Growing up, before I got a job that gave me enough money to buy just about any game I wanted, Christmas was one of the two or three days a year I could look forward to getting a new game. My birthdays were pretty dependable on providing me a new game and sometimes Easter as well, but Christmas, that was the day I could almost always expect a brand new spanking game under the tree. There are plenty of fun memories from the NES and SNES era I can look back on fondly, but the best Christmas gaming moment from my youth has to be the one where my parents spoiled the shit out of me and my brother.
It was the year 2000 and my brother and I were still rocking our -- technically his -- PlayStation. The Dreamcast had released the year before and the PlayStation 2 was about to drive Sega out of the console market. Having played Soulcalibur at a campground over the summer, I wanted the Dreamcast. I wanted it and Sonic and Marvel vs. Capcom. My brother wanted the PS2, putting us at odds.
Growing up, we only had one gaming console at a time. It went NES, SNES and then the PlayStation. So two sons getting two different consoles didn't seem likely. But that Christmas morning, that's exactly what we got. I got my Dreamcast and my brother got his PlayStation 2. If that wasn't enough, we both got our own 19" heavy-ass CRT television so we didn't have to share.
If Christmas is about getting stuff, that year was the best Christmas ever. And while in the years following that I would realize just how spoiled my brother and I were and how that is possibly not the healthiest way to raise a child because it'll be difficult for them to adjust to a life where they can't get everything they want without working for it, that morning, in that moment, I was the happiest boy in the world.
via destructoid http://ift.tt/2C7hoOF