What Are We Gaming On?

By Neal "NeoMahi" Evans 

I thought that I would actually change things up a little bit today and do something a little differently. Today, I'm going to show you the hardware that  we're using around here.

I remember back when I was a little kid and grew up with an Atari. I was probably only six years old and the game I'd played most was a racing game that to me at the time actually didn't look all that bad. I was never any good at it and kept flying off the track and crashing but it was still fun. After the family Atari had crashed, there wasn't anything to game on so I found myself at friends houses' where I would be playing some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the original NES console. I was completely addicted, and again, not very good at games really. In fact, I can remember this same friend, sneaking over to his house so I could watch 'Batman Returns.' My parents felt it was too dark and I was forbidden, though I'd seen the first Batman several hundred times but, this was the friend I'd play video games with. We never had a PC in the house until I was in Jr. High School and it was a basic HP PC my Grandaddy had pick up for the family. Otherwise, I had a buddy with a 386 he loved to brag about.

Anyway, I finally was introduced to my first and one of my favorite gaming consoles of all time. At the time, the console wars were much like they are today. Some people could afford both, but a lot of people had either one or the other. I was hanging at my Grandparents house when my Uncle was up for a visit as was talking with my cousins about getting a video game console. He was deciding between a Super Nintendo or a Sega Genesis. My cousins were quick to convince him to get a Sega Genesis and he did. I remember spending a vacation at my Uncles house watching my siblings play the original Sonic the Hedgehog. It was awesome! It wasn't too long afterward that our parents took us to town to get our very first Sega Genesis, that I still have to this day and have had to fix up a few times, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Our faces were glued to the television set for days taking turns blasting through levels. Our Sega Genesis collection grew over time and the game collection grew even more years down the road when the Sega Genesis was on its way out the door and you could find a ton of $5 Genesis games in the Walmart bargain bin. Some of my most memorable games were 'Mickey Mania,' (one of David Jaffe's first games actually) Comix Zone, Sonic the Hedgehog of course, and Super Street Fighter II.

Later on, my brother became the primary console collector while I still mostly hung out on the Genesis. He'd one day sent my buddy and I to the store to pick him up a Sega Saturn. He had budgeted out a more money than anticipated so with the little extra, I took the liberty of purchasing his first game for him which was Street Fighter Alpha 2. Spent many great hours watching him play the Sega Saturn. Some years later, we got a PlayStation that I was really excited about. One other of my buddies had gotten an N64 and another already had a PSOne. I remember trying to beg my brother to change his mind and we'd get an N64 for Christmas instead and we almost did. He was starting to give but thankfully, we somehow got back on track and got a PSOne instead. I think life would have been much different had we gotten an N64, but I was always glad we'd gotten a PSOne.

Sometime later, I got stranded doing lawn work and my brother came to me again. "Hey don't tell anyone, not even dad, but I got a Sega Dreamcast. I was surprised. The same friend who had an N64 while the rest of us had a PSOne, said he'd played Sonic the Hedgehog on a Dreamcast and it was too much speed for him. I was excited to finally see what he was talking about.

Well, time went on and things started to change up. My brother didn't get anymore consoles and I became the one getting new consoles. This same buddy with the N64, I was staying at his house one night and we were talking about the next generation of consoles. I told him I wanted an Xbox because I liked the one I was playing in the store. All my friends thought it was a joke and they didn't like the feel of it. This friend particularly had me convinced Microsoft was the devil and that the defining console of that generation was the Gamecube. My other two closest friends had PlayStation 2. I still wanted an Xbox, but one day picked up a Gamecube first instead. I had it and played it and the games were getting stale, but one day, my buddy told me he'd loan me the money to get an Xbox and I finally got an Xbox for 'Hunter: The Reckoning.' I didn't care about Halo and didn't want it. I got quite a few games for it including Fable, Dead or Alive, Gun Metal, Gun Valkyrie and and a lot more. This same friend that told me Microsoft was the devil ended up getting his Gamecube but also a PlayStation 2 which surprised me. I'd seen a game run on the PlayStation 2 that I think had Mini Coopers, but I wasn't all that impressed. I loved the power of my Xbox vastly superior to the other consoles. But, this was the first time I'd ever seen on line gameplay on a console and it was Socom. But, I still stuck to my Xbox.

