StubborNES
I may edit it a bit, as something about it is bothering me.
***
StubborNES
by Rob "Dire 51" Strangman
I was very much a die-hard Atari fanboy in the late '80s. I knew nothing of the blunders that had been made. I knew nothing of the Crash. All I knew was that around 1984 or so, Atari games got to be incredibly cheap, and that, in turn, started a golden era for me. But by late 1986, you couldn't help but to hear the one word on everyone's lips when it came to gaming - Nintendo. By 1987, it was pretty well established that Atari was the past and the NES was the future.
Oh, how I hated the idea. You can take your fancy graphics and shove them where the sun don't shine, I snarled at the NES converts at my school. Why would I need this thing when Atari has the 7800? It can play all of my old games. Can your NES do that? I don't THINK so. And mark my words, Atari will release new games, games that are bound to be better than anything that Nintendo *scoff* will ever be able to release.
Now you might think that I had played the NES already and made my judgment based on what I'd played. Are you kidding? I was 12 and wasn't capable of stepping outside of fanboy mode. I was so blindly loyal to Atari that I dismissed the NES without even as much as picking up a controller.
That all changed, thanks to my best friend Len. He and I played videogames together all the time. We played the system we both owned, the Atari 2600, and the systems he owned: Atari 800, Intellivision (which was another "loser" system in my eyes) and the TRS-80 (pffft... well, Downland was cool, but THAT'S IT!). And of course, let's not forget the arcade games we'd play when our parents took us out.
But one day in mid-'87 there was a surge of excitement at Len's place. I was staying over for the weekend, as I often did, and his aunt and uncle had come by. With them was a brand new NES. My eyes narrowed in disgust, but everyone else there, including Len, was excited about it. Fine, whatever. You guys go play your precious NES, I'm going to the kitchen.
As I sat there in the kitchen nursing a glass of Coke, I could hear the sounds of laughter coming from the family room, along with... music? Videogame music? I guess it was possible. After all, some 2600 games had music. As I continued to sit there and listen to everyone having a great time, I realized that I was pretty lonely. My best friend was in there playing this thing, and I'm out here with an empty glass of Coke.
Finally I shrugged, got up and went to the family room. I sat next to Len, and he asked if I wanted a turn. I politely declined and did my best to avoid looking at the screen. But little by little, I started to watch what was going on. Finally I was actively watching this NES game they were playing, Super Mario somethingorother (Mario? Donkey Kong and Mario Bros.' Mario? Sure looks like it.)
And somewhere inside my brain, a little voice said "y'know... that looks like... fun."
I tapped Len on the shoulder. "You know, I think I will give it a shot," I said. When the immediate game was over, I was handed the controller. I looked at it and thought "What the hell is this? Where's the joystick? What's with the cross thing? There's four buttons? This is MADNESS!" But after a quick runthrough of the controls, I pressed start... and I was killed immediately by the first Goomba. But I wasn't about to let that deter me; I kept going. And damn it, I realized after a few minutes, this IS fun. I didn't even make it past World 1-1 that first time, but I was now anxiously awaiting my next turn.
In just a few short hours, my eyes were permanently opened. Never again would I judge a system without playing it first. Never again would I turn my nose up at something because it didn't have the Fuji symbol on it. That day, Atari lost one of its most loyal fanboys, although I certainly didn't dump all of my Atari stuff in favor of the NES or anything like that. I had now experienced a bigger world than I realized existed, although it had been hinted at by the other systems that I scoffed at earlier in life. Thanks to that one evening with the NES, I came to realize that Atari was just the tip of the iceberg for me, and I wanted more. Now that I knew what awaited me, I gladly embraced the future, and I never looked back.
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Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta
Once I got that first taste, it became awfully hard for me to not look through the NES games at Toys 'R Us and Kay-Bee anymore. I remember now looking and seeing what looked like all these awesome new games, including Super Pitfall. I knew I had to get an NES then just to play that. Too bad I didn't know the horrible truth about it.
