The 5 Levels of Gamer

Level 1:

Non gamers can be like fully fledged atheists. They couldn’t comprehend your religion even if they tried.

They have no childhood ties to video games, they still think computers are just a fad and their Nokia 3220 has a game on it called snake they will never play.

Whether for lack of skill or will they decide it’s best avoid videogames, because eventually all the people involved will get square eyes. Obviously.

You are forgiven and forgotten when videogames are raised, because more than likely you are too old to have played anything that wasn’t a pinball machine.

Level 2:

Casual gamers don’t actively seek out to play video games but somehow get involved in the odd Call of Duty or FIFA game at a mates house. You don’t actually own a videogame console.

People think that just because you’re a little younger you should understand how videogames or computers work. You don’t.

It happens, you’re at your friends house with nothing to do and they say something like “Hey wanna play FIFA?” to which you reply “OK cool, but im not very good.”

Look you’re always going to get beaten with that mentality, and if you ever play Call of Duty you’re just making up the numbers.

You literally have no thumb dexterity.

On the rare occasion the controller will be thrust into your lap but you will never actively seek out a game.

You do however have angry birds and candy crush installed on your iphone 3G and you constantly annoy all your facebook friends with endless requests from Candy Crush Saga.

Level 3:

You actually own a videogame console. Which is a start. It is more than likely a Nintendo Wii. Sigh.

No look I don’t hold it against you and your willingness to get fit based off the balance board which is now far more functional as a dust gatherer in your entertainment cupboard.

Even I love Wii fit and Wii sports, but by the time it takes us to find the controller, buy new batteries and work out what channel your Wii is attached to I’m already exhausted.

On the plus side you actually understand how video games operate so you won’t come dead last when we play Halo. You manage to camp in an area covered by one of your highly skilled friends and you kill your casual gamer friend until they crack the shits and give up.

You claim to be awesome at Solitaire, which I don’t doubt. Given that you literally have no other game of interest installed on you Windows 98 PC.

Level 4:

You own a console and play games on your PC. And when I say games I mean other than Solitaire and Minesweeper.

You hold your own in a death match and you even won a couple of games at one stage.

For Christmas your uncle buys you video games, usually the latest version of Call of Duty, FIFA or Need for Speed. You play them for a couple of hours but you will never finish them before the next Christmas comes and you receive the next game in the series.

Your PS3 is hooked up to the internet though. Every now and then you play online. It’s good fun but your dad uses the same TV to watch his shows and you rarely get the chance to play the PS3.

It’s ok you have FIFA on your iphone 5 and all your players are 90 overalls which means Manchester United has won every championship in the last 5 years.

One day you have the potential to develop into a gaming addict when you accidently come across a game called DOTA that you decide to devote 20,000 hours of your life becoming the very best at.

Level 5:

You own more than 2 consoles and a high end PC. The standard Intel fan that came boxed with your processor was insufficient. You have an extensive array of headsets, mice, keyboards and controllers and over the years you’ve amassed quite the collection.

Your gaming library dwarfs most but you never have enough to play. You have actually had to consider at some stage what other storage space will be potentially viable for you collection to flow onto.

You have more than one online gaming account, usually Steam, Xbox Live and PSN.

You have been to a midnight release of a video game. More than likely one you pre-ordered that got delayed 5 times before you could actually go and pick it up. You bought DLC for that same game even though it was a farce that it was DLC.

You have bought limited releases of games just for extra items such as; figurines, extra content, beta access, limited edition controllers or access codes.

Some people have decided they will no longer play certain games with you. But you don’t care because you’re level 5 and leveling up is what gaming is all about.

My Life as a Gamer: Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Revisited

In 2010 my education in gaming had come full circle. I was ready to return to my roots. I purchased a SNES with two controllers and started to back track through all the historical games I missed. I played through Donkey Kong Country 2, Contra 3 and most importantly Chrono Trigger. I feel like these games truly represent the raw entertainment behind gaming for me.

I am one of the few people I know who has completed both Contra 3 and Chrono Trigger, two games known to be difficult to finish. Contra 3 is brutally hard. To this day I consider it the hardest game I’ve ever played. Current mainstream games have a checkpoint every other minute. While it is not necessarily a bad thing it does remove the fear of “dying” to a certain degree. Contra 3 couldn’t be any further from that reality. It’s hard to explain the fear of dying when you have invested so much time into getting to your current point in a difficult game, with no save point, no fall back and with very limited lives.

Contra 3

Chrono Trigger

 

 

 

 

 

Chrono Trigger is the embodiment of the other side of gaming I love; comprehensive, action-packed story full of rich characters. The story of Chrono and Co is one that spans timelines and parallel worlds, with a finale and a boss battle that rivals even the most badass bosses. Returning to this game 15 years after it had been released took nothing away from it. It simply does not age, a sure indicator of a great game.

Next I spend some of my hard earned and build myself a gaming desktop.

My Life as a Gamer: Nintendo 64

Good family friends of ours had a Nintendo 64 (N64). It was my first introduction to competitive multiplayer gaming. I remember being in awe of the graphics, thinking: ‘this is life like, how can graphics get better?’. We used to spend our time playing Golden Eye 007 and Mario Kart 64. Two games I believe stand the test of time and have both significantly influenced the gaming landscape.

