Back in 1989, I was incredibly fortunate to get a NES. I’d wanted one so badly that I wrote sincere poetry about it and drew pictures.
Neither of those are things I do all that often.
Or ever.
I loved the heck out of that system (and still have it!), and played it every chance I got. I would get up before school (which was quite early as I had to catch the city bus each day), play as much as I could, and would play it at night after my homework was complete.
I was mildly obsessed.
In December of 1991, I got my first piano (a story for another time), and from that point on, everything was piano practice. Five hours a day, every day, for years. And if you think that’s an exaggeration, I assure you, it’s literal. I would play so long, my back started to hurt at the ripe old age of 14.
After I got that piano, all my gaming went to the wayside. Sure, I would play here and there, but it was nowhere near as often as before.
Thus began my gaming “dark days.” I didn’t play games on a regular basis again until I got my Xbox and my GameCube on the same day in 2005.
A lot happened in 14 years.
Over that decade plus, I missed a lot of consoles and a lot of games. I never had a PS1. I never had a Nintendo 64.
I also never had a Super Nintendo.
When Nintendo announced they would be releasing a SNES Classic edition, I was all over it. I saw this as my opportunity to finally own a SNES, albeit it in miniature form.
I never played Super Metroid. I never played Super Mario World. I never played A Link to the Past. I never played Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario RPG, Secret of Mana, or Earthbound.
I have missed so much.
I got an email notification last night from Best Buy (the one and only time I’ve ordered from them) that I can pick it up at our local store this morning! I will finally (26 years later) have my very own SNES! I don’t mind that it will only have a limited selection of what the SNES had to offer; it is still far more than I’ve ever had access to before.
I’m also terribly grateful I was even able to place a pre-order. Nintendo has another “situation” on their hands with supply and demand, and I’m just hoping that the vast majority of people who want one, actually get their hands on one for the retail price and won’t have to resort to scalpers. The mishandling of the NES Classic was…something. I hope Nintendo has learned from it.
But for me, I’m ever so excited to finally have a SNES!
Do you have any “dark days” of gaming? Were there stretches of time you didn’t play games or read about them? If so, what caused that? What got you back into gaming?
This weekend (provided I start to feel better, and holy heck, I’m want to feel better so badly), I’m hoping to finally tackle the raid in Destiny 2. I am also feeling very in the mood to decorate for autumn, but that will hinge upon my feeling better as well. And I wouldn’t mind checking back in on my Animal Crossing: New Leaf town (I miss you, Xanadu!), so I may do that as well.
What are your gaming plans for the weekend?
Categories: games
Rebekah Lang 
I actually managed to get one this morning! I’m quite surprised.
For me the SNES is the true nostalgia machine. Although I did own an NES, it was the SNES that really got me into self-defining as a gamer.
I never really had a dark days of gaming. Ever since I bought my NES back in 1990, I have been pretty consistent in my playing. I would say that, if anything, my gaming has steadily ramped up over the years.
I am having a mini hiatus from gaming right now, and catching up on some nostalgia-ridden TV shows. I’ll be back in the saddle soon.
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Hey! That’s great!! I’m so glad you got one!
I like that gaming has consistently ramped up for you. I just love people’s trajectories as gamers.
Ooohhh, which shows? One of my favorite shows of all time was Magnum, P.I. so…I’m all about older shows. :)
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Buffy earlier this year. Now it’s Star Trek The Next Generation and Northern Exposure.
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Buffy is great anytime! :) I hope you enjoy the others.
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I’m super hyped for you. The SNES is the greatest gaming console ever created. It has so many titles that are still seminal classics.
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I literally can’t even right now for you – my #1 and #2 RPGs of all time are Earthbound and Secret of Mana…you get to play those for the first time! Link to the Past are you serious!!!
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HA! I responded to your other comment before I even saw this! How funny. :)
I did play most of A Link Between Worlds (the reboot on 3DS some years back) and I loved what I played, but for some reason I never finished it. I always wanted to finish it!
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That’s some high praise! I honestly can’t wait to play Earthbound and Secret of Mana.
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I’m glad you were able to get a SNES mini. I’m sure you’ll enjoy a lot of those games and I personally feel that the SNES had the best selection of quality games for a console ever. All those games are classics in my opinion and the only game missing I feel is Chrono Trigger, but looking at the total package it’s not too bad.
Hopefully Nintendo will keep its promise of consumers being able to find them going forward. If I happen to see one on a store shelf I’ll pick it up since seeing them there at all would be an improvement.
In terms of gaps in gaming I don’t have much experience with the Genesis and PS1 era of gaming and next to no early PC gaming knowledge. Since I was a kid and having multiple consoles wasn’t an option I stuck with Nintendo consoles. I had some friends who owned a Genesis and some others with PS1 but my experience with them was limited to their tastes and the time we spent playing games. My family didn’t get our first PC until I was halfway through high school and it wasn’t gaming capable.
