Growing Up With Video Games

Dad has taught me many things; the most important thing he has taught me was how to play video games. The first game my dad introduced to me was a square Nintendo game called Excite Bike. The cover of the square video game was blue and red, with a little person on a motorcycle doing a wheelie. Dad said, "Here son, put the game in the Nintendo and lets see how you do." I started playing Excite Bike, and immediately, I was hooked. The game play was simple, and making the little person on the motorcycle, ramp off platforms, or run through the dirt, was the most astounding thing I had ever seen. I played Excite Bike for two hours, and Dad said, "Well son, I think you can play that game very well. Let's try some others."

Everyday when Dad would come home from work, I would go hook up the Nintendo and put a game in and say "Dad lets play." I loved playing the Nintendo. To me it was better than going outside or riding my bike. Watching the little person on the motorcycle, fly through the air, hearing the crowd cheer when you crossed the finish line, watching the little man crash and run back to his bike, or just building my own track, are some of the best recollections of my young life.

I used to play this game a space command TV set, which to my knowledge they no longer make. The TV set was made of wood and had a glass frame for where the picture was shown on the screen. It had knobs on the side of it, where you could turn it from color to black and white, while the others changed the tint in the screen, the brightness of the screen, and one for the sharpness of the screen.

The next game dad taught me was Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo. This game really had me intrigued, because you got a little green dinosaur with a red saddle named Yoshi. I could not pronounce his name, so I called him Reese. Mario went all over dinosaur land, and defeated eight of Bowser's kids. After they were all defeated, he went to Bowser's castle and defeated Bowser and got Princess Toadstool back. Dad thought I did the best at this game being I was only two years old, and I was hooking the video game systems up to the TV all by myself.

When I was three years old, my dad bought me my first Game Boy. The Game Boy was a large white a gray square, with a screen in the middle of it. The games were gray with the title of the game, and an illustration of the game I was going to play. Dad got me Space Invaders.