Memories:
1) was told for months that I will never get one because the news says they will make you blind and my mom was THAT MOM. Then, Christmas 90, I opened up SUPER MARIO LAND! OH MY GOD! I was confused. "Shit," my mom said. "That's from me. Open the bigger one there from your grandma" OH FUCK I GOT GAMEBOY! I did the N64 kid thing.
Seriously the best Christmas of my entire life and something I still remember fondly.
2) My stepuncle found a copy of Gator Pinball in the slushy snow a few thousand miles away while on a trucking trip. He wrapped it up in paper towels and when he got home gave it to me. Still runs to this day! Was a fun game, but fuck me I could never beat even the first part.
3) Zelda - my sister got a Gameboy a few years later and it was bundled with the then brand new Zelda. I wanted it badly and she wasn't into it, but refused to trade and wouldn't let me play it. So finally I traded her all my shitty games (Gator Pinball! Home Alone!) for it and she was like "haha sucker". haha
I was stuck on Dungeon 2 for over a year. I still played, replaying it to that point again and going into every single area I was allowed to. Finally I picked it up and was like "maybe Pol's Voice isn't that weird hole in the ground that sucks you in" and I was able to move on after realizing it was the rabbit.
4) GBA color - the thought of playing a console game on a handheld was fascinating to me. Super Mario Deluxe was something I dreamed about for a very long time. I finally bought a yellow Color with SMD and loved it. My friend wanted one, too, but wanted the Yellow one, so he bought a Lime Green and we traded.
5) discovered Pokemon late. I was recently turned 20 and PY had just come out. I say "late" as in I worked at Burger King and would steal promotion toys and those golden cards because I was "too old" to like Pokemon. My friend was selling pot at the time and hooked on Pokemon much more than me - he's the one who got me into it. I remember him having to hide the GBC under the couch when his buyers would show up. Finally I moved in with a good female friend of mine under the assumption that we were just going to be roommates - which lasted about 4 hours. She had every VHS of pokemon, a ton of Pikachu toys laying around, etc, and suddenly I was like "fuck, I'm too old for this" and it was like I "passed on" my love of the series to her and haven't played much since.
6) how awesome those boxes looked. Everything was neon and lasers and Tron-like. The design of the system (thank you Yokoi!) looked incredible, even to this day and it was such a desirable thing to have. Some of my fondest memories are sitting outside on a beautiful day playing Gameboy - it was like I actually grew fond of the outdoors because there I could adventure while looking out to the flat, endless horizon of the Great Plains and think about having real adventures.
Yeah that magazine sure is a blast from the past.
