1988 Was a Very Good Year

Heeding a suggestion made by the CFO here at Backward Compatible (better known as my wife), I'm using this week to introduce myself to all of you nice enough to read my blog. For others, this series of posts will serve as a great way to put a face on that hate mail you've been sending me.



Me eating another Odyssey II. I can't help it; those things are delicious

I grew up as a child of the '80s in the suburbs of picturesque Cleveland, Ohio with my two older brothers. Naturally, this means that I wasted formative years in front of the TV watching Saturday morning cartoons and playing Nintendo. Remember when Saturday morning cartoons were awesome?

My first experience with video games stems back to when I was just a wee nerdling, when I famously chewed through the power cord of my family's Magnavox Odyssey II like some sort of rodent. And by the fact that I'm alive to type this, we can only assume it wasn't plugged in. Or maybe it was--that could explain my terrible memory.

Years later, (say 1988?) I got my first taste of Nintendo at a friend's house. His name was Dino Mayo and his parents hated each other. And while that's a pretty crappy situation to grow up in, you can't deny the positive effect marital turbulence can have on an only child's toy chest: not only did Dino have a complete Laser Tag set (helmets and all), but he also had an NES in his room.  

I distinctly remember spending hours locked away in his poorly lit bedroom playing Super Mario Brothers, Adventures of Bayou Billy, and T&C Surf Designs on a 13" television. This was incredible for a first grader back in 1988. Today, that'd be pretty sad.

Soon after, it occurred to me that every kid in the neighborhood had a Nintendo except for me. Aaron Husted had one, Arnold and Jimmy had one, Nick Cortis across the street played his on a ridiculous movie projector, and hell, the kid down the street with the awesome tree house had three Nintendos. Three!

My original copy of California Games.
You're talking to the footbag champ of 1990.

At some point, I think my parents noticed that I'd unabashedly ride my bike from one house to the next playing whenever and wherever I could. Tetris, Classic Concentration, Mario 2, TMNT--for a kid without a Nintendo, I was playing a heck of a lot of it!

Most likely afraid of an impending abduction, an NES Action Set of my own found its way under the tree that Christmas, complete with Mario 2 and California Games (which I still have). And in a Nintendo 64 kid moment of triumph, I pulled the console from the box, raised it above my head, and proclaimed "Say hello to Mr. Nintendo!" It's unclear whether I was talking about the console or myself, but hey, I was seven--it sounded good at the time.

Now that I think about it, I wish people would call me "Mr. Nintendo."

So that's my story. What's yours? I'd love to hear your about your earliest gaming memories. Leave a comment below!