Who would you like to thank?

[THATinkjar]

Who would you like to credit for helping you becoming the gamer and/or collector you are today?

For me, I would like to thank my brother.

It all began in the early nineties. My brother had purchased an Atari Lynx, and I promptly played the heck out of it. What a great system! And, as I probably mentioned in another thread, my brother would leave his GameBoy outside his door every Saturday morning for me. I would construct a little fort in the lounge and embrace Gargoyle’s Quest as if it were my own.

I used to play Command & Conquer while he slept.

During my early PC years, my brother’s friend - who incidentally shared the same name as my brother - was extremely comfortable from a financial point of view. As such, he could afford the lowly adopted high speed Internet connections of the time and "download" most PC games of note. My brother would then obtain them and they’d eventually find their way to me. Though, I never did get my promised copy of Dark Forces (which I adored!).

Despite my brother being over ten years older than me, we both share the same fondness for Monkey Island.

Then my brother and I imported PlayStations together. Every few weeks or so, we’d couple our games orders together and use the ol’ pen lid method to play them until our mod chips arrived.

In the months leading up to Christmas one year, when my brother had come home for the weekend from university, he brought along a magical black box that we affectionately refer to as the Sega Saturn. Perhaps he was teasing me or perhaps he was trying to be that kind big brother he sometimes could be. Either way, Daytona blew me away. I tried to "misplace" his Saturn several times that weekend, but to no avail. I got one of my own that very Christmas after a last-minute note (read: Christmas Eve) to Father Christmas.

My brother also briefly introduced me to the ways of the Dreamcast. I've had very little alone time with Sega's last effort, with most of it coming in a weekend I stayed with him a few years back. But that small taster leaves me anxiously waiting for my Dreamcast from eBay to arrive. Powerstone will forever be able to convince me to part with an absurd amount of cash. His ranting and raving about the Nintendo 64 also persuaded me to purchase one of those.

So, although I’m disappointed many of his consoles and games never found their way into my possession, I’ve a lot to thank him for.

[CullJeff]

My brother. I was born in '85 and my brother already had several commodore's, atari, colecovision, and of course nintendo. As soon as i literate and he went to college i got my hands on all of those precious goods. I still have that same nintendo in the box, and it works.

[The_4th_Survivor]

I too, would like to thank my brother.

Not because he started me off with my collection, but because he's put up with so much of my crap throughout the years, he still lets me do (almost) whatever I want.

I owe him a lot.

Damn, I care for him so much, I'd take a bullet for him.

One day, I will repay him. I don't know how, or when, but I will show him my gratitude.

:)

[vespertillio]

I would like to thank myself. Yes, myself. My parents chose to have kids a little later in life, so basically there is kind of a generation gap there. They grew up during the depression and my dad faught in WWII. Being a Generation X'er, we didn't quite see I d to eye on a lot of things. When the 2600 came out, I had to have one. I bugged them for at least a year before I got one for X'mas one year. I got into computers in Elementary school. We had some Commodore Pets in the library. I stayed late after school many times messing around with those. In Jr. High, I moved on to Apple II's. We had a small computer club where we all messed around with those.
I remember one time our librarian asked me if I could add a second floppy drive to one of the Apples. I had seen it done once, so I said "sure" Well, let me tell ya, make darn sure those pin connectors are dead on LOL I was off by one row of pins. The librarian (a rather rotund lady of generous girth) sat down to work, and w/in 5 min that sucker started smoking and then in an instant let out a loud POP. Yep, it blew up 8-) It was enough of a blast to send her on her ass. Ahhh, good times, good times.
My buddy' dad owned a Commodore store and always had cool stuff. I however went the Atari 800 route. After research, I deemed the 800 a better computer due to it's sound a graphics capabilities. I still think it's better lol. I remember when I got my modem for the beast. Acoustic Couplers anyone? LOL 300 bps of pure power. I was a little bit of a hacker back then. I even mangaed to get into a local banking system. (I just looked, that's all LOL )
Back on topic, I can thank me LOL I may have strayed in to other hobbies since, but I always come back to videogames and computers. I have everything from arcade down to my minty Odyssey. I love them all. Ok, enough ranting.
Carry on all.

V :rocker:

[s1lence]

I'm going to thank my wife for letting me have my collection. My other girlfriends in the past didn't want anything to do with any of my videogames, other then a couple Mario games. I'm not going to thank my parents either because they tell me videogames "Rot your mind". So I'm praise my wife for putting up with my collection, THANKS!!

