OHHHHHHHHHHHH Its time to find out how long you fellow robots have been gaming! I'm not sure how long this blog will be because im typing it all out as its coming into my head. Let us begin!

For me my gaming days started when I was able to hold an atari controller. I barely remembered the days of playing Pitfall and Tank on atari, but after recently playing them again on an old atari system my memory was quickly refreshed!. Around the time when I was able to actually think and function like a human the NES came to life and boy what an experience that was. I remember playing on that system for hours with my family. I still can pull memorys of being a little tot and my dad, my sister and myself were playing super mario bros, zelda, load runner, marble madness, kid icarus, arkanoid, ghost & goblins, and many more.





Apart from the NES my dad and I really touched base with the computer. He worked with IBM as a bios programmer and we always had the latest and greatest PC in the house. So understandably me and him had spent most of our gaming experiences on the PC. One of the games that we played to death was the Kings Quest series. Particularly Kings Quest VI, we would spend hours on end playing through the game trying to solve puzzles and figure out how to move forward within the game. I will never forget the time me and my dad laughed for what seemed like hours when we came across this one creature in the world that was hanging from a tree and talked like yoda, as simple as that character could have been, for some reason it was an extremely funny moment that I will never forget.



Other games we played on the PC consisted of zork, and other titles that I cannot remember for the life of me. One of them was this one game that was done in ASCII format.. all that I can remember of this game was blue lines, black background, and a weird smilie face. Another game was kind of like the old school classic scorched earth, but with big apes. They would stand on top of buildings and throw explosive bananas at each other lol.

I would have to say tho, that out of all those young years in my life, nothing was as epic as the days to come, particularly the days when Wolfenstein 3d first hit the pc market. I did not own Wolfenstein 3d till around the time DOOM II came out, however I do remember playing the every living shit out of that game at my friends house. This was the birth of First Person Shooters and the birth of my gaming addiction. Never before had I been so attached to a game before, my friend and I would play this game for hours on end. At 8 years old in 1992 I was officially brought into the virtual violent world!



I will say tho that the official chaos began in 1993 when id Software released one of its greatest titles of the time. DOOM, what a glorifying nightmare of violence, never before had any game been so evil and violent and man did it deliver! I remember when my dad brought home a copy of DOOM, we installed it on the PC and we played that game for hours! One thing I absolutely loved about my parents is they did not censor me when it came to video games, and if you think about it there really wasn't any mentality to do such a thing. This was the first of its kind, it was a video game and it couldn't be considered a representation of life. And from DOOM came DOOM II in 94, which then came the next step of destroying any hopes of a social life. 32 insane levels of pure violence something which nobody could top at the time! And we can never forget the end all be all boss of doom II the Icon of Sin, possibly one of the most challenging bosses in a pc game from that time, and the good ol 'idnoclip' cheat where you fly inside of this Icon of Sin and see the head of you know who ;).





These were the years id Software was on fire, and gaming was a huge part of my life over the next few years from 94-96 DOOM II and several other addictive games such as Aces over Europe, and several other pc games. Now keep in mind the SNES has already been out, it hit the US in 1991 and there too I was also hooked. Playing games such as Super Mario World, Jurrasic Park, evo, mario kart, etc etc. But nothing will compare to the great year of 1996 for me, no console could touch this level of amazment which came to the PC market.

No I'm not talking about Duke Nukem 3D, granted it released in 96 and was an amazing game.. I'm talking about something much greater.

May 31st 1996 id Software releases one of the greatest first person shooter franchises to hit the market... Quake. And with this came the birth of a new generation of gaming and game development. Multiplayer Death Match... What the hell is this? That was a question for many gamers when they got a hold of Quake, some interesting mode was added to the game which featured death match..what is this? Say hello to the birth of the first person shooter gaming community. I will never forget being on my 28k connection and launching quake I on the internet... man those were the days. Rockets, grenades, nails flying everywhere, pure chaos on a new level WITH OTHER PEOPLE! No more of this running around in singleplayer levels on hard difficulty's mowing down enemy's. A new challenger was born, the online gamer. And boy what a challenge it was, I remember the first year of playing quake online I could not believe the sheer speed of this game and how chaotic it became. From that day on, not a single week had passed where I did not play a first person shooter for less than an hour.



My gaming addiction begins...

Just when I thought Quake was the end all be all of games, just when I thought deathmatch was the latest and greatest thing since sliced bread something even greater came alive. Through this new gaming community came community development... Mods were born and with it came a whole new experience. All I have to say is two words, Team Fortress, this was one of the greatest team based games to ever come into the quake I world. When I first ran into team fortress I questioned myself thinking "what the hell is this? What are classes? What is a heavy weapons guy? HOLY SHIT THIS IS AWESOME". It was awesome, no.. it IS awesome because even still to this day I can fire up team fortress and still have the same bad ass experience I had when I was younger. Hours of my life were spent playing Team Fortress.. if you lived during this time and were part of the pc gaming community .. you will understand what an amazing year 1996 was.. and how amazing 1997 was and how amazing it was going to be near the closing of that year.



