My first gaming experience was the Atari 2600... most likely Breakout. My brothers were 10 and 8 years older then me. So I would watch them play, and then try my best, and of course fail. It wasn't until the NES came out that I really got into gaming. And it wasn't until The Legend of Zelda that I got hooked.


For me, this was a very rough time in my life. My parents had split up, my mom and I had moved to a new house, a new town, a new life. And because of the divorce my mom cried alot, which was hard for someone my age to see. I didn't see my Dad, as he moved across the state. I also didn't see my brothers all that much (the middle one had joined the Marines, the eldest doing his own thing most of the time). All of this crap overflowed into my school life. I couldn't make friends with anyone in my new school. Branded a loner for the rest of my time there, I was left to my own purgatory.

So I did what many of us geeks did during that period, I escaped into my games. There were many, but the one that has the most meaning to me is The Legend of Zelda. Here was a boy that was to save a princess. Hell I was a boy, that needed some kind of saving at the time, so it might as well have been me saving the princess. I spent hours upon hours searching that huge map (it was huge for me at the time). I would tediously plant bombs along the walls trying to find hidden secrets. Hunting down all the Triforce pieces, all of this fit perfectly into my collection/completion issues that I had. Then finally beating Ganon... it was awesome, and nothing could have been better at the time.


The best part about it was when I first got the game. It was a weekend and my eldest brother, our "adopted" 4th brother (super good friend of the family that was my brothers age), and I played all day and night long. We would take turns playing, if someone got stuck or tired we would switch out. We took power naps when we could, until someone found something really cool, then everyone would wake up. It was the closest I felt to my big brother, and some of our best times together. And it is all thanks to Link.

So I just want to thank Shigeru Miyamoto for being one of the people that saved me during some of my roughest times. Without Nintendo, who knows what would have happened to me.

Oh, and FUCK YOU Jack Tompson, I am glad that you are getting the shaft. Games saved my ass!