[fergojisan]

Cool thread!

First off, I want to thank my wife. Aside from being very supportive of my hobby, she gave me Leonard Herman's address, which she saw in a gaming mag when she was working at Kay-Bee Toys.

I would also like to thank Leonard Herman. Aside from being one of the first to order Phoenix from him, he got me in touch with Joe, and also the 2600 Connection. He also brought me to my first NAVA meeting.

Thanks to Joe Santulli & Tim Duarte-Digital Press and the 2600 Connection were the only retrogaming news sources I had until I got a PC in 1997.

Mike Etler-For hosting the NAVA meetings, and for making many great trades with me.

John Hardie, Keita Iida, and Dave Stein-for helping me complete my 5200 collection.

And last (but certainly not least)-Curt Kozielec (TheSmirk)-for all the rides to NAVA, ECGX, and Philly Classic. All the flea market trips, all the doubles :-P , and for my awesome 2600 A/V mod. w00t!

*orchestra starts playing*

And to all of you out there in DP land, thanks for being nice. 8-)

EDIT: Thanks to THATInkjar for starting the thread. LOL

[THATinkjar]

The way you were going there, fergojisan, I'm surprised I didn't see my name in that little list of credits ;)

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Thank you, India! Thank you, terror! Thank you, disillusionment!*

Seriously though, I've gotta thank my mom for making me realize that all those O2 games really did look better in their original boxes, and for being player #2.

More recently, after a couple of years of collecting and game-reviewing and briefly thinking about giving it up for lack of time, I have to credit Chris Cavanaugh for re-inspiring me to stick with it through writing for Classic Gamer Magazine.



* = That's from that Alanis Morissette song where she's singin' nekkid in the streets in the video, by the bye.

[rbudrick]

I'd like to thank Craig Pell (VGR). Back in the nineties, before I knew of DP, he had a bunch of rarity lists on his site. I don't recall whether he made them, but they became instrumental in my collecting. Later, I found out about DP and have been here ever since, so thanks, Joe, et al!

-Rob

[poloplayr]

I would like to thank one of my first girlfriend's who blew me while I played Super Mario Bros 3. It gave me the inspiration not to give up gaming for my other big passion in life; girls.

[Lady Jaye]

I thank my childhood friends François, Seb and Julie for all the countless hours spent with them playing videogames (Atari 2600, NES, SMS)... especially for Seb, for showing me how to access the -1 world in SMB and for all the time we spent playing Techmo Bowl, Blades of Steel or Baseball Stars.

Kudos too to my friend Alain and my cousin Nick, who both introduced me to emulation, circa 1999 -- Alain for Final Fantasy, Nick for Ogre Battle... Before then, I didn't know it was possible to play vintage games on the computer. That was the starting point for my current videogame "fascination", and eventually, was the reason why I ended up having my own videogame column in Adam Magazine, in early 2002.

Finally, thanks to SlyDC, who recruited me for the CCJVQ back when I was a regular on the classicgaming.com board. Without him, I don't know if I would have gotten as involved here at DP, and I certainly would not have gone to PhillyClassic 3, where I got to meet many Internet friends.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I probably need to give a big shout-out to Sylvain as well - back in the pre-eBay days, he cut me some insane deals on quite a bit of gear, including my bilingual Colecovision (English/French), probably the only specimen of its kind in this state. LOL I'd buy stuff from him on an almost monthly basis via his "Usenet auctions" that he ran.

[XYXZYZ]

My cousin. I guess it was... 1986 or thereabouts, I was around 8-9 and my 4 year old cousin wanted "a 'intendo" for Xmas. I wasn't interested in video games enough to ask for one, (When there were so many awsome Transformers to get... I was a loyal autobot man) and the primary reason my cousin wanted it was simply because there was a Ghostbusters video game. (He was a big Ghostbusters whore) So Xmas morning rolled around, we got it set up and played some Ghostbusters. Neither of us could really figure it out... it was amusing but Optimus Prime had new guys to fight and that was more important. Later on I figured I'd give this other thing a shot, something called "Super Mario Bros.".Which wasn't very attractive to me because there was some little fat guy instead of a giant transforming robot. I popped it in... hit start...

It was like Peter Parker becoming Spider Man for the first time... like Keith Richards plunging that first shot of heroin into his arm. I was a transformed madman. INSTANT Mario junkie. And it just went downhill from there, you guys know how it is.

Thankyou, cousin, for your insistance on getting mad-expensive christmas gifts just to satisfy your Ghostbusters itch.

[Berserker]

Most certainly I'd like to thank my parents, as they're really the ones who are responsible for my getting bitten by the ole' gaming bug. I'm not exactly sure when I first started gaming, but I do know that my first conscious memory is of sitting in my folks' bedroom, playing the Colecovision, if that's any kind of indicator. My mother also spent much of her time at the arcade when she was pregnant with me, and I'd like to think of that as somewhat of an early, albeit indirect exposure. ;)

Although I did start off playing these games mostly on my own, usually when the folks were too occupied tending to the house to be bothered with playing it themselves, by the time the NES era rolled around, gaming had turned into a full-blown family affair. I have particularly fond memories of getting home from school, seeing how far they'd gotten in whatever game-of-the-moment, and then all of us putting our heads together to figure out how to best whatever foes or challenges that currently stood in our way.

Good times, those were. Good times.

[Cav]

...More recently, after a couple of years of collecting and game-reviewing and briefly thinking about giving it up for lack of time, I have to credit Chris Cavanaugh for re-inspiring me to stick with it through writing for Classic Gamer Magazine.

No need to thank me Earl. Your writing kicks serious ass. Hopefully we can get another issue out the door soon. But hell, don't give it up on my account.

So, big THANKS! back at you and to everyone else who has contributed even one word to CGM.

-Cav

[Promophile]

I would have to thank my father for buying me a NES at age 4 so he wouldn't have to actually spend time with me playing catch or whatnot. That combined with moving around every 3 years has led to me becoming the obssesive game collector that I am today.

[Flack]

First, I'd have to thank my dad. My dad was a bigger technogeek than I am. When I was in elementary school, we had a custom computer desk eight foot wide in our living room with three computer systems on it -- an Apple II, a Commodore 64, and an IBM XT. My dad taught me to program in BASIC when I was in like 2nd grade. During my elementary years, we worked as a team to finally defeat the evil Werdna in Wizardry together. My dad and I spent hours playing Atari, Odyssey, and computer games together. Without him, there would be no Flack.

Second, I'd like to thank my wife. As many of you know, for my 30th birthday, she took our unused workshop and transformed it by hand into an arcade, complete with black and white checkered carpet, a microwave, a fridge, etc. She even painted it and everything. But beyond that, she's put up with many years of buying, selling and playing games -- and now she's putting up with my son and I doing it together. My collection and contributions to this site would be much smaller if it weren't for her understanding and encouragement.

Third, I'd like to thank PDF and Icbrkr. Moreso than anyone else I've met and talked to, these are the two guys that I have more in common with than anyone else. Through them I realized that there was an entire community out there of people just like me. They have also showed me that buying games is much cooler than simply copying or emulating them. These guys have stories and collections that I could dig through probably forever. Thanks guys, for continually inspiring me and keeping this hobby as fun as it should be.

And it goes without saying, a big thanks to Joe for giving us to dream, reminisce, and play.

[Lothars]

Well I would like to thank my uncle for buying me one of my first systems which was my nintendo

though before him I had another system, which I honestly only remember bits and pieces of it, I know it had cartridge style games but not sure exactly what it is, also the other thing I remembered was that it had a joystick controllers with buttons.

anyway when I got my nintendo I really got into games, I was completely addicted, especially once Super Mario Brothers 3 and it's just one of the things that really got me addicted.

I will always remember the one day my uncle showed up and gave me the original nintendo for my birthday, I was amazed but so excited, also he brought me the original mario brothers and than when super mario brothers 3 was released playing that for months and months on end.

I also would like to thank my Mom because she bought me the super nintendo and honestly that's the system I will always remember, playing games like zelda a link to the past and Final Fantasy 3, but also when my grandma bought me Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG brand new when they first got released, It really got me to love the system especially for the Roleplaying games, but also some of the other games such as earthworm jim.

but than I also remember playing games in the arcade in

my small town but I do miss the arcade's that really don't

exist as much anymore. it's really a shame that they are not as prominant as before.

I also remember being excited to renting

games on weekends such happy times.

I also want to thank my mom for buying me my first

gameboy when I was in the hospital with my brain tumor,

I remember playing the system for months on end.

It's suprising how well i remember it,

I also want to thank this forum and Joe also all the other moderators, but also just really everyone else on the site that makes me feel that I belong,

I am so addicted to the forum and It's one of my favorite sites, I definitely enjoy coming here, this site is one of a kind such a community really amazing. my only complaint is that I only noticed this site a couple months ago, when I wish i would have found it years ago, but that's ok.

