Phase 1: Now You’re Playing With Power
In 1986 I had just moved back to America after living for 2 years in Jamaica. It was my first time stateside after my parents had broken up, and as it has been for most of the rest of my life – just my mom and I. I had to get used to quite a few things you don’t ever think will come up but to a 8 year old they’re pretty big. I had to remember that it was “eraser” and not “rubber”, I had to figure out what the heck football was (I never liked soccer or cricket), and on t.v. they advertised this awesome thing called an NES.
I was not tech-deprived as a kid. Already up to this point I had owned a Commodore 64 (I had a book on how to program BASIC games that I would spend days with) and an Intellivision (to this day Burger Time is the only video game my mom has seriously played – and she was good at it). But this NES thing was clearly different. It had awesome graphics and cool controllers. And one version even came with a robot! Robot! The only other competition out there at the time was the Sega Master System, but it didn’t have the cool catchet with the crew I hung with.
So I come home from school one day, a few weeks before Christmas. I’m already on my annual countdown extending from my birthday. As I always said, having a birthday on December 6th was optimal. It was close enough to Christmas (19 days) that December was present-packed for me, but it wasn’t so close that people felt like it was okay to give me “combo” gifts (folks born Dec. 20 and after, I feel your pain). Under our Christmas tree in the living room is a giant box.
Now while its clear what this giant box is right now, 1986 Oliver had no idea. I just knew that it was something AWESOME. Granted, I was an only child and the vast majority of the tons of presents we had under the tree were mine, but that giant box to the rear of the tree just pulsed with AWESOME.
Fast forward to the opening of the presents. I decided to play a game of delayed gratification and opened one of the smaller boxes laying on top of the giant box.
“No, don’t open that one yet because it’ll ruin what’s in the other big box,” my Mom says.
WHAT? This has now amplified Christmas beyond comprehension. The giant box is clearly awesome, but what’s in the little box makes the giant box better?
IT’S TIME TO OPEN THE GIANT BOX.
I ripped the paper, my ears filled with noise from my actions. I don’t care what kind of mess it makes. It’s Christmas, I’m 9, there’s a big box and I’m determined to get to the bottom of this mystery that was nearly driving me insane.
Nintendo. I got a Nintendo. I got a freaking Nintendo. And it’s the one. With. The. Robot. Nintendo! I was on the cutting edge of technology, a major league vanguard of the techno age. What I had in my hands, at about the size of a toaster, was 8-bit power that when connected to your TV transported you to another world.
And the other smaller box? It was Duck Hunt! Yes, I could use the lightgun to shoot ducks and clay pigeons and have that dog laugh at me incessantly.
Life was now complete.
Phase 2: The Cartridge Is Gold? Gold.
After a year of play, I still loved my Nintendo. I was an early subscriber to Nintendo Power magazine, and while the hookup of R.O.B. the robot to play Gyromite had sort of outlived its novelty, I was one of those kids who while never really good at any of the games, discussed them incessantly with friends and family and anyone who would listen.
Then came the ads for this new game. To this day I’m able to recite most of the rap: The Legend Of Zelda is really rad, those creatures from Gannon are pretty bad.
This was at the top of my Christmas list. And when I got it the cartridge was gold. Gold! It stood out so gleamingly from the rest of my NES games in their gray cases. And you could save your game on the cartridge. I know this dates me horribly, but this was a revolutionary thing. Zelda was so expansive an adventure, you had to save your place and come back to it. Nutty!
Phase 3: Super Mario Acid Trip
So my initial Nintendo experience was different from most because my Mom bought the robot-themed system it didn’t come with Super Mario Bros. I had played it on my friend’s system – before XBox Live we had this thing called trading games with your friends in real life, aka meat space – but I didn’t have the connection with Mario that many did, though I knew it was a big deal.
That said, I had to have Super Mario Bros. 2. People forget now, but the Christmas season that Mario 2 came out it was almost at Tickle Me Elmo levels of scarcity and demand.
Brilliant theorist that I was (am) I convinced myself that my Mom was not going to be able to find this game on her own. So I busted out the big BellAtlantic yellow pages book and every day after school I methodically worked my way through the toys section, asking every retailer if they had Super Mario Bros. 2 in stock. Each response was no.
