My History as a Gamer... Part 1

My history as a gamer.
During our first class we went around the room and listed the games we played. First game and platform, current game and platform. It was a fun conversation as we went around the room one by one trying to out do each other with our geeky selves. The prevailing effort was to call yourself out as a geek and a dedicated gamer. Of course not everyone fell into this category, but the majority seemed engaged in this effort.
I went early in the group and admitted to playing the Atari, as well as Oregon Trail on the PC. 

My history as a gamer is more complex then that. I figured it would be fun to explore more in depth the games I’ve played.
1980’s Atari at home- My parents got the Atari when I was around the age of five. I can’t remember a time when we didn’t have it. My favorite game was a snake game called surround. One of the settings was simply drawing on the screen with a pixilated snake. My parents also had an “adult” game. I’m not sure what it was, but I know that they made us kids go play outside when they had friends over so they could play.

Paper Roleplaying games -When I was 8 or 9 my brother started to play campaign D &D. It was new to him, a chance to play with the boys. I elbowed my way into his games occasionally. The most notable event was when he let me go into the next cave all alone, and I was eaten by a dragon. I’ve never played D&D since.

Computerized Roleplaying? -It was around this time that we were playing some sort of dungeon quest game on the Atari at my dads. (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, maybe. )
My first computer- It was also around then that I got my first computer, a commodore 64. I’d learned some very very basic graphics programming in school, and this continued on with programming in Basic.  

The Nintendo- We of course got a Nintendo, with light gun, Mario and Duck hunt. Games beyond that? Baseball,Bubble Bobble, a fishing game that was my favorite, and we of course followed the Mario series.

Game system as therapy. When my mom had her stroke we upgraded our game system as a way of improving her motor control. The game system really was hers, and the games centered around Mario.  

Computers in general. I was using computers at school and the public library at this point but had abandoned my commodore long before and had no hope of replacing it with anything else. I understood the value, and the potential of a computer, but it never really went beyond that.

Magic the addiction: why Deb is not allowed to buy magic cards or why Deb got evicted from her first real apartment. When I moved in with my highschool sweetheart/fiancé in 1994 we were actively playing CCGs. I played Magic and collected the cards with him. I also played the were wolf game and strove to play a game by Edward Beard because I enjoyed the premise, but never found enough of the cards. Unfortunatly we prioritized buying Magic cards over paying rent and paying for the car. The car was repo’d , we were evicted. When that relationship ended, I swore off CCGs.