Playing videogames like The Legend of Zelda and Earthbound as a kid improved my intelligence and created an experience that defined part of my life. (Anyone who played these games when they came out would co-sign my statement.)
I played a lot of video games growing up – but the difference between my generation and the current ones, is while we enjoyed video games, the term “gamer” was not invented yet – and there was SEVERE PEER PRESSURE to not develop what we called:
A NINTENDO TAN
The rule of thumb was the following:
· You get home from school.
· Eat a quick snack, change your clothes.
· Be on the street to pick teams in no later than 15 minutes after getting off bus.
· Whichever season was in, was the game we’d play. Football, baseball, basketball.
· You play, and you play hard until your mom calls you home for dinner.
· After dinner, you do your homework.
· Once homework is done – you play video games – BUT YOU PLAY A SPORTS video game such as Tecmo Bowl, Madden ’93 , Madden ’95, NES Play Action Football, Joe Montana Sports Talk Football, Bulls vs Lakers, NBA JAM, Hoops, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Super Punch Out, Super Tecmo Bowl, NBA Live, NBA Hangtime, Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat.
The days when it would rain, you don’t stay indoors and play videogames, you go out to the field at the end of the block and play Bears-Packers gridiron re-creation of the games where “the elements” were experienced and the mud and the glory were relived.
Videogames were for AFTER dinner and AFTER homework.
EXCEPT the first week the new games come out. Then there is an exception – but usually about 45 minutes into playing a sports game, we would all want to go out and do the real thing.
With that said, there was a RITE OF PASSAGE everyone had to do at some point – usually you’d do this at night time.
You had to complete the game “The Legend of Zelda” and “Zelda 3: A Link to the Past” because those games train your mind on how to think outside the box and complete a quest of mammoth proportion and was worth experiencing and discussing with others.
You also had to complete the original Super Mario Brothers because that is what every kid had to do.
Oh, and you had to beat CONTRA – the ultimate boy game of all time.
In fact, this guy James Rolfe aka The Angry Nintendo Nerd made a 6 minute video explaining what it was like to be our age and to complete Contra.
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/angry-video-screwattack/723402
I nominate James Rolfe as the spokesperson for my generation (we’re the same age) and I’ve seen every single video (over 200) that he’s made over the past 6 years because he explains my exact video game experience EXACTLY as I experienced it. It’s like we grew up on the same block. (Except he didn’t play sports.)
He created a living for himself that I tried so hard to create for myself with video and audio but just didn’t have the same support team and talent that he had to make it possible. If you wanted to know what I wanted to be when I grew up, The Angry Nintendo Nerd is it. He does his marketing, his videos, EVERYTHING how I do it – but he is much better at it and has a much more mainstream niche.
His website to learn more about him is www.cinemassacre.com.
I’m notified on my iPad via RSS feed and his Cinemassacre app the moment he makes a new video.
Anyways, its ok to play videogames – but NEVER let yourself develop A NINTENDO TAN. (which means pale white skin from staying indoors).
