As Monthly Musing kept going, I always wanted to do one, but never had the time nor the inspiration, until this Month’s theme, so I decided to write one, about the handheld that started everything videogame related in my whole life: The Game boy Brick.
First of all, I’ve got to thank my mom, she was nearly the one who introduced me to all this “gaming-world” even if I know she is the kind of mother who would create a “Mother against GTA” group in no less than 2 weeks, and I can’t even play Team Fortress 2 when she and my little brother are around. But even though she is the one who knew what game meant for me, and kept supporting my affair. Thank you Mom and Dad, I <3 you.
I’m only 19 years old, I never had the chance to see a Commodore 64, Atari 2600 or even one of those low profile home consoles. I was born on 1989, Nintendo Entertainment System was about to be replaced with the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis was almost a reality, but as you can guess even if I was born at that age, my hands couldn’t grab anything aside my own thumbs until some years later.
As years went on, I befriended a neighbour who had a NES with few games, I remember Dr. Mario, Mario Bros./Duck Hunt and a pirate copy of the Ninja Turtles game, I’m confident to say that that was my first approach with games (it was around 1992, SNES was already on sale, but I didn’t cared). On 1992 we moved to another house, far away from my friend and her NES, so I couldn’t play anything. I think my parent’s economical situation wasn’t as good as now so they couldn’t buy me any console. Until my father’s birthday, when my mom came with that big box, with something grey and HUGE inside, it was my first sight at was going to be the main reason for me to keep on being a gamer for the rest of my life, and I was only 3 years old.
Even if it sounds odd, I remember going with my mom to buy the Game boy, I was on my stroller while she grabbed that blue box with something grey on the side on “Almacenes Paris” (something like JCPenney). Anyway, back to the story.
My Mom forgot to buy any game, but luckily for her, she bought the Game Boy/Tetris Bundle without noticing, so we had our first “Nintendo” and our first game. I remember playing that game for hours, but I couldn’t beat my dad’s record, but as I was little and needed something new than a awesome puzzle game, my parents gave me this awesome game for my birthday:
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
GOD THIS GAME WAS AWESOME!! It had everything I needed. When my parents gave me this game I could only beat the Giant Mario (I can’t remember the stage’s name, but it was something like Mario Zone) because the only boss I could defeat were the 3 pigs that came out of clocks. And could never beat the Turtle land because I was scared (Yeah, Scared) of the Whale level, the music gave me the creeps. Also, the Star level and the Martian boss were a pain on the ass, I always killed them last. And I remember feeling so good when I was finally able to defeat Rabbit Wario.
At this point, a lot of my Kindergarten friends had the SNES and an awesome Masterpiece name “Super Mario World” but I was happy with my Game Boy, after all, I could Mario anywhere.
Do you still want to go back to your MGS4 after watching these graphics? Really??
On Christmas, my mom usually took me and my brother to the Malls, to search some presents, and see in which things I and my little brother were interested as we went to the Toys section. But I went to another place, to the Nintendo corner, and stared to a game that caught my attention
The Jetsons: Robot Panic
When my mom refused to buy that game on the mall, I remember doing such a show, crying, shouting and don’t letting my mom to leave until she buy the game. Until the cashier gave me a cassette with a Christmas story that they were offering when someone bought something (I don’t remember what exactly), anyway, I was happy with my cassette and happier when I received this game for Christmas, and I’ve got to tell you something: This game is HARD. I really can’t recall beating it, I remember reaching the final boss and my dad reaching to the Final Boss final transformation.
This game was my first game with story on it, but as English isn’t my native language, I didn’t gave a rat’s ass on what the characters were saying, I only knew that when Mr Spacely was talking, it was the beginning of the game and he needed my help and when Cogswell talked, that meant that I reached the final level.
The game starts with 3 stages to select, something like Megaman, in the first one (and easier) you control Elroy, who had a robot-killer ball, in the second, you control Judy, who had Gravity shoes that allowed Judy to walk on the top of the screen, and on the last one you controlled Jane, who had a Jetpack. When you’ve already beaten these 3 stages, you control George who had the 3 weapons. This stage still give me the creeps, as everything you touched could kill you, there were some deadly traps like one on the final room before the Final Boss, nearly impossible to dodge which made lava start to fill the room while you had like 15 seconds to make it to the top.
When i looked to this photo, Elroy's stage music came back to my head, and i can't take it out
Anyway, I loved playing the Elroy stage, I finished that stage, turned off the game and beat it again. I could do this like 15 times a day,
here's a video with the first minutes of the game.
The last game I enjoyed when playing my Dad’s Game boy (we had another, like Gradius, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Alien 3) was
The Lion King
I never noticed that this game was actually for GBC, i kept on playing it on my Brick
It’s basically the exact game that was released for the SNES, but with a few improvements (it was like Battletoads with an easier Bike stage), like the roar dealing more damage or enemies dealing less. Anyway, I never got through the 3rd stage as it was the Elephant Graveyard stage and it was really hard, a lot of pits, and a fight with the 3 Hyenas at the same time were really too much for a 6 years older.
This game’s story is quite boring. Again, we went to a mall to buy some stuff with my mom, as she was going to travel to the US that year. And I saw a Snoopy game for the Game Boy (My Childhood was really marked by Snoopy, I even learned to read with a Snoopy book) I asked her to bring me that game when she went to the US and as she couldn’t find it, she bought me this game. I was really happy though, mostly because this was my first game with no time limit.
Disney: Never do a Children's game with only words on it, at least a Simba drawing or something would have been nice
I was so obsessed with all the Game Boy that my parents bought me this Watch, the Game Watch you could barely watch the hour and the back itched, but hey, I had a Game Boy on my wrist!
Some years later, on December 1996, my Parent’s bought us our first home console, the Nintendo 64, I was very impressed, as I asked for a SNES that year (actually, at first glimpse I was disappointed, I wanted my goddamn SNES). With the whole Awesomeness the Nintendo 64 brought to my home, the old Gray brick was getting less attention and little by little, nobody cared about it, until a Maiden stole it with most of my games, except Gradius and Tetris. I really miss my Game Boy.
That might be it, as years went by, my mom and dad knew the love we had for Nintendo Handhelds, and they’ve given us all Nintendo Handhelds to date, since the GBA. As I mentioned earlier, I really owe my Mom all of this, even if my dad is the one who buys us the stuff (and he plays them also), my mom had always supported my affair, and the simple fact that she started everything, makes me owe her a lot.
Thank you Mom, Thank you Nintendo, Thank you Game Boy Brick.
PD: The one on the photo isn't me is my brother, it took me all evening to fing that photo. He's playing Super Mario Land 2, he was like 4 years old when that photo was taken, i was 5
PD: Sorry if sometimes the text isn't well written, English isn't my native language and that could make some inconsitence on the text structure, as Teta would say, sorry about the English Raping, i'm trying to do my best
