Christmas and Gaming

Erik Kubik asks, what is your best/most memorable Christmas gaming memory?

Was it the year as a kid you received both a Sega Genesis and a SNES for Xmas? Was it the year you got your first mature game for PSX?

What about your most awkward Xmas gaming moment?

Was it the year Grandma got you Mario’s Time Machine when you were 12? Was it the year your Dad didn’t listen to you when you begged for a Neo-Geo or a SNES and instead you got the overpriced Phillips CD-I?

Gaming in the last 10 years has been a big part of my life. But before 1999 I was just a lowly PC gamer whose parents thought gifts such as a new bike, clothes, fishing poles, and board games were better uses of my time than software for the aging family PC. Although, looking back, at least my relatives never gave me the awkward learning game or the game that was meant for the opposite sex. No, it was my brother who had to settle for that.

2001 was the Xmas I would remember and it still sticks in my mind as one of the best “gaming” Christmas’ I’ve had. This was the year I picked up the Sega Dreamcast. I was about to finish High School and at the time the console war between Sega, Sony, and Nintendo had heated up. I was still a PC gamer at heart and in passing I had mentioned it to my younger brother in the fall that I was interested in a few PC games that were coming out.

Christmas Day came and I opened gifts for my upcoming trip to college. I opened up gift cards and cash. By the end of the gifts there were two smallish rectangular packages under the tree in the back that were addressed to me.

Low and behold after tearing open the tightly wrapped gifts, my jaw dropped. The soft golden and blue hued box of Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn beckoned to me. While in the other box the fiery red and back of Diablo II Lord of Destruction promised me many late nights. Both games were outstanding and led to many sleepless nights. To this day I still have both games, granted I haven’t played either of them in a few years, maybe it’s time to fire one of them back up.

Here at the Goozex Report we’re wishing all of you Happy Holidays!