Video Game History

 Atari 2600 Commercial (Dec 17th 1977)

Video games have always been apart of my life, a window to an imaginary world. The first video game console that I played was the Atari 2600, which made its debut in 1977 and discontinued in 1992. I didn't own an Atari 2600, but had played one over at my older cousin's house and really enjoyed it. My favorite game for the Atari 2600 is Pitfall! (1982) by AcTiVision. The video game I hated for the Atari 2600 was Superman (1978) by Atari, Inc., because it was so annoying. You can find it on YouTube. That game about blew my ear drums to pieces. I also enjoyed Ice Hockey (1981) by AcTiVision, Galaxian (1983) by Midway and Breakout (1978) by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600.

 Pitfall! Commercial (1982)

Christmas of 1985 I received my first video game system, which was the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), (control deck) which came out on my 7th birthday on October 18th 1985. At the time Super Mario Bros. (1985) didn't come with the control deck (some systems did), thus you had to purchase the game separately. 

If the weather was icky, my Dad and I would play for hours on the weekends. The video game was something I had never seen before, especially the color and graphics being much better (as they should) than the Atari 2600. The first three games that I had for the NES were Super Mario Bros., Tiger-Heli (1987) and The Legend of Zelda (1986). The first and last game, along with Tetris (1989), are my favorite games for the NES. Tetris originally came out in 1984, but 1989 on the NES. My least favorite game on the NES is The Adventures of Bayou Billy (1989), that game is crazy tough.

I also had the Power Pad, which debuted in 1988. We later returned it to the store because we had issues with the connectors on the pad. I also had the NES Zapper, which was bought separately in order to play Duck Hunt (1985) among other games that included having the zapper.

I had my NES for 7 years from 1985-1992. Like others, my NES games stopped reading and the 'red flash' syndrome took over my NES. I had always cleaned my games and kept them dust free inside those NES plastic cases (last image in this blog). Years later (more like 25) I find out that it wasn't my games, but the console itself. The 72-pin connector (has 72 metal pins) needed to be cleaned, along with the connectors inside the NES, which only required a Phillips screwdriver to take apart the system. We didn't know anything about cleaning the inside of a game console back in 1992. The NES will forever be my favorite gaming console.

I was 14 years old and into my teen years. I was looking at a Sega Genesis system instead of Nintendo's Super Nintendo (SNES), which was released in 1991 (U.S.A.). Sega was more targeted toward teenagers while SNES was targeted toward kids, like the NES. I'm not sure if I received it on my birthday or Christmas, but I did get a Sega Genesis Model 2 in 1993. I liked the look of the model 2 better than the original model of the Sega Genesis (here), which was released in 1989. Later a model 3 was released, which was quite small for the time.

Sega Genesis model 1 (original) commercial

I didn't have a lot of games for the Sega Genesis, but I did have one game that caused a lot of controversy and that was Mortal Kombat (1992) by Acclaim Entertainment, which caused the development of a rating system for video games in September 1994 due to the violence and blood (Mortal Kombat) in video games. Nintendo released Mortal Kombat as well, but replaced the blood in the game with sweat. You can guess which game sold better on which system. Sega. That being said, Sega developed the famous 'blood code', that would let the gamer punch in a code and blood would appear in the game. This was Sega's way around the controversy and still able to sell the game. Mortal Kombat is my favorite game for the Sega Genesis.

I also had Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (1992), which came with the system. I've never been a huge Sonic fan. I also had NBA Jam (1993), which was a fun game. It's hard to believe I only had three games for the system for the next 4 years. I'm not sure what happened to my Sega Genesis, but I decided to purchase a Nintendo 64 (N64), and while some might wonder how the name came about, it's because the system had a 64-bit processing unit. The original NES only had 8. The N64 came out in 1996, but I purchased mine in 1997.

Nintendo 64 Commercial

After 4 years of having my Sega Genesis, I decided to go back to Nintendo, because I was interested in Madden Football 64 (1997), which was sold exclusively for the N64. I had a few games for the system. My top three favorite are The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), Madden NFL '99 (1998), and WWF No Mercy (2000). I didn't own any Super Mario Bros. games, mostly because I was more into the teenage video games at this point in my life. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is my favorite game for the N64.

