This might sound like a stupid idea for an article but when I say I’m a gamer to an average gamer they mostly think the oldest console I own is an Xbox 360. That made me a bit annoyed being branded with this stereotype and I really wanted to tell my story of video games from the past 14 years, but where can I speak my mind? Right here at The Play Vault, of course! Here is my story:

I may have been having my first days of pre-school but little did I know this would be the start of one of the most addictive things in my life. I came home to see a majestic black box below our little TV; it was a Sega Mega Drive. I put many hours into game such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Golden Axe and Chameleon Kid. Unfortantally we were a poor family at the time and the Mega drive died on us after 4 months and we couldn’t replace it. But later that year my uncle gave me a Sega Mega Drive portable but even though I only had two games they were both well played: Sonic and Tails and The Simpsons Arcade.

A few months passed by and my short ride with Sega had ended but my birthday arrived and my family graced me with the gaming gift of a console which to this day I feel changed my perspective on video games, The Sega Dreamcast. I only owned a few games for the entire time I’ve owned the Dreamcast and to this day the Dreamcast is still under my bed. Virtual Tennis, Let’s Get Ready To Rumble 2 and House of the Dead 2 (With light gun).

My father was given an old Gameboy colour and we briefly owned it before we sold it. The one thing is that we didn’t actually own any games just a collection of demo cartridges but I still took advantage of the opportunity and laid waist into demos like Tom and Jerry and Robot Wars.

A little time after that Sony released their PlayStation and I wanted it so bad, but sadly that was a big was a no-no. About a month after release my father became very ill and my mother gave him a present: A Sony PlayStation. I spent hour upon hour on games such as Tekken, Rampage, Spyro and Ape Escape. But the games I loved the most were the Crash Bandicoot series: Crash 1, 2, 3 and Crash Wars.

I later got a Sony PS2 and it wasn’t just a games console, it was an entertainment system with music and DVD. But I do have a confession…. My dad bought me a hardrive on which to burn games on. I distinctly remember having about 60 games on there. Games series such as GTA, Robot Wars, Naruto, Time Crisis and Def Jam. But it was my first online gaming experience and it felt amazing talking and playing with people from around the world on games such as: Ratchet and Clank 3 and Def Jam: Fight for New York. It was a fantastic feeling to play with others across the globe and the fun never stopped for me, my friends and others. This was when I first played Guitar Hero for the first time and I was so bad that I couldn’t play any song on that game…. But look at me now; it goes to show that with practice we can do great things.

Sometime later Microsoft released the beautiful black box known as the Xbox and my god what fun it was! Amazing games such as Kung Fu Chaos, Halo 1 and two, Blink and many, many more. Xbox live was a great addition and hours upon hours were spent killing aliens in Halo or racing in Need for Speed underground 2. But this black box was also the possessor of great evil, one night I was sat playing Kung Fu Chaos and realised I had been trying 100% this game for months but with no luck. I was 99% complete trying to defeat the final boss, my reactions weren’t as quick back then and I would always get outnumbered, beaten and eventually I took it too far. I was stomping around my little room in a storm of rage and anger smashing my controller, hurling games cases until I was so tired I fell to the floor…. I realized I had took it too far and decided to re-think the situation; I packed up the controllers and consoles and stopped.

During this period my dad bought a Gameboy Advance and I took a relaxed perspective to the games and didn’t care about results etc. I only owned a few games but I always played them on road trips and car rides, games such as Digimon, Robot Wars and I also had a few little TV cartridges with shows like SpongeBob and Jimmy Neutron to help pass the time.

Years passed and as 2005 came along I saved and saved for a PSP. It was April and the release date for the U.K was September, I couldn’t wait so I imported it from Japan, configured the settings and played away on games such as Twisted Metal, Ape Escape/Academy, Dead To Rights and about 20 more. But it wasn’t until some years later when I signed up to PSN and play online but of course back then and still to date the Wi-Fi online gaming for PSP doesn’t really work to well but I still managed a few online games of Tekken.

In that same year for Christmas I was given an Xbox 360 and in my mind this might be my favorite console to date! GH Rocker 10’s the name and man, oh man! Has this thing taken away my life! My drive would constantly be spinning with game after game and film after film. I used to share an account with my dad named: TopGun MoFo on Xbox live and until 2007 where I purchased my own Xbox and became GH Rocker 10. I started with an Xbox 360 standard and it red ringed, so I got the next model up. Once I got GH Rocker 10 gamertag I owned a premium model, now I own an Xbox Slim 250 GB.

I then sold my PSP then to get my DS lite and I still from time to time play to this day. From casual games to hardcore games: Touch The Dead, Guitar Hero: On tour, Mario Kart, Super Mario 64. I remember one cold morning in December 2008 I had 5 mates round and we had a Pokémon Pearl vs. Diamond match… it was fun but that was the only time in my life of being a gamer where I look back and say “Why the f**k did I like that game?”

2006 gave me the Nintendo Wii and I may not play it much today but back then I played it loads:, Zelda, House of the Dead and many more. My Wii got a little bit of Wi-Fi play on games like Mario Kart and Smash Bros though!.

Sony had brought me some great times in past years so when I got to getting a PS3 I was very excited to play some great games. I’ll be honest I got it for the exclusives and so far I only have bought 3 games that are available for both 360 and PS3: Brain Challenge, Battlefield 1943 and Resident Evil 5. I have had great times on Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank and Naruto. TOPGUN-MOFO (That’s how its spelt I was going CAPS RAGE) is still going strong today.

I had never been a strong PC gamer but in 2009 my PC got a MASSIVE upgrade to top of the range Nividia graphics card. I enjoyed games like World of Warcraft, S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Crysis (I could run Crysis on high!) also I finally started playing games via Steam when I got the PC and I have enjoyed games like Half Life: Deathmatch and others.

My story is coming to an end but I recently re-purchased an old PSP to play some of the good old games like Star Wars Battlefront, Naruto and Rock Band Unplugged. I also bought lots of good accessories for Consoles like: Kinect, Move and Eye Toy.

Thank you for reading this, I really appreciate it. - GH Rocker/ Antonio Phillips

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