Christmas Eve (1987)
I've been a gamer for as long as I can remember. My dad and grandparents used to take me to Aladdin's Castle when I was three and four years old and had to stand on a stool to play the game. At around the same time, my dad brought home an Atari 2600, and we played games like Pitfall, Taz and Adventure. No matter what else was going on in life, games brought me a lot of joy.
My first experience with Nintendo was in the arcade, with games like Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros. and the PlayChoice-10. I don't remember when I first learned that Nintendo had a home console, but I'm sure that I talked about it constantly to whoever would listen. I have a vague memory of an older woman who used to watch me after school until my mom got off of work asking me what I wanted for Christmas. I told her I was hoping I would get a Nintendo. She misheard me, and she knew that I liked He-Man, so she surprised me with an action figure called Extendar.
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| It's no Nintendo, but I had fun creating adventures with this little guy. |
I spent Christmas Eve at my grandparents house when I was seven years old. My Dad came over and brought a huge, blue present. I wasn't sure how big the console was, but I spent all of our Christmas dinner thinking about that box and hoping that a Nintendo was inside. Sure enough, when we finished our Long John Silvers (a Christmas Eve tradition) and started opening presents, I found the Nintendo Entertainment System waiting for me, complete with R.O.B. The Robot, Gyromite and Duck Hunt.
It's been twenty years since the Christmas where I first became a Nintendo kid. In the years that followed, I've had countless hours of fun playing Nintendo with friends, family and by myself. To this day, playing an old school NES game never fails to bring a smile to my face.
