As I've said before, I decided to tell my story and my best moments as a video gamer and collector. Today I am kinda annoyed. Since I've lost my job I've had a few things to take care and I really don't feel like searching for another job. I'd rather try to do something by myself, making a video game, I don't know. I need to think for a while, maybe find a part time and develop my skills so I am able to work by myself and eventually open my own business/company... who knows... but the economy over here is crap and it makes me want to get out of here. Unfortunately I can't do that for several reasons and I don't really want to leave the country, unless of course is to spend some nice holidays somewhere else for a short period of time :).
Anyway, this is the first episode, where everything started.
The first time I was able to play video games at home was by the time I was 5 or 6. My mother used to work as an office worker to a store/company that sold truck parts. My father used to shift work in a large gas factory. Every now and then we would pick my mother from her job by the time she came out. I used to love the ride.
One of those days, she came out of the store with a bag. That bag was something one of her mates brought to her. I was still young back then, but I knew about video games - don't ask me how. The thing that was in the bag was nothing less than a Sinclair Timex 2048, an official licensed "Spectrum" made in Portugal, also sold in the US. The spectrum had an internal memory problem it seemed, that's why it was given to my mother. It was still playable but most games wouldn't even start. It came with plenty of pirate games.Here in Portugal most stores would copy the games and sell pirate copies instead of the original version. It was such a common practice that nowadays it's actually hard to find original copies for sale.
My father managed to make the thing work. It was a little complicated and it required a tape player, something I fortunately had. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to play that many games. I remember Indiana Jones would start running but froze right before the game start. What a shame... I know I managed to play Pac Man and a few other games, but the one that I played the most and remember well was a shooter. It took me years to find out which game it was. Actually, I only figured it a few months ago and it wasn't that hard to figure out to be hones. The game was Xenon. As soon as I saw gameplay videos and the cover, I immediately remembered that was the game. I already ordered a factory sealed copy off eBay, which now lies in my collection. It's the only Spectrum game I have besides Turtles.
I remember I made it to the first boss, a large round ship. I only managed to beat it once but died right after the start of the second level, where the difficulty was greatly increased.
For some particular reason, I stopped playing that Timex. Maybe because it wasn't working properly and couldn't run the games very well... It ended up stored in the attic until my mother decided to clean the attic and threw it away, several years ago... I told her it was okay to do that. How stupid was that!!!
And that was my first video gaming experience. The second experience only came about 4 years later. My mother was against children playing video games for many hours and she didn't want to buy me a console.
