Before the 360: My gaming roots

My first gaming experience was at the early age of 3 with the Atari system back in the mid 80's. I enjoyed playing Pong, the boxing game, and that maze tank game the most. The first game I beat was Mario Brothers at the age of 5. My favorite game during the NES years was Mike Tyson’s Punch out. I never beat Mike back then but I couldn’t let him haunt me my entire life. In 2001, I got a wild hair to revisit Mike. I finally got him back by beating him in a decision. I couldn’t just let it stand as a decision, I had to beat him decisively. So, my very first try the next day I knocked him out.

Through-out the early stages of my life I had all the systems and played on a regular basis but not extreme amounts. I was doing the normal kid stuff and was involved in sports. The same held true up until the Xbox and Halo came out. It got addicting then. Even though Halo wasn’t online at the time, I could see the future and I wanted in. My buddies and I would do the LAN thing and it was a blast, but I wanted more. When Xbox live launched in 2002, I was left out in the cold. I had a dilemma; the area I lived in did not have broadband connections at the time. I wanted to play against people online very badly. I thought it was the ultimate rush and the evolution of gaming. While I waited for broadband to become available, I honed my skills on a 56k modem via PC and Unreal Tournament 2003. It was fun I guess, but my ping was outrageous so the lag was unbearable. I was finally able to get that broadband connection in 2003. So, of course I got hooked up to Xbox Live. I played a lot of Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Counter-strike at first, but that was child's play to what would happen next.

In 2004, the ultimate addiction came out, Halo 2. I got my copy at midnight and the first thing I did was play online. I fell asleep with the game still going and when I woke up, I immediately started playing again. That’s when you know a game will own your soul for a good chunk of time. Needless to say, I was hooked on Halo 2 and it was the main game I played day in and out for a year. I retired Halo 2 when the 360 came out and my love for that game carried right over into achievements and here I am today.

During my 20+ years of gaming I’ve always played various genres. At some point I’ve probably liked just about all of them. I think that helps me in this gamerscore thing. My favorite genre today is FPS.

Atari
NES
SNES
Sega Genesis
PS1
N64
Dreamcast
PS2
Xbox
Gamecube
Xbox360

Here are some of my All-Time favorite games in no particular order: Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting, Mega Man, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Mario Bros 1-3, Super Mario World, Mario Kart, Mario 64, Zelda Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Nba Jam, Halo 2, Goldeneye, Sim City, Warcraft II, Gran Turisomo 2, Forza 1, SSX, Earthbound, The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, Splinter Cell series on xbox, Soul Calibur, Sonic, Tony Hawk 3, Grand Theft Auto 3 & Vice City, Devil May Cry, ICO, Mortal Kombat 3, Burnout 3: Takedown, Twisted Metal, 1 Madden game, and 1 nba2k game. I’m probably leaving some gems off, but that is what I recall off the top of my head.