I am the perfect example argument against “girls don’t actually like video games.” I’m an only child. I was homeschooled until college. I didn’t date til I was 17. I started playing video games with Tiger handhelds. I made a presentation to convince my parents to get me a GameBoy

No brothers. No boys in school to “impress.” I got my first Tiger handhelds when I was 6. I got my GameBoy when I was 8. I got my first home console, a top-loading NES when I was 9. I didn’t have to share with anyone. For all my presents I asked for consoles and games.

I’ve always had a shit immune system and was sick a lot with chronic tonsillitis and sinus infections. My mom would rent consoles and games from video rental stores to help distract me from the pain and misery. Because I asked for them. That’s what I wanted to do. Play games.

When the video rental stores went out of business, I bought the games. My mom ordered me some NES game cases directly from Nintendo, which got us on their mailing list.

Being on their mailing list, I got VHS tapes like these sent to me:

And then, in 1998, Nintendo sent me this:

I got to go, and the entire fleet of Pikachu VW beetles was there (they all had CRTs with GameBoys hooked up to them in the trunks to play Pokémon on), a Pikachu mascot, people dressed as Pikachu SKYDIVING. And tons of free swag:

The mayor of Topeka even changed the name of the city to “ToPikachu” for the day.

I also got to go to the “Pokémon league summer training tour” the next year (1999) as it toured malls across the country.

Always gaming.

anyway this thread was inspired by some tweets I’d seen recently and also finding some of these photos and wanting to post them.