My Life In Games

I started playing games at a friend’s house when i was 6 years old. The first games I ever played were space invaders and frogger on the Atari. The following year my gran got me a Sinclair zx spectrum+2  128k in a bundle with more than 500 games. This was the first console I owned and I played it every day but remember the loading times taking ages.  My favourite games on that were Dragon Spirit, R-Type, Paper Boy and Dizzy, but I still went over to my friend’s house to play space invaders.

Dragon Spirit - Spectrum

My next console was the Sega Mega drive back in 1990 when it was released here in the UK. That was when I really got into games and gaming, with my first games for that being Sonic and Altered Beast. I really enjoyed the beat-em-up and side scrolling shoot- em – up games that were on the console with favourites including; street fighter, streets of rage, comix zone, alien 3 and loads more.


I got the Playstation shortly after it was released in 1995. Sadly I can’t remember a lot of the early games I played on it but I know it started with Tekken.  I also remember playing doom on the console, one of the first FPS games I ever played on a console. It was at this time I also got into some of my favourite gaming franchises like Resident Evil (which I played to death), Metal Gear and Guilty Gear. 

  

Despite having consoles at home I used to go to the arcades alot too and would spend all my money there every week. I really enjoyed going to the arcades because I loved the environment with the sounds and sights of the machines. I also went to play all the games that weren’t available on consoles like awesome retro games  and new releases. Games that I remember enjoying the most included; Metal Slug, r-type, Time Crisis, Alien VS Predator and Alien 3 the gun.  Despite being outdated I still really enjoy arcades and play them where ever I find them. I find it disappointing that they aren’t really around anymore as I think they’re one of the most enjoyable things about being a gamer and one of the best parts from my gaming history.

AVP Arcade Beat-em-up Game

The next console I got was the Nintendo 64 but I only got it for one game - Killer instinct gold, which is one of my favourite fighting games of all time.  Apart from that I wasn’t really a fan of the N64 and didn’t bother with it due to a lack of good games (the control pad was crap aswell).  

I got the Playstation 2 a little while after the N64, followed a year later by the DreamCast. These were my favourite consoles at the time and I had masses of games for them both. I’ve played such a variety and number of games on the PS2 it’s difficult to remember alot of them. I continued to enjoy franchises such as; Metal Gear, Guilty Gear, Resident Evil, Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Street Fighter. I also found interest in alot of new games like; extermination, primal and the now successful Devil May Cry series. The Dreamcast for me it was the best console ever made,  it had awesome games I loved playing like; Rival Schools 2, Shenmue 1 and 2, Zombie Revenge,  House of the Dead 2, Cannon Spike, and Resident Evil Code Veronica. I also owned the Xbox and GameCube but I didn’t have as much interest in those consoles. I don’t remember alot of the games for the Xbox apart from Halo and Steel Battalion, which had an awesome cockpit style controller! Due to lack of good games I didn’t really play the GameCube much and only got it for Resident Evil 4 which I played to death and really enjoyed.

Zombie Revenge DreamCast

I started getting into PC gaming around the age of 19 and it’s since become my format of choice.  I got into FPS games like Doom 3, Half Life and Counter Strike: Source. I’ve spent 5000+ hours on CS:S and don’t regret it. I went as far as to start my own clan with 30-40 members, buy a server and even met my girlfriend of 5 years through it. After 3 years I started to lose interest and moved onto games like Battlefield and Call Of Duty.  Although I like these games and their newer releases I’ve never played another game as much in my life as I did CS:S.  I find it difficult to say exactly why that is, other than CS:S was just good mindless fun. The game did require a level of skill to do well, unlike more modern games which seem so much easier to play.  

I’ve since moved into next gen and own the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and the Wii (that I never use). I’ve been a gamer all my life so I’ve got to experience games improving as much as they have and really look forward to seeing were they’ll go. I’m not sure how we’ll play games in the future but I hope it doesn’t change too much.