I was excited back in 2001 when Microsoft came out with their first game console called the XBOX (2001). The built was simple. A big box with a huge black X on top of the console. It was larger than my previous system (N64), but I liked the design, though, it was quite heavy. This was the first console I purchased that used CD discs instead of cartridges like the NES, Sega Genesis, and N64 had.

I decided to give my younger cousin my N64 and purchased an XBOX in 2002. I had a lot of games for the system, but my three favorite are Medal of Honor: Frontline (2002), Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (2003), and Batman Begins (2005).

The artwork for the box is unique, as it's the first gaming system that I had that the console wasn't shown on the front. 

Original XBOX console (image)

My favorite game for the original XBOX is Medal of Honor: Frontline (2002). It's my 3rd favorite game of all time. It's an amazing game and the music is breathtaking. I actually have the soundtrack for the game. Michael Giacchino and the Northwest Sinfonia in Seattle did a marvelous job. The soundtrack for the game was recorded in the Spring of 2001.

My XBOX went dead in 2008, thus I had it for 6 years (2002-2008). It could've been something simple as the power supply, which would've been easy to fix. Instead, I purchased an XBOX 360, which came out in 2005. I purchased the premium package (60 GB) and by this time all the kinks were out of the XBOX 360 consoles, at least most.

This is the system that I currently have and just recently replaced the entire DVD drive after having the console for 9 years. It might be time to upgrade to the XBOX One S. ::chuckles:: The XBOX 360 is my 2nd favorite video game system, next to the NES.

Like the original XBOX, the XBOX 360 doesn't show the game system on the front box. This was the first game system that I was able to get onto the Internet and XBOX Live with. It reminded me of the days of the Atari 2600, but with the 2600 you could actually play video games at home, and not just at the arcade anymore. The 360 was just something new to me, especially being able to have Internet access. You could with the original XBOX, but you had to hook it up directly to a modem/router via an ethernet cable, there was no WiFi on the system.

I stuck with Microsoft because I never had any issues with my original XBOX (until it went dead 6 years later), so I chose to stay with them.

The 360 is the longest game console that I've ever had (9 yrs). I opened it up last year to clean out all the dust inside, which was very little, including both fans. One year later (as mentioned above) my DVD drive started acting up. I found out it wasn't the laser, just the drive itself, even though the DVD tray worked fine, the laser wasn't reading the games, which my games are spotless and still look new. $35.00 later and learning how to solder, I got my 360 working again.

I have a lot of games for the 360, but my three favorites are Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009), Medal of Honor: Airborne (2007), and Madden '09 (2008). Batman: Arkham Asylum is my favorite on the system.

My favorite game system of all time is the original NES along with my favorite video game being Super Mario Bros. for the NES. My least favorite video game is definitely Superman (1978) for the Atari 2600.

You've been warned.

Games In Photo: 

Super Mario Bros. (1985), Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988), Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990), and Tiger-Heli (1987)

Christmas Through The Years

Christmas With My Grandparents

Christmas '85: My cat George loves being at Grandma & Grandpa's for Christmas

During my childhood and teenage years, Christmas was always one of the highlights of the year for me, that, and going to Cystic Fibrosis summer camp from 1988-1996. It wasn't just the gifts I was excited to receive, but visiting both sets of my grandparents who lived in Missouri as well. My grandparents (Mom's parents) were born and raised and lived in Missouri until the 1960's and moved to Michigan. They returned to Missouri in 1983. My Dad's parents were also born and raised in Missouri.

@ Grandparents, Christmas Time '83

@ Aunt's House, Christmas '83: My Cousin's w/ our Great Grandmother (Dad's Grandmother)

Check out my cousin's long sleeve shirt. The A-Team!!! I'm on the far right.

@Home, Christmas Eve '84: Masters of The Universe- Point Dread & Talon Fighter

Gift I opened on Christmas Eve

@ Home, Christmas '84: Candy Land was my favorite board game as a child

@ Home, Christmas Time '84: I wonder what this present could be? (next image below)

@ Home, Christmas '84: A reason why the 80's were so great! 

