Video Games and Me My teen years

 

It was 1990 I was flipping through a video game magazine, odds are it was EGM or Gamepro,saw the above and and knew I had to have one. 

Having already had a chance to play the Mega Drive. Short story. Once I hit 12 and was in Jr High one of my new friends had an uncle that had lived in Japan for years. Now lived back in the states but him and his wife would go back to Japan at least once a year to visit her family. So he,named Dean,had a Famicom. We would go over to my buddy's place and play Famicom stuff months before it got released for the NES. One day over there buddy tells me SEGA had a new console and Dean had it. I was tempted after playing the Mega Drive that day to ask Dean to buy me one next trip to Japan..

By 1990 I was working weekends and  school holidays/summer break on my dad's shrimp. Getting paid as a deckhand. So between my weekly allowance, which at the time was enough for me to get 2 CDs each week from Record Bar, and shrimping money I was doing good. But I didn't just want the stock Genesis I want it and a few games. So was looking at having to save up 300 or 400 bucks.

Then I got a good idea I had a huge comic collection. Knew the comic shop owner was a huge Carl Barks fan. I had piles of Bark's Uncle Scrooge comics. Got taken to the comic shop and walked out with 200 bucks. With the 150 I already had it was enough.

Once I got the Genesis that NES was moved and regulated to the tiny B/W tv in my bedroom. For years I had a 2 tv set up in my room. One was a 13 inch B/w tv that was my first tv back there. Once I got a color tv and got the NES I would keep my 2600 hooked up to the B/w tv. Then when I got my Genesis the NES got moved to that b/w tv.  Was times there was 2 of use playing the Genesis then 2 more playing the NES at the same time. All while a CD was playing on my bedroom stereo.

A year later and I had Sonic and my Genesis was played from when I got home until I crashed out. My father was now working in Southeast Texas. Mom would go out at least 1 weekend a month to visit him. I would stay home. Was up late one Friday,Mom is gone,phone rings and it is a buddy. Asking if I could run him into town to visit his pregnant GF. 

Go get him we go visit and on the ride home he asks if I knew the local party house owner. Told him I knew the guy's name but never been there. "Pull into the Exxxon's parking lot." In buddy goes he calls the party house and they are all up. Go over meet everyone and get asked what I was doing that weekend.

This group of people would go thrifting on the weekends. I got invited to go and the next day we found a Atari 2600 with 20 games and controllers. Was 10 bucks.

Buddy that owned the party house mentions he thinks his old Atari is back at his grannies home. So trip home we stop by there grab his system and games. That night we sit there drinking cheap beer and playing Atari 2600. Which made me realize how much I missed those old games. 

The next day I called up the guy I had given all those games too. Offered him 50 bucks for the games. Get told for that much I can have them and his NES with 30 games.

And so started journey into retro video games. Back in this era 2600 systems were 5 to 10 bucks. Carts were quarter to at most 5 bucks. We had no clue what was rare. But had games we thought were. Stuff like Chase the Chuckwagon,which I had 2 copies of. Or the infamous Custer's Revenge. Hell cause out of the now 400+ Atari games in the group collection we only had 1 copy of Pitfall II. Which made us assume it was rare.

Many weekends were spent at yard sales and thrifts. We all had a notebook we kept with a list of the games we had. Plus learned that no matter how much beer you drink you can still play 2600 games.

Yea the Genesis still got played. The NES sat untouched. But the 2600s got so much play.

Wasn't until 98 and a major move that I got back into modern games. 

Video Games and Me The Early Years

 

I was born at the perfect time to experience that late 70s thru early 80s video game boom. Got vivid memories of being a kid of maybe 4. Standing on a chair so I could play Space Invaders. My older cousin standing there pumping quarters into the machine. 

And I was hooked. Every place had  a few video game machines. Grocery stores,corner stores,gas stations and I would ask for quarters. Go out to have pizza at Godfather's Pizza for dinner, that means I get a chance to play Tempest and Centipede. Dad wants to goto a nearby lounge to shoot pool, I want to go cause the place has Dig Dug and Zaxxon.

