My Life As A Gamer
My life as a gamer began when I was a young kid. I have played them for over four decades. Technology has taken games to an unbelievable level. However not everything is new about the systems. When looking back on my years o playing it is fun to look at what has been, what is right now and what will come in the future and with the recent xbox 360 kinect release date and my rush to the store to get one for Christmas, it is a good time to write down my experiences as a gamer.
The first game I got was called Pong. There was nothing very complex about this gaming system. But it was impossible to put down. My siblings and I would stay up late to play the game. Nothing else was important. I just had to beat my opponent. This was a big investment for my family to make at the time when we got the game. It definitely was one of the more expensive gadgets in our home and probably was close to a couple hundred dollars. When adjusting for inflation that is similar to the consoles that are available now. The original consoles had only a little variety. You had a choice of one or two players. That was about it.
After a few years I turned to the Atari system. There were various games that could be purchased for the different consoles. Variety was much better than playing Pong. It was like having a mini arcade in my own home. I started to find this technology was even better than before. I still went to the arcade for really good games. But now I could play some of those games in my own home. I was spending my own money to buy different titles to play. What is amazing is if I had kept the games and the game system, there are collectors who would pay good money for it.
Through my college years and as a young adult, I still played video games.|I grew older and more independent, but I still liked gaming.|The idea o being a gamer was still a part of me even as I became a part of the adult world.} It was not as much as when I was younger. But no matter where I lived, I had access to a gaming console of some type. I bought a personal computer when they started being sold. I enjoyed the ability to play over the Internet. Starting a family altered my priorities away from video games. As my kids grew, video games reappeared in my home. I was getting hooked on them again.
We got a Playstation. It seemed like the games that I grew up playing in the arcade. There were so many games to choose from. I would find titles that my kids would play. And I also picked out some that I would enjoy. Once our children were asleep it was my turn to play. There were times that I would lose track of the time. Just like when I first played Pong, I was enjoying the games a lot. I could get ways from reality for a short while by engaging in these systems. Reality would remind me that I still had to work and take care of every one which limited how much I could play. At times I would go for weeks without playing. When I returned to the games, the excitement was still there. That is something that never changes.
This Christmas bought the xbox 360 kinect and with it came a whole new world of video gaming that has my family and myself moving around and using the video gaming system as our own personal gym while my kids practice their football and baseball techniques. Playing this makes me feel young again.