Wassup with gaming?

When I was a young boy growing up in Whangarei, New Zealand, I remember vividly being mesmerised by gaming. Of course back then we called it 'Spacies'

I would absolutely love going to 'amusements' which was the then only 'spacies parlour'.

Back then all games were 20 cents and when I walked into the James St Spacies Parlour I was in heaven.

• Space invaders
  
• Defender
• Galaga
• Frogger
• Moon Patrol
• Gyruss
• Xevious
• Tube Panic

The list was endless, alas, the pocket full of 20 cent pieces was not. You would dread some fellow addict coming up to you and muttering those fateful words...'Gotta 20?'

Mostly I would say 'Nah' and walk away trying not to rattle my pocket of money :) I apologise that my own addiction overcame my generosity.

It was about this time that handheld games arrived. Among the first I experienced was the Casio mg880 game / calculator - O for Orsum! or should I say 'n'

If you don't get it you haven't played the game and have sadly missed out IMO.



I have no idea where the original one went but I managed to pick one up at a garage sale for $2.00
After the nostalgia wore off in the first few days I flicked it off on TradeMe for $160.00

I have still got this bad boy though. The mg200 - PSP, eat your heart out!


The only bummer is you can't turn the sound off - but who would want too dampen the sound of a raging Ferrari engine roaring down the highway. Hmmm - I wonder what it's worth on TradeMe?

Another classic I was blessed with as a kid was Grandstand's Astro Wars. Wow my very own arcade cabinet with a real joystick! Albeit on a slightly smaller scale.

I remember when my Puppa (Grandfather on Mum's side) got a computer. The mighty ZX Spectrum. He tried to instill in me a head start into the computer programming industry. Cool Puppa - look you can play games on it. The game was the classic Brick Game - mean as!

I eventually inherited this forerunner of PC excellence and did progress with my knowledge. I actually met someone else with one and we joined a computer club run out of the local community college. Whilst the knowledgeable amongst us talked machine code I was busy dubbing all their games on cassette - I know! Sweetness.

My favourite was the Horace series...Horace and the Spiders Rocked my pre-pubescent world!

Alas all young boys grow up, and when we do we buy our very own Sega MegaDrive 2. Sonic was the new king...

... that is until I discovered RoadRash 2.

By some brilliant discovery and some cunning button sequence on start up you could get unlimited NITRO to boost your superbike to oblivion!

John Mellencamp summed up the next period of my gaming life in his song, 'Hurts so good'

When I was a young boy
Said put away those young boy ways
Now that I'm gettin' older, so much older
I long for those young boy days

So after marriage I put away those young boy ways and gaming was no more. I'd pick up old consoles at garage sales, anything from NES, Sega Master Systems, mega drives, Sony PS1's and I'd sell them all for a small profit. I often imagine the set up I would have had if I'd kept all the various consoles and games over the years.

However sometimes the memory of the way things were is so much better than trying to relive the 'Good old days'

Now I don't want to end on a sad note so let's go back to the future.

Yesterday my cool brother-in-law brought over his latest acquisition. An XBOX 360 Kinect bundle.




So much fun.

My kids have got it way better...or have they?







Yes, yes they have!


BUT... I still remember the absolute joy I had with the Casio handheld games and 20 cent spacies. That would be comparitively lame now, but the magic and joy is still the same!

I may not have my gaming consoles, but I've still got the JOY!

And some serious skill - Haha!