I beat Yakuza 0 and Metroid Samus Returns this week so I’m still figuring out what to fill the gaps in with. I’ve been doing some of the side missions for Yakuza 0 on and off so I might continue that and I’m working through Psycho Pass: Mandatory Happiness on handheld. I hope you feel better soon. Have a great weekend!
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I also hope Nintendo has learned their lesson and that we see more of them on store shelves. I want everyone who wants one to get them from a retailer and not a scalper.
Isn’t it funny that growing up so many of us were exposed to other consoles through our friends? I kind of love that. I had a friend in grade school named Heather and her dad had an Atari and an entire steamer trunk full of cartridges. It was like heaven to me because we had nothing like that at all.
HEY! Congratulations on finishing both! Wheee! I hope you enjoy Psycho Pass!
Thank youuu. I’m super trying to get better in any way I can. I have an arsenal of cold and flu products at the ready. :)
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I have a similar stretch. We had up a NES and, eventually, Genesis in the house I grew up in, but I had friends with SNESs. I didn’t really resume regular gaming until the PS2 and XBOX360 were relevant, if aging.
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INTERESTING. We are very similar. If I do recall, it was Okami that got us both back into gaming, yes?
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I didn’t have a SNES either but I did play it quite a bit during my childhood
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Oh, like at friends’ houses? Either way, that’s pretty neat. I never knew anyone who had one. Or if they did have one, they never told me!
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What Rebekah! How did you not have an SNES? Shocking news! That was the console that started my love of games. That & Super Mario Bros. What a game; looking back it started my love of platformers & gaming in general. I have good intentions to get into Uncharted: Lost Legacy this week; I might get Knack 2 eventually before year’s end. I liked the first one; interested to see if they managed to get the wrinkles out; if that makes sense!
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I just wrote about how I didn’t have a SNES, silly! :) Honestly, even if money hadn’t been an issue, I just didn’t have the time. I was practicing piano five hours a day, every day, and between that and school and weekend jobs, I was booked out on time.
No matter what you play, I hope you enjoy it!
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I am actually just coming back out of my 2nd “dark days” of gaming. I’ve been lucky enough to own a genesis, N64, GameCube, 360, and now a Xbox One and PS4. But I have had stretches where I could find my groove.
My first “dark days” hit a couple years after the GameCube launched. Most of my friends had Xbox and PS2 so they were always playing Halo or GTA. I still played Smash or Rogue Squadron but I felt left out of the great games they played. Never could talk to them about the games I playing. Guess I never fell in love with the system for that reason.
My 2nd phase hit a the start of this console generation. I never could find a game that spoke to me. Played Destiny 1, Fallout 4, Halo 5 and the Master Chief collection. None of it stuck. I was playing games less than an hour a week on average. Finally came around when Life is Strange released. Fell in love with that game. Until I picked up Overwatch it was my favorite game on the Xbox One.
I picked up a PS4 earlier this year and haven’t looked back. Sony has put out some great 1st and 2nd party games. Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us remastered, never been happier to find truly special games.
I guess I’ve never had a true hiatus but I have definitely had some lows in my relationship with gaming.
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Isn’t it interesting what gets us into games? Like what perfect combination of time and place and interest? It’s fascinating to me.
And I have definitely had my lows, too. I’m glad we both bounced back. :)
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In college, I largely stopped playing games and eventually I bought a PS2 as a “DVD player.” In my youth I was a Sega kid. Due to finances, I didn’t make the jump to the Xbox 360 until around 2011. Overall, I missed a lot of the 2000’s in gaming. These Nintendo re-releases don’t particularly pull at my heartstrings and I’ve hardly enough time to play modern day games. I’ll stick with the plethora of games that I’ve to play on my Xbox One and Playstation 4. I’m already looking forward to some serious gaming during Thanksgiving.
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Oh my goodness, that’s right! I forgot that was a big selling point!
I didn’t get a 360 until probably around then, too, honestly. It sounds like we missed a lot of the same era/s in gaming.
I hope you get bunches of time to play and relax over Thanksgiving!
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For me, the SNES it’s the best game console of all time until today (an opinion that has a lot of nostalgia, I admit). I’m glad I had one at that time, even in the late-life of the system (1995).
My dark age was after the Nintendo 64, in 2001, that gets to an end in 2011 with the PS3. During that time, I’ve had a gamer PC, so, it was not that dark at all.
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I’m glad you had a PC to hold you over during that time. So many amazing games only ever come to PC. I should really think about getting one that can handle games one day.
And I love that you have so many positive memories of the SNES. I can’t wait to get to know the SNES Classic more. I missed so much.
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