As time went on, I eventually got a PlayStation 2 but I had never really understood its value or any of its biggest games as God of War, Metal Gear Solid, Jak & Daxter, etc but later discoverd and loved. I had a small library of games. I ended up leaving for a couple of years and had played video games at all during that time. Others I would associate with had a PlayStation and would talk about Metal Gear Solid that I really didn't care about. I'd heard about the new Xbox 360 and since I'd loved my original Xbox and Xbox 360 was getting the new Resident Evil and its graphics were so amazing, that I had to get one when I got home. When I did get home, sure enough, all my friends but one had an Xbox 360. He was still playing the PlayStation 2. Dead Rising was the first Xbox 360 game I had seen. I finally couldn't take it anymore and decided to join the ranks and when I had the money, I got the first 60GB Xbox 360 model and started living life in the fast lane. Gears of War came up and so did the release of the PlayStation 3. I was headed into a Kmart to pick up a battery pack for my Xbox 360 and saw a bunch of people waiting for the PlayStation 3. I thought they were crazy. I'd heard a lot of things about the PlayStation 3 that weren't good and didn't care. I'd hated the PlayStation 3 and was content with my Xbox 360.

It wasn't until later on, when a buddy had pleaded with me to check out his PlayStation 3. He'd been a Sony loyal since I'd known him and I finally gave in and checked it out was blown away. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Customization, blu-ray and game graphics I'd never seen on the Xbox 360. I'd called my brother and told him he had to check out the PS3 and within five minutes he was there to see it with me. Fifteen minutes later, we went to pick up our first PlayStation 3. I'd eventually decided I wanted my own PS3 so I sold him my half and got my own with five free Blu-ray's a an extra controller. My views on the current generation of game consoles began to change and I saw more in the PlayStation 3 and less in the Xbox 360 though I still game the heck out of that Xbox 360 when a game comes along I really want to play.

PC gaming never really was a big part of me. I grew up without a PC and only had consoles. So it hasn't been until the last six months or so that I've spent much time PC gaming. But, its growing on me little by little. I had a buddy build out the PC I now have. I call it the 'Napoleon Fusion.'

It gets it name from its design. The Napoleonic Complex being small, yet feeling and acting very large. Its all by our design and built to my specifications in a very tiny package built to handle the most graphically demanding games on the market with room to breathe still and be upgraded.

The specifications are as follows:

 Napoleon Fusion

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit OS
 AMD Phenom II X4 9665 Processor 3.4 Ghz 
4GB DDR3 RAM
ATI  Radeon HD 4800 Series 2/ 2GB Total Memory

It really doesn't matter how we game. Its that we do and that we love what we do. Compared to my friends, they're Cyborgs incredibly good at gaming and I still have much to learn. But, as we look back, gaming has come a long way. New and innovative idea's have surfaced and changed the way we play. We grow up in a generation where there are no limits. We no longer find ourselves saying "Man, this is so realistic, it can't possibly look any better than this." Because we know that theory won't stand long. Though technology advances much slower than in our parents or grandparents time, or rather I guess I would say much more subtly, its always changing, always growing and always evolving. But, its fun to look back on who we are and where we came from to see how gaming has effected our lives. Gaming has grown and expanded and has drawn in a new type of gaming crowd with something called the 'Nintendo Wii.' Finally, a kids mother is picking up his gaming console and using it herself, licensing his own approval to game with years of prejudice finally gone out the window as the positive aspects of gaming are seen now a way to get fit and still have fun and interact and track with a personal AI trainer and even spend time with family.

"Look mom, your family in a room, together..... So even old guy here can relive his glory days in the Spanish-American War." - Kevin Butler