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Monday, April 21, 2014

Happy 25th Birthday Game Boy!

25 years ago today, road trips changed forever. I have the picture somewhere, can't find it right now, but it's of me at age 7 on my birthday, having just unwrapped a Game Boy and holding it in the air in excitement. Sure looking at it today it isn't much. With the spinach color screen and having to have the PERFECT lighting to see the screen, but it was mine, and it was awesome.



It was also in a way my first MP3 player. Of course in all video game quality music but I remember putting in WWF Superstars and just listening to the wrestlers music in the back of my Moms van on our way to the video store that we owned. I still remember having a weird vegetable puzzle game for it that I spent hours on. I can't remember the name, or what happened to it, but I've been in search of it for a long time.

Now, 25 years later the Game Boy has changed in many ways to now be known as the Nintendo DS, or 3DS, whichever you choose. I have yet to pick up a DS, I will someday to play the new Zelda, but I still have the Game Boy, and recently just a few months ago, passed the torch of true gaming accomplishment onto my own son. At the age of 5 he got his hands on my Game Boy and has since developed into a little gamer himself. Playing the hits of Game Boy and NES.

 Not too many kids today know what it was like in the 80s and 90s. To experience playing games that required true skill and talent. Not too many games today end up with broken controllers and dents in the walls. Almost every game now has infinite lives, checkpoints, continues. But on the Game Boy and NES. Game over meant, GAME OVER. More parents should give their kids Game Boys and Nintendos to play on. Put them through the trenches of hell so they know just how lucky they are to be able to beat Call of Duty at ease. Pulling out the old man card, but back in my day on the playground, if a kid said, "I beat Mike Tyson on Punch Out last night", it was an amazing feat, and kids from all over would have to gather at his house to watch and see if he could do it one more time. No I couldn't.

Happy 25th Birthday to you Game Boy. You me and a flashlight hiding under the covers will always remain a childhood memory.