Date: Sat, 14 Sep 1996 21:27:33 -0400 (EDT) From: Michael P Chmielecki To: brownde@cs.unc.edu Subject: my over-zealous story The Life of an Addict It started out so innocently. I'd come downstairs, eat breakfast, and play the 2600 for a while. I'd silently cringe at the graphics of Donkey Kong and Pac-man, but play them anyway. I'd scare myself witless when I got up to the level in Berzerk where all the robots were light green and mean as hell, or in Zaxxon when a block-like yellow blob (I think that was supposed to be Zaxxon Himself) would come out and spray death everywhere. Space Invaders would enthrall me for hours. Defender was fun to play, and I remember running over to a set of Crayolas and drawing my own picture of what the screen looked like. Whenever we went to my cousin's, I'd praise the heavens. He had the Colecovision AND a Vectrex (where'd he get that kind of money?) I remember sprawled-out on the living room floor fighting over who got to play Burgertime and Smurf Rescue next (that damned bat always got me). Whoever lost the war still got to play Polar Rescue or a racing game I can't remember. Next came the 5200. I remember how much better Pac-man looked, and I remember playing Vanguard and some game from Activision with the title Dreadnaught in it, oh yeah, and a lot of AstroChase. Many hours of my life disappeared while I was bathed in the glow of the TV screen (I've heard rumors that you can actually WATCH a TV, too. Ridiculous). I bought a lot of Tiger handheld games. The teachers would scold me for bringing them to class, they'd yell when I finished a test and then went straight for some horrible little racing game. I also had--and I think still have--a handheld Donkey Kong with a crane in it, and a Dungeons & Dragons game where you were a little black thing walking around and trying to shoot arrows and find ropes in different rooms. Then, the NES craze hit. I remember going to my friend's and playing Zelda and Metroid and longing for my own. When I went out and bought the Official Nintendo Player's Guide though I didn't have a Nintendo, my dad took the hint. After that, I bought a Power Glove. We all make mistakes. Then I got a GameBoy--$50 of it in quarters I swiped from my parent's change jar (they didn't mind, I hope), and $40 in fives and ones. Most of the games I had (like Revenge of the Gator,Fall of the Foot Clan, etc. were stolen). Now I could waste away playing and squinting at a spinach-colored monitor. I remember how my mom called me to dinner, and I almost shouted "Just a minute!" as I strained to see the screen, then shouted "YES! I DID IT!" when the ending sequence showed up on Super Mario Land. A lapse...torturous waiting for something new...and then Microsoft came out with their Arcade Classics. I spent most of last year playing Missile Command and Centipede, Tempest and Battlezone. My roommate and his girlfriend would kiss and do other things as I stared at my computer screen and the simple graphics. More programs came out: Return of Arcade, Williams Classics. I was ecstatic. And now, the world of emulators. I can't believe it. Power up my PC, and suddenly, I can play Vectrex (more games than my cousin had) and ColecoVision (ditto), 2600 and Commodore 64. I am truly in heaven. (this piece about addiction was by mike chmielecki; visit my homepage if you want: http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mpc1) And by the way, I have a real life, too, but it's gradually being swallowed up by Robotron:2084 and Q*bert.