I still remember the first cheat code I ever learned. It wasn’t even from a magazine or the internet—those weren’t really options for me back then. It was passed down like sacred knowledge on the playground during recess, a third-grader with a Nintendo Power subscription whispering it to me behind the slide: “Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start.” The Konami Code. When I got home that day, I immediately tried…
A long time ago in an arcade far, far away… actually, it was just down at the Westland Mall, sandwiched…
I’ve been staring at this blank document for about twenty minutes now, trying to figure out how to start an…
You know what I miss about the pre-internet gaming era? The mystery. The whispered secrets. The absolutely bonkers rumors that…
The first time a video game made me cry, I tried to hide it. It was 1997, I was 19,…
The first computer I ever built myself was a disaster. It was 1994, I was 16, and I’d spent months…
I still have the scar on my right thumb from the Great Mortal Kombat Debate of 1993. Jimmy Peterson and…
Christmas morning, 1985. I’m sitting cross-legged on our shag carpet, staring wide-eyed at this gray box connected to our family…
You know you’ve reached a certain point in your adult life when you catch yourself thinking, “I once spent four…
Halloween, 1989. While other teenagers were out causing trouble or attending parties, I was hunched in the blue glow of…
