Guest Blog - NES days gone by....

Some people remember the first time they first rode their bike without stabilisers some people remember their first car. Me? I remember my first console. 

I remember ripping open the Christmas paper to reveal the box for the Nintendo Entertainment System, it looked magnificent! The two stickers on it let me know it came with Super Mario 3! I was so excited, I never wanted to open the other presents, I just wanted to play my new console. Sadly I would have to wait until the rest of the presents were open. As soon as i could, I got my dad to help me connect it up to the TV. Switching it on and seeing it load up to SM3, was perhaps the greatest thing I had ever seen, it looked so great, so crisp, so mesmerising.

 There is very little I remember of that Christmas, other than my new NES, everything else seemed so insignificant. This was the first time I had ever played a computer game, I wondered how I had went so long without this joy. Using the control pad to make Mario jump on the Koopa's and save the Princess, made me feel so in control.

It felt like I was a Knight of old, on my own quest to save the damsel in distress. The colours of the game seemed so bright, the graphics so smooth and refined. Even when I look at how real games look these days, when I switch on SM3, it still looks so perfect.

Over the years I have played through my NES games many many times, it still remains a permanent feature of my living room. I have never really felt that the console has got dated, to me it is as relevant as it did the day i got it. When I pick up the controller these days, a flood of memories rush through my brain. I remember on the last day of Primary School, I fell of my bike & fractured my skull - spent weeks in hospital, though it seemed to fly by.

The children's ward in the hospital had a NES in the rec room, though only one game, Duck Hunt. I spent most days in there all day shooting the computer ducks with the light gun , it relaxed me and made me forget that I was spending my last summer before High School, stuck in a hospital. Some people read to relax, some people go for a nap. Me? I become a plumber and go save the Princess! -

GamesYouloved would like to thank, Stang.  Our Guest Blogger for his RETRO gaming memories.