The Empty Space in Youth

I feel so very behind…yet ahead at the same time? Confused? Me too.

I’ve just been sitting thinking back to my early gaming days, realising that I missed the earliest of the gaming devices. The farthest back I can remember is running around in control of the loveable purple dragon Spyro, or wandering aimlessly around Hogwarts in Harry Potter. Gaming for me began around 1999-2000 when I was about five years old, so my console collection consisted of a Playstation 1, Nintendo 64 and a Gameboy Colour. In saying that, that means I missed the age of devices like the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Sega Mega Drive or any of the Atari systems. Although back when I started off gaming, I knew nothing about these and even now, I must admit I barely know anything.

Arcade games are another thing. I never touched an arcade system as a child, apart from those times at the bowling alleys where I’d scrounge a pound from the parents. But even then, it would be games such as Time Crisis or such that I would use the money for. Recently however, while I was in Florida I did go to a Disney-form of arcade with LOADS of different arcade games. That was new for me and I finally got to play the likes of Mario Kart on an arcade system and my personal favourite, taking part in a Pod Race from Star Wars – incredibly difficult to win.

So while quite a lot of you may think it’s great to be young, I believe I missed the main evolvations of gaming. Where now the biggest improvements between systems are graphical alterations and of course, the Nintendo Wii which set the bar for motion controlled gaming.