The word 'Game' is music to my ear. Whenever i heard the word game, all i can think of is video games. I m lucky to be borned in the era when console gaming just started to bloom. I still remember when i was 5-6 years naive lil boy, i started toying with the Atari, playing Alien Invasion. The console was bought by my father for the family and i constantly see my dad and my mum then trying to defend their 'shield' in the game. I like the part where they hit the bonus alien ship, the sound is so cute. Back then, the gamepad is so simple, only a stick and a button. Pac Man was my favorite too.
Then, it somes to Microgenius. I played Microgenius until i was in form 3. At that time, Microgenius is the best console ever created, better than Atari in term of the colour and movement. now we get the 4 direction pad and 2 buttons, with 2 turbo buttons. I still remember the first game that we played was Street Figther, this is when i fell for Chun Li. Come on, she was the only tough lady fighter at that time. And then there are the famous Rockman aka Megaman in the States which is one of the best action game. I also had started playing RPG. Dragon Ball series for instant was a hit back then, but sadly, all the games are in japanese, but i still manage to finish some of the games, with some help from my fren who is chinese educated. The Dragon Ball game used the card system with each card written a chinese character and each hero had specific card to enable them to ultilize the card and do kamekameha. The system changed slightly after that, using few cards. That is when i started to use my logic and senses to play jap game, cause i know nothing about mandarin characters and worse of all, japanese.
After that, came Sega Megadrive/Genesis. I owned one when i was in Form 3, yeah that was pretty late. At that time, my family was not financially well off, so me and my bro had to save our ang pau money just to get one. We really treasure it cause we also save our pocket money (at that time RM1 for me) daily. My favorite games were Alisia Dragon, and action + adventure, without doubt Shining Force 1 & 2, Phantasy Star 4, Guns Heroes, Thunder Force series (shooting game), Ecco the Dolphin, Donald Duck Adventure, Mortal Kombat, Bare Knuckle and others. At that time, i can still abstain from playing the games during exam times. I still remember playing Mortal Kombat after all i finished all my exams, that was brutal.
Then it came to Super Famicom era, the 8 bit era. I dun have the console, i was too poor to own one, but my uncle had one. ^^We were staying under one roof back then and i wathced him playing most of the time, especially the RPGs like FF6 (FF3 in States), Mana series, Chrono Trigger (muakssss), Tales of Phantasia, some puzzle games, and some that i cant really remember. I also went to this game shop with my frens after school or go early before school to play games, some time we have to call the shop and book for a room. It was fun. Most noticeable, we played Dragon Ball, Yuyu Hakusho and some time even Power Rangers. I truely enjoy that moment of my life.
Then, it comes to the 16 bet era. Playstation and Sega Saturn. I got my PS after selling my Sega Genesis 2 my fren for a mere RM150 with 8 catridges of games, because i m so wan to buy PS. But after some re calculation, i noticed that the money me and my bro had been saving was not enuf to get one, i nearly gave up at that point and consulted with my bro just to get some Sega games, luckily, my bro was so adamant on owning PS that pushed me to save up more money. Alas, we loaned some $$ from mum (actually minta sedekah, bleh). I m very thankful to my bro and from that day onwards, i will try my best to achieve what i wan to achieve and wont give in so easily. PS, the first game we played was, not the one u r thinking but it's Ray Crisis, because that is the game that had 2 player modes. Next was FF7, yea, the masterpiece of all time. At that time, i was playing the Jap version, without walkthrough, i have to rely on my fren and my uncle on certain aspect as they read magazine (sadly mandrin). At that time, we pretty much had to remember the katakana especilaly the spells. That was not so hard. Internet was not introduced to me yet until Form 6 so searching for walkthrough is not an option, and i think the gamefaqs may not be there yet. I bought PS when i was in Form 5. I cant stop playing PS at that time even during SPM and STPM. hahaha, luckily my parents did not locked away our PS. An annoying to note that was that our first memory card, dunno for some unknown reason at that time, and now i think it's some compatiblity issue, our save files got corrupted easily. So, when we play FF7, we saved a lot of files, trying saving more, so that when one got corrupted, the 2nd newer one will work. We persevere till the end and save enuf money to get a 2nd memory card, which fortunately was working well. On Sega Saturn, my uncle owned one, so we just played some game occassionally like Shining Force 3 and Dragon Force (very cool at that time!)
After that is the 64 bit era, the Nintendo 64. The same thing, i dun have one, but my uncle owned one, hahaha, the very same uncle. So, we just played around occassionally also. Games like Mario World, StarFox and Mario Kart was a hit at that time. Zelda was not in his game list though. Not so many games for this consoles. But i love Ogre Battle 64.
Next, it's the PS2, Xbox and Dreamcast era. The same thing again, my uncle owned Dreamcast. My uncle owned Dreamcast also, but for some reason, he sold it off. At that time, we were not staying with him so i cant describe my experience. As for my PS2, read MY, hhaaha, this time, i started working after came home from Uni, i saved up 2months of my salary which was about RM550 at that time (i brought bread and apple for lunch) and it's worth the wait. Finally, i owned my PS2. Yahoo!!! still remember right before the 1st of June, that was on Friday, our pay day, i was so nervous, and i m dying to get PS2 that weekend because 1st and 2nd June are holiday in Sarawak, the Gawai celebration. I had 4 days off!!! But sadly the PS2 that i bought at that shop got, erm.......it's faulty. I brought it back to the shop and the tauke is good enuf to refund the money back to me as i cant wait any longer, he did not have any stock at that time. So i went to another shop to get one. That happened in 2003. I got my PS2 in May-June 2003 (1st and 2nd buy). I got my PS in 18th February 1997. My baby......how can i forget........
And now, i m eagerly waiting for next year, hopefully next year i can get my PS3. ^^ counting back from when i started, it's has been more than 20 years of gaming for me. hahaha. It's that long that i thought it was just like yesterday. Gaming is not my hobby anymore, it's a part of my life. I dunno how i can live without gaming. Take away my game and u will taste hell from me. Deprive me from my console and u will get ur hands smashed by me. Experienced? i dunno, games have evolved from hard maze coiled dungeons to so linear game dungeons. Judge? And one interesting thing is i see the evolution of the games graphic from whence it started till now, or not long from whence it started. It's cool and i wan to c what will happen to the games in like, let's say.........10 years time? i shall wait and keep my eyes peel. |
At 9:49 PM,
goodness.you people really are a bunch of semangated gamers..