Young, Poor, and Happy: Remembering Some Excellent Gaming-Related Gifts
Cherish the Day
Hey friends! The Sonoran Videogame Society is currently running a Monsoon Madness Summer Special. Through the month of July and August, all paid subscriptions are 40% off! Subscribe to the Society for $3/month, $30/year, or $60 a year for Founding Members! Monthly and yearly subscribers get access to 3-4 paid posts a month (paid posts begin this Friday) and Founding Members get some other sweet goodies as well. Thanks for reading and for your patronage! Now, on with the post!
If you were anything like me growing up – a lower middle-class white kid whose parents didn’t have much expendable income – then you cherished birthdays and Christmas. Those were the two times of the year you could count on the big gifts, the gifts that cost more than a few dollars to obtain.
That’s right, I’m talking about video games. Games that you couldn’t afford on your meager allowance. Games that cost weeks if not months to save up for, even if you did a bunch of chores and mowed your granny’s lawn and delivered papers all across creation. Birthday and Christmas were the two times of the year that your parents tolerated you asking for a $60 game.
I turned 39 today. Or yesterday. Or two weeks from now, depending on when I publish this. I’ve been able to buy my own games for awhile now, so getting a game for one’s birthday, while a much-welcome throwback to a simpler time, doesn’t quite hit the same as it did when I was 9.
Nevertheless, I have received some choice gaming-related gifts over the years, gifts that resonate to this day, due to both the giver and the impact the gift has had on my life. Why not discuss a few of them? Why not indeed!
THE METROID PILLOW (2006)
I’m not sure if my wife made this for me for Christmas or my birthday one year, but it doesn’t matter. It’s a Metroid pillow. Look at it. It will suck your life away in the most adorable fashion.
For the last 18 years, the Metroid pillow has been a presence in all our homes, a force to be reckoned with. It doesn’t stare at people, but it does ask people to ponder its existence. When we were in our 20s and most of our friends played video games, the pillow was embraced, revered even. But now that we’re in our late 30s/early 40s, the friends that do occasionally come over to our house aren’t gamers. If they see the pillow, they choose not to remark on it. I think that makes my wife and I the weird ones, right?
But I don’t care! The Metroid pillow is one of the coolest gifts I’ve ever gotten, and I still get a thrill when I look at it.
To my wife, Carissa: Thanks for always knowing what to make me, hon. I love and appreciate you always.
ZOMBIES ATE MY NEIGHBORS (BIRTHDAY 1994)
Receiving a gaming gift from an extended relative is usually a thrill, but it can also be a gamble. Does your grandma know you’d rather have Doom, not Lester the Unlikely? Can your auntie be trusted to know that Super Mario 64 is the game every kid wants, not Bubsy 3D?
My uncle Keith bought me Zombies Ate My Neighbors for my ninth birthday, completely out of the blue. I’m convinced he bought the game because the name made him laugh, and the cover reminded him of cheesy horror movies from his youth. In other words, he was flying blind when he bought this game. Was it good? Who cares, it looks weird, kids are into weird stuff, Dillweed1 will love it
And I did! Zombies Ate My Neighbors is like every horror movie cliché crammed into one overwhelming, egregiously hard video game. Save the hapless neighbors, avoid the monsters, specifically the chainsaw-wielding maniac, the dolls that throw knives, or the enormous baby who can crush you with one fell stomp. I loved the game’s trashy vibe, even though I never got very far.
Uncle Keith loved how ridiculous the game was, and I was glad he wanted to watch me play. A biker dude with questionable morals and friends, Keith never seemed to fit into our family, and he knew it. He did what he could in the uncle department, though. When he moved close by for a couple years, we bonded here and there. He let me punch his six-pack as hard as I could. He gave me words to live by (“Hemorrhoids suck dude, start eating well now”). He introduced me to Jim Carrey’s filmography. He did his best.
Not long after Keith gave me Zombies Ate My Neighbors, his mom, my grandma, passed away, and our family was thrown into turmoil. I only saw him alive a couple more times after that. He passed in 2005 after a motorcycle accident.
You’re more than a single gift, Keith. Thanks for making an effort with your nephew. Love ya, man.
THE NES (1989 or 1990)
Forgive me if I’ve told this story elsewhere on this Substack, but this specific gift really is my origin story.
One random day, my Dad came home with an NES Action Set, the one with two controllers, a Zapper, and the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt combo cartridge. My four-year-old mind was blown, I couldn’t believe it. Could we afford this? Did I even know what my parents could afford at this point?
All I knew was life had been hard for awhile. We had moved into a house in midtown Tucson, but it was a rundown fixer upper. Dad was more than up to the task of making the house look great, but it took time. Especially when you’re four and every day feels like a year.
My room was the worst of all. It had an eerie feel, like someone was always watching you. The walls and floor were pure concrete, which gave the room a prison vibe. I wasn’t a fan of the dark on any occasion, but my room was like that rich oil black darkness, pure evil; night light was required for me to get any sleep. I also fell out of bed one night while I was asleep and smashed my front teeth. Baby teeth, thank God, but it hurt, and there was blood everywhere. Whatever demonic thing that was creeping on me was probably thrilled.
My dad gave me the NES in the midst of the chaos – I think. I don’t know for sure. But it would make sense. Consoles were expensive even back then, and my parents were pouring thousands of dollars into renovating their new house. If life was going well, they would have no need to give their child a huge gift not at birthday or Christmas.
I not only appreciate my dad’s generosity, but I see it as the gateway into my lifelong fascination with video games as a medium. None of us could have known in the late 80s/early 90s what video games would become, but to see games evolve in real time into what they are now has been a unique pleasure and privilege.
So thanks Dad (and Mom, who would buy me future consoles and games) for inadvertently starting your only son on a journey that continues three decades later. I know that was not your intent, but I’m grateful, nonetheless. Love you both forever.
What are some of your favorite gaming gifts over the years? Feel free to share in the comments below!
*images courtesy of the author, @nintendo64kids, GameFAQs, Nintendo Fandom, and Reddit
Keith’s nickname for me… le sigh.
On the first NES for the family, that is always a very special moment, isn't it? Our family got the Nintendo Power Set in the Christmas of 1998. Those were the days, all you need on Friday night was a Blockbuster game rental and some pizzas to get your weekend started!
Apart from my last comment, Since we didn’t have much money, my uncle used to send me games he finished. He sent me a copy of flashback for the genesis back in 93. It was the last package I ever got from him as he passed away not long after.