What was my first ever video game?
Oh… so we are in flashback mode today, are we?
You know me by now, WordPress: I am not a gamer—never was. I have only ever indulged in three video games, ever.
Road Rash, the classic motorcycle racing game. I went in to feel the wind in my hair virtually on dangerous and lonely mountain roads at sweet sixteen.
Sierra Nevada was my favorite place to be every evening after returning from yet another harrowing day at college—days that rolled past, with me ruminating on why I ever chose Maths, Physics, and Chemistry!
The time I spent racing while I had my tea and snacks was the only time I could dream of better days and a better life, with those bone-drying subjects off my tired back.
I quit playing when I realized, to my horror, that it came with violent vehicular combat, not to mention the punching and kicking by rival racers.
The 9999-in-1 Bricks Game Console, the handheld video gaming device of the ’90s that came with variants of the classic Tetris, was a battery-powered, joyful escape from those endless afternoons of my early 20s.
I had to fight with my brother to lay my hands on it, and by the time it reached me, it needed to be charged. I remember it more for my impatient hours spent waiting for the poor little yellow thing to charge while I sat around cursing my brother than for actually playing with it.
Will I ever forget the iconic doot-doot-doot that little thing with the monochrome screen made? It’s funny how a small LCD held our interest in those days with no Internet—an era with fewer choices and a happier, less stressful life.
Diamond Rush, another classic game that came pre-installed on Nokia phones. A favorite pastime during a very short period of my entrepreneur days. Played on a borrowed phone of an employee, this game saw me channel my inner Indiana Jones. The temples and the traps, the jewels and the portals; everything was up my alley. But once I raced through everything and reached the end, that was it. Never went back to it.
Three games that marked three different seasons of life. One, an escape from gruelling studies, another a shared obsession with a sibling, while one was a short-lived, thrilling, entrepreneurial-era diversion.
Care to drop a tiny pearl from the ocean of your mind?