Masters of The Universe- Skeletor's Snake Mountain

I spent my Christmas vacation (with my family) visiting both sets of grandparents from 1984-1993. Christmas vacation usually started on or around December 18th. I opened my gifts from my parents early, around December 20th or 21st. We usually left December 22nd to beat the holiday traffic. Thankfully, Santa knew my location on December 25th. My parents let me bring along three of my gifts so I could open them at my grandparents' house. Santa brought me a gift or two as well.

Christmas was different in Dexter, MO, because I can count on one hand how many times it snowed. Where they lived (boot hill) it never snowed, maybe flurries and that was it. One year there were Charlie Brown flakes flowing from the sky and the snow was actually sticking to the ground. Dexter received about an inch or two. It seemed as though we always brought the snow from Michigan. That time of year the residents had to worry about ice.

@ Home, Christmas '84: 1985 E.T. Calendar

@ Home, Christmas '84: Lego Set

The 12-hour drive to Dexter, MO was a long one, especially bringing along two mid-sized dogs. My grandparents were always happy to see our dogs, as they didn't have one until 1994/1995.

My Dad's parents lived in Malden, MO, which was about 45 minutes south from my Mom's parents in Dexter. Sometimes we spent Christmas morning at my grandparents in Dexter and some years we spent Christmas morning at my other grandparents in Malden. I think we did that every other year.

1993 my older cousin and I would travel to visit our grandparents during Christmas vacation and continued to do so until 2000. We spent Christmas up here and left to travel down there on December 26th. We stayed with our grandparents from December 26th - January 2nd or around that time period.

Christmas 1985

My favorite Christmas was in 1985, and between the years 1984-1987, I received Masters of The Universe toys and those were my favorite gifts. Anything to do with He-Man I loved! The toys weren't expensive back then. Mom purchased them from Big Wheel, which was a store like K-Mart. I had all the original characters, including both Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain.

One of the most unique characters was Stinkor, which was an evil action figure that stunk like a skunk. Peeww! He did stink. I'm surprised Skeletor could be around him. That was his defense, his bad odor spray. During the later years in the world of He-Man, newer characters were introduced left and right, which I didn't have all those characters, but I had a ton.

Another wonderful gift I received that year was the newly released (10/18/85) Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). When the NES came out, Super Mario Bros. was the only item included. Duck Hunt or the NES Zapper gun wasn't included. I had my NES system for 7 years.

Favorite Christmas Movie

My favorite Christmas film is It's A Wonderful Life (1946), followed by National Lampoon's Christmas (1989) and then my favorite Christmas movie as a child, Santa Clause: The Movie (1985), which to me is an underrated Christmas film, which stars both the late Dudley Moore (Patch the Elf) and David Huddleston as Santa Claus. David played a wonderful Santa in the film. John Lithgow plays B.Z. an evil executive of a toy company. The late Burgess Meredith makes a cameo as the Ancient One, the oldest and wisest of the elves.

The two children who star in the film are Carrie Kei Heim as Cornelia (Corny), whom is B.Z.'s 9 year old step-niece and orphan. Cornelia befriends a homeless boy named Joe living on the streets of New York. Both befriend Santa Claus.

The film tells the story of how Santa Claus came about, along with the plot venturing into the (then) current 20th century and how Christmas and the meaning had changed through the centuries. It's a good children's film.

The film came out on November 27th 1985 and flopped and received a lot of negative reviews. Its become more popular in recent years with a cult following. It's one of those movies that's hard to find on the tube around Christmas, but in recent years its been on digital over the air (free TV) channel This! and AMC has been airing the film quite a bit lately. This marks the first year the film has been aired on TV in HD.

I'll always remember those long trips to Missouri, the dinner's with my grandparents, and the times I spent with my relatives/grandparents on my Dad's side. I saw both sets of my grandparents twice a year and that was it. If you're reading this and see your grandparents around the holidays or in between time, please be thankful for the time you have with them, because one day they won't be around. I was lucky to make great memories with both sets.