I remember the first time I played a video game. It was a very simple game called Oregon Trail, and I played it on an Apple IIe, and the point was to survive all the way to Oregon. The video game used simple colors, and was slightly more advanced than Pong.

 

 

I moved on from there, acquiring an Atari 2600 and playing Pac-Man and Centipede for hours on end. My parents also bought our first PC, a Commodore 64, and I began to play games in 8-bit 16 color glory! I also learned how to write in BASIC, which was the programming language of the time. Once I had gotten tired of that, and once it became available, I got a Nintendo Entertainment System. The graphics were better, the game-play began to smoothen out, and although they were still rough looking, the characters began to look more 'real'. Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, and Contra became my 'after homework' routine every day. Within a few months, I had a Gameboy, and now Mario could come with me wherever I wanted. Shortly after that, the Sega Genesis and Street Fighter were the mainstay, followed by SegaCD and Prizefighter, a 'virtual' boxing game that utilized interactive video. I never owned the Nintendo64 or TurboGrafix , as I just did not care for them, and then I started getting back into computer games. PC video games felt like light-years ahead of the systems out, so I stuck with them instead of buying the newer systems. One day, Sony announced they were releasing a gaming platform that would be competitive with Sega and Nintendo, and I received a Playstation for Christmas. Now, cartridges were so 'out' and the big thing was CDs... and this revolutionized the video game industry allowing much more data to be stored. Then, out came Playstation 2, and Grand Theft Auto. Simulations of shooting, stealing cars, and blowing things up started to gain more definition. Once Grand Theft Auto 2 came out, character definition and storylines began to become much more detailed. Games like Final Fantasy began to mesmerize people with their stunning graphics, and gaming systems have continued to increase in speed, display, and enjoyment. The XBox, XBox360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, and PC games continue to push the envelope, and even people who don't typically enjoy video games are getting into them thanks to the advancements in technology and 'user-friendliness'.

 

 

In the 30 years I've been alive (as of this writing), I've seen video games and video game systems progress slowly at first, then it began surging forward. With all the developments in gaming, in-home virtual reality will hopefully soon be coming, and when it does, I for one will definitely welcome it with open arms. Yeah, I'm a geek and I know I am not alone... the BILLIONS of dollars spent every year on gaming are pretty good confirmation of that.

 

 

This rave written by Joe Rosendorf Jr.  This is merely an opinion based on personal experiences, and is intended to inform based on those experiences.