Gaming has been one of my passions in Life. I always loved to spending time playing games. My folks used to call me crazy even though I am not a die-hard gamer like many of 'em out there. But in my life (till now) I can say 'I have witnessed the evolution of gaming'. And I am going to share my experience with Gaming in this blog. I was eventually planning to title it as "Journal of a Gamer" but I will stick to "Evolution of Gaming" .
My First experience to games was of course a hand-held video game. My mom had bought it for when I was 6 or 7 years old. It was a car racing game and worked on a single coin-shaped battery. I used to be so addicted with it that sometimes I used to take it to School :)
Then came my first console gaming experience in the year 1992. It was an Atari console. I don't remember the exact game titles but I remember having a 51 in 1 game cartridge which had games like PAC-MAN,Tennis, Battlezone, Air-sea battle etc. Originally it was owned by cousin but later on he handed it over to me, and I went nuts with it. I can probably call it the beginning of my gaming-life.
Probably two years from then on, I started playing PC Games but I didn't have a PC of my own. I used to go to my dad's shop, where they had this black and white monitor PC (sorry don't have the specs of the computer) and they had Wolfenstein 3D and Prince of Persia installed. In those days u got these games when u purchased some softwares. I used to go every Saturday and play from the morning till someone pulls me off from the chair. I used to suck real bad but I never gave up because the graphics and gameplay thrilled me. But after a couple of weeks they had removed the games because my dad couldn't get his work done :'(
So I moved back to Atari but I wasn't thrilled playing because I felt the graphics in the games were utter crap. My next addiction was arcade gaming. There was this arcade centre near my house called "Missing Link", I didn't know that such a thing existed until my friend showed it to me (This was around 1995-'96). They charged Rs.1 for a coin which was cheap but then my parents wouldn't give me pocket money because they thought I wasn't old enough. So I used to sneek, I used to steal coins from wherever I can find and run to the arcade centre. But then I used to have Rs.5 at the max, but still I would be enthralled to get my hands on the games. They had games like Street fighter, WWF, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(TMNT) etc. But they had only multiplayer games so u either have to play with your friend or a guy who will be waiting to join. I used to suck big time. People used to bash me like hell(of course in the game) and I end up on the losing side. Only TMNT was a co-op game where two players work together to finish the game. I remember during my birthday in the year 1997. I spent 50 bucks for finishing TMNT with my friend Vikram. At that time, there was even a hand-held brick game device that was doing its rounds and which was quite popular in school.
Now, Vikram was the kind of guy whom any gaming freak would hang out with. Wanna know why??? Because he owned a TERMINATOR3, which is one of the biggest selling 8-bit gaming consoles in our times. He also had a Nintendo (thank god it wasn't in a working condition) and he had a PC of his own. Through Vikram, I got to play a lot of games. Some of them which I will remember for a long time. Games like Contra, Mario bros, TMNT, Mortal kombat for Terminator3 were really fun and engaging. But I didnt have a Terminator 3 then. I used to cry in front of my parents to buy me one but they never used to listen. Then in 1997, they got me one and I used to buy cartridges every 3 months and it had cost in the range of 450-550 bucks which was really costly. I used to pester my mom to get me and she used to pity me and buy all the games I asked for. I was such a TMNT addict and was always in search of any TMNT game that was available in the market.
Coming back to Vikram, he was really a spoiled brat.. he always made me feel jealous with his PC games. In 1997, my Dad bought me a PC. The First game I played was Allan Border's Cricket which was a pure DOS based Game. I knew Windows 95 existed then but I never let anyone install it because the game used to run only in DOS. I also played a lot of other games like DOOM (my all time personal favourite),Dangerous DAVE,Hocus pocus, Duke Nukem, Stargunner, Jazz Jackrabbit, Mortal Kombat 3, Indiana Jones: Fate of Atlantis. These games were really awesome because it had a new feel with the sounds and music used in the games were mind-blowing. Some of the games were like movies with great storyline. Around 1998 I started playing windows based games like Need for speed 2 SE, FIFA '08, Cricket 07 (ashes edition) and I used to buy these games for 499 bucks after every mid-term exam. I used to flunk in my exams real bad but then again My mom used to buy everything I asked for...
I wouldn't say I was a pro-gamer but it was something I was good at. Once I started playing windows games I concentrated on a specific genre of games and that was Sports. I was so addicted to the CRICKET series from EA sports, I literally owned all their titles from 97 to 2002.
It might have been because I was very much into CRICKET that I used to watch it in TV, play with my friends in the nearest playground or at home. Then came along my terror-friends named 'Prahalad Ramji' and 'Dinesh kumar'...
First, I wanna tell about Dinesh.. He is one of those guys who lends a lot of stuff from others and from me... he used to lend video-game cartridges. But Dinesh was still in the 8-bit TERMINATOR Gaming Level. I used to give away some of my old cartridges to him for FREE!! He then noticed some of the games in my PC. I personally didn't know the guy.. All I knew was that he studied in my school. We became classmates in the 11th grade. The game which brought us together was MIB... and the reason for buying the game was because of the movie. Every week he used to come to my place and play games... Sometimes he even brings some new titles for me. That way we became good buddies. During 1999, my gaming profile reduced but I always played games when I wanted to. I got in to a nasty habit of playing games with cheat-codes, which kinda made me lazy and finish off the games pretty fast.
Now, for Prahalad Ramji. He was like the second Vikram who came in my life and believe me he created a lot of envy in me. I would say he was a much sophisticated version of Vikram and wanna know the reason why???.... cuz he owned a PLAYSTATION, damn it!! Probably the only guy in our class to own a PS. Of course, he was a nice-friendly person and invited me to his place for showing the PS. I have never seen a PS or never even heard of it (until this guy told me about it). He showed me the list of games and offered me to select one. I chose some Gran Turismo and my jaw-dropped immediately when he started the game. Later on, he showed Tomb Raider which made my condition even worse. Every week I used to go to Prahalad's apartment to play PS, but I used to suck whenever I played with him. He was like a Pro-Gamer.
But every now and then, he used to buy some games for PC and used to share it with me.
During 2000-'02 I had played games like Tomb Raider, The Mummy, Brian Lara Cricket, NFS III: Hot Pursuit, Max Payne,FIFA 02, CROC, and a bunch of Arcade games for PC which I don't remember. But since I developed a habit of playing games with cheats , I couldn't get over the weakness. And games like Max Payne had Mods which was something new for me, although Mods had been coming for other games like Quake and Half-life. I got to play some mod games only in Max Payne. I also used to buy gaming magazines like SKOAR which made me know about the good games that were available in the market.
(2002) Prahalad calls me one day and tells me he just got the PS2... This time I was more envious than ever. He showed games like Metal Gear Solid 2, Splinter's Cell series, Silent Hill Series, Driv3r, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance,TMNT, etc. But the PS2 was unaffordable for me. Still, I used to play the PS2 at his place. Slowly from 2003-2005, (when I was in college) I lost the interest in gaming but I had played some games like Max Payne 2, Warcraft III,GTA III, GTA: Vice City, Doom 3, FAR CRY etc.
During the summer 2005, Prahalad (again) shows me his new portable Gaming device which was the Nokia N-GAGE QD... Luckily, I had lent it from him for a month and I was impressed with the games in that platform. Slowly, I started persuading my sister who was working in a bank. After a couple of weeks of urging, she bought me one. I loved every single bit of the device. It is one of the first Multimedia phone I had used. The best part was the gaming functionality. The graphics were pretty neat for a mobile device. I would say it was an N-GAGE'ing experience. But I sold that phone in 2006 and I still regret for selling that phone because it was the best.
2006 fall, I got a bit of the gaming-fever. I finally saved some the cash that was required to buy me one PS2. I finally bought the PS2 and called Prahalad and he said "Dude! PS3 is coming soon!!, why did u get the PS2 now." I fainted. But the news didn't stop me from playing some of the playstation titles like WWE: Raw Vs Smackdown, Bully, Splinter Cell 4, God of War,(new) Prince of Persia.. Though I didn't finish any game, I was really glued on to my seat when I played them. After a couple of months, I sold my PS2 to my friend Dinesh for a good price.
In 2007, I was hooked on to PC Games again. I completed games like NFS Most Wanted and Carbon, The Matrix: Path of Neo which probably brought me back my gaming skills which I had lost. And 2008 has been a great (so far). I got a sneak-peek of the XBOX 360 at my cousin's place and had fun playing Tomb Raider: Legends and Hitman 4. I had a chance to try the Nintendo Wii but I was unlucky.
Recently, I thoroughly enjoyed playing games like Gears of War, Assassin's Creed and Kane&Lynch:Dead men.
I still haven't had a chance to play games in PS3 or Wii but I am pretty sure it will happen some day.
I have played games from arcade to 3rd person shooter, adventures to sports... I was amazed by the concepts like FPS especially from it's early stages and breaking barriers by incorporating stuffs like bullet-time,ragged doll physics,stealth, etc. I learned a lot through games, stuffs which I wouldn't have learned in school... I mean, I probably would have learned it but not with the same involvement or enthusiasm .
