I’ve been gaming since the SNES was big 🙂
The first game console that I played on was the SNES, but the first game console that I owned was a Sega Dreamcast. I’ve since owned systems by Sega (the Dreamcast), Nintendo (Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Wii), Sony (PlayStation Portable, Playstation 2, PSPgo), and Microsoft (Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One).
My first console gaming experience was on SNES. A neighborhood kid also had the Super Famicom. I was always fond of the Mario and Donkey Kong games, but the title that really captivated my interest was Super Metroid.
I also played the SEGA Genesis.
My family has owned computers ever since I was an infant. I played Pipe Dream on the Apple Macintosh, Chip’s Challenge on Windows 95. The Incredible Machine was a childhood favorite.
The first real PC games that I played were Mechwarrior II and Command & Conquer. I remember waiting ages for the Command & Conquer demo to download on a 56k connection. I also enjoyed flight simulators, though I never took them too seriously.
The first game that I bought for myself was Final Fantasy VII (FF7) for the PC. I will always remember FF7 for having one of the best videogame soundtracks of all time.
My first handheld was the original Nintendo GameBoy. We eventually bought a GameBoy Color as well. I spent many hours playing Pokémon Blue.
I spent most of my childhood without a game console, and learned early on that emulators were awesome. Using emulators, I was able to play a vast library of games. Chrono Trigger. The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past.
When the Sony PlayStation 2 hit store shelves, I was surprised to learn that people had lined up to get their hands on a unit. Glen W.’s mother managed to get one for the boys. By the time that I convinced my father that we had to go to the store, they’d long since sold out. I pleaded and pleaded, and we came back home with a Sega Dreamcast.
I played Sonic: Adventure and trained my Chao using the VMU.
My introduction to the first-person shooter genre was Doom. My uncle introduced me to the game, and it gave me endless thrills as a young boy. IDDQD, IDKFA, IDCLIP. I got more serious with FPS through games like Unreal Tournament, Counter-Strike, and Command & Conquer: Renegade.
I began my foray into online gaming with Command & Conquer: Renegade. I played with Li Shuai H. and Alex K. I was especially fond of playing the snipers.
Next, still in Beijing, was Counter-Strike. I started with v1.5, and got into v1.6 while Steam was still in its infancy. Everyone was playing Counter-Strike at school. We’d often go to the cyber cafe at Euro Plaza after school: there was a whole group of students from my grade who’d go together to play for a couple of hours together.
I kept going with Counter-Strike for years, stopping with Counter-Strike: Source. I played that on my first gaming rig, OCEANBLUe, and even joined a local clan while I was going to ISKL. It took hours out of my precious sleep on some school nights, but I stuck with it for a while.
I picked up a Sony PlayStation Portable. Jailbroke it, and rediscovered SNES games. The Sony PSP marked a turning point for me as an internet user: I began educating others on how to jailbreak their PSPs.
In college, I played Halo 3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Call of Duty: Black Ops. Playing Zombies in Black Ops was especially fun. Good PVE experience.
I went through a couple of Xbox 360s. Halo: Reach. And then I got rid of it all.
Ricardo O. introduced me to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. As a fan of Super Metroid, I fell in love with the game. I played it on my PSP Go.
I wouldn’t get another console until Alice and Neil beckoned me to join them in Destiny. I started playing just shortly before the first DLC, The Dark Below, was released.
When my Xbox Live subscription lapsed, I used the opportunity to take a break from Destiny and console gaming. From February 6 to June 17, 2016, I picked up Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on the PC. I credit my short stint back in CS for catalyzing a turning point in my approach to first-person shooters.
Counter-Strike is such a competitive game. My brief stint with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive made me tear down my FPS gameplay back to basics. Even after so many years of playing Counter-Strike, I was still making scrub moves. Much as I would have liked to git good in Counter-Strike … It didn’t help that Counter-Strike is notorious for cheaters.
I came back to Destiny after a brief flirtation with Overwatch. Shortly afterwards, I began streaming in earnest, and began building the yetieater identity.
By the time that Destiny 2 came out, I had logged just shy of 3000 hours on Destiny. I came back hard. Grinded it so much that my sleep schedule was fuxxed, and I skipped workouts like the game was the only thing that was important. A few weeks of running Trials of the Nine stacked and at the end of it all, I found myself facing a new decision.
PullRequest had picked up Fortnite. I logged my first Xbox session of the game on October 17, 2017.