This series is about the games I played and the ones I didn't, the consoles, the cartridges, the CD's and the DVD's, the handhelds, mobiles and tablets.This is how I became a gamer.
We're here. 1996. I expect a lot of you will remember all the games I'm going to mention here. I didn't have a huge collection and half of my play time with this console was weekends only again. The other half was contained in all that skiving off school I did, hanging out with my cousin Eddy, my boyfriend Bill (who had an N64) and Bill's best mate Joseph (he had a Playstation) and his girlfriend. Eddy was included because he had both a Playstation and an empty house we could hang out in during the day.
Skinner knows the secret!
I didn't play on the N64 a lot myself. Bill had Turok Dinosaur Hunter and Golden Eye - both of which gave me mega motion sickness. I remember the camera in Turok being particularly unbearable. The boys though sat playing multiplayer Golden Eye for hours while Gemma and I worked on our GCSE Music compositions - yes I was skiving off school to do homework. I do have memories of the N64 but they aren't coming for another ten years (more ROM escapades). It should go quickly even though it's taken me four and a half parts to get through the previous ten years.
When Bill couldn't get his N64 out of the house (his mother was a nightmare) Joseph and Eddy would set up the Playstations and play C&C: Red Alert Skirmishes using the link cable. I usually routed for whoever was playing the Allied Forces mainly because I'd seen the wrecking power of a Tanya when Bill was playing. Whilst I never played it, I did enjoy the soundtrack. I nearly walked up the aisle to Hellmarch but that's another story entirely.
Arrrgh! Real Aliens!
The other game Eddy had that I actually tried to play - but couldn't because of the head bob - was Alien Trilogy. Seriously I just went to Youtube to watch a video of it, got about a minute and a half in and my head began to throb. It was a problem I encountered with many of that era's first person games so consequently I didn't play many. But I did do a level or two, over a couple of afternoons. The only one I remember is the Recreational Area. It probably sticks in my mind so well because it was huge and had barely any ammo about.
Now you know! Honestly, I think this is so cool, it's even better with sound effects ...
I'd sat and watched the boys struggling to get through this level for a week or so when finally I said "Let me have a go ...". They looked a bit shocked, normally I only played RPGs (lately I had been playing a Mario RPG ROM on Joesphes Dyslexia laptop[1]) but handed the controller over. Little did they know that I had practically memorised the entire map, remembering where the secrets they had each found were, where the facehuggers and aliens were gonna pop out from. I didn't do it flawlessly, I've never been good with controllers but I had the whole level done in half an hour. They never questioned me having a go again.
For A Kids Game, This Is Pretty Dark
My Dad brought himself a Playstation for his birthday. It was actually his, it stayed at his house, I only got to play it at the weekend. He didn't buy many games with it. He had Worms, Dynasty Warriors, Rayman and Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. I'd heard of it, I'd seen the opening sequence, somewhere? I think it might've been on a demo disc that came with a magazine.
If you've never seen the opening to this game, go watch it now and you'll understand my subtitle.
If you've seen the movie Soylent Green with Charlton Heston you already know the story of Abe's Oddysee. As for the gameplay, I found the platforming irritating, having to remember the "game-speak" code's to speak to your fellow slaves annoying with only the telepathy mechanic saving this game for me. I was determined to persevere with it. The game was charming in its own way and I wanted to watch the story unfold. This is before I met with what is coming next. Tha game series franchise I'm going to discuss next pretty much blew my mind.
The Neverending Story of Games
As you know I didn't have a Nintendo as a child so I feel I have a good reason for having missed this franchise so far in my life. I'm happy to admit that I had not heard of the Final Fantasy series until seven came out. My Dad got me a copy for my fifteenth birthday, to be kept at his house, he still wasn't giving up his Playstation. Luckily for me it was the summer holidays and I was at my Dad's for two weeks so I piled into it. I remember leaving Midgar for the first time and thinking this must surely be the moment to swap onto the second disc. Hah, how wrong I was.
After what seemed like an hours worth of chat in the inn in Kalm I was getting impatient. I was in to the second week of my holiday and my Dad (being typical of all parents everywhere) was not going to let me sit inside glued to a TV screen all day. I had very limited time. Finally I got out of Kalm and went exploring. I caught Chocobo's and was caught and brutally BETA'd to death by the Midgar Zolom. I followed the trail left by Sephiroth so I could discover Clouds history. I was lucky enough to be surprised and a teensy bit happy if I'm honest (I was always on TeamTifa) when Aerith died. She just seemed a bit too pure for my liking.
There was no other choice for this Gif really, was there.
I ploughed into Disc two. I got about halfway through when my Dad announced that he and his girlfriend were going to be moving right up the country so they could be nearer my Gran and his girlfriends parents. At this point I was only mildly upset. I was nearly sixteen and thoroughly pissed off with my parents and their partners.[2] My Dad moved to an interim flat a fortnight later, moved tennants into his house and took his Playstation with him.
I finally got to complete FFVII last year when I bought it, eight and nine in a Steam Sale. I haven't finished nine yet. I don't know the story, if I'm honest I think I'm barely out of the first area. I'm trying my hardest to not look at the now easily accessible walkthroughs that are available so I get no spoilers but it's difficult because I hate missing stuff. One day soon I'll write a post just about Final Fantasy the franchise, it's been such a huge part of my gaming life, but in the interest of time, I will end here.
[1] My high school got a ton of funding and brought a bunch of laptops, if you could prove you were dyslexic, you got one.
[2] So fed up in fact I moved out myself not long after my birthday.