'I am ready to start this.' says me, in my own head, to the computer screen. I have amassed a large collection (but small by some standards), I have organized it (not pretty yet though) and I have become completely obsessed with it. I am not the only person out there that has this obscene fascination with all things Nintendo, but in the short time I have been collecting now (almost three years) I have seen dedicated collectors sell , turn tail and run from the craziness. I can't see that happening with me, below you will find out why (and it will act like a bio).
I started playing video games when I was young, perhaps 7 or so. My first 'game console' was the VIC-20. It taught us how to hate Jupiter Lander and write our own games in basic. The games were, for the most part, incredibly bad, with a few exceptions like Crossfire. The real interest for me, and for many of my friends was the ability to write our own games, albeit in basic. It was in large part due to this that video games became, for me, a very cerebral thing, leading me to favor RPG's, Puzzle and Strategy games over the typically more popular Fighter, Schmup and Platform games.
Nintendo Entertainment System was the cornerstone for my obsession with video games in general, with a caveat; Obsession with video games in the mid 80's versus what an obsession is now are two very different things. The obsession then was still fairly split between kicking Metal Man's ass in Mega Man 2, and taking our bikes down to the 'Pitt' in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, where I grew up. Time outside versus time inside was still fairly even and my mom didn't need to kick me off of my NES to go play outside. The obsession we see today with video games is incredibly different. From WOW to prestiging in Modern Warfare 2, obsession with video games has become something more sinister than it ever was before.
Nintendo became a solitary thing for me, and really still is to this day. The games I would play, like Dragon Warrior and Destiny of an Emperor were single player RPG's, games that helped create my later world perspective of very few heroes and multiple villains. Other types of games not thought to be solitary were still in fact solitary games for me. I watched my friends growing up play Contra, Super Mario 3 and other 2 player games, rather than play along with them. This led to later watching my good friend play Gran Turismo (2?) for HOURS on end in 2001. He would ask me 'You wanna play?' and I would shake my head no. Who would want to shatter that level of introspection?
I never had more than maybe 15 games for the NES growing up, but I played all of them with a dedication that I don't really have anymore. Nintendo thumb is not an urban legend, it is a fact. Other titles that helped form my NES obsession are: Mega Man 2, Baseball Stars, Magic of Scheherazade, Final Fantasy, Defender of the Crown, Life Force, the entire Dragon Warrior series, etc etc.
My NES obsession probably grew more out of other systems than out of the NES itself. I played Goldeneye for the N64 so much, that I could identify where an opponent was on the map even if they were hiding in a corner. Civilization 2 on Playstation I played for 8 months without picking up another game. I think I spent more time playing Morrowind for Xbox over working full time during that period. Even Halo 3 sucked a big chunk out of my life. But all of these systems led back to the one that really formed it all for me.
The collection started about three years ago with me getting my old NES back from my nephews whom had grown very tired of it. They had been through N64, Gamecube and were now on to the Wii at that point. I happened to catch that they were going to throw it out, games and all.
I scooped it up and declared that I would take it and the rest is history (an expensive history). There were about 5 games with it at that time but the only two I can remember being part of the first group of games were Mega Man 2 and Final Fantasy.
I played Final Fantasy from start to finish in a few days and then played Mega Man 2 through in an evening. I then asked myself what game I needed to play again from my childhood.
Having studied Asian History (my focus in university was Religious Studies with a History minor) the game that immediately came to mind was Destiny of an Emperor. It was my first purchase of a Nintendo game in about 16 or 17 years, and I bought it on ebay.
This concludes the first part of this article, to be continued very soon in part 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment