The first time I played The Secret of Monkey Island, I was sixteen and spending the night at my friend Dave’s house. His family had this absurdly high-end computer that his dad needed for “work purposes,” though we mostly used it to play games when his parents weren’t home. Dave had gotten a new LucasArts game and insisted I needed to see it. “It’s about pirates, but funny pirates,” he explained, as if that clarified…
Christmas 1997 was a turning point in my gaming life, though I didn’t realize it at the time. My then-girlfriend…
The first time I ever saw Pac-Man, I couldn’t even reach the controls without standing on my tiptoes. It was…
The first time I saw Star Fox in action was at a Toys “R” Us demo kiosk in early 1993.…
The first time music made me cry, it wasn’t a sad movie score or a heart-wrenching pop ballad—it was the…
It was the summer of 1995, and I was working at Electronics Boutique in the Woodland Mall—one of those summer…
There’s something deeply satisfying about the clean, definitive moment when a puzzle clicks into place. That mental “aha!” sensation when…
I still remember the first time I saw Sonic the Hedgehog in action. It was summer 1991, and I was…
My first real couch co-op experience happened in 1988 when my brother Dave finally let me be Player 2 in…
The first time I booted up Myst was at my friend Tony’s house in the winter of 1994. His family…
