Bohemian Sultriness

games

I've been a gamer since my Papa showed me Pong and let me ride a real motorbike - at least it seemed like that to me - at the game centre during our summer holiday to play SEGA Super HANG-ON. I loved arcades - even as a child I deemed the kind dingy atmosphere to be cool - and my highlight was whenever my dad played either Time Crisis or The House of the Dead in co-op mode with me. Complete with a light gun and a promise not to tell my mum - you know how dads are. I still love amusement centres to this day, sadly I rarely see them anymore. But when I do, I just have to play air hockey - my one true passion.

However, it wasn't until that fateful birthday party where my best friend got the latest and hottest tech gadget available at the time - a Game Boy - that gaming got serious. I still remember all of us huddling behind her and watching a pixelated plumber jumping about to the tunes of an exhilarating midi soundtrack. I was hooked!
It took my parents several months and several promises that I wouldn't neglect my schoolwork, until they finally caved and bought me my very own Game Boy, Tetris included. From there on I progressed continuously. A Super Nintendo, briefly a Sega Mega Drive. As luck would have it, my best friend's dad worked for Nintendo so I'd bike across my home town many an afternoon to play Zelda - A Link to the Past for 1 1/2 hours. Then a break would be enforced - usually by putting on The Doors at the Hollywood Bowl on VHS.
You see, all of my interest are interconnected somehow.
If I didn't occupy my friend's living room, I'd check out the latest games in the toy department at Horten and sometimes even play them for a bit. But, most of the time the gaming consoles were occupied by some rowdy, older boys, and I was too shy to ask for my turn. But at least I could pick up a copy of the Club Nintendo magazine and add new items to my birthday & Christmas list.
Eventually, the N64 came, followed by the PS2, PS3, the WII and every derivative of my beloved Game Boy. I still have them all and they all still work except for the N64, which seems to have a slack joint.

Of course I also ventured out into PC games territory. This happened more or less simulataneously. I won't go into detail about every computer game because I started out with my dad's approximately 5kg heavy Compaq LTE laptop running Windows 3.1. so there'd be quite a lot. Let's just say I played just about everything and even more once I got my own computer.
First, those at that time already slightly retro SCUMM Lucasfilm Games point-and-click adventures, side scrollers like Commander Keen, MMORPGs and then soon enough first-person shooter.
I fully embraced the LAN party, WASD-shift-spacebar, carbon mousepad tweaked with silicon oil lifestyle for quite a while.
Can you imagine buckling up your CRT monitor and tower in the passenger seat just to play for 12 hours straight in your friend's party cellar? Well...those were the days. We smoked cigarettes, too.

And if you're now wondering, how did that fit in with your distinct predilection for everything vintage? the answer is, quite well! It was the time of a once-again 60s revival, so no one would bat an eye when I sniped a SAS off the roof whilst wearing mini skirts and black eyeliner. I was still 1337 Krew and my then-boyfriend even had a Beatles haircut.

As far as nostalgia goes, I miss being able to have 70+ hours of fun without having to rely on internet access and without having to pay a monthly fee or being forced to buy add-ons.

I'm also not really a snob when it comes to video games - I loved the pixel-y Randi from Secret of Mana just as much as handsome Nathan Drake from Uncharted. What's most important to me is a good story and a fair gameplay. Everything that didn't meet those criteria, I quickly abandoned anyway.

So instead of giving an elaborate review of all the games I've ever played - they're all great! - I want to play a game with you.
Guess the title of the game just from the thumbnail. Hover over the picture to reveal the answer.

💖