We were spending Christmas at my aunt’s house in Brockport, NY, and I had convinced myself that the Mario dream had died. I would be able to get it sometime in the New Year, which had none of the appeal of getting it now.
Cut to us opening gifts, and of course I get some cool toys and (yech) shirts and the like. And then I open what I thought was a book from my Mom.
Oh.
My.
God.
SUPER MARIO BROTHERS 2!!!!!!!!!
To this day I can remember how loudly I screamed, I’m sure the neighbors heard me. I yelled so loud I lost my voice, alternating between “Super Mario Two!” and “Thanks Mom!”
Mario 2 is by far the trippiest Mario ever. You pick up vegetables, there’s crazy mask-wearing bad guys, you can use the Princess and fly, and Luigi is great at jumping for no good reason. But for me, it’s still the best Mario ever.
After the fact I learned that my Mom had been on a Mario hunt of her own, driving all over Maryland and D.C. to find this game her son was lusting after. Finally she had found it, and had purchased it at an inflated price (thanks, supply and demand) and had kept it under wraps even through transporting it to Brockport for Christmas.
I never beat it. I rarely beat games. But it still rings awesome for me. My mom was able to somehow move mountains to make these Nintendo moments for me, and in turn led to some super-fun video game fueled Christmases.
I was playing… with POWER.
Awesome story, Oliver. And not so different from some of my own. In fact, I bet most people in our generation have similar stories. Thanks for sharing.
Great stuff, OW. I had the NES when I was a little kid, and I don’t think I was very dissimilar from you in my excitement about it. I will argue one point, though… I think Super Mario Bros. 3 was a vastly better game than 2. Seriously, it’s one of the best games of all time.
Great story Oliver. My birthday is the 23rd and I would get gipped some years being so close to Christmas, but my family got me the NES and the Powerpad. Its one of the few times that my parents really enjoyed something that was totally alien to thier generation. Your story brought up great memories of my own. THanks:)
The tragedy of my youth is that I saved up my paper route money and bought myself an Atari – right before the NES came out. My parents wouldn’t get me that stuff for my birthday. They thought it would spoil me. I had to work for my Atari and all the games I bought for it. Then it all when up in smoke as my friends had Nintendo.
I agree. Super Mario 2 was my favorite though. Every time I went over to my friend’s place I played the princess. She was hot and she could fly.
A have fond memories of my Nintedo Christmas, even though I completely sucked at Super Mario Brothers (my dad has beaten the game; I have not). But I have even fonder memories of Easter that year: jelly beans, Marshmallow Peeps, and Metroid.
Oh man, good times, good memories.
My dad was a technophile and had bought an Atari when they were first released. When the NES was available in my area (Nintendo had no idea if the thing would sell, so they did limited releases of it and it took a while before they shipped enough for the demand) he made a deal with me. He’d match me 1:1 for the system and games. Did up a contract and everything. I worked my butt off, doing chores I had no idea needed done, walking house-to-house in the neighborhood finding whatever driveway shoveling or raking I could. I’d take the money, put it into the NES savings jar, and when dad got home he’d put in whatever I’d added since the last time. Took a little while to get it all together but we did. The day I finally had enough for the system, games, and tax, we went and bought it. I was a bundle of pure anticipation from the drive home until it was plugged in.
The tragedy of my youth is that I saved up my paper route money and bought myself an Atari – right before the NES came out.
In my neighborhood there were only two types of kids: Atari kids and Intellivsion kids.
I was the only intellivision kid and I will live that pain forever.
That’s a bunch of sweet memories. Your Mom must rock hard.
Excellent story, OW.
From one nintendo-er to another: The ‘lost levels’ later released on an SNES Mario package were the original SMB2 — very similar to the original game, but it play-tested too hard. So, under the gun, the good folks at nintendo took a game called ‘Hoki Doki Panic,’ stripped the characters, replaced them with Mario characters and called it good. Shoot, I thought it was a great game.
