I've decided to take on the Retro Gaming Blogging Challenge that @marcoquin posted about yesterday. While I'm not hugely into retro gaming these days I still thought that this challenge would be fun. I'll get to reminisce about the early days of my gaming journey which started it all. It's a perfect opportunity to reflect back on what made me love gaming so much, and to get the nostalgia flowing. I hope we get to see some great content here in the community due to this challenge.
My first video game console
The first video game console I ever owned was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or otherwise knows as the SNES. I remember the immense joy flowing through my body as I opened the gift wrapping very well. I was obsessed with this thing long before getting one myself as we used to rent one from the video game store all the time. I guess my parents decided they were better off just buying one instead of having to pay the rental every weekend.
SNES PAL version: Source
I can't remember exactly how old I was at this time but I think I must have been 4 or 5. As I wrote this I realized I don't really remember anything about the place we lived at that time apart from the night I unwrapped the SNES and that we used to go fishing all the time because we lived by the sea. I can't remember how my room was and I can barely remember how the house looked. I remember only the living room which was the room I unwrapped the SNES in. The layout of the room with the placement of the TV is all burned into my memory. I guess that is a testament to how huge of an event this was in my life.
What's funny is that I was actually back in the area where we lived at this time in the summer and during Christmas last year for the first time in at least 10 years. We moved away from there shortly after, as I can remember we were living somewhere else when I started going to school by the age of 6. All of my family had actually moved away from this area by 2004 and I've had few to none reasons of going back there since. My mom just moved back to the area last year and when I went to visit her during the summer it was the first time I've been back there since 2004. It was quite special. But i digress.
I went digging through my old photo albums for pictures of my playing but I didn't find any. I'll have to come back to those.
My grey companion
The SNES followed me through childhood for many years. It never got shelved even when I got the Nintendo 64, the Playstation 1 or the Nintendo Gamecube. It always remained vigilantly plugged into the TV. Even thoug I had access to all these amazing 3D games with the technicality far above what the SNES could muster I still kept on going back to the oldies. I guess it was just hard to let go of my PAL (pun intended) that started it all.
Sadly he did end up on the shelf eventually. I can't remember exactly when or where but I think it was around the time we left the countryside and moved into the city. I can really only remember that I had my Gamecube in my room in our new house, and later on the Xbox 360. I guess it was packed into a box and put in the moving van and just never unboxed. What a sad fate. I think that after I'm done writing this blog I'm gonna call my dad and ask if he still has this and my Nintendo 64 somewhere. I really hope he does. I have my Gamecube connected to the TV and still play it sometimes. It's there next to the Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4. I think my girlfriend would kill me though if I started propping the shelf full of even more consoles. Maybe I'll have to put it off until we move to something bigger and I get my own room for my hobbies.
A blast from the past
Luckily I can still play most of my old games on the Nintendo Switch where you're able to download their own emulator for the SNES.. The great thing about this is that the visual quality of the games better suits new types of TV. I can't really play the Gamecube for to long on my 55" LED-tv before it becomes to much of an eyesore. And being able to play them handheld is really great as well. If you have a Nintendo Switch I recommend getting Nintendo Switch Online so you can check it out. They also have a version for the NES. The NES was before my time though so it didn't bring me much joy. I guess I want to play these games mostly for the nostalgia and not the quality, which was why I didn't relate to much with the NES when they released it for the Switch.
This was my first entry in the Retro Gaming Blogging Challenge. I'll be returning with more but not necessarily tomorrow or for 14 days in a row. I need to reflect a bit on some of the categories. I hope we get to see some awesome entries into this challenge and I know I'll be keeping an watchful eye on the #retrogamingchallenge tag in the future.