I sent out a mass email to my friends, BCC'ing their addresses of course, asking about any particular video games that triggered nostalgic daydreaming. Only two people responded (I don't know people who like to write, it's true), and he gave me an entire story. I had honestly forgotten to read it until now and rather than pick it apart, I'm just going to show it to you in its entirety.
Your little inquiry has caused a hundred thoughts and memories to crash forward, although I'm not sure how many of them qualify as tales that would be interesting to anyone else. I'll share what comes to mind and you can use it or ignore it as you see fit.
I remember liking video games from the very beginning, although I never quite figured out the appeal PacMan. But I loved my cousins' Atari, the one thing that made family reunions bearable until I got an NES of my own at age 8. After much pleading, my skeptical parents relented. Curiously, I managed to buy an NES without Duck Hunt or Super Mario Brothers. I never owned either game. Instead, my first NES game was Ikari Warriors, one of my favorite arcade games at the time. I was convinced that the NES game was literally impossible until I learned that there were such things as codes that allowed you continue. (A-B-B-A, in this case, which I will remember until my last breath.) Just now, with no small degree of fascination, I watched a 14-minute YouTube video of someone playing through the first level of the game. I do not think that I ever beat the game. If you died while playing the final boss, you respawned in a position that wouldn't allow you to move foward, trapping you. In the days before games that allowed you to save, the result of this (or a power outage, or a big brother who turned off your console) was 2+ hours of wasted progress. It is possible that I eventually beat it using a Game Genie, but that I have blocked the memory out of shame.
My favorite games have always been the strategy games and RPGs that allowed you to grow and progress. Any game that allowed your character to become stronger and more powerful triggered an immediate burst of dopamine in the reward center of my brain. When they finally started doing studies about how video games could be addictive, my first reaction was "duh". I had known that from first-hand experience for years. Left to my own devices, I would play Jones in the Fast Lane or Police Quest or any other Sierra game all night, forgoing all sleep and nutrition in favor of continued videographic stimulation. To this day I will not play a MMORPG. The concern isn't that I will like it; I know that I will. The very real fear is that I will quit my job, sell all my belongings, and start turning tricks for lonely, obese women to fund my habit. I consciously keep my laptop below the minimum system requirements of any respectable MMORPG, although I still fall prey to the occasional text-based MUSH or MUD.
I believe that video games changed the direction of my life, not for how they entertain but also how they educate. Sid Meier's Civilization is directly responsible for me becoming a History major in college. Before Civ, history was a dull subject imposed on me by the public schools and my father during road trips. After Civ, history was the endlessly complex and fascinating story of human civilization, the wonder of which has still not left me to this day. "One more turn" is followed by "just another turn", until I could see the sunlight creeping through the window and the alarm went off, and telling me it was time to get up, even though I already was.
Perhaps if I had played fewer video games, I would have been more athletic and/or better socially adjusted. That might be true, but my memories of playing video games during long summers far outshine my memories of soccer or lacrosse or any other activity of my youth. Family vacations were annoying disruptions of precious video game playing time. As a kid, the only reason I wanted to earn money was to pay for a new game. Oh, but that sense of anticipation when you went to the mall or Toys R Us and picked out a new one! I remember many happy car rides home, pouring over the manual as if it were religious scripture, absorbing it completely before ever pressing the Power button. Games with mechanics to be studied or strategies to be maximized were particularly rewarding. If my current household budget is sustainable and demonstrates long-term planning, it is because SimCity, Civ, and Heroes of Might and Magic taught me how to balance income and expenditures, to invest in the future, and to save for a rainy day.
I'm flooded with memories, but I'll do my best to filter them before drowning your inbox in self-centered monologue. My apologies if that accurately describes the above reflections.
Have fun with the blogging. Hope all is well.
Dave
Thanks Dave!
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