Here I will outline the basic history of my gaming library. I'm not going to list all of them, or I'll be here all day but just the main ones that really set me off onto my adventure into wanting to design and create video games...
Gameboy
So where did it really all begin? Right here with this chunky bad boy.
The Game Boy was released in Europe in September 1990. I wasn't born until two years after this date but around the age of 4 I have my earliest memory of this console. I was absolutely fascinated with this machine for small periods of time before my older brothers had released I had taken it again and took it back for themselves. The only game I can recall is Super Mario Land. The pure 8-bit glory this console held won the hearts of millions.
Gameboy
So where did it really all begin? Right here with this chunky bad boy.
The Game Boy was released in Europe in September 1990. I wasn't born until two years after this date but around the age of 4 I have my earliest memory of this console. I was absolutely fascinated with this machine for small periods of time before my older brothers had released I had taken it again and took it back for themselves. The only game I can recall is Super Mario Land. The pure 8-bit glory this console held won the hearts of millions.
Sega Master System
Released in 1987 this was yet another console I managed to get my grubby little mitts on in the early stages of life due to older siblings. Back then, the games were incredibly hard for me. I remember struggling to complete the first level, let alone an entire game.
Sonic the Hedgehog; I loved this game. With the quick pace and simple game play I'd play it for hours... Until Dr Eggman appeared. As a child I remember being terrified of this character. I couldn't even tolerate the music change when he was due to appear at the end of each level!
Rescue Mission (below) was one of the games to introduce the Light Phaser gun to the platform. With nothing to properly aim with and not much common sense back then I found myself pressing the gun to the screen to actually achieve anything.
Other games;
- F1/World Grand Prix,
- Safari Hunt.
Vectrex
Released in 1983, my Paps picked up this console from a car he was taking to be crushed. I always remember waiting a good ten minutes for the screen to warm up so the picture would appear. The console had a built in game called Minestorm which was basically Asteroids with a different name. The system itself has a lot of problems. It crashes at level 13 and has an audible 'buzzing' sound from the built-in speaker. As I'm writing this and doing research on the console I've discovered I'm not the only one to have this problem, apparently this was quite a common issue amongst a lot of the earlier models released.
Playstation 1
Ah Christmas day. I remember unwrapping this console and to my pure delight my parents had brought the fantastic Spyro the Dragon as well. Such an iconic game! Sat in my PJ's I recall spending the whole of Christmas day and Boxing day playing on it. According to IGN, in 2009 the Playstation was named the 7th greatest console of all time out of 25 other platforms. It has sold over 102 million units afterall.
The four games below are the four properly iconic ones in my memory for the Playstation 1.
Rayman was absolutely fascinating with it's mad fantasy landscapes and weird yet intriguing characters. The game play was quite complicated (speaking from the age I was then) but so enjoyable. 
Bubsy 3D. I always recall this game like an old nightmare that I've had as a child yet still can vividly remember. I really am not sure why I continued to play it, watching a video of the game play currently, to me now it's rather funny to listen to and watch but the strange noises and little green aliens remind me of why I never enjoyed it. I never got very far and by watching the video I remember never doing half the things shown there.
Spyro the Dragon was awesome. The game play, the storyline, all the characters. Superb. It was packed with puzzles and adventures to collect treasures and recover stolen family jewels. The orc enemies were great too, they would even taunt you by 'mooning' at you. Something I really got into as a kid and still enjoying cracking out my old PS1 to this day and playing. It's still a pleasure to look at even with modern day graphics now as a comparison.
Crash Bandicoot was my second favourite game. There was so much to take in, especially as a child. It was like Spyro, graphically. Bright colours in a fantasy world full of weird creatures and concepts. I miss the comical value in games nowadays. Most games are really serious and realistic, they're missing out on amusing story lines and funny jokes.
Other games;
- Frogger,
- Croc: Legend of Gobbos,
- Worms,
- Tony Hawk,
- Tomb Raider,
- TOCA Touring Car Championship,
- Theme Park World,
- Tekken,
- Lego Island.
I got completely and utterly addicted to this game. Pokémon Red version to be precise. Wherever I went I took my Gameboy with me. After a while it actually started to affect my behaviour. When my Mam asked for me to turn it off I would get really grumpy about it. I later got given Pokémon Silver and Yellow version for the Gameboy and then Pokémon Pinball. Pokémon Pinball had a 'rumble pack' on the back to make the Gameboy vibrate during game play, it was a brilliant addition. I loved Pokémon for the competition. Trying to get more and more Pokémon, bigger and better than my friends. It was that competition that made me play more, along with losing myself into quite an interesting storyline with fantasy creatures.
The Gameboy Colour later was upgraded into the Gameboy Advance and then into the Gameboy Advance SP, the latter being my next upgrade. This console was like a mini laptop in design, released in 2003. New features included a back light for playing in the dark (great when I was supposed to go to bed but sat under my duvet playing) and smaller game cartridges with the next series of Pokémon on. Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald version, the list went on.
I completely skipped out the Playstation 2 stage. I really wanted to try something different and this is where the Xbox came into play. Released in 2002 this was Microsoft's first product that was on the video game console market. Video games had really started to advance graphically at this point, in fact a massive leap was made. Some of the games that truly amazed me were Fable and Halo. Fable was this brand new game with so many possibilities. Every decision you made had an effect on the world around you, your looks and appearance and the way people reacted to you, nothing as big as that had been done before and Halo, well the storyline is pure gold. It had me from the word go, and so it did to a lot of other people too.
Other games;
- Prince of Persia,
- Splinter Cell,
- Dead or Alive,
- Call of Duty,
- Need for Speed,
- Shadow the Hedgehog,
- WWE.
To me now, it's all about the Xbox 360 and MMO's on the PC. I am a massive World of Warcraft fan. Again, it's all about the competition. You want to be better than every other player out there, with more achievements, better armour and more money but I also love it for the storyline. The 'lore' behind it is extremely vast and goes into great depth. I really enjoy games where you can play them, and treat them as if you're playing along to a story or movie. With World of Warcraft you also have the great sense of freedom in what you do because of the size of the world you've been given to play in. With two added expansions and a new one soon, it just keeps expanding. The graphics aren't as special as they could be, but Blizzard, the creators of World of Warcraft have tried to keep a particular 'cartoony' style ever since they first brought out the original game. If they changed that now, that would change the whole feeling players get while playing.
- Fable 3,
- Modern Warfare 2/Black Ops,
- Assassins Creed 1 & 2,
- Dead Space,
- Gears of War 1 & 2.
In conclusion;
