Memories of the Digital Past (Part III)

Some time, still, in the mid 80s…

A classmate of mine, who’s an only child, invited me and my brother to their house one Saturday afternoon to play. Everything that had happened during our visit is all but a blur to me now, except for one thing… my first taste of console gaming.

I think it was after we finished playing several rounds of tag and hide-and-seek when my classmate took out his Atari. At that time (and quite still so at this very moment) I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.


In no time, there we were, seated on the floor just about a feet away from the TV, taking turns in beating each other in PONG and Breakout He had several other game cartridges scattered on the floor, one of which was “Land, Air, Sea Battle” (I think). I can’t really remember if I was able to try out each and every game he had, but for sure, I played Breakout the most. Quite unfortunately, I don’t have anymore the means to find out which Atari model it was.


About two years or so later, I think, my brother and I got the fortune of owning and getting to play with a new machine. The Family Computer (or Nintendo Entertainment System). It was bought for us by another cousin when she went to Japan. It got to us with two game cartridges, one was Tranformers (yes THAT Transformers) and the other was “The Monkey King” (I don’t know what its exact title was).



As for the subject of the first game I played on the Family Computer, well, I can’t really quite tell although I have three choices for that. The reason behind this is that two of my cousins got their Family Computers at around the same time we did. So, if we were the first to get ours, then my first game would be Transformers. If not, it would have been either Pro Wrestling or Super Mario Bros.


Anyway, over time our games collection grew to over 20, or 30 even. Let’s see… we had (not in chronological order) Transformers, “The Monkey King”, Madmax, Macross, King Kong, Elevator Action, Double Dribble, Terminator 2, Karateka, a Magic Johnson basketball game, another basketball game, F1 Race, Highway Star, another “racing” game where superman appears if you don’t crash, a bowling game, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out… that’s all I can remember now, unfortunately.


Funny thing I remember about buying game cartridges. Whenever we would buy one, the usual line we would hear from the salesperson was “This game is really good, look, the cartridge is heavy!” The prices WERE somewhat related to the weight of the cartridges (the heavier the cartridge, the more expensive it was). But quality? I don’t think so.

Anyway, we were allowed to play with the Family Computer only on weekends (starting from the time we get home from school on Fridays).

The original GameBoy came out not very long after we got our Family Computer. We never had one of those, and the only opportunity we had to play with one is when another classmate of my brother’s would let us borrow his.


As my brother and I were still very much glued to the Family Computer, the SEGA MegaDrive came out. Several of my classmates got to own one, we never did. I only got to play with the SEGA console every time I would go to my classmate’s place (the games I’ve played being Ecco and Sonic), and only for short periods at a time since there were other more “exciting” things for us to do at that time (when we were in the stage of puberty).


The SNES followed, and as with SEGA, we never got to own one of those. My brother’s classmate had one and he would lend it to us for a couple of nights with a game or two.


The Sega GameGear would follow, and the only time we got to play with one is when a cousin of ours got back from the States and let us play with it. With that one, I had to wait very long before I could get my turn since there were 6 of us in queue. The same story goes for the SEGA Saturn.




I don’t think there was anybody I know who got to own a Neo Geo, so, I have never got my hands on one of those.


We never got to own anything new after the Family Computer, not until my mother bought us our very first PC… the year was 1994.

Read Part I
Read Part II

Memories of the Digital Past (Part II)

Mid 80s. Enter the Nintendo Game and Watch!

For those of you who have no idea what Game and Watches are, here’s a brief backgrounder from Wikipedia:

“The Game & Watch (G&W) series were handheld electronic games made by Nintendo and created by its game designer Gunpei Yokoi from 1980 to 1991. Most featured a single game that could be played on an LCD screen, in addition to a clock and an alarm. Most titles had a 'GAME A' and a 'GAME B' button. Game B is usually a faster, more difficult version of game A. The game Squish is a notable exception; here game B is very different from game A. Judge is another exception in that game B is a 2 player version of game A, rather than it being noticeably faster or more difficult. The games Climber and Super Mario Bros. do not have a 'GAME B' option.

The units used LR4x/SR4x "button-cell" batteries, the same type used in most laser pointers or watches. There are variations in height for button cell batteries, and the G&W units used the shorter height variety. Specifically, they were packaged with Maxell LR43 batteries.”

For more on this, head on to: Wikipedia.

I think the first G&W that we had was “Manhole”. In that game, you control the guy (or is it a gorilla?) who’s holding the manhole cover. The object of the game is to simply prevent people from falling down the hole. Just like in most, if not all, other G&W games, the “variety” in the game comes in the form of game speed changes as you hit certain scores.


Our next G&W was “Snoopy Tennis”. The game went like this: Good ol’ Charlie Brown (who is standing on the lower left corner of the screen) would start the game by making the first swing at the ball. Snoopy (whom you control) is on the right part on the screen, you then move him up or down the three levels of the tree and try to hit the ball. If you hit the ball and it flies towards the upper left portion of the screen, Lucy would then appear to hit the ball back to Snoopy. You get three misses after which it’s game over.



The game starts out very slow, and (as I have previously mentioned) as you reach certain scores, the game’s speed changes. And, I believe, there were some score levels which, when reached, would initiate the “bonus round” (which only lasts for a few seconds) wherein you get more points for your hits.

It’s an endless game (aren’t they all?) except until you run out of misses. And, if I remember it right, your opponents (Chuck and Lucy) never miss! Nevertheless, I got very much addicted to it and got very good at it that I would have scores beyond the 1000 points mark.

Personally, I only know of five Game & Watch types/variations. But after reading the Wikipedia article, I am very much surprised that there were more! Anyway, the ones known to me are the “standard” ones which came with small screens; the “widescreen” which, obviously had wider screens (along with wider bodies); the “multiscreen” which were very much like the Nintendo DS of today; the “Micro vs System” which were designed for two players, it had two wired game pads which can be hidden inside the clamshell-designed main unit; and the “colored” ones which had a colored LCD attached to the “lid” and had a translucent “backing”, the image displayed on the LCD screen would then be reflected to the user via a mirror of the base of the unit. All G&Ws had no built in backlighting, and for the “colored” variety, you need some light passing through the translucent material to see the display.

The aims of all the games of G&Ws were basically the same, get high scores and try not to “miss”. But, simple as they may be, those small wonders have made a big and strong impression on me and have become an undeniable part of my “digital memories”.

Being a sentimental person as I am, I still have all of the G&Ws we have ever had with some of them still working.

Read "Part I".