I just have to thank THATinkjar for creating the topic, :-P

anyway thanks again for reading my post and have a good day everyone

woohoo a 100 post :)

[Jumpman Jr.]

My Doctor:
I had sugery done and couldn't walk for a few weeks... So I did the only logical thing, went out and bought a NES.

Also, I bought my NES from a guy at Microplay (he just works there, he doesn't manage it or anything), and he still works there now. Everytime I see him in there I smile because I know he sold me my first NES.

Also, my parents who bought me a NES, SNES and N64 when they came out 8-)

[Ed Oscuro]

I would like to thank Canada! Er...the US courts for striking down Nintendo's monopoly.

I know, that's nothing to do with the topic at hand, had to say it anyway.

Okay, I guess my dad, for taking me to so many baseball/coin shops when I was little. Helped me figure out some of the things that go into collecting.

[yuppicide]

The only one I can say that got me hooked on video games was my father. We bought the Atari 2600 soon as it came out with a few games. I've been playing games ever since. I was probably 5 or 6 years old when it came out. My Uncle worked for some place that dealt with Atari, so he got a lot of free games. He had a crapload. I wish I could get ahold of them all now.

[Xexyz]

All I can really thank is this community and to a much lesser extent, the classic forums at GameFAQ's. I'm the oldest sibling of three, and also the only guy. My sisters never got into gaming really. One got a Game Gear back in 1992, which I quickly inherited. The other one bought a GBC and a GBA near their release dates shortly after I got my own. Both of those collect dust to this day. They played Nintendo quite a bit when it was hooked up in the older ones room for a couple of years, but about a year ago I snatched it up and added it back to my collection of consoles. My parents? A few games of Super Mario Bros., Pac-Man, and Mario Kart is about all they will ever be up for.

It was when I started visiting these forums that my interests really came out. Prior to the summer of 2004, I was more of a casual gamer out of the circle. My most recent console was an N64, which I absolutely loathed at the time. My obsession for owning a copy of Gunstar Heroes is what got me into collecting. it started solely with the Genesis, since my most fondest, nostalgic memories come from this particular system. But I branched out soon after.

Coming to this site, checking out the rarity guides, the weekly/weekend finds, and various other posts got me to become a more hardcore gamer. One by one I added systems to my collecting spree. I re-adopted my N64 and NES, went out and bought a used Dreamcast and a used SNES, and even branched out to the current generation of consoles when I purchased a bargain bundled GameCube brand new.

Gaming is sweet now, and I owe it (curse it?) all to this website!

[THATinkjar]

I'd like to thank you all for these little stories. I've really enjoyed reading them. In many ways, they are all quite similiar - and in other ways, they are all very different. Thanks guys.

[robotriot]

Cool thread :D

For me, it was my brother as well who got me into gaming. He got his A500 in 1987 and he let me watch him playing on the machine. I think I was quite annoying to him, because I kept coming up to his room asking if I could watch him play ^^ The first and only game I played was multiplayer Bubble Bobble with my brother, but I really sucked as I couldn't handle the joystick yet. Also, I just generally didn't dare touching the computer because I thought I could break something. My brother lost interest in gaming in about 1990 or 1991, that's when the Amiga was moved to the basement to cover dust. Then, in 1994, my parents decided I was old enough to make my first steps in the computer world, so that's when I inherited the A500.

One year later, I got a Pentium 75 (I wanted to upgrade to an A1200 :/). Finally I was able to exchange games with my friends at school, who all had PCs. I kept playing my old Amiga games (got new ones from time to time via mail order), but I focused mainly on PC gaming.

In 2000 or 2001 I started getting more interested in other Commodore machine, so I got myself a C128 and an A1200, as well as a CD32, my first console. That's when I really picked up interest in console gaming, so I slowly started to amass more of these machines and check out all the games I missed as a kid ^^

[NESaholic]

I would like to thank my collegue,he hooked me up with collecting again,plus he intorduced me to eBay.

Without him i would not have started collecting,so mega thanx Peter!

[ozyr]

I'd have to thank myself. I am the one and only person that got myself hooked on video games. Yes, my parents did buy my first game system, but only after I bugged the hell out of them - because I wanted it so bad. After that, I bought almost all of my games, and systems, to this very day on my own.

No big outside influence, except the games and system themselves.