Sorry, you didn’t have a awesome christmas unless you saw this under the tree.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GpptJusOjM
Dude, that’s a great story–great story-telling too.
And wow, I lived in Brockport for six months one year, long ago.
Merry Christmas.
I suppose now’s a bad time to mention that you so could have skipped levels in the game?
Awesome story, nonetheless.
P.S. Toad sucked in that game. Utterly useless.
We were welfare kids after my mom died, so I ended up with shitty welfare christmas. Now my son, however, has made out like a bandit, and in no small part due to my crappy times, we go overboard to give him the coolest stuff.
I remember PSP christmas, I remember PS2 christmas, and this year it will be used 60gb ps3 christmas – no screwing around with models that gyp you on backward compatibility. We will be having multiplayer Little Big Planet and Madden tomorrow and having a blast. Now that he’s 17 it’s even cooler, because we can be honest that the gifts are for Dad too.
ANd yes, your mom rocks hard man.
I’m about 7 years older than you, and my formative video game experiences were all centered around the Atari or (gasp!) the arcade. By 1986 I had moved on to taking actual acid trips. But I remember that excitement of entering a new world through the video screen. Good story, and yes, you have a great moms.
LOL,
Memories, Christmas memories. Your mom may remember that Christmas as well and as fondly as you do. Every kid deserves at least one BEST CHRISTMAS EVER.
Super Mario 2 definitely contends as best Mario for the original NES (for my money, the best Mario all time is Mario 64), although I did like an awful lot about Super Mario 3.
But what I know for certain is that Mario 2 featured the single best piece of music ever composed for any Mario game before or since:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ti5f-LHp4
I only had the crappy first Atari system. You are sooooo lucky. That said, Asteroids rulz.
Well, this morning I’m off to Japan, home of all this crap, for two weeks. If you want me to bring anything back for you let me know.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
FWIW: As an old fart I’ve never got within four feet of a video game, but this entry was interesting anyway. Demonstrated was that
a. Oliver is a good writer.
b. His mother is awesome.
You young whippersnappers and your new fangled technology! When I was a kid, all we had was Pong. And we were happy to have that!
Well, when I was a kid, we didn’t even have Pong, LOL. Actually, I had a hard time trying to come up with someting comparable. That is, a toy that all the kids wanted for Christmas, and was fairly expensive for the time. The closest I could come was the Mattel Stallion bike I got in 1965 (I think).
http://www.nemusclebikes.com/bikes57.html
I also got my first grownup watch that Christmas, which I promptly destroyed the first time I fell off the Stallion.
For me (and NEVER as a Christmas present):
Atari 5200. Bulky, fragile, expensive-to-replace, complicated controllers notwithstanding, that was a kickass system. A dear friend gave her entire system – including the “Centipede” tracball – after she got tired of it…and took it back years later after I gon an NES. There was a war/tank game, “Countermeasure,” that I was fond of. “Qix” was another favorite. My mother would play “Popeye” for hours.
NES. Mom and I went halfsies on it – and she, who was 33 years older than I, was much better on it than I was. We both played the living hell out of SMB3, mainly because we had the cheat book for it (I never liked SMB2). “Tetris” was also heavily used, as was “Punisher” and “Pin-Bot.” Mom got a lot of use from “Gyruss.” The only game, however, I finished without using a Game Genie cheat thingy was “Rampage.” That system is moldering away in my basement.
PSX (original console). I put this one together, piece by piece, from parts found at thrift shops and game stores. Never really got good on it – only thing I finished was “Die Hard Trilogy” – again, with help from a cheat disc. The PSX version of “Galaga” was too damn much for my stiffening fingers. Mom never touched the PSX…
Beyond that, only a handful of PC games like “Crazy Taxi,” and “Austin Powers Pinball” (which sucked on PSX). The PSX and PC versions of “GTA” are beyond my fading abilities (and isn’t it ironic that Wal-Mart used to sell the 3-disc “GTA Classics” set for $10?).
BTW, Cracked Magazine’s website has some interesting observations about video games!!
Great post! My first NES was actually my brother’s, I wasn’t worthy because I did not win the spelling bee.