This month’s Round Table Discussion is a trip down memory lane — “A moment when you knew that games were to be a part of your life…” As soon as Corvus announced the topic I immediately knew what moment that would be for me. The moment is crystal clear. It happened one Saturday morning on my way to Boy Scouts.
I was twelve years old at the time (1987), and on Saturday mornings I attended our weekly Boy Scout meeting at my friend’s house. His dad was the Scoutmaster and I’d get a ride to the meeting with another buddy of mine. This particular Saturday (it was late October, if memory serves me) my friend handed me the manual to his new Nintendo game, Kung Fu.
I had already been playing video games for a couple years on my trusty Atari 2600, but that was the extent of my playing. I didn’t play it very often, just a game of Combat or Pitfall when I was bored. I was more into my G.I. Joe Headquarters than any video game. My friend had an ColecoVision and I knew what the new Nintendo system looked like, but I had never played it. Leafing through the pages of the Kung Fu manual that chilly morning, I was immediately sucked in. “Look at those graphics!” Amazing! “Oooh, I bet the Mr. X is tough to beat!” I had to play this game. All during the meeting, all I could think about was saving the girl and kicking butt, Kung Fu style! After the meeting, I called my mom and begged her to let me go over Lance’s house. That afternoon we played Kung Fu and Super Mario Brothers for hours. I don’t know if you can get Nintendo thumb from just a few hours of playing, but I’m pretty sure I did. Kung Fu was one of my favorite games on the NES and that single day cemented my love for video games.
Of course I set about making sure Santa knew that all I wanted for Christmas that year was a Nintendo Entertainment System. No G.I. Joe, no Transformers. Just Mario, Luigi, and any other 8-bit creations I could play. Santa came through, as he always does, and I haven’t stopped playing since.
“Where it all started“
If you’re interested, you can download the Kung Fu manual here, from replacementdocs (which is where I got the image above).
Ahhh, i remeber mine like it was only yesterday… it was a hot summer day in 1997, i was at my best friend’s 7th Birthday Party having a good time, until beside the television… i saw the first video game console i would play in my entire life… a gleaming crispy brand new SNES… i had heard of nintendo, but not very well, i had never played on a video game console before! I saw a large cart jammed into it… Yoshi’s Island if i remember, i quickly turned it on and BAM, i was blown back! Look at the detail, wow it’s so cool!
My best friend let me play on it, i was hooked onto it like a crackhead in a mexican druglord’s warehouse, i didn’t wanna leave, i just wanted more. Seeing baby mario fly away in that bubble when yoshi got hit, grabbing him back, eating enemies, spitting out rapid firing eggs, i actually liked egg from that day on, seriously!
From then onwards… i’ve always been a nintendo fanboy, *salutes…not in a Nazi way* nintendo all the way!
i remember, i was 6, a new kid showed up to church one day, and i went over to his house (i dont really remember why, but i just did) then, i walk in his house, and see this strange rectangle thing, with another rectangle sticking out of the top, so i ask “whats that?” and he replies “it’s an N-64” and i, still having no clue what it is, ask “whats that?” and he walks over, turns on the TV, filp a switch on the n64, and all of a sudden, the TV snaps from blue, into this little movie with sound, and what looked like moving comic book people, so i say “so it plays cartoons? why not use a VCR?” then he laughs, picks up this wierd pad with a stick and some buttons, and he says “yeah, but YOU ontroll the cartoons!” and starts a game of super smash bros, after that, i was hooked, i though it was the coolet thing ever! no longer did i whatch other people doing things in movies, or read about them in books, now i got to CONTROL what happend! i was totaly hooked, and from the moment i blew the crap out of jiggly puff with a fully charged samus arm cannon shot, i knew i’d be doing this untill i was to old to move my thumbs quickly enough
Hi I’ve just bought myself a super nintendo and i absolutly love it, playing mario kart and super bomberman again bring back some class memories with friends. I have also recently purchased olymic summer games 96′ it is a game i loved and would play for hours the only problem i have is there was no instruction manual and i am having trouble figuring out how to play them so if anyone can help either with a site for downloading manuals or if they know themselves please feel free to email me at harry81@harry81.karoo.co.uk – Thankyou devoted gamer Harry
Harry check out this site:
http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php
They have a lot of old instruction manuals.