As one of the older members of GOXMG Forums, I was thinking about my very first taste of gaming many years ago.  It must have been the Christmas of 1976 or so and my parents bought us an RCA Studio II.  I had to go online and do some searching to find the exact console they bought us.  I knew it was the right one when I saw the orange cartridges, I’ve never forgotten those.  I remember having Pong, and a tennis games, which was probably just like the original pong, and a card game.  It was hooked up to a small black and white TV we had in the kitchen at the time.  Those are some wonderful memories for me, thinking about me and my brother and sister playing against our dad, and him probably letting us win most of the time.

That started what has turned out to be a life long love affair with games for me.  Growing up, that was the only console I ever owned.  I had an uncle that was only a year older than me, and he got an Atari for Christmas some time later, so I was able to feed my addiction with that.  Then a cousin from Canada moved in to the house right beside us and he got an Intellivision for Christmas when we were just starting high school I believe.  That also helped fuel my love of gaming.

There was always the trip to the local arcade whenever I would go to any mall, or the arcade a few blocks away by the pizza parlor.  Oh the number of quarters I’ve spent playing games, like 1942 and Pac-man, Joust and countless others.  I would love to know how much that ended up totaling, then again, maybe not.  Later, when I had joined the Air Force and was stationed in Guam in 1987, I went to the Base Exchange, and saw an Amiga 500, and ended up buying it and a few games, one I believe was a golf game.  Another favorite of mine at the time was a basketball game, many a games were played and beers drunk in Guam and then Osan Korea in the late 80′s and early 90′s.

I moved on from the Amiga to PC gaming, and remember what is probably one of my favorite games of all time, Diablo, oh so many trips to the underground for loot and killing, those were some good days, and nights.  I can remember setting my alarm for 4am so I could get up and get in a couple hours of Diablo before going to work.

It wasn’t until the original Xbox came out that I bought my first console.  A friend of mine where I worked at the time kept bugging me to buy one, he said this game, “Halo“, was awesome and I just had to try it.  I had passed on the Playstation and Playstation 2, my uncle had bought both for his son so I got to play them whenever I would visit them.  It was around March, probably four months after the Xbox came out that I finally talked my ex into letting me buy one, and it turned into a real addiction.

I can’t fathom the amount of games, time and money that I’ve sunk into gaming since then.  I can even remember when Xbox Live was being talked about, wondering if it would be fun or not, since I had up to then played mostly single player games and the occasional multiplayer game on PC, like Day of Defeat, but had never used a mic or talked to anyone.  I got into the Xbox Live Beta, near the end, but can still remember playing on Live for the first time.

Needless to say, it’s been a blast.  Due entirely to this site and the members we have.  I can honestly say that if I had never found the GOXMG Forums I probably would have given up on Live and the smaktards long ago.  Some of my best gaming memories are from this generation now, and I have two daughters that have both taken up the gaming mantle from their dear old dad, one that I hope they enjoy for as many years as I have and are able to pass on as they grow older.