Back in the summer of ’99

Don’t worry, I’m not about to burst into song. Besides, “Summer of ’69” is one of my least favourite songs of all time, sorry Bryan! I have just returned from a well deserved holiday in Ireland, but sadly I only stayed for a week. It was sad to see how much the town my family are from had changed, and our house too. The local gaming shop had closed its doors and the only place to buy a computer game was from the local video shop, and they didn’t have a wide selection. And to add further disappointment, my old gaming room had been transformed into a modern bedroom, and my old TV was thrown away! I was very upset at how my childhood had been altered and changed.

Back in the late 90s I used to have my old gaming room in our house in Ireland, which had an old TV and it’s here where I spent many happy days gaming away. All I had to do was make sure I had my PlayStation 1 and games packed up in my gaming bag and I was off. I purchased Final Fantasy VIII the day before we were ready to fly to Ireland and spend 4 weeks there. I already had some games equipped like Breath of Fire III, Alundra, the Broken Sword series and a couple of Tomb Raiders thrown in for good measure. That was one of the best summers I had. I would wake up, visit my relatives with my gran, go shopping, have lunch and then get on with the gaming! And my grandma didn’t mind. For her it meant peace, quiet and a chance to catch up with old friends. It was win-win. She would sometimes bring my dinner up to my room and on the odd occasion, sit on my old bed and watch me concentrate on the next battle. I was care-free and fell more in love with the RPG genre due to Final Fantasy VIII. I laughed and cried that summer over the game that has become my all time favourite.

But this time I had no Squall or Lara to keep me company. My DS and PSP consoles were my amigos for the week and I even got addicted to Pocket Academy on my iPhone for a good few hours. There was no way I was going to risk bringing a £200 console onto a plane with me, no way. Plus I would be minus a TV, so it seemed pointless to even think about it. The childhood room has gone now, but luckily my gaming passion hasn’t. It’s times like this I’m thankful to both Sony and Nintendo for creating handheld consoles, because otherwise I would have gone mad with boredom. I know I’m on holiday, but I need to game. It’s something I do. I rarely use my handheld consoles at home because I have my normal ones, so it gave me a chance to tackle some classic games like Golden Sun, which I haven’t played in years.