I remember quite well my first experience with the Nintendo Entertainment System. As I had mentioned in a previous post, up until then I had been what today would be referred to as a “fanboy” of the old Atari 2600 system. I had seen some commercials for this new Nintendo console that had come out in stores, but to me they portrayed the thing as needlessly complicated. I saw kids playing with what appeared to be a toy robot. I was thinking to myself that you have to have a ridiculous toy robot to play a video game? That’s just silly! I made up my mind to just stick with the good old Atari. Things took a complete 180 when we went on a trip to visit some relatives in another state.
When we arrived and got all settled in, I naturally being your average kid was quite bored. I asked my cousin if he had any Atari games. He told me no and that he instead had a Nintendo. Being that my only knowledge of that particular system was from some ridiculous commercials, I was naturally disappointed. I asked him about the robot and the needless complication from said robot. He told me no, it’s not like that at all and to come to his room and check it out.
I settled in to observe him play a game of Super Mario Brothers. He pointed out that there was indeed no robot required and the controllers were rather comfy in the hand and easy to use. He tossed me a controller and said I could be player 2. Now of course back then, player 2 couldn’t begin the game until player 1 died so naturally I was waiting quite a bit until I was able to take control of poor neglected Luigi.
After my cousin mistimed a jump and Mario fell to his death down a pit in world 8-1, I was finally able to begin my game! Off I went as Lugi and died almost instantly when I ran into a little brown thing I later learned was a Goomba. I was back to playing the waiting game until my cousin inevitably caused Mario to die again in the world 8 castle. Luigi was off once again!
I made a much better show of it this round and managed to make it all the way to the flag pole. I botched the jump of course and wound up with a big whopping 200 points and no fireworks. I was thrilled that I was able to advance to the underground world 1-2 though. Yet as you would expect of a novice player, I Luigi died shorty after setting foot inside the level.
After playing several sessions of Mario and a few games of Duck Hunt with my cousin, I was quite enamored with this Nintendo system. I realize at that point my Atari fondness was now misplaced and I definitely wanted to get one of those Nintendo games of my very own. After making several subtle hints over the next several months, I wound up with a very nice gift under the tree for Christmas that year!