GAMING LEGACY - A DISABLED GAMERS RETROSPECTIVE (PART 2 - THE 90S)

Welcome back, fellow gamers, to the second instalment in the Gaming Legacy series. Those of you who haven't read part one of this series can get to it from here. If you are reading this in paper form, I will have the full link below this article.

Alright everybody it's time to leave the 8-bit era of the eighties and dragon punch our way into the 16-bit era of the early nineties. I had beaten a countless number of games on my Nintendo Entertainment System, including all time classics like Super Mario Bros 3, Double Dragon 2 and Excitebike. The people at the local video shop knew me on a first name basis because I would go there every week to rent a different game. Sometimes I would go 3 or 4 times a week, either with friends or my mother. They would have 1 or 2 arcade machines there for people to play and I would always be in awe at how good those games looked and played compared to my Nintendo at home. The machines were too difficult for me to physically use but I was happy just to watch other people play. After a time, I was starting to get bored with the games on the Nintendo. I was starting to crave the power of the arcade machines.

During one of my frequent visits to the video shop, I had picked a game that I wanted to rent (It was Godzilla) and approached the counter with my mum to pay for the game when I noticed something high up on the shelf behind the counter. There would usually be a Nintendo console for sale on that shelf but this time there was something different. THIS TIME THERE WAS A SUPER NINTENDO!!! I screamed my head off when I saw it and the man behind the counter smiled and brought the box to me. I looked closely at the front and back of the box, all the while screaming at my mum “I HAVE TO HAVE THIS!!! IT'S MINE OK!!!”. My mum had now grown accustomed to my passion about gaming. She simply smiled and told me that we would put the console on lay-by and we would pay for it over the next few weeks. We paid our $10 deposit and left the store. I was so relieved. No one could take my Super Nintendo away from me. We left the store and I took the Godzilla game home. When I got home, I rang my friend and told him to come over. I told him about the Super Nintendo and he was just as excited as I was.

The next day, my friend and I were playing Godzilla but my mind was elsewhere. Now that I knew a Super Nintendo existed, it was all I wanted. I didn't even want to play my Nintendo anymore. All of a sudden my brother walked into my room. He casually told me to stop playing so he could take me into the living room. I asked him why but he wouldn't tell me. He sat me down on the couch and he sat on the table in front of me. He leaned towards me, looked right at my face and smiled without saying a word. I knew he was hiding something so I started looking around the room. My eyes were focusing on all the possible hiding places within the room. Then hiding near the front door, behind the ottoman, was a black box. I immediately knew that it was my Super Nintendo.

I started crying from happiness while my brother and my friend were laughing. My brother brought the box to me and we all opened it together. I looked at the console and the control pads that came with it. It came with one game, Super Mario World. I was so overjoyed. It was the happiest day of my life and a moment that I will cherish forever.

My brother quickly took the box to my room and hooked up the Super Nintendo to my tv while my mum carried me to my room. We finally had it setup and my friend and I started playing. I later rang my cousin and told him about the Super Nintendo. He came over straight away and he even slept over that night. My cousin couldn't resist and a week later, he bought a Super Nintendo as well.

I played many different games on my Super Nintendo but the one game that stands out from the rest is Street Fighter 2. My friends and I would stay up all night, eating fish and chips and playing Street Fighter 2. I'll never forget the day I figured out how to do the special moves in that game.

Eventually, other kids from my area who I didn't even know would come to my house just to challenge me in Street Fighter 2. They would all be shocked when they'd get beaten by a disabled kid in a wheelchair. My disability became my motivation to become an even better Street Fighter 2 player and a better gamer in general.

During my high school years, I received an Apple Macintosh Powerbook laptop from the Make A Wish Foundation. It was something that I really wanted and I will never forget their generosity. I played many wonderful games on that machine.

A few years later, I was reading a video game magazine when I came across an article that shaped the way I would play games forever. Nintendo was working on their latest console. It would be released in the next 3 months and it looked like the best thing since sliced bread. It was the Nintendo 64. It had 4 controller ports and I would finally get to see Mario in 3d.

I immediately placed my pre-order and I received a videotape that showed off the features, as well as a few of the launch titles that would be released with the console. I watched the videotape so many times that I had the whole thing memorised in my mind. I would talk about the Nintendo 64 non-stop wherever I would go, especially when I was with my friends at school.

The day finally came and the Nintendo 64 was released. My mum and my friend came with me to pick up the console. I also bought one game with it, Mario 64. We brought it home and unpacked the box. As soon as I saw the massive controller for it, I was shocked. It was the biggest, bulkiest controller I had ever seen. The thought finally hit me. I might not be able to play games anymore.

I struggled for 2 whole weeks to try to play with the controller but it was just too tiring. In the end I realised that I would have to sell the machine that I had been desperately waiting for. I had learnt a valuable lesson, “What looks good on paper, doesn't necessarily mean that it will be suitable in real life.” I put the Nintendo 64 up for sale in the Trading Post newspaper and a few days later I awoke to the sound of the phone ringing. A woman was enquiring about my Nintendo 64. My mum brought the phone to me and I told the woman to come in the afternoon to buy the console.

Later that afternoon, a woman arrived with her son to purchase my Nintendo 64. They looked like really good people and I was happy to have sold it to them although I was devastated deep down inside. My disability had finally caught up with me in a way that I never thought possible.

Is there still hope? You'll just have to wait and see until next time when we reach the new millennium and beyond. How will I fight back and continue playing the games I love? Only time will tell...

ESSENTIAL LINKS:

ENABLED GAMING - http://enabledgaming.blogspot.com/

GAMING LEGACY (PART 1 - THE 80S) - http://enabledgaming.blogspot.com/2011/04/gaming-legacy-disabled-gamers.html

TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS - http://www.tecsol.com.au/

ONESWITCH - http://www.oneswitch.org.uk/

ACCESSIBLE GAMEBASE - http://www.gamebase.info/

ABLEGAMERS FOUNDATION - http://ablegamers.org/

Below is the first of a 3 part series of articles written for the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Association journeying through 3 decades of my gaming history.

GAMING LEGACY - A DISABLED GAMERS RETROSPECTIVE (PART 1 - THE 80S)

My name is Ismail (izzy) and I’m a gamer. No I’m not an addict but I do love playing games. I am currently 29 years old and I was born with a physical disability called Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which severely weakens the muscles in my body as time progresses. Now that you know who I am, let me tell you why I’m here. I’m here to tell you, my dear reader, the story of where and how my love of gaming started. You will learn where this amazing journey began and where it has brought me today. I will also explain all of the different methods and tools that I have used to help me play games over the years.

So put down your controllers, shutdown your computers and let me take you on a gaming adventure...

It all began in 1987. I was only 5 years old then. I had just started attending Yooralla Special School in Glenroy. I was really clever for my age so the school decided to buy me a computer, not only so I could do my school work, but also for me to further develop my problem solving and logic skills as well. The computer was an Apple IIe and because the keyboard was not suitable for me, I had to use the computer with a special mini keyboard. It was the first computer I ever really used and the thing that appealed to me as soon as I started using it was the fact that I could command the computer to do what I wanted and it would follow the commands straight away.

There was no such thing as usb back then and using a mouse or joystick was a hit and miss affair. Nope. The only worthwhile way we could use our computers and play our games was with the keyboard but boy did I have fun playing those games. Games like Pick-A-Dilly Pairs, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and Karateka would keep me entertained for hours on end. The challenge of beating my high score and trying to reach the end drove me to improve my skills even further however my love of gaming didn’t really begin until one fateful day...

My mum had met a turkish family who lived close to our home and we went to their house for the first time. As soon as my mum sat me down on their living room couch, my eyes immediately focused on a small white box sitting under their tv set. I asked our family friends son what that box was and he said “It’s a Nintendo!”. I was like “A Nintendo? What’s that?”. When he told me it plays games I politely asked if he could show me. (He was much older than me.) When he started playing I was awestruck. It was a game called Super Mario Bros and it was like nothing I had seen before. The graphics were amazing. The colors were bright and everything had attitude. The gameplay was so simple yet so fun and addictive. Not only did the game look fun but the control pad used to play the games was so easy to use and small enough to fit into my hands.

I asked if i could play and he put the control pad in my hands. Once I started playing, I couldn’t stop. When we went home that night, the only thing I could think about was when I could go back there and play again. I would cry all the time just so my mum would keep taking me back to their house. My poor mum, not wanting to bother the people all the time, still took me to their house regardless. Our family friends are very kind people though. They would happily accept me into their home whenever my mum would take me and would let me play for as long as I wanted. Their son would even let me borrow the Nintendo sometimes over the weekend. He would happily bring the Nintendo over, connect it to our tv and made sure it worked while I’d be shouting from pure joy. After weeks and weeks of using someone elses Nintendo, my mum and I decided it was time I got my own.

There’s one thing I always remember about the day I got my Nintendo. The weather was so HOT!!! We jumped into a taxi and went down Sydney Road. None of the shops there had it so the only place we could buy one was from Northlands Shopping Center. As the taxi was driving there, I remember looking at the huge Myers building in the distance and thinking to myself “My Nintendo is in there somewhere!”. We went up to the toy department and asked one of the sales people if they had a Nintendo. The man immediately went and brought the huge box to me. The man asked me what game I wanted but I wasn’t sure so he went and brought some games to show me. I chose a game called Kung Fu because I’m really into anything to do with action.

We came home and my mum put the box on my lap while I was sitting on the couch. I rang my best friend from the neighbourhood and told him “COME QUICK!!! I GOT A NINTENDO!!!”. He was at my house in less than a minute. My mum, my friend and I opened the box together. There it was!!! My very own Nintendo Entertainment System!!! I was overjoyed. My mum and my friend connected it to the tv and we both started playing.

I haven’t stopped since...

Stay tuned till next time when we leap forward to the 1990s. Mario gets a facelift and fighting games get controversial. