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.
I wish I could share a photo of it here, but the picture your wife made for me of all of our animals playing Nintendo on the couch remains one of my favorite video game related gifts.
First of all, great pillow. Tell your wife she did well. There was a time, as a kid, when I would have thought an official Metroid pillow was awesome. But now we've all seen enough gaming industry cash grabs that at middle age, I find those things pretty lame. But a homemade one like that remains awesome.
Also, I like this observation:
>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?
I have received one, and only one, video game as a gift from an extended family member in my life. For Christmas one year, an aunt gave me, of all the games in the world, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for NES. To this day I puzzle at how she made the decision to pick that one. At that point, I hadn't even seen any Indiana Jones movies so couldn't have been a fan. I know she knew that I loved aircraft, spaceships, soldiers, guns, explosions. Also martial arts. So many games she might have picked with those on the cover, but no, Temple of Doom it was.
Regardless, it WAS a game I owned in my library, so I played the crap out of it. I decided to look up your Questicle review of it and you gave it a C-, which seems pretty fair to me. I'm glad you gave it that rating, because I suspected you would award it an F, and in many ways it seems to deserve an F, but it's a little too unique and playable to truly warrant it.
And my NES story isn't so different from yours, funny enough. It was a spontaneous gift from my parents and I was totally shocked, had never heard of it but I loved it instantly. I was also 5, but I'm slightly older than you which means Mario and Duck Hunt were two separate cartridges. I wonder what year that combo cartridge was released? I would have thought it was concurrent with the orange Zapper, which I knew some kids to have, but the photo you show has a gray Zapper (as mine was also).
Thanks! I'll let her know, she'll love to hear that.
That's the thing about extended relatives! You think they know you as a kid, but they really don't. Or maybe they just forgot to ask Mom and Dad or something, I don't know. But their choices are always fascinating. Sometimes they land, sometimes they don't.
As for Temple of Doom, by far it's the best Indy game based on the movies on the NES. At least it tries some unique ideas. At least you can progress. Those Last Crusade games remain hot garbage.
I think the Mario/Duck Hunt combo cart was released in '88, but I'm not sure when Nintendo changed the Zapper from grey to orange. I also can't remember what color my Zapper was, which is not helpful.
Did your dad ever buy an NES game thinking he might give the console a try? I imagine most fathers purchased (and loved) the original Golf. My dad bought Stealth because he loved fighter jets and he worked on planes in the Navy. Poor dad, such a waste of money...
Well, I mentioned before dad loved baseball. I think NES Baseball might have been our third game, and then after that we just rented every baseball game that Blockbuster added to inventory. Dad liked aviation and war but I think he knew those games on NES wouldn’t be for him. One time he played North & South on NES with me and was mildly amused for 5-10 minutes but was done after that.
A friend’s dad actually played realistic flight sims on PC and even had an expensive joystick for it. I think that’s always been a mostly PC genre that was crappy on consoles.
I only got to play one time (it was one in the Jane’s series), and my friend told me (in good fun) “You fly like a cow.” That put-down remains funny to me to this day.
My folks got me an SNES way back when, with two controllers and Super Mario World packed in. They also let me pick up another game, so I chose Super R-Type since it was cheap. I’m pretty sure it was for a birthday or something but I was beaming like a kid on Christmas morning. I distinctly remember expressing my gratitude to them. I was happy. They were happy. Good times.
It’s the first (and maybe only) console I was really excited about. We had a Sega Master System before and with the SNES I was thrilled at being able to play Mario plus all those third party games I missed out during the 8-bit days.
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!
A movie, a game, and some good food, and all was well!
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.
Sorry to hear about your uncle, but that's awesome that y'all got to bond that way.
I wish I could share a photo of it here, but the picture your wife made for me of all of our animals playing Nintendo on the couch remains one of my favorite video game related gifts.
That is a classic portrait. Glad you still enjoy it!
First of all, great pillow. Tell your wife she did well. There was a time, as a kid, when I would have thought an official Metroid pillow was awesome. But now we've all seen enough gaming industry cash grabs that at middle age, I find those things pretty lame. But a homemade one like that remains awesome.
Also, I like this observation:
>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?
I have received one, and only one, video game as a gift from an extended family member in my life. For Christmas one year, an aunt gave me, of all the games in the world, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for NES. To this day I puzzle at how she made the decision to pick that one. At that point, I hadn't even seen any Indiana Jones movies so couldn't have been a fan. I know she knew that I loved aircraft, spaceships, soldiers, guns, explosions. Also martial arts. So many games she might have picked with those on the cover, but no, Temple of Doom it was.
Regardless, it WAS a game I owned in my library, so I played the crap out of it. I decided to look up your Questicle review of it and you gave it a C-, which seems pretty fair to me. I'm glad you gave it that rating, because I suspected you would award it an F, and in many ways it seems to deserve an F, but it's a little too unique and playable to truly warrant it.
And my NES story isn't so different from yours, funny enough. It was a spontaneous gift from my parents and I was totally shocked, had never heard of it but I loved it instantly. I was also 5, but I'm slightly older than you which means Mario and Duck Hunt were two separate cartridges. I wonder what year that combo cartridge was released? I would have thought it was concurrent with the orange Zapper, which I knew some kids to have, but the photo you show has a gray Zapper (as mine was also).
Thanks! I'll let her know, she'll love to hear that.
That's the thing about extended relatives! You think they know you as a kid, but they really don't. Or maybe they just forgot to ask Mom and Dad or something, I don't know. But their choices are always fascinating. Sometimes they land, sometimes they don't.
As for Temple of Doom, by far it's the best Indy game based on the movies on the NES. At least it tries some unique ideas. At least you can progress. Those Last Crusade games remain hot garbage.
I think the Mario/Duck Hunt combo cart was released in '88, but I'm not sure when Nintendo changed the Zapper from grey to orange. I also can't remember what color my Zapper was, which is not helpful.
Did your dad ever buy an NES game thinking he might give the console a try? I imagine most fathers purchased (and loved) the original Golf. My dad bought Stealth because he loved fighter jets and he worked on planes in the Navy. Poor dad, such a waste of money...
Well, I mentioned before dad loved baseball. I think NES Baseball might have been our third game, and then after that we just rented every baseball game that Blockbuster added to inventory. Dad liked aviation and war but I think he knew those games on NES wouldn’t be for him. One time he played North & South on NES with me and was mildly amused for 5-10 minutes but was done after that.
A friend’s dad actually played realistic flight sims on PC and even had an expensive joystick for it. I think that’s always been a mostly PC genre that was crappy on consoles.
I only got to play one time (it was one in the Jane’s series), and my friend told me (in good fun) “You fly like a cow.” That put-down remains funny to me to this day.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane's_Combat_Simulations
Ah, that's right, I forgot you and your dad rented a ton of baseball games. Classic.
Yeah unfortunately, those sim games were pretty hit-or-miss on the NES. Unless you liked ancient Chinese history, like the Koei titles.
"You fly like a cow" is a great and bizarre putdown. Sounds like something a comedian would say.
My folks got me an SNES way back when, with two controllers and Super Mario World packed in. They also let me pick up another game, so I chose Super R-Type since it was cheap. I’m pretty sure it was for a birthday or something but I was beaming like a kid on Christmas morning. I distinctly remember expressing my gratitude to them. I was happy. They were happy. Good times.
Was that your first console or just one you were really excited about?
It’s the first (and maybe only) console I was really excited about. We had a Sega Master System before and with the SNES I was thrilled at being able to play Mario plus all those third party games I missed out during the 8-bit days.
Understandable. The SNES was and is the bee's knees.
OK that Metroid pillow is cool, but I completely forgot that Zombies Ate My Neighbors game existed! LOL oh man, I'm sure I played that game too.
Thank you sir