How Far We've Come

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The past week was Mario's 25th anniversary as well as the original Playstation's 15th anniversary.  It's pretty amazing that gaming has come as far as it has.

The original Super Mario Brothers is the very first game that I remember playing.  I can remember when I was 4 or 5 years old and played it on the NES at daycare.  I have the game, the room, and the people around me firmly entrenched in my mind forever.  It's the moment I got hooked on gaming.

 Toad was still disappointing in those days.

When my uncle gave me his NES a few years later I was as thrilled as a small child can possibly be.  I couldn't believe someone would give up the magic of gaming and hand it over to me.  I still owe him for that.

I also remember how big of a deal the Playstation was when it came out.  I didn't follow gaming news as much as I do now (I was 9) but a console that had 3D games was unheard of.  It was so amazing!  It ushered in a new era of gaming.  The Playstation was my constant companion throughout my early teenage years and it had the first video game that made me cry, Final Fantasy VII.  Seriously, who didn't cry when Aeris was killed in Final Fantasy VII?  It's one of the moments in gaming that shows how games can be art.  If a medium can elicit emotions then it should be considered an art form.  Final Fantasy VII proved it in my mind.


I know I'm just waxing nostalgic, but it's important to remember how very far we've come from the origins of gaming.  We've lived through the birth of a new form of media.  How often does that happen?  I know after I write this and after you read it, we'll both get bogged down, once again, in the day-to-day affairs of the gaming world.  But, for just a minute, take the time to think back on your favorite video game memories that keep you coming back to this wonderful pastime day after day, year after year.

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 18, 2010 at 12:39 PM

    FF7 is awesome!

    Now I'm not saying I'm an old school gamer but when my partner came home and said he'd gone to a meeting about rebranding at his work and had been told about the three axioms of the company ... all I could think of was Ultima 4 (Truth, Love, and Courage.)

    And there is a generation of gamers who can't hear The Blue Danube without thinking of the docking music in Elite.

    ReplyDelete
  2. VoidSeptember 18, 2010 at 1:07 PM

    FFVII is genre defining in my eyes. I hold every RPG up to the ideas FFVII put into motion.

    Thanks for your thoughts on Ultima 4 and Elite. I love hearing about other people's gaming memories. It's really interesting to see what different people latch onto from the past.

    ReplyDelete

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