Press The Buttons

Secret Origins: Darkwing Duck

By 1991 the Nintendo Entertainment System had become the center of my entertainment universe.  I had a closet full of old Nintendo Power magazines, had slept on the Super Mario bedsheets, carried notebooks and folders with Link on them to school, and consumed my share of snacks shaped like famous Nintendo characters.  One afternoon my Dad and I were out running errands, and somewhere while driving from one store to the next we started talking about the future of video games.

Now, this wasn't a very deep conversation.  We weren't talking about how someday in the future we'll all be waving controllers around in front of a sensor bar and downloading optional levels to store on a hard drive.  Instead we were talking about video games and how, someday, they might be able to teach as well as entertain.  Now, even by this point there had been edutainment titles.  My elementary school was loaded with Apple IIe machines that taught spelling and math skills, and my own Commodore 64 at home was used for learning as well as fun.  But the issue at hand was about the actual NES itself and how, according to my father, it had no educational value.  His opinion was that it would never be able to teach anything of value.  I countered that not only could it teach, but there were already games to do so.  We went back and forth on this for a while, and eventually he proposed a bet.  If I could prove that there were educational NES games, he'd buy me the game of my choice.

Secret Origins: Bubble Bobble

It seems only right that the first story I share as part of the Secret Origins series be the tale of the purchase of my very first video game.  After becoming enamored with a loaner Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986 at the age of five, I knew I had to have a console of my own.  My parents had set a policy that if I wanted a NES, I'd have to pay for it with my own money, and by the following summer I'd managed to save enough allowance money and wrapped pennies to afford a NES of my very own plus one game.  Every month my mother and I would go shopping in the nearby city of Orlando, and while these trips involved mainly just tagging along through department stores and occassionally trying on clothes, one particular shopping day ended at Toys 'R' Us.

Secret Origins

All the talk about the future of video games and digital distribution got me to thinking about all of the game cartridges and discs I've purchased or been given over the years.  A lot of those cartridges have a little origin story behind them involving a memorable day, a special event, good friends, romantic infatuation, or some other such special moment.  They're personal stories, stories that I keep and remember, and stories that I want to share.  "Secret Origins" is a new ongoing feature here at Press The Buttons in which I'll share the stories behind the acquisition of some of my favorite video games, all the way from the first game I ever purchased up to the present day.  You'd be surprised how much game cartridges have to say if we'd only just listen.