Welcome to the first entry in a series of (sometimes longwinded) blog entries detailing my history with many subjects ranging from video games and movies to music and toys. I love to reminisce and nostalgia, rather than a hindrance as it can potentially be to some, empowers me and fuels my creative endeavors. Why, Secret of Memoria alone was born out of the feeling and memories that produce it—The main character's name is even Remy Niscent!
To kick things into gear, we will start with something short but hugely profound in my overall life: My introduction to gaming and my favorite video game character: Mega Man.
It was in the 1990-1991 timeframe, and I was but three, maybe four years old. A child with a love for cartoons and dinosaurs, which also became the reason I fell in love so deeply with Godzilla, but that's a story for another entry.
It was during this time that I was still largely unaware of the existence of video games, though my parents and older siblings had the various Atari systems and a Nintendo Entertainment System - or NES as it is referred to. I didn't pay much heed to them, choosing to play outside in the yard with various Imperial dinosaurs and Godzilla figures. And while that wouldn't change for some time, video games were preparing to invade my list of hobbies.
One summer day, we were visiting my grandparents on my father's side. They had a really nice two-story house just a few minute's drive from home. A big spacious yard - front and back - and a huge hill to roll down, and at the bottom hidden behind some thick foliage was a little stream. Rarely was I allowed to venture that far alone. Also living with my grandparents was my cousin (who grew up to be a scum of a human being), and in his room he had an NES system with a few games. One of which I had no idea was going to set my world afire!
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| Mega Man 2 Released: 1988/1989 (JP/US) |
I remember specifically loading the Mega Man 2 cartridge into the NES front-loader slite, pushing it in, and then down to lock the tray in place. The TV flickered on and I was presented with the now iconic screen of the futuristic building as it panned upwards, finally showing Mega Man himself standing all heroic-like - like Batman! - overlooking the city that he was now the defender of.
I played every stage, making it to the end of none... the first time. With every subsequent visit, I would ask to play "the mega man game", and sometimes my cousin would oblige. Sometimes not. Sometimes he wouldn't even be home and I couldn't go into his room, forced to make do with pretending to be Godzilla in the backyard.
Eventually, I did make it to the end of Bubble Man's stage in the afternoon during a visit. My cousin had moved the NES to the larger TV that sat in the living room, so my family - my parents and my grandparents, my infant sister, and my grandparent's dogs - were all in the room at the same time. I remember particularly my father showing an extra interest in my clearly growing skills, reacting loudly - with proceeding words of encouragement - whenever I'd die. There were even a few times that he'd take the controller and try, but he largely stuck to Super Mario Bros or any shoot-em-up that was available.
Shortly after that, the NES that my older brother had and kept locked up in his room, magically found its way out to the big floorset Zenith TV set that my family owned and had kept in the living room. I'm guessing perhaps as a result of my parents having seen my own interest in playing games or what, I'll never know. But that opened the door for a lot of new adventures to come for me.
Even Godzilla got involved, but that's a story for another time.
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