This past week, I have spent at least an hour every day playing Jewel Quest late at night when everyone was sleeping. It’s been a long time since I’ve been addicted to a game and I’m feeling nostalgic.

My first video game experience was with a handheld Space Invaders console my mom had hidden in the back of her closet to keep for Christmas. For days after my sister and I found it, we secretly played and put it back when we were done. Watching the red digital spaceships disintegrate on screen was so satisfying. At some point, though, my mom noticed that things had been moved in her closet and saw the game box looking worn. We had been caught but at least now we could play the game in the open and much more often than my mom would have liked.

Sometime after that, we managed to convince our parents to get us an Atari 5200 system in 1982. We were proud of that machine because everyone else had the older model Atari 2600 (although it later turned out that the 5200 was a poorly made piece of junk). Directing Pac-Man to eat up the dots and ghosts and shooting the green Centipede threading through the screen were our favorite pastime for a while.

Several years passed before another game system entered our house. When Gameboy hit the market in 1989, I used my summer earnings to buy one as a family Christmas gift. Everyone was entranced by Tetris including my mom. My sister and I also played Super Mario Brothers but never managed to beat the monster at the end even if we had over 20 lives saved up.

Tetris continued to be popular in college, but I didn’t have the time or talent to beat all the other geeks’ mega high scores. It wasn’t until I went to Singapore for the first time with Marvin that I was introduced to the Mortal Kombat phenomenon, which first hit the scene in 1992. We spent quite a bit of time on that trip duking it out, ripping red dripping hearts out of each other’s chests. “Finish him!” (In the game that is. In real life, we already had each other’s hearts. Awwww.)

Once we finished college, and assignments were no longer hanging over our heads all the time, Marv spent most of his free time playing video games on his PlayStation. On the day I was to return to Baltimore at the end of two weeks visiting Marv on my Christmas vacation in grad school, we spent the day playing Puzzle Bobble in an attempt to forget about my flight that night. I’ll never be able to play that game again without a bittersweet taste in my mouth.

After playing the online version of Jewel Quest, I downloaded the full version today and played all but four minutes of the 60 minute free trial. Sadly, when I tried to purchase the game, I wasn’t allowed because I’m outside the authorized sales region.

Another game for another phase of my life. What game will mark the next phase?

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