Old video games part of childhood
Jeff Reid

Executive/Online Editor

I remember a friend saying to me one time after we had spent about nine hours in front of the TV playing Super Nintendo,  You know, being a gamer is like being a musician. It takes talent, and there s a not very good chance that you ll ever make money doing it, but it just gets into your blood, and you can t stop doing it. 

Now most people think that sounds pretty stupid, but to a gamer, it makes perfect sense.

I ve been playing video games since I was 7 years old, when I got my first Nintendo.

Ahhhhh, the memories.

I remember playing Super Mario Brothers for hours on end, and having contests between me and my friends to see who could finish the game the fastest, or who could finish the game by going through every single level.

Then there was Duck Hunt.

Oh, the Duck Hunt contests. We would play that for hours on end, after we finished playing Super Mario. To this day, I still have dreams where I finally get to shoot that stupid dog with the orange gun after he laughs at you for missing the ducks. Stupid dog.

I remember how excited we were when we got to see the first screen shots of Super Mario Brothers 3 in Nintendo Power. The day the game came out, I waited outside Toys R Us until it opened at 9 a.m. just so I could be the first person to have the game.

Then I was blessed with a Super Nintendo, and that was about the time I discovered role playing games, or RPGs.

The first time I ever played Final Fantasy II, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. From there it went to Final Fantasy III, Mystic Quest, and Seventh Saga. To this day, whenever I have a spare chance, I buy Super Nintendo and Nintendo games at Game Xchange or on Ebay.

I m just a sucker for classic video games. I still have my old GameBoy, back when they were about two inches thick and you had to sit in a room with all the lights on and squint to be able to see what was on the screen. And yes, I still buy games for it.

I ve replaced my Nintendo about three times now, and I ve learned all about electronics just so I can replace the connector in it that always stops working.

Some people collect baseball cards or old records, but not me. I will always collect video games, I will always play them, and they will always be some of my best memories from childhood.

If that sounds stupid to you, then too bad.

You re ugly anyway, so be quiet.