were particularly long but because failure was no longer a hurdle I shied away from. I received Shinobi for my 6th birthday from one of my best friends. Here was a true education in hardship. By this point, however, I had managed to defeat Dr Robotnik in his little glass cylinder inside his floating fortress, oh yes! I had fought ghosts and toy soldiers and climbed beanstalks to cloud castles to save Minnie Mouse. If gaming skillz was a currency I was well on my way to affording a pack of Space Raiders and a Freddo. Shinobi was a different animal. Cartoon violence was replaced with men with katanas and guns. Bonus levels had you throwing ninja stars in the first person at side scrolling ninjas before they got too close to you instead of collecting rings and emeralds. Both my mum and I spent two weeks getting to the first boss and failing repeatedly. Nothing would work. He was a massive wall of a man. Eventually, with a slight chortle, my friend's dad revealed you had to hit the boss in the eyes. Boom, one boss down! Oh, there's more? A helicopter? No problem for a ninja. A seemingly never-ending wall of statues that crush you if you don't kill them fast enough? I have met my match, good sir! To this day, 22 years on, I have not defeated that boss or gone on to complete Shinobi for the SEGA Master System II. On long winter nights, I hear the game mocking me from a bag somewhere in the house.

Aim for the eyes they said. It would be fun they said.

I often wonder what would have happened if I never asked for the MSII. Or worse, getting it and never getting over the fear of failure that gripped me at such a young age. I have dedicated innumerable hours of my life and more money than I care to remember in the pursuit of the princess or world domination or galaxy salvation. I don't think a single second/penny of that has been wasted. Don't get me wrong, I've played some real howlers. Games so bad I traded them in! But that's a bag of snakes for another time. For now, let's end on a positive note. Without the Master System II and Sonic, I wouldn't be who I am today. (A crazed shut-in with the social graces of a strung out gibbon? {Quiet you!}) Gaming has brought me closer to my friends, helped me through tough situations and given me something to be passionate about. It only took me 23 years to figure that last one out.