Starting out small - Gaming Nostalgia

Video games are a relatively new concept, but in their brief existence they have helped drive a few basic ideas to become the mammoth industry that is gaming today. They offer an alternative reality; a place to release ourselves from the responsibilities of society and immerse in a virtual world, a place to do things most of us can only dream about in real life. For me, games have a certain nostalgia about them, as they have been such a big part of my youth. I recently read that the word 'nostalgia' can be derived from Greek, specifically the words 'nostos' (return) and 'algos' (suffering). Thus, nostalgia is to suffer a yearning to return to something, and this seems fitting for my experience with games.

Starting out small indeed - one of the games I hold closest to my early memories is Quake II. Quake II was an FPS (first person shooter) from 1997, when I was 5 years old. It was set in this strange alien world; at least that's what it looked like to me at the time. I distinctly remember watching my dad play his friend on a LAN connection at his house, and being fascinated by this seemingly miraculous connection, where they were able to shoot at each other in the same game across two computers. It captivated me, and as the rocket launchers roared I knew gaming would be a part of my life for years to come...