The Nintendo Entertainment System was the hottest toy to have in Christmas of 1987. The unit was being sold with one controller and Super Mario Brothers. If you wanted Duck Hunt, you had to spend an extra $50 on the gun and game. I wanted it so bad, and when my brother and I awoke that Christmas morning, the excitement was palpable.
I still remember opening the present and seeing the red and white Nintendo oval on the corner of the box. For the first week, I couldn't even pass level 1-1 of Super Mario Brothers, but as I played, I improved.
I was never a prolific Nintendo player, but always an average gamer. I, like so many others of my generation, grew up with Mario and Luigi. They were like brothers to me in my virtual happy place. I would even talk to them about my problems. Mario was never a big help, but Toadstool always had good advice.
Parents just didn't understand. I remember hearing "you'll never get a job playing Nintendo, so do your homework" repeated often. I bet your parents, like mine, probably forced you to put down the controller to do homework too. At the time, I'm sure it made sense and seemed like the right thing to do. Math, spelling and reading ... ... now those are some important skills. Who could ever get a job playing Nintendo?
The Chinese.
It appears as though millions of parents were indeed wrong. According to this article in today's New York Times, hundreds of thousands of Chinese are being paid to play video games. They earn their keep winning gold pieces and beating levels for rich white kids in Massasschusetts. Apparently it is very lucrative. $75 a week is enough to buy a yacht in China.
I hope my parents are reading this. If they are, thanks for crushing my childhood dreams. I could have been a professional video gamer after all.
From what I understand, your formidable years as a youth were already wrought with a certain pudginess．I’m not sure it would have been wise for you to pursue a career of sitting in front of a computer screen for 12 hours a day. Maybe if you were forced to keep to the stringent diet of the Chinese, you might have been able to keep off the pounds and actually fit through a door.
This paying people to advance you through games is great. I used to steal copies of Nintendo Power from KB Toys so that I could get the codes that would advance me in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out. But actually having other people win the game for you is even better.