Welcome to The River City

If you've stumbled across our little corner of the internet chances are you’re a gamer too, to some degree. This is something that Tyson and I have discussed doing for a while and the time was finally right to share our stories, experiences and memories with all of you. However to kick this off I’d like to share a little bit about my earliest video game related memories to help give a bit of insight on why we do what we do. Obviously in the interest of not boring you to death I'm going to touch on the major highlights of video gaming during my youth. So without further ado:

The first console I ever played was the Colecovision. My parents bought one when I was really young so somewhere around 1984 I guess. My earliest gaming memories are playing Donkey Kong and The Smurfs: Rescue at Gargamel’s Castle and Carnival. Those were the only 3 games we owned for the system. Fortunately one of my mom’s friends had a Coleco too and would frequently lend us a box of about 15 games for it. The only one I can specifically remember is Q-bert, probably because it was the one I played the most.

My parents Colecovision and the only games we owned.

Fast forward several years and I didn't get a new system until 1990 when my parents got my sister and I a NES Action Set and Super Mario 3 for Christmas. Prior to that I had got an opportunity to play one at my friend's place but getting one of my own was obviously a huge turning point. Now I could play the games I wanted to and not have to let my friends decide, because it was their system.

When the next generation of systems came out I was once again relying on my friends so I could have the opportunity to try out newer games. Occasionally my parents would rent me a SNES or Genesis from our local video store, Take 3 Video. But during this time the NES continued to be the staple of my gaming, which suited me just fine. While everyone was playing their copies of NHLPA Hockey ’93 and Tommy Lasorda Baseball, I spent my time with Blades of Steel and Little League World Series.

The first games I remember buying myself. Yes these are my originals

It wasn’t until almost 1998 that I’d own another game system and that was the Playstation 1. This is where I developed my love for RPGs, as one of the first games I played for the system was Final Fantasy VII. It wasn't long before I got hooked on other games like Xenogears and Star Ocean. The Playstation also solidified my love of the Castlevania series. I remember playing the first one on the NES, but after playing Castlevania Symphony of the Night, I went back and revisited the earlier titles and have been playing all the new ones since.

Richter Sketch from C4 Comic Con 2012 by Hugh Rookwood
Check out more of Hugh's work at: http://www.behance.net/hughrookwood

It was in 2007 that I started taking game collecting seriously. Luckily I had never gotten rid of any of my childhood games so I didn't have to go about trying to re-buy the games I played growing up. Since then I've been picking up games I remember renting and discovering systems/games that I was unfamiliar with.

As of the time I write this, I have 1444 games in my collection and these days I'm trying to find a happy medium between taking time to enjoy playing them and of course, finding more. When Tyson and I got more serious into collecting we spent a lot of time hitting the local retail shops and thinking it was okay to pay $14.99 for a game from our childhood. Since then we've ditched the retail outlets for the most part and stuck to the thrift stores, pawn shops and flea markets. Needless to say this has made game collecting way more enjoyable and a lot easier on the wallet.....well some days it does.

That will do it for now! Thanks for taking the time to read this, and remember it’s not hoarding if you alphabetize your games. Till next time!

Hitman Tommy