Quake 2.. December of 1997 id Software does it ONCE AGAIN! And delivers another smashing title. As if Quake I wasn't enough, just over a year and a half later id Software puts another piece of buttery goodness in our laps. I think I speak for everyone who has lived through the quake series when I say "Go Forth and Kick Ass!" I hope you remember where thats from ;). Quake II really set the bar for death match and multiplayer gaming new features and new amazing ways to play first person shooters was brought to life through this great title. Gloom, the true natural selection, was one of these innovative community mods to come to quake II, along with d-day one of the first world war II type of games to come into the first person shooter community. There was many more besides those as well, rocket arena, instagib ctf. OH AND SPEAKING OF INSTAGIB! The rail gun.. what a piece of absolutely badassery that thing was. I mean come on! Grappling Hooks and Capture the flag with rail guns? BRILLIANT! *pulls out a Guinness*

I never really thought about how bad ass these years were for gaming and the community, these were the golden years. Quake I & II were lighting a new path for the PC industry and the gaming industry as well. Modding community's began to form and new pipelines into the game industry were created. Anyone who was going through these years can admit that 96-01 were the years to be part of the gaming community. Let us back track to 96 really quick..

Christmas of 1996... NINTENDO 64 OHHH MY GOODDDDDD *claws box*



I have to say I shared that kids enthusiasm when I got my hands on the Nintendo 64. That was one of the most exciting Christmas's I ever had lol. I know I wasn't the only one who was drooling over Mario 64, and having a blast playing pilot wings! I also know I wasn't the only one who had to venture out of his town to find wave race 64! On top of which paying $70 for the damn game, but it was so worth it! For the next several years side by side my PC and my Nintendo 64 became the blood pumping into my brain lol. And now back to the pc world because that truly is were my addiction is ;).



Near the closing months of 1998, two games came out on the PC that raised the bar for the first person shooter genre of games. I think we all know what I am talking about ... Starsiege Tribes and Half-Life. Here are two games that almost pulled me completely away from Quake I & II, Tribes set a new level of gaming with vehicles and MASSIVE environments to battle other players in, and it truly was an amazing game to experience! You had so many things to consider within the world of Tribes, how to properly configure your kits whether you wanted to be player with heavy weapons, or a player with light weapons. Everything mattered in this game, aiming, kit configurations, strategy, etc and it gave birth to a new genre of first person shooters.



And now onto Half-Life, this was possibly one of the most addicting singleplayer experiences I ever had next to System Shock 2. Never before has a player been able to interact with other characters in the game, get them to follow you and fight with you as well as help you get through certain areas. Valve software really raised the bar with this one and set a standard for the FPS that many company's later on followed and copied.



1999 Once again, three great titles come into the market that really did put the mark in history. Irrational Games got there first with System Shock 2 in August of 1999. This was possibly one of the creepiest fucking games I have ever touched in my life, the atmosphere and the sounds were considered THE BEST in the industry, never before had a company drawn a player into the game world so well that it totally erased the surrounding reality and put the player deep into the game. This too was another game that set a new standard in the industry.. mixing elements of RPG's and First Person Shooters it really did raise the expectation of good quality games and future companies followed this model as well however very few have been as successful as system shock 2 was with this mix. I will never forget



The second title to release in the end of 1999 Unreal Tournament, Epic Games Delivers! all that needs to be said is Head Shot, Multi-Kill, Ultra-Kill, M-M-M-MONSTER KILL KILL KILL! Nothing will beat the days of instagib on Morpheus or having a climatic Assault battle on Frigate! And of course who could forget the wonderful deathmatch map deck 16

The third title to release in 1999 was of course Quake III, finally id Software pushes out another Quake title, howeve quake 3 did not deliver a single player experience, instead it delivered a new multiplayer experience that will never be forgotten by anyone who got into it. Quake 3 created an even more chaotic experience than before with jump pads and more rockets! Quake 3 really was something new in the sense that it put competitive gaming in the spot light, which hundreds and thousands of players became a part of, one of these well known competitive gamers rose up through this game, we all know him as Fatal1ty.

TFC, Counter-Strike, and Day of Defeat OH MY! This really was a new level of addiction haha, I remember putting in more hours into TFC & CS than I ever put in any game that I touched. What made the experience even greater was the fact that this new local lan center opened up in my area.. that was it.. nothing could beat that at my age. The prospect of socializing once again is back in my life! After so many years of absence this lan center really did bring back my sanity haha. I remember playing for hours at this place, meeting new friends, playing in tournaments, yelling at the top of our lungs till 7 AM cracked out on soda and candy haha oh man those were the days.

One of my favorite games of all time had to be Team Fortress, and to play Team Fortress Classic with updated graphics was indeed a treat. Granted it will never touch the fire that the original TF Game held it did indeed fill me up with joy to have a chaotic match of dustbowl with about 42 people lol. Hooray Sentry Gun & Grenade Spam!



I think its pretty safe to say most of you know the games and the experiences beyond the year 2000 .. Tribes 2, Battlefield, Half-Life 2, etc etc. There is so much more to say and so many more games to list that I've played but I really don't think you want to read anymore than this haha. I am so sorry for this long ass blog I was bored and I wanted to write about something haha.

Please by all means share your history here if youd like!