From all these things, I have noted one thing.And I say it again 'I have witnessed the evolution of gaming'. Probably not at the exact-moment but a little late unlike the people in US or other foreign countries.
I dedicate this blog to all my gaming-friends and I hope u too had some similar experiences like me.
My First experience to games was of course a hand-held video game. My mom had bought it for when I was 6 or 7 years old. It was a car racing game and worked on a single coin-shaped battery. I used to be so addicted with it that sometimes I used to take it to School :)
Then came my first console gaming experience in the year 1992. It was an Atari console. I don't remember the exact game titles but I remember having a 51 in 1 game cartridge which had games like PAC-MAN,Tennis, Battlezone, Air-sea battle etc. Originally it was owned by cousin but later on he handed it over to me, and I went nuts with it. I can probably call it the beginning of my gaming-life.
Probably two years from then on, I started playing PC Games but I didn't have a PC of my own. I used to go to my dad's shop, where they had this black and white monitor PC (sorry don't have the specs of the computer) and they had Wolfenstein 3D and Prince of Persia installed. In those days u got these games when u purchased some softwares. I used to go every Saturday and play from the morning till someone pulls me off from the chair. I used to suck real bad but I never gave up because the graphics and gameplay thrilled me. But after a couple of weeks they had removed the games because my dad couldn't get his work done :'(
So I moved back to Atari but I wasn't thrilled playing because I felt the graphics in the games were utter crap. My next addiction was arcade gaming. There was this arcade centre near my house called "Missing Link", I didn't know that such a thing existed until my friend showed it to me (This was around 1995-'96). They charged Rs.1 for a coin which was cheap but then my parents wouldn't give me pocket money because they thought I wasn't old enough. So I used to sneek, I used to steal coins from wherever I can find and run to the arcade centre. But then I used to have Rs.5 at the max, but still I would be enthralled to get my hands on the games. They had games like Street fighter, WWF, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(TMNT) etc. But they had only multiplayer games so u either have to play with your friend or a guy who will be waiting to join. I used to suck big time. People used to bash me like hell(of course in the game) and I end up on the losing side. Only TMNT was a co-op game where two players work together to finish the game. I remember during my birthday in the year 1997. I spent 50 bucks for finishing TMNT with my friend Vikram. At that time, there was even a hand-held brick game device that was doing its rounds and which was quite popular in school.
Now, Vikram was the kind of guy whom any gaming freak would hang out with. Wanna know why??? Because he owned a TERMINATOR3, which is one of the biggest selling 8-bit gaming consoles in our times. He also had a Nintendo (thank god it wasn't in a working condition) and he had a PC of his own. Through Vikram, I got to play a lot of games. Some of them which I will remember for a long time. Games like Contra, Mario bros, TMNT, Mortal kombat for Terminator3 were really fun and engaging. But I didnt have a Terminator 3 then. I used to cry in front of my parents to buy me one but they never used to listen. Then in 1997, they got me one and I used to buy cartridges every 3 months and it had cost in the range of 450-550 bucks which was really costly. I used to pester my mom to get me and she used to pity me and buy all the games I asked for. I was such a TMNT addict and was always in search of any TMNT game that was available in the market.
Coming back to Vikram, he was really a spoiled brat.. he always made me feel jealous with his PC games. In 1997, my Dad bought me a PC. The First game I played was Allan Border's Cricket which was a pure DOS based Game. I knew Windows 95 existed then but I never let anyone install it because the game used to run only in DOS. I also played a lot of other games like DOOM (my all time personal favourite),Dangerous DAVE,Hocus pocus, Duke Nukem, Stargunner, Jazz Jackrabbit, Mortal Kombat 3, Indiana Jones: Fate of Atlantis. These games were really awesome because it had a new feel with the sounds and music used in the games were mind-blowing. Some of the games were like movies with great storyline. Around 1998 I started playing windows based games like Need for speed 2 SE, FIFA '08, Cricket 07 (ashes edition) and I used to buy these games for 499 bucks after every mid-term exam. I used to flunk in my exams real bad but then again My mom used to buy everything I asked for...
I wouldn't say I was a pro-gamer but it was something I was good at. Once I started playing windows games I concentrated on a specific genre of games and that was Sports. I was so addicted to the CRICKET series from EA sports, I literally owned all their titles from 97 to 2002.
It might have been because I was very much into CRICKET that I used to watch it in TV, play with my friends in the nearest playground or at home. Then came along my terror-friends named 'Prahalad Ramji' and 'Dinesh kumar'...
First, I wanna tell about Dinesh.. He is one of those guys who lends a lot of stuff from others and from me... he used to lend video-game cartridges. But Dinesh was still in the 8-bit TERMINATOR Gaming Level. I used to give away some of my old cartridges to him for FREE!! He then noticed some of the games in my PC. I personally didn't know the guy.. All I knew was that he studied in my school. We became classmates in the 11th grade. The game which brought us together was MIB... and the reason for buying the game was because of the movie. Every week he used to come to my place and play games... Sometimes he even brings some new titles for me. That way we became good buddies. During 1999, my gaming profile reduced but I always played games when I wanted to. I got in to a nasty habit of playing games with cheat-codes, which kinda made me lazy and finish off the games pretty fast.
Now, for Prahalad Ramji. He was like the second Vikram who came in my life and believe me he created a lot of envy in me. I would say he was a much sophisticated version of Vikram and wanna know the reason why???.... cuz he owned a PLAYSTATION, damn it!! Probably the only guy in our class to own a PS. Of course, he was a nice-friendly person and invited me to his place for showing the PS. I have never seen a PS or never even heard of it (until this guy told me about it). He showed me the list of games and offered me to select one. I chose some Gran Turismo and my jaw-dropped immediately when he started the game. Later on, he showed Tomb Raider which made my condition even worse. Every week I used to go to Prahalad's apartment to play PS, but I used to suck whenever I played with him. He was like a Pro-Gamer.
But every now and then, he used to buy some games for PC and used to share it with me.
During 2000-'02 I had played games like Tomb Raider, The Mummy, Brian Lara Cricket, NFS III: Hot Pursuit, Max Payne,FIFA 02, CROC, and a bunch of Arcade games for PC which I don't remember. But since I developed a habit of playing games with cheats , I couldn't get over the weakness. And games like Max Payne had Mods which was something new for me, although Mods had been coming for other games like Quake and Half-life. I got to play some mod games only in Max Payne. I also used to buy gaming magazines like SKOAR which made me know about the good games that were available in the market.
(2002) Prahalad calls me one day and tells me he just got the PS2... This time I was more envious than ever. He showed games like Metal Gear Solid 2, Splinter's Cell series, Silent Hill Series, Driv3r, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance,TMNT, etc. But the PS2 was unaffordable for me. Still, I used to play the PS2 at his place. Slowly from 2003-2005, (when I was in college) I lost the interest in gaming but I had played some games like Max Payne 2, Warcraft III,GTA III, GTA: Vice City, Doom 3, FAR CRY etc.
During the summer 2005, Prahalad (again) shows me his new portable Gaming device which was the Nokia N-GAGE QD... Luckily, I had lent it from him for a month and I was impressed with the games in that platform. Slowly, I started persuading my sister who was working in a bank. After a couple of weeks of urging, she bought me one. I loved every single bit of the device. It is one of the first Multimedia phone I had used. The best part was the gaming functionality. The graphics were pretty neat for a mobile device. I would say it was an N-GAGE'ing experience. But I sold that phone in 2006 and I still regret for selling that phone because it was the best.
2006 fall, I got a bit of the gaming-fever. I finally saved some the cash that was required to buy me one PS2. I finally bought the PS2 and called Prahalad and he said "Dude! PS3 is coming soon!!, why did u get the PS2 now." I fainted. But the news didn't stop me from playing some of the playstation titles like WWE: Raw Vs Smackdown, Bully, Splinter Cell 4, God of War,(new) Prince of Persia.. Though I didn't finish any game, I was really glued on to my seat when I played them. After a couple of months, I sold my PS2 to my friend Dinesh for a good price.
In 2007, I was hooked on to PC Games again. I completed games like NFS Most Wanted and Carbon, The Matrix: Path of Neo which probably brought me back my gaming skills which I had lost. And 2008 has been a great (so far). I got a sneak-peek of the XBOX 360 at my cousin's place and had fun playing Tomb Raider: Legends and Hitman 4. I had a chance to try the Nintendo Wii but I was unlucky.
Recently, I thoroughly enjoyed playing games like Gears of War, Assassin's Creed and Kane&Lynch:Dead men.
I still haven't had a chance to play games in PS3 or Wii but I am pretty sure it will happen some day.
I have played games from arcade to 3rd person shooter, adventures to sports... I was amazed by the concepts like FPS especially from it's early stages and breaking barriers by incorporating stuffs like bullet-time,ragged doll physics,stealth, etc. I learned a lot through games, stuffs which I wouldn't have learned in school... I mean, I probably would have learned it but not with the same involvement or enthusiasm .
From all these things, I have noted one thing.And I say it again 'I have witnessed the evolution of gaming'. Probably not at the exact-moment but a little late unlike the people in US or other foreign countries.
I dedicate this blog to all my gaming-friends and I hope u too had some similar experiences like me.