Then not long before I turned 5 and started Kindergarten two older cousins each got an Atari 2600. So visits to see them meant I got to play video games at home and didn't need quarters. I wanted a 2600 bad. Factoring in inflation that 2600 would be 250 or so in modern money. Which was way more than my parents would spend on me for Xmas or my birthday. Then thanks to the already mentioned Godfather's Pizza I found me a way to get one.

Godfathers had a contest. Was a picture of the mascot in the newspaper. Cut it out color it and there was 3 prizes. 1st place was trip for 4 to Disney World,which I had been too already. 2nd place was a Atari 2600 system. 3rd place I don't remember. I colored that picture. Got mom to drop it off. Then weeks later we get the call I have won second place. 

The ride to town and then back home felt like it was 5 hours long, when it was at most 30 minutes round trip. Get home dad hooks it up and we start playing Combat. Which was the only game I had. It is 2 player only. It was Friday when I won it. That night after I goto bed it starts raining. Lots of the county floods. School gets canceled for 3 days. So I am stuck at home with a new Atari. Only got a 2 player game and Mom don't play it. That Monday after dad got home from work   Mom went "grocery shopping" and said I couldn't come. Which was odd. Normally I would go with her and read comics while waiting. She gets home hours later and has me a new game Pac Man. Yep it is hated  now but I played the living fuck out of it back then.

From then and IIRC this was September 1980 until summer of 84 I would get like 2 or 3 games for Xmas and 2 for my birthday. Would trade games with my cousins and friends that lived nearby. And I had a decent collection built up. Even had the track ball controller. 

Then the crash of 84 hit. Now I had no clue what happened. Just that it went from being 25 to 40 for an Atari game to games being 10 bucks or less. Now I could buy them myself. Xmas and Birthdays went from gettiing 3 games at each to getting 20 games. By 86 my 2600 collection was over 100 games. Mom carried a list of what I had in her purse and at places like TG&Y and Woolco finding games for a buck.

1986 we get back from Xmas break. Buddy telling us he got a new video game system. The NES, with a pile of games. Seems his dad had to order it from some store up north.

Now those games looked ,to us back then,just like the arcade versions. No more "Oh this is so close to the arcade." Nope we had legit arcade games in the home. So again begged parents for a NES. Got told nope already got the 2600 and piles of games.

Too young to get a job. My allowance  ain't much. But I had a huge Hot Wheels,Star Wars figure and comic book collection. And all those Hot Wheels got sold. Buck for each car. There was 50 or so bucks. Sold the Star Wars figures for 2 bucks each,they had all their guns. Now I got right at 90 bucks. NES I want is 130. My birthday is soon. Will get cash so I will have that NES soon.

Day of my birthday I am opening gifts. Keeping a total in my head of how much cash I got. Between aunts and grandparents got right at 170 total now in cash. Sweet can get a NES and maybe a game too.
Then mom brings out a huge package. I open it and there is the NES. 

So next day I head to the nearest KB toys and got as many games as 170 bucks could get me.

The rest of that summer break was spent playing my huge stack of games. Being not only one of the few kids in the neighborhood with a NES but also having close to 15 games meant by 10am there was always a few kids over playing the NES.

Just like with the 2600 I would get a few games for my birthday and Xmas. Usually 2 at each. But by now I was working part time on my father's shrimp boat. So I had money. Maybe a year after this the 2600 stopped working. Knowing what I know now I am betting it was a faulty power supply, a super easy fix. But back then I just assumed I needed a new system. And yea the 2600 jr was 50 bucks. Still 50 bucks was 1 or 2 NES games. The 2600 got boxed up and put in the closet. That huge box of over 200 now 2600 games was given to the lil brother of a girl I was dating.

1990 is when it all changed. New system, rediscovered the 2600 and learned the joys of retro games.