My Gaming Memories
Without being excessively sentimental, gaming has been a large part of my life. Games have entertained and educated me. I'd love to see a graphical construction construing how many hours I've poured into games. Or maybe I wouldn't. I'd probably cry. Regardless, I'm only 19. The figure will only increase. Here are some memories of my favorite games. If you care at all, then read on, my nostalgia is vivaciously infectious.
Sega Mega Drive
Playing Sonic The Hedgehog on my Sega Mega-Drive is my first gaming memory. I succinctly remember every time I played, having to recruit the aid of my father upon reaching Green Hill Zone Act 3. My infantile mind couldn't figure out the strategy to defeating Doctor Robotnik. Despite the overwhelming simplicity of this encounter, I couldn't fathom how to avoid the tangible annihilation that swung beneath Eggman's ship. Nonetheless, with the aid of my father I pressed on, experiencing the audible extravaganza of the Marble Zone melodies. How I still adore that masterful 16-bit soundscape. Some acts later, I would experience the palpable terror of drowning in the Labyrinth Zone. To this day, I have never heard music that inspires such panic. Double time intensity on a grand and watery scale.
Some years later, co-operative play was first demonstrated to me by Streets of Rage. A game so good, I now own it on numerous platforms. My cousin and I played through the game together, he would be Adam, I would be Axel. Despite repeated plays I don't think we ever bested the factory level. We were simply content in swinging steel and breaking bottles over the heads of goons and henchmen, and the occasional leather-clad, whip-wielding whore. Come to think of it, it's probably the reason we fought so much in real life. As with the game, I would lose. Since those days I have rediscovered Yuzo Koshiro's incredible soundtrack, which I now own.
After extensively playing through my favourites; Brown Thunder, Dynamite Headdy, The Terminator, Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure, World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and undoubtedly some I've forgotten, Château de Mac received an upgrade in consoles. We now owned a...
PlayStation
I remember the day we purchased Sony's groundbreaking console. We raced home from Toys "Я" Us and I started up the only game we had. The game had come bundled with the console, it was The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Excitement possessed me. Dinosaurs were a huge interest to me as a child, I'd amassed numerous books on them that to this day I have never read. But now, now I had a game. For the first time I could interact with the creatures I had so long admired. To my surprise and delight, you didn't play as a human in this game. Players controlled numerous different dinosaurs including fan favourites; velociraptor and tyrannosaurus rex. Unfortunately, during the first section of the game players controlled a lowly compsognathus. Once again I came undone. The controls were inaccurate, making jumping safely from platform to platform a difficult and frustrating experience. I have never seen the other side of this level. My only joy in playing that game was the Dreamworks introduction in which that smarmy little shit sat on the moon finally got his comeuppance, raptor style.
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