Like Greg, my love of gaming goes way back to my early childhood and begins with the goodness what was the Atari 2600. I have fond memories of my mom and I playing Pac-Man, Combat, Yars’ Revenge and even the debacle that was E.T. I think we went through a joystick every six months, those damn things were just so poorly made. I played this system on a little 19” black and white TV for most of my childhood until we made the leap to the NES when I was in 7th grade. From this point on I mastered my platforming skills and found a love for sports titles. Tecmo Bowl still kicks Madden’s ass to this day.

Although home consoles have always been a big part of my gaming history I can’t say that they were the major influence in my tastes today. My gaming teeth were really cut in the arcades, where I plunked down innumerable quarters and mastered the skills of ignoring distractions and building my tolerance for cigarette smoke.

I had older cousins when I was young and they grew up with the arcades. The Atari was just a cheap knock-off in their eyes, so if I wanted to be cool like my cousins I had to hit the arcades. So I’d pull up a stool and play like the big boys at games such as Zaxxon, Sinistar, Galaga, Tron, Dragon’s Lair, Pac-Man, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Dig-Dug, Tempest, and Star Wars. Later when I was old enough to go to the arcade by myself I indulged in such favorites as: Altered Beast, Operation: Wolf, Superman, Street Fighter II, WWF Superstars, Terminator 2 and countless others at the local Boardwalk arcade. For $20 you could play all day and I did exactly that all summer long.

My arcade passion really hit a new level when I found X-Men: Children of the Atom at the local arcade. This totally blew me away. A game that combined the fighting of Street Fighter II and my favorite comic book heroes was like interactive crack. When I moved into my first apartment I found an arcade within walking distance and spent way too much time and money playing this game. This lasted for about a year until a new Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet arrived. This was too much, Marvel AND Street Fighter characters in the same game? Was Capcom trying to kill me? The gameplay wasn’t your traditional Street Fighter fare either, it was out of control, but I didn’t care because it was so damn fun to play. The crowds that game attracted were what really made gaming so much fun back then.

However, growing up gaming in arcades doesn’t expose you to a lot of RPG’s. I didn’t own a computer until I was in college and never got into the Zelda or Final Fantasy games. My gaming tastes usually ended up trying to recreate that arcade feeling at home, whether it’s the Super Nintendo, Dreamcast, or even today with the Playstation 3. Right now I’m salivating for the PSN release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and praying for a TE Fightstick to fall in my lap so I can properly relive those glorious arcade days. All I’d be missing is the background noise of Mario jumping barrels and the smell of spilled soda. Ahh, those were the days.