Anybody out there ever heard of a guy named Ron Gilbert?

You can find Mr. Ron Gilbert at grumpygamer.com. He's the twisted mind behind several of LucasArts' classic adventure games, most notably Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island, and its sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge.

These games are all before my time. I hadn't been born when they were released. Even once I blossomed into a bouncing baby boy one year after MI2 was released, I certainly wasn't up to matching my marvelous little skull against the sometimes wickedly tough puzzles that pervaded the series.

Monkey Island was an inheritance, one of the things I inherited from my dad. I recall with great fondness the days I spent in our basement, probably five years old at the most, eagerly "solving" the game's puzzles while my dad subtly gave me the answers. Thinking about it now, this must have been at least a year before I got my treasured PlayStation, made my console debut at six years old with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, was spectacularly reduced to tears with frustration, and proceeded to Spyro the Dragon.

So, at the risk of sounding overly sentimental, I can say with truth that those Monkey Island days in the basement were not only some of the fondest memories of time I spent with my dad (who is not, in fact, dead, despite how this sentence will inevitably read) but also the days that set me off on the career in gaming that has lasted most of my life.

At fourteen years old, I see Monkey Island - and my memories of it - in an entirely new way. I get the in-jokes and the satire that previously went way over my head. I know so much more of what goes into these games and yet I'll never get as much out of it as I did playing them with my dad.

Most of the time, I'm a grumpy gamer too. There's something inherently depressing about being a world-weary, often bitterly cynical fourteen year-old. Still, I've learned that no matter how many hard knocks you get, there will always be video games . Thank to you, Dad, and thanks to Ron Gilbert, the great grumpy gamer. He's not alone.