I would guestimate my gaming life began around 1981 when i was 5 or so. I walked into my parent's bedroom and noticed my dad playing a game on the tv in there (an old Black and White job...tell me again how much graphics matter). It was bowling on the Atari 2600. I nagged and nagged until he let me play, and I was immediately hooked.

The 2600 was AWESOME! River Raid, Pitfall, Combat were all revolutionary and the roots of a lot games to this day. Even the bad games were fun to me. Yes, I had the ET game. I remember playing it, and beating it. It wasn't until a decade later I learned that it was a cause of terrible Video Game Crash. My cousins had the Intellivision and the Colecovision. They were both fun as well. One of them had a killer port of Zaxxon (a personal favorite of mine). My mom's philosophy was "you already have that Atari, you don't need another one" so I never got one, but man they were cool.

The Video Game Crash. 1983. That was a (potentially) dark time. Suddenly video games were gone. Arcades were closing down. No more Atari games to buy. Nothing. I thought my beloved hobby was gone forever. I was litterally forced to replay the same games over and over for years. Worse, I had to GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!!!!!

In 1985, that all changed, my cousin got a Tandy computer with the Sierra On-Line classic King's Quest II. I was blown away. 16 color graphics! 16! It was amazing. Plus it had a real story to it, and a world to explore. I spent countless hours at her house playing that game. I had to have it. That Xmas I recieved a Tandy 1000 EX and a copy of Sierra's "The Black Cauldron" (based on the Diseny movie of the same name which is based on The Chronicles of Prydain series of childern's fantasy by Lloyd Alexander, great books for kids). I loved it. A PC gamer was born. Those Sierra On-Line adventure games were incredible. I really wish they would do something with those old franchises. King's Quest, Space Quest, Quest for Glory (aka Hero's Quest). There is a dev making remakes of the 16 color ones called Tierra. They do an outstanding job. The downloads are free and I encourage everyone to check them out. The Zork series, the Bard's Tales, and anything D&D were more of my favorites.

end part one due to beer