When did you start gaming?

I got started back in the early PC era. Here's a little story from my blog about when I first played DOOM, which was when i really got hooked.



The year was 1993. It was a cold day in December, some might even say it was as cold as hell.

I was 9 years old, and a pint-size PC gaming fanatic. I had hopped and bopped my way through Commander Keen, fought nazi scum in Wolfenstein 3D, and I was excited for whatever would come next. My friend D called me over to his place, he had just downloaded the newest shareware, something called Doom. He bragged about how he had tied up the phone line all night just to download it (he had a 14.4baud modem, still better than nothing), and then had played all the way through it in the early hours of that morning. He had a damn fine system, a 486 66mhz with 8mb of ram and a sound blaster 16, and a MASSIVE 17" monitor. (It was doubly as good as my own rig, a 486 33mhz with 4mb of ram, no sound card, and a measly 14" monitor.) D told me to have a seat, and simply type in "doom". So that's what I did.

As I typed in the command to launch the game, and the scrolling text of the id tech 1 engine crawled up the screen, I could feel my hear pounding in anticipation. And then I heard it, the low droning of the title screen theme, and I stood in awe of the color and detail of the green-clad space marine surrounded by hideous, otherworldly foes. I didn't know it at the time, but this would be the first step on a lifelong adventure through hell on earth, space, and beyond.

So there I was, in a blue-carpeted landing bay (oh my gawd, there were floors and ceilings! And different heights too!), the most epic synthesized metal music pumping out of the speakers. My hands trembled as I tested the keyboard controls, pleased to find that they responded exactly like they did in Wolfenstein 3D. I took a look around, in awe of the colorful and detailed environments. I walked up to a bubbling, glowing green barrel and did the first thing that came to mind: I shot it.

One respawn later, I was off again, exploring the nooks and crannies of the starting room. Then I went up the stairs and was greeted by a suit of green armor sitting on a pedestal(no undead grunts yet, I had chosen "I'm Too Young To Die" like a wuss). I then came back down the stairs, and proceeded through the first door I found, and came face to face with the first of the game's zombified ex-marines. After exchanging fire and dispatching him, and his compatriot around the corner, I came out into a room with a narrow walkway surrounded by glowing green sludge. It was at that point that i took a fireball to the face, and met my second untimely end.

I respawned at the beginning of the level, confident that I could win this time. I sprinted through, taking out my assailants with ease, and this time dodged the fireballs and nailed the spiny creep on the ledge. Feeling cocky and proud, I strode through the door into the next room and found myself face to face with another of the spiny bastards. Panicking, I fired blindly at it, setting off another explosive barrel which reduced said spiny and myself into a fine red mist.

With an enraged roar, and a hearty laugh from D, I set off again through the gauntlet. I managed to rip and tear every demonic freak that crossed my path a shiny new asshole, and find a pump-action shotgun in the process. finding my stride I continued my rampage through the next six levels, through nuclear plants, refineries and command centers, until I reached the ominous sounding Phobos Anomoly. I had learned to use explosive barrels to my advantage, and so I had no problem shredding the ring of pink gorilla-like demons near the entrance. Felling confident I took the elevator upstairs, straight into the lair of the two ugliest freaks I had ever seen, the Barons of Hell.

My first encounter with the barons went as expected, with my head finding a new home up my arse. The second time went slightly better, I lasted 10 seconds or so that time. After 20 or so attempts I finally became good enough at strafing between their fireballs to deliver a good enough salvo of rocket fire to take them out. Then the walls started rumbling, lowering slowly to the ground to reveal a vast outdoor arena. I braced myself for an onslaught of new foes, but they never came. I curiously explored the area, and found the teleport platform at the end.

I stepped through the teleporter. Everything went black. I heard myself being torn limb from limb by unseen attackers. Then the ending text scrolled slowly out, and told me to order the full game to continue the experience. I turned to D.

"We're gonna have to shovel a LOT of snow!"