A gamer from birth, my parents raised me right.  Dad was a Pac-Man fanatic, Mom was a Centipede girl.  Driving out to Gemco in Victorville in the spring of 1983, I had no concept of what Atari was or how there was 5200 different ones out there.  They had dropped the three-hundred and fifty bones for themselves, but it was my brother and I who got hooked.  Whether I was swinging through the trees, trying to save the girl in Jungle Hunt, or saving the planet's only natural satellite in Moon Patrol, I was a fiend.  After a time, it started to corrupt my childhood playtime.  While other children were running down the street playing Cops and Robbers, I was lurking through the fields near the house with a stick, looking for Ganon and trying to con the pretty little blonde girl down the way to be my Princess Zelda.

...go ahead and ask me how the second part of that plan went...

We all played the living hell out of that cumbersome black box for years.  Then something called "Nintendo" came out.  Mind you we were still playing that Atari until 1990.  You gonna sit there and tell me you got eight years out of your 3DO?  Yeah, and Saturn was a real stalwart console too.  But this "Nintendo?"  Talk about learning from experience the meaning of the word "covet."

..."it's the Legend of Zelda and it's really rad"...

Money was always kinda tight growing up, though.  So it was a while before we got with the times.  When we did, though...oh man.  talk about fist-fights.  I think the spirit of the NES was touched by the devil himself.  I remember two of my friends growing up kicking each other in the balls (literally) over who screwed up the co-op on A Nightmare on Elm Street.  Of course, then my dad came in saying that if we didn't stop it, HE was going to wind up Rochambeauxing with us.  I don't know how one kid winds up punching another one in the face over Remote Control (???), but, man, did I wind up laying my brother out over that.  Punches were thrown just as often as controllers during the NES period.  Go figure.

For some reason, things calmed down around 1992.  A Super Nintendo found its way to our house for my brother that Christmas.  I was content to continue playing Blaster Master and Battletoads, but the SNES was a welcome addition to the house.  I think the draw for me was not having to go down to Pizza Factory every Friday night to drop $15 in quarters into the Street Fighter II machine.

To this day, I still REALLY SUCK at SFII.

High school was ultimately a pretty dry spell for games.  Yeah, I was named Gamer of the Year in the high school paper in 1995.  I still played, but not with the same fervor I once possessed.  My biggest claim was that I could beat Super Metroid in, like, an hour-ten.  If I played it now, I wouldn't know how to find my ass with both hands and a map.

The drought continued on for a few more years until 1998...

I got my first job.

I could game without parent subsidy.

Nintendo 64 or PlayStation?  The battle begins.  Expensive cartridge games, or load times.  Of course I stayed the course.  For two-hundred clams, I walked out of the Oxnard Best Buy with my own N64, an extra controller and a copy of GoldenEye (and I don't give a damn what anyone says, without this, there would be no Halo).  So here I am, twenty years old, and my passion for gaming is reignited.

About two years later, I wound up shelling for a PlayStation.  But 2002 would be when my brand-loyalty was forced to choose a side.

Microsoft had unveiled the Xbox.

Yeah, I know it came out in 2001.  But I got mine in 2002.  When it came with a free copy of Jet Set Radio Future.  Took it over to Casey's house and we done played the hell out of that game for quite some time.  Of course, I boxed it up when it came time to leave.  My girlfriend at the time didn't know I'd gotten it yet.  The conversation when I picked her up that night went something like this:

XXXX: "Is that an Xbox in the backseat?"

Tyler: "...umm...yeah...?"

XXXX: "Why did you buy an Xbox?"

Tyler: "...umm...well...I can't be around you constantly?  I need something to pass the time until I see you again?"

...yes.  I really did phrase everything in that conversation in the form of a question.

Eventually, I would give in and purchase both a GameCube and a PS2.  And damned if those two decks didn't have some great damn games behind them (Resident Evil 4 on the Cube is STILL one of my favorite games ever, and without the PS2, would we still have Guitar Hero?)

November 2005 was the high-water mark for myself.  When the mean black hunk of alien technology became a "slender whisper, representing an inhale," and I became a junkie.  First achievement was for the opening of Gun.  My friends were all wondering what in the hell "Achievement Unlocked" meant.  At this time there were no descriptors or point values, just a friendly notice that you had done something right.  Once that cryptic little message was deciphered, it became reflex to hit the guide button to see what exactly I had just done.  I may not have the highest score ever, but I can at least say that I haven't farmed the Avatar five-minute-thousand...yet...I'm curious about that one...

These days, I am the lucky owner of the three major systems and they all serve their specific purpose.  the Xbox gives me the tops of online connectivity.  PS3 does what PlayStation has always done, and that is give me the superior single-player experience.  And the Wii is a dust bunny that gets fired up on those alcohol-fueled nights the guys come over and want to beat each other up on Smash Bros.

And I still really can't get good at SFII.