Posted on August 15, 2011
Super Mario Bros.\Duck Hunt (NES)
Back when I was 4 or 5 (which would have been in ’88 or so), we made a family trip to Shediac, New Brunswick. There were longtime friends of the family who lived there, and their kids were a good 10-12 years older than I was, which meant I would probably spend the weekend being pretty bored and finding ways to keep myself occupied.
The couple’s son had some kind of machine hooked up to his bedroom television, and he was kind enough to show me what it did. He popped something into it, turned it on… and I was forever changed with what I saw.
1988 - Nintendo Entertainment System (Nintendo)
(Note that this isn’t the original Super Mario Bros. cartridge, but the 1988 mashup with Duck Hunt that was included when purchasing the console.)
There was just some strange satisfaction when I took that controller in my hands and headed on over to that first Goomba to stomp on him. It took me a little while to get used to, but it all felt so natural to play. Needless to say, I was hooked.
I begged and pleaded with my parents to have one of my own. It was one of those toys I just had to have. I had never really wanted anything else so badly, honestly, and this was the first thing I can ever remember repeatedly asking for. Of course, it was quite expensive to buy, and my parents wouldn’t just go and give their kid what they wanted when he wanted it… I mean, that would be spoiling him, right?
First, my Mom told me I had to be 7 years old to legally own a Nintendo system. What gullible 4-year old isn’t going to believe that? I mean, you have to be a certain age to drink alcohol, a certain age to buy cigarettes… I guess it made sense. Reluctantly, I agreed, and just stopped asking for one.
(My Mom’s a genius… or, I was an idiot. One or the other. Probably the first one.)
That winter, my sister got a job working at the store around the corner from our house. They sold snacks, bare essentials, rented movies and, oh yes, video games and consoles. One snowy morning, I woke up to see an NES hooked up to our living room beast of a television. I was mesmerized. All of this awesomeness… and it was all MINE. For a day or two, anyway. My sisters had fun with it too, I guess.
Pretty much that same year, my Dad had a work trip to Calgary, Alberta. What does he come home with? An NES, complete with two controllers, an NES Zapper and Super Mario Bros.\Duck Hunt. I thought to myself… “Um, aren’t I breaking some kind of law? Dad works with the police… shouldn’t he know better than to supply video games to minors?”
So it began. 23 years of collecting video games, and I haven’t looked back.
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