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HOST AREA
(SoCal Mike)
host
Hey everyone. It's my privilege to be providing you with what I hope to be a
fresh show centered around this hobby we all love and have grown up with.
I was born in 1969, to give you all some perspective, and discovered video games in the mid 1970's when our family received a Pong machine as a Christmas present from a relative. I wish I knew which Pong system it was because I have no recollection of it, and unfortunately we have no photos of our family playing it (more on that later).
I quickly discovered that these "TV" games were awesome and that started a long love affair with video games. From then on I quickly evolved into the Atari 2600 (Fav games Kaboom, Adventure, Dodgem, Fast Food, Pitfall II, Jawbreaker, Frostbite). From then I got the computer itch after our Jr. High School loaded their new "Computer Lab" with about two dozen TRS-80 Model III's. Hours were spent after school (back then kids actually wanted tostay after school to play with these things)spending time learning about these incredible new technological marvels.Home computers came and went throughout my childhood. Everything frommy beloved Timex Sinclair tomy Commodore 64 and finally in high school the BEST home computer ever (Apple IIc w/green monochrome monitor). Computer games started being the games of choice. My buddies and I would have marathon games of Archon, M.U.L.E., Temples of Apshai, Beach Head, all the Infocom text adventures like Seven Cities of Gold.
God what a great time to grow up!
Then while the majority flocked towards the NES I bucked the trend and thus began my long dedication to Sega. The Master System continued to amaze me as I remember looking above the oncoming road playing Outrun, fooled by hills and turns the programmers so perfectly portrayed. The Genesis was soon to follow, and then a slight fork in the roadcaused by the brilliant game Donkey Kong Country. Thisshowed me it's best to not be a fan boy of any one system but to enjoy all the systems and the games they offered. So Nintendo became more of a household name to me and I was soon the happy owner of a SNES.
Then it all gets blurry as I owned a Nintendo 64, Atari Jaguar, Atari Lynx, Sega Game Gear, Sega Game Boy(s), Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation, Xbox and PS2, and that pretty much brings us up to the current day. Now I spend weekends scouring swap meets looking for lost artifacts from my childhood. I am once again the proud owner of nearly every classic gaming system, tons of electronic hand-held games and the occasional vintage toy or game.
Now I have an arcade full of about 12 classic games and pinballs. My modern day systems include a Nintendo DS, a Nintendo Wii and PS3 that are hooked up to the big screen and I have been seeing some rays of light in the industry as it sits today. One of the new things that is getting tons of attention are the tons of classic gaming Ipod/Iphone Apps. I can't say enough about the cool stuff being introduced to that format each day. It is really an awesome time to be a gamer. And that brings me to my final thought. Has there every been a "not awesome" time to be a gamer? I think not.
Each generation of systems and games shows both brilliance as well as bullshit.Shovelware has almost always out paced the quality games - that's nothing new, and the games we are playing today on these systems will be new classics to us all in about 20 years. Remember to take an extra look at the PS3 and Wii kiosks in the stores when your kids are asking for the next bubble gum title. They, too will disappear just like the Atari, Intellivision and Colecovision kiosks did decades before.
Life is good when you are a gamer!
I was born in 1969, to give you all some perspective, and discovered video games in the mid 1970's when our family received a Pong machine as a Christmas present from a relative. I wish I knew which Pong system it was because I have no recollection of it, and unfortunately we have no photos of our family playing it (more on that later).
I quickly discovered that these "TV" games were awesome and that started a long love affair with video games. From then on I quickly evolved into the Atari 2600 (Fav games Kaboom, Adventure, Dodgem, Fast Food, Pitfall II, Jawbreaker, Frostbite). From then I got the computer itch after our Jr. High School loaded their new "Computer Lab" with about two dozen TRS-80 Model III's. Hours were spent after school (back then kids actually wanted tostay after school to play with these things)spending time learning about these incredible new technological marvels.Home computers came and went throughout my childhood. Everything frommy beloved Timex Sinclair tomy Commodore 64 and finally in high school the BEST home computer ever (Apple IIc w/green monochrome monitor). Computer games started being the games of choice. My buddies and I would have marathon games of Archon, M.U.L.E., Temples of Apshai, Beach Head, all the Infocom text adventures like Seven Cities of Gold.
God what a great time to grow up!
Then while the majority flocked towards the NES I bucked the trend and thus began my long dedication to Sega. The Master System continued to amaze me as I remember looking above the oncoming road playing Outrun, fooled by hills and turns the programmers so perfectly portrayed. The Genesis was soon to follow, and then a slight fork in the roadcaused by the brilliant game Donkey Kong Country. Thisshowed me it's best to not be a fan boy of any one system but to enjoy all the systems and the games they offered. So Nintendo became more of a household name to me and I was soon the happy owner of a SNES.
Then it all gets blurry as I owned a Nintendo 64, Atari Jaguar, Atari Lynx, Sega Game Gear, Sega Game Boy(s), Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation, Xbox and PS2, and that pretty much brings us up to the current day. Now I spend weekends scouring swap meets looking for lost artifacts from my childhood. I am once again the proud owner of nearly every classic gaming system, tons of electronic hand-held games and the occasional vintage toy or game.
Now I have an arcade full of about 12 classic games and pinballs. My modern day systems include a Nintendo DS, a Nintendo Wii and PS3 that are hooked up to the big screen and I have been seeing some rays of light in the industry as it sits today. One of the new things that is getting tons of attention are the tons of classic gaming Ipod/Iphone Apps. I can't say enough about the cool stuff being introduced to that format each day. It is really an awesome time to be a gamer. And that brings me to my final thought. Has there every been a "not awesome" time to be a gamer? I think not.
Each generation of systems and games shows both brilliance as well as bullshit.Shovelware has almost always out paced the quality games - that's nothing new, and the games we are playing today on these systems will be new classics to us all in about 20 years. Remember to take an extra look at the PS3 and Wii kiosks in the stores when your kids are asking for the next bubble gum title. They, too will disappear just like the Atari, Intellivision and Colecovision kiosks did decades before.
Life is good when you are a gamer!
