I never considered myself much of a gamer. As much as I love tinkering with my PC — and as much as I'm almost always on the computer... You get my point. Still, there were a few games that conquered my no-gaming self.

Thus, I present to you The Saraic History of Gaming. Part 1.

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Donkey Kong II
All hail the mighty Donkey Kong!

The original Donkey Kong is named after its villain. He is the pet of a carpenter named Jumpman. Jumpman mistreats the ape, so Donkey Kong escapes and kidnaps his master's girlfriend. A damsel in distress scenario, the player takes on the role of Jumpman to rescue the girl. Here in Donkey Kong II, though, Donkey Kong Jr. is trying to save Donkey Kong from captivity, and fights against crocodiles, birds, and electric flashes.

I wasn't six years old when I played this. We were living in Batangas, and my brother (not sure which) had a Game and Watch of this; I can remember it distinctly. It's the first hi-tech (at that time, anyway) thing I ever held... I remember being fascinated with the small flat batteries. Haha! My brothers and I all played this game, and, thankfully, I recall no time when we fought over who gets to play. Haha! Love and peace, everybody, love and peace.


Prince of Persia
Ah, yes. The legendary Prince of Persia, whom you meet after loading the game from DOS. Haha!

The role: the (would-be) Prince of Persia.
The objective: save the Princess from Jaffar
The time limit: one hour
The obstacles: falls, spikes, blades, magic mirrors poison that looks like magic potion, and, oh yeah: the master swordsman holding the Princess hostage.

Piece of cake! (Not.)

I played this in 1990, methinks... At first I was just watching Kuya Jabes play it, until I decided to try my hand in it. I finished this game several times, but it's always fun because even though you know what's coming next, you still have to be fast on your toes.


Budokan: The Martial Spirit
I would say that Budokan is my favorite computer game to play. EVER. As a player, you become a martial arts apprentice, train, spar with others, train, spar, watch the dragon in the lake behind the dojo, train some more, and then fight in the Budokan.

My favorite weapons were the bo and the nanchaku... And I was so envious of the opponent with the naginata. Arrrr I SO wished that the naginata was included in the dojo! Hehe.

Unknown to many, it was because of Budokan that I became interested in martial arts, making me interested in Ranma 1/2, which catapulted me into the anime fandom, which is one of the things that people associated with me all throughout high school. So, I guess, in a way, Budokan shaped who I am now. Haha!

Kuya JB and his friends loved playing Prince of Persia and Budokan on our XT because we had a CGA monitor. Back then they all had only the old green screens. But then one of them topped it when he bought a 286 with a paper-white VGA.

Lode Runner
The objective of the game is simple enough: run, get the gold, outsmart the robots, get more gold, and get to the next level. Yeah. Simple. That's what made Lode Runner so very addicting.

Falcon
Falcon made me familiar with Middle Eastern countries before school tackled them. What you do when you take a mission is you get into a Falcon, fly to wherever you're supposed to go, and gun down whatever you need to gun down.

This was the first game I played with a Joystick and I felt so... un-kiddie when playing it. I mean, it IS a war game, so I felt as if I was one of the big kids. Haha!



Snake
I think this game needs no explanation, as nearly all cellphones now have this as an application. Haha! I remember the original computer version of this... Kuya Tim and I would play against each other and he'd psych me into losing by getting his snake so close that it looks like he'll hit me. So then I'd panic, and then my snake would die. Rawr.

Scorched Earth
By this time, I think we've entered the era of the brand new and teeny tiny 3.5" floppy disk!

My brothers and I were positively addicted to Scorched Earth, because it was one of the PC games that you can play against more than one person... on the same PC! Ahluvet! It trained me with estimating projectiles. Haha! The interface is pretty simple, and so is the objective, and... well, it was just plain fun.

Hm... I should try to look for a download of this game...

Chip's Challenge
The very very very long game of Chip's Challenge is the game that I played over and over because my Chip kept dying. The day when I reached level 149 (thus finishing the game) is the day when I stopped playing. (I think.)

The player takes on the role of Chip, a high school nerd who meets Melinda The Mental Marvel in the school science laboratory. Chip must navigate through Melinda's "Clubhouse" to prove himself worthy of being a member of the exclusive Bit Buster Club.

Competition was tough between Kuya Tim and me... Although we never played against each other (the game was for one person), we kept tabs on who's on which level.


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Oh, and in case you're wondering: No, we never had a Family Computer. And no, I don't think I ever played Super Mario Brothers. Donkey Kong was the basis of that game, anyway, so...yeah. I loved the cartoons, though.

Thus ends Part 1 of the Saraic History of Gaming. By this time I was already in the latter years of elementary school, so more "intellectual" games are up next... I think. Haha! We shall see.