Chapter XXXVII: Wizkid

Being such a big nerd ever since a very young age, it was only natural that I would try every opportunity to bring video games into my school assignments so that I could play a little more. First time didn’t work as well as it should, but since then I knew better than to use my questionable drawing skills into the equation.

Chapter XXXVI: Mean Machine

There was an unspoken rule on game shops that dealt with pirated copies. If you got the shop owner a game he didn't have, you would have a copy on the house. It sounds wonderful, but we're talking about shelves filled with disks, some of them quite dusty and mostly unused.

Chapter XXXV: Rodland

By now, it’s well documented in this blog my never ending quest for some multiplayer challenge. My regular friends, due to the fact that most of them didn’t had computers of their own, were rubbish players. Still, this doesn’t explain why Amiga owners Palmtree Paul and Magellan Joe were so terrible. Since I was quite far from the epicentre of Amiga championships, I had no other choice than making up and imagining my own tournaments.

Chapter XXXIV: Warlords

Someone wise once said “We are young when we criticise the elder and we are old when we criticise the youth”. I cannot argue with that, even though that means that I’m getting older. Every now and then I watch how a kid acts and think to myself “I’m sure I used to be smarter”, specially when it comes to videogames.

Chapter XXXIII: Operation: Cleanstreets

In the early days there wasn't much in the way of information when it came to what were the good games. The best games were either discovered by chance or by word of mouth, but since we all know how indiscriminate were kids tastes, that usually didn't work out very well. One of the most common ways of choosing a game was just by its name.

Chapter XXXII: Pirates!

It's pretty obvious by now that I'm not even trying to give this blog any semblance of continuity. That's because I don't know of what game or episode of my life I'm going to be reminded of by looking at some broken glass on the floor or a bird taking a poo. But let me assure you that if everything was done by the book, this would definitely be chapter one.

Chapter XXXI: Wonderboy in Monsterland

I’ve mentioned in many occasions how piracy not only wasn’t fought by the authorities, but there were actually many stores around that sold pirated games in the open. These state of affairs endured until around ’93, and most of our gaming needs were purchased at the store of Mr. Joaquin.