Golden Eye 007

Mario Kart 64

 

 

 

 

 

 

Golden Eye 007’s effect on the rise of First Person Shooters (FPS) is renowned. It was one of the first mainstream games that pitted you against three of your buddies in tight maps with a range of weaponry. Golden Eye paved the way for games like Halo, Call of Duty, and Counter Strike, games that have become legendary in their own right. Without Golden Eye 007 the gaming landscape today would be very different.

Another N64 game I was introduced to was Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It was a game I didn’t get to fully play or appreciate till years later. It still stands as one of the best games of all time.

Join me next week as we update our home computer just in time for the millennium bug.

My Life as a Gamer: Gameboy Color

Leading up to my 11^th birthday I decided I was going to buy my first ever gaming platform. I was doing chores left, right and centre trying to scrape together the funds to buy a Gameboy Color. The Gameboy Color was released in November 1998 and it took me only 3 months to save enough money to buy one. In March 1999 I finally went to Target with my Dad to buy my purple Gameboy. I remember the detail and the texture of the Gameboy like it was yesterday. I think it only took me 2 days to have it confiscated by my parents because I literally dropped all the chores I actually should have been doing.

The Gameboy came with Warioland 2, but I was so quick to finish it that I had traded it at school for Tetris and Super Mario Land by the end of the month. Still possibly one of the best game trades I have ever made. My Gameboy adoration was not complete until I bought Pokemon Red later that same year. And then I really went videogame crazy.

Pokemon

Tetris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would stay up at night, with my night light on, hidden under my doona just to continue playing Pokemon. It got to the stage where I accidentally melted a section of my doona because I didn’t realise the bulb was sitting on it. But these were the sacrifices I was willing to make for the sake of beating the elite four and having the ultimate team. I still remember now; Charizard, Pikachu, Alakazam, Dragonite, Starmie and Pidgeot. Fuck you Gary.

Join me next week as I spend most of my teenage years playing Nintendo 64.

My Life as a Gamer: Super Nintendo Entertainment System & Sega Genesis

Around 1995 I used to visit my cousins a lot. Funnily enough my Mum’s side of the family owned a Super Nintendo Entertainment System and my Dad’s side of the family owned a Sega Genesis. My Mum and Dad didn’t really want me playing video games “because your eyes will go square and they will melt your brain.” I’m still not sure if Mum and Dad told me that to scare me or if they legitimately thought both those things would happen.

Super Mario World

Killer Instinct

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first set of cousins were much cooler than me because they had a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). I still remember that all I would do at their house was rotate between playing with Lego and the SNES. We used to spend most of our time playing Super Mario World, Killer Instinct and Battle Toads. I remember being good at Super Mario, average at Battle Toads and terrible at Killer Instinct. But I enjoyed getting my ass kicked by my cousins all the same. For me Super Mario World is one of the ultimate best games of all time, but more on that later.

The second set of cousins were much cooler than me because they had a Sega Genesis. We shared our time between Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage 2 and Road Rash 2. Sonic the Hedgehog defined a generation of gamers.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Streets of Rage 2

 

 

 

 

 

You bought a Nintendo for Mario and a Sega for Sonic. Sonic introduced the speed and flow gamers were missing. While some games toyed around trudging through slow levels, Sonic was full speed and flat out. However I rarely got to play as Sonic due to the fact Sonic was always player 1. I played alongside my cousins as Tails, Sonic’s trusty side kick, always eager to help out as much as possible. I jumped around the screen not fully understanding my objective but loving every second of it.

Next week I go back to the future and visit DOS Gaming.

My Life as a Gamer: Atari 2600 Jr, Game & Watch DK

I was introduced to video games at a fairly young age.

I was five years old and playing my first console. Back then we had an Atari 2600 Jr connected to our TV. I was nearly permanently connected to it. It would be hard to explain to children now, the joy in games like Pong and Combat. Games so simplistic that your own mind would have to do half the work imagining what the blocks on the TV were actually accomplishing.

Atari 2600 Combat

Atari 2600 Pong

 

 

 

 

 

 

Combat was a game involving tank like bricks that you could drive and shoot. Everyone was far better at it than me but it didn’t stop me from trying. It was the simplest premise for a videogame but it was so intriguing this new toy that could project your actions onto a TV.

The abrupt death of my Atari 2600 came in the form of my younger sister bouncing a toy basketball on it. Devastated. Needless to say I am still scarred by that memory.

Ah deep breath. Moving on.

Around about the same time my grandma gave me a Game and Watch – Donkey Kong – and in light of the recent death of my Atari it became my new best friend. My Grandma had fished it out of an op shop and thoughtfully gave it to me to try and work out how to operate it. I was immediately taken. I played it for hours on end. I drove myself car sick on family holidays, head down playing the game for hours. Honestly that game took some serious skill, and I maintain it’s still one of the hardest games I’ve ever played.

Game and Watch Donkey Kong

Game and Watch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The game was a handheld port of the Donkey Kong arcade game that involved Donkey Kong rolling barrels down metal railing while he held the princess captive. The hero of the game, Jumpman, later renamed Mario, would become the poster boy for Nintendo and remain the flagship of their brand right up to today.

Next week fast forward to 1995 and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.