My history with video games sucks.

Just so you get an idea of how much my video gaming past sucks, here are a couple of highlights (note the time frame).

* Once, I played Asteroids on an Atari 2600 I borrowed from a friend, and was way over 500,000 points before my mom made her last warning that supper was ready.
* I was able to finish Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES. Also on the NES, I finished The Legend Of Zelda. And Megaman 2.
* The highlight of my gaming life was when I finally finished Super Mario World (also on a borrowed console – the only console I owned until 2006 had been the NES).

And that’s about it. You can say I outgrew video games a looong time ago.

When I bought my first computer, in the Triassic Period (1997), I had bought it for other purposes – internet (yay 28.8 modems!) and of course Word. Then, one day, my sister’s boyfriend arrived with a shoebox full of like 70 diskettes and proceeded to install them in my computer. The end result, a good couple of hours later? Quake, a game I quasi-enjoyed for a good 30 minutes. And deleted not very long after.
Around this time (I wasn’t keeping a diary, so forgive me if I can’t tell you the exact dates) A friend bought the brand-spankin’-new Sony Playstation. When he found out, a couple of weeks later, he couldn’t afford it, he put it up for sale. I was interested, but had no money. Luckily, another friend did, so many a time we’d end up at his house, playing “Goal Storm”. Soon enough, I was the ‘Santino Marella’ of the group (as in, everybody could beat me ’cause I sucked), and by the time they had gotten their hands on the FIFA version of soccer, my spirit simply committed suicide.
A few years later, I became reacquainted with a friend from high school – a guy who years before thought it was everybody’s delight to go watch him play games on the Sega Genesis. Only this time, he thought it was everybody’s delight to watch him play Resident Evil 2 on the PC. I soon enough made myself a copy of the game, and decided to give it a spin. It was fun, for the first 5 minutes, until I invariably got my ass killed. So then I looked up some cheats and finished the game. Take that, stupid lickers!
Then, said friend got himself an XBOX. And he wouldn’t shut up about it. Grand Theft Auto this, and Resident Evil 4 that, and emulators this, and whatnot. It was, at least, better to hear him talk about that than about his obsessive love/hate relationship with Jesus Christ.
The last few times I saw him before moving to Canada, he was – justifiably – infatuated with a new game he had bought: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It was the first time in a long time I had actually picked up the controller.

I forgot to mention. Back when I was married, I did spend quite a few evenings playing the PC version of Worms:Armageddon with my ex-wife. And chess.

When I arrived in Canada, still jobless, the Price of the PS2 had recently dropped. stores were dying to rid themselves of it, eagerly wanting to stock their shelves with XBOX 360’s. On one occasion, I tried asking my sister to buy me a PS2 (I’d pay her later), but she strongly refused. So, childish as I am, I vowed to buy one, just to show her…
A few months later, now employed, I applied for a Zellers Credit Card. When it arrived in the mail, I ran to Zellers and got me my PS2. And GTA:SA.
I played it (well, actually “played it” implies that I followed the story, missions and all – I merely entertained myself by commiting random acts of mischief) a couple of times until one fateful sunday when I decided my day off from work went by too fast when glued to a video game. Then, for months, nothing.

One day, while waiting for the bus downtown, I walked into a pawn shop, where you could buy games for 10 bucks. 30 dollars (plus tax) later, I walked out with Socom 3, Worms:Forts Under Siege and WWE Smackdown vs. Raw. The total time I spent playing between the three games was about two hours. The PS2 has been collecting dust on the shelf ever since.

No more video games for me, or so I thought. Recently, my brother-in-law gave my sister a Wii for her birthday, and for what it’s worth, I’ve enjoyed playing it the two times I’ve been to their place. And now, I’ve been toying with the idea of getting one. Of course, I hardly ever have time to play, but just in case I ever feel the need to break into a sweat by pretending to bowl in my miniature living room.

The Iceberg.