I had an older brother, and I would play 2600 games with him and his best friend. The friend had a way to pirate 2600 games that I only now kind of understand, but as a result, I got my first experience with classics like Space Invaders, Pac Man, Asteroids and Missile Command on the 2600.
Since I was just as vulnerable as any 5-7 year old to the Chuck-E-Cheese phenomenon, I got sucked into the arcade as soon as I could reach the controls. Glowing, hypnotic images of Dirk the Daring later brought me back into the arcades of Virginia Beach's malls when the newest game was a whopping 75 cents (many claim .50, but I remember .75?) and my parents usually refused to pay.
I whiled away the desperate months after the video game crash with my C64 which was the first computer that I (eventually) had in my own room. Years passed, and I only had inklings through friends of how great the mythical Amiga was. . . I did opt for a NES eventually, but as I got older and was distracted with things like basketball practice, school plays, and AP government tests, I found myself going back to the great games of the C64 - It was still hooked up when I left for college.
I took a break from gaming and was brought back to it (again by my brother) with the advent of 3d exploration and the pointy boobs of Lara Croft. The 'Playstation Era' lasted quite a long time for me and everything after that is not really retro gaming IMO.
A couple years ago I bought a GP2x Wiz from "ThinkGeek" and dug into the forums on GP32x.com. The Wiz reinvigorated my love for classic gaming and sent me on a path of recent collecting that includes a modded Coleco, 2 port 5200, and a Sears branded Intellivision. I'm also a proud owner of the Harmony cart, 2 Atarimax Ultimate flashcarts, and the Ultimate PC interface for Intellivision controllers. In even more recent years, I've gotten flashcarts for more systems including a Retro USB PowerPak.
I'll add a personal top games list here as that seems like a good way to get some rep. These are not in order but are listed chronologically. There is only one 2600 game on the list, but I really learned to play video games on the VCS. I can remember reading and studying the manual for Combat, Space Invaders, and Soccer (6 year olds like fireworks), choosing the various game options and starting to control my own gaming experience. I've really never looked back ever since.
Pitfall 2600 Pirates! C64 Superstar Ice Hockey C64 The Legend of Zelda NES Wing Commander PC Tomb Raider PS1 Resident Evil PS1 Madden NFL 200x PS1 God of War PS2 Mass Effect 360
While the NES took up A LOT of my life at one point, not many of those games make it into my personal top list. I think I was slightly too old to give the Mario family of characters a real chance, and I ended up back to playing computer games. I'm not a serious NES collector. When I do buy games for it now, I'm usually looking for a more arcade type experience. My personal NES top 10 would be something like:
1. Zelda 2. Tecmo Bowl(s) 3. Metroid 4. Bionic Commando 5. Kirby's Adventure 6. RBI Baseball 7. Tyson's Punch Out 8. Lolo(s) 9. RC Pro AM(s) 10. Pro Wrestling
Attached is older pic of me and my wife in Peru (like 2009-ish)
Thanks for the comments on the pic - we took the train to Aquas Calientes and did more of a guided style visit to Peru. That was a great trip, made it to lake Titicaca too!
If you are wondering what the F is up with my title and summary:
That's a great introduction man. Love me some C64. That system had so many great games released for it. The Amiga did too (Speaking of Amiga, I'm listening to the Jim Power soundtrack right now).
Anyway, welcome to the site man
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