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How Could I Be A Gamer If I Live All The Way Out Here?

Exactly. That might be the question on your mind right now. The Philippines isn't exactly the greatest country in the world. It has serious issues with poverty and government corruption. Our exchange rate with the US dollar is at an all time low and the threat of the government collapsing on the weight of its own sins can happen any day.
That, my friends, is a Philippine flag.

So why the hell am I a gamer? I ask myself that question a lot. Maybe I should have picked a more inexpensive hobby.

How'd I get introduced to the wonderful world of video and computer games? Maybe that's a good place to start.


Have you ever heard of a device called a "Game and Watch"? I think Nintendo produced that thing sometime in the 80s'. If memory serves me right, that's where I got introduced into video games. I played this game where you're controlling this monkey that's supposed to be catching coconuts being dropped from a high place. If you miss, you lose a turn...and eventually it's game over. The idea was that the monkey dropping the coconuts from the high place would get faster and faster over time, and that's where the game provided endless amounts of challenge for my then feeble mind.

I also got introduced to the wonderful world of video gaming thanks to a little device known as the COLECO VISION video game console.


At this point some of you may be wondering--why the hell are they shipping COLECO consoles all the way out there in Asia?

Actually, my parents got it for me as a present after a visit to the United States. If memory serves me right, they got me the console along with three other games. The only game I have any recollection of is DONKEY KONG. At this point in time I can't recall the other two titles that they got for me.

The Coleco Vision game console provided hours of fun...the only problem I had was that I could never ever find games for it in the local department store. I recall that store clerks had no clue what I was talking about whenever I asked them about Coleco Vision cartridges.

Oddly enough, they did sell Atari game console cartridges--and boy, did that piss me off. This was how I discovered, early on in life, the number one rule of console gaming (and this rule still applies to this very day):

Game software designed for one console will not work with another console.

So it began. For me, at least.

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