Some of my earliest memories are of games and gaming. As I've revealed in my Gamespot profile, I was born in 1978. I consider myself fairly lucky that I've been able to witness, somewhat vicariously, the birth and growth of the gaming industry. And lucky to have had such indulging parents.

My parents saved their change in an Incredible Hulk piggy bank that had been a gift to me at age two or three, doubtlessly from some Christmas or birthday past. I believe it took a couple of years to fill the green three-foot bust of Banner's berserk counterpart. Once it was topped off, we drove to San Jose (from Tracy) and cashed it in for an Atari 400 and a couple of games.

I was led down this little path of memory lane a few moments ago while scanning my profile page. When I originally wrote something for the "About Me" section of this page I wasn't sure exactly which Atari model I had had. The number I originally included in this section turned out to be inflated, an overly optimistic nonremembering of the past.

After a quick search through pictures of these ancient relics on the internet, I discovered that the correct memory should've been of a generation (or model, at least) lower. It's occurring to me that a possible cause of this inflation is likely due to the influence gaming has had on my life. As time progresses and the industry and audience of gaming grows, games and gaming in general are all about being bigger, better, more, faster, keep spending more money every year...

But I'm digging it.