All the 3DS hype has made me a little nostalgic. My memory is foggy at the best of times so I can't really think of specific dates to go with any of this.
In short; this is my handheld history.
Gameboy Color (Kiwi) - I don't remember very much about my first handheld. It would have been around 1998 or 1999 when I got it for christmas so I would have been 9 or 10 if you want some kind of timeframe. Most of what I remember is that it was green, scratch that, kiwi coloured. I have no idea what possessed my mother to buy it for me, but there I was christmas day and I had a brand new Gameboy Color. My first ever games for the system were both Pokemon Blue & Yellow. How lucky was I?! I can only think that it had something to do with the fact that my parents had recently divorced and each side was trying to win me over as parents usually do in order to spite the opposition. My father had bought me a Playstation the prior christmas I believe. I think I played mostly the pokemon games on it, with Silver, Crystal and Pokemon Pinball as three extra notches on my Color Belt. The only other game I remember playing was Tetris. I played a lot of Tetris. Oh and some crappy Bugs Bunny nightmare game (Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 4 - thank you internet). Anyway I'm pretty sure I still had my Color until I got my DS, whatever happened to it after that I have no idea.
Gameboy Advance (White) -
I loved this machine. All my vivid handheld memories were with this console. Mario Kart Super Circuit, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, Super Mario Advance 1, 2 and 3, LoZ: A Link to The Past and many others. This was my first experience with many of the Snes remakes so that's probably why I loved it so much. So naturally I took it and mostly allmy games with me pretty much everywhere, including school. Big mistake of course. If you've ever been to school you know that sometimes things can go "missing". Of course in my school possessions were branded missing by teachers if they wanted to avoid the truth of the matter... that another student may have stolen said possession. Now I'm not saying it was stolen but it was in my backpack at the start of the day and by the end of it the GBA and all mys games had mysteriously vanished. ...I still think it was that git Harry Williams though.
Gameboy Advance SP (Silver) - It was a long time before I recieved my next handheld as at during some point in that period I was effectively banned from gaming. Something about not doing well in school, English class or something. Of course my parents would blame gaming as was the norm. Anyway once my marks starting picking up (which coincidentally happened at the same time as getting a PC) I was allowed to game again. So come my next birthday I had the GBA SP. At the time this birthday replacement served as my secondary gaming system behind my Gamecube, but of course portable gaming still had it's highlights; Metroid: Fusion, LoZ: The Minish Cap, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Mario & Luigi, Metroid Zero Mission, Final Fantasy IV. In fact thinking back there were some amazing GBA games. (Note: If anyone missed out on any of the titles I've mentioned then shame on you. You need to at least buy some of these.) Anyway, my SP and I had many good years a gaming. Our time together met it's end when I took it on holiday with me to cyprus. I had bought Metroid 2 from ebay to play for the first time. It took forever but I completed the game on my last night there. Exhausted (from many attempts at defeating the Metroid Queen) I put the SP under my pillow and of course left the next day. Only realising I'd forgotten it when I borded the plane. I can only imagine some Greek cleaning lady found it and gave it to her son or daughter. Spread the joy I say.
Nintendo DS (Silver) - So we come to the DS. As an avid reader of Nintendo Official Magazine UK (or NOM as they used to call it) I was up to date on all the hype surrounding Nintendo's new duel screened wonder system. I wanted it as soon as I possibly could. Lucky then that I was a Nintendo VIP member. For the measely sum of 1000 stars and around £130 (which I begged my father for as an early birthday present) I managed to bag myself a DS two months before it's official UK launch. It came with not only the DS, but a demo of WarioWare Touch, a copy of Super Mario Bros. 64 DS and a VIP t-shirt. Ok so technically the games were just imports, and I did have to wait till my birthday to use it, but I was still exstatic to get the system on February 27th, even if it was only two weeks before the actual launch. Now the DS did have a bit of a rocky start, but after the initial crap-fest of the launch titles it wasn't too long before it was smooth sailing. My most played including Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy III & IV, Animal Crossing Wild World (which is way more fun than I care to remember), LoZ: Phantom Hourglass, etc. Oh and of course; the usual suspects of Tetris DS and Pokemon Diamond. Alas by this time I had learnt that trading in old consoles and games gets you store credit.
DS Lite (Red) - This was mostly just an upgrade. I got caught up into the hype of a more portable DS with a brighter screen, yada yada yada... So I traded in my old one. By then my original DS had one blue dead pixel which annoyed the hell out of me, and there were mic problems. Actually the more I think about it the more justified th upgrade was. Of course I still had that great back catalogue of games so all was well. Currently still rockin Pokemon Soul Silver.
Gameboy Micro (Green) - Now this was an impulse buy from ebay last year for the princley sum of £15. More of an addition than anything else. Now I know that my Lite plays GBA games, but learning from past mistakes; it's not a great idea to take it everywhere with you. Of course with the Micro being the smallest and most portable of the handhelds I own it's easy to keep on me at all times. That way I can keep playing Super Mario World, Final Fantasy V & VI whenever I want. This can only be a good thing.
I guess the more I think about it I find that I'm just not as excited about gaming as I used to be. At 21 that's a weird feeling. Especially looking back at how I used to be. Gaming was an integral part of my life growing up. Recently it's taken a major back seat to other things; family, friends, my job (although to be fair I do work in a video game store). It's been several weeks since I last switched on my xbox, and I switched it straight off. It's become kind of trivial to me.
As for the future; well I have high hopes for the 3DS, even if I won't be getting one at launch ("thank you" Nintendo for not giving me any of the colours I like). As soon as there's a special edition and I can afford it then I'll most likely be back in the game. That last line sounded better in my head. Anyway I guess when it comes down to it, no matter what I'll always be a gamer at heart. So I'm not worried.
Wow that turned out to be a lot longer than intended. What's your handheld history?
In short; this is my handheld history.
Gameboy Color (Kiwi) - I don't remember very much about my first handheld. It would have been around 1998 or 1999 when I got it for christmas so I would have been 9 or 10 if you want some kind of timeframe. Most of what I remember is that it was green, scratch that, kiwi coloured. I have no idea what possessed my mother to buy it for me, but there I was christmas day and I had a brand new Gameboy Color. My first ever games for the system were both Pokemon Blue & Yellow. How lucky was I?! I can only think that it had something to do with the fact that my parents had recently divorced and each side was trying to win me over as parents usually do in order to spite the opposition. My father had bought me a Playstation the prior christmas I believe. I think I played mostly the pokemon games on it, with Silver, Crystal and Pokemon Pinball as three extra notches on my Color Belt. The only other game I remember playing was Tetris. I played a lot of Tetris. Oh and some crappy Bugs Bunny nightmare game (Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 4 - thank you internet). Anyway I'm pretty sure I still had my Color until I got my DS, whatever happened to it after that I have no idea.
Gameboy Advance (White) -
I loved this machine. All my vivid handheld memories were with this console. Mario Kart Super Circuit, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, Super Mario Advance 1, 2 and 3, LoZ: A Link to The Past and many others. This was my first experience with many of the Snes remakes so that's probably why I loved it so much. So naturally I took it and mostly allmy games with me pretty much everywhere, including school. Big mistake of course. If you've ever been to school you know that sometimes things can go "missing". Of course in my school possessions were branded missing by teachers if they wanted to avoid the truth of the matter... that another student may have stolen said possession. Now I'm not saying it was stolen but it was in my backpack at the start of the day and by the end of it the GBA and all mys games had mysteriously vanished. ...I still think it was that git Harry Williams though.
Gameboy Advance SP (Silver) - It was a long time before I recieved my next handheld as at during some point in that period I was effectively banned from gaming. Something about not doing well in school, English class or something. Of course my parents would blame gaming as was the norm. Anyway once my marks starting picking up (which coincidentally happened at the same time as getting a PC) I was allowed to game again. So come my next birthday I had the GBA SP. At the time this birthday replacement served as my secondary gaming system behind my Gamecube, but of course portable gaming still had it's highlights; Metroid: Fusion, LoZ: The Minish Cap, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Mario & Luigi, Metroid Zero Mission, Final Fantasy IV. In fact thinking back there were some amazing GBA games. (Note: If anyone missed out on any of the titles I've mentioned then shame on you. You need to at least buy some of these.) Anyway, my SP and I had many good years a gaming. Our time together met it's end when I took it on holiday with me to cyprus. I had bought Metroid 2 from ebay to play for the first time. It took forever but I completed the game on my last night there. Exhausted (from many attempts at defeating the Metroid Queen) I put the SP under my pillow and of course left the next day. Only realising I'd forgotten it when I borded the plane. I can only imagine some Greek cleaning lady found it and gave it to her son or daughter. Spread the joy I say.
Nintendo DS (Silver) - So we come to the DS. As an avid reader of Nintendo Official Magazine UK (or NOM as they used to call it) I was up to date on all the hype surrounding Nintendo's new duel screened wonder system. I wanted it as soon as I possibly could. Lucky then that I was a Nintendo VIP member. For the measely sum of 1000 stars and around £130 (which I begged my father for as an early birthday present) I managed to bag myself a DS two months before it's official UK launch. It came with not only the DS, but a demo of WarioWare Touch, a copy of Super Mario Bros. 64 DS and a VIP t-shirt. Ok so technically the games were just imports, and I did have to wait till my birthday to use it, but I was still exstatic to get the system on February 27th, even if it was only two weeks before the actual launch. Now the DS did have a bit of a rocky start, but after the initial crap-fest of the launch titles it wasn't too long before it was smooth sailing. My most played including Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy III & IV, Animal Crossing Wild World (which is way more fun than I care to remember), LoZ: Phantom Hourglass, etc. Oh and of course; the usual suspects of Tetris DS and Pokemon Diamond. Alas by this time I had learnt that trading in old consoles and games gets you store credit.
DS Lite (Red) - This was mostly just an upgrade. I got caught up into the hype of a more portable DS with a brighter screen, yada yada yada... So I traded in my old one. By then my original DS had one blue dead pixel which annoyed the hell out of me, and there were mic problems. Actually the more I think about it the more justified th upgrade was. Of course I still had that great back catalogue of games so all was well. Currently still rockin Pokemon Soul Silver.
Gameboy Micro (Green) - Now this was an impulse buy from ebay last year for the princley sum of £15. More of an addition than anything else. Now I know that my Lite plays GBA games, but learning from past mistakes; it's not a great idea to take it everywhere with you. Of course with the Micro being the smallest and most portable of the handhelds I own it's easy to keep on me at all times. That way I can keep playing Super Mario World, Final Fantasy V & VI whenever I want. This can only be a good thing.
I guess the more I think about it I find that I'm just not as excited about gaming as I used to be. At 21 that's a weird feeling. Especially looking back at how I used to be. Gaming was an integral part of my life growing up. Recently it's taken a major back seat to other things; family, friends, my job (although to be fair I do work in a video game store). It's been several weeks since I last switched on my xbox, and I switched it straight off. It's become kind of trivial to me.
As for the future; well I have high hopes for the 3DS, even if I won't be getting one at launch ("thank you" Nintendo for not giving me any of the colours I like). As soon as there's a special edition and I can afford it then I'll most likely be back in the game. That last line sounded better in my head. Anyway I guess when it comes down to it, no matter what I'll always be a gamer at heart. So I'm not worried.
Wow that turned out to be a lot longer than intended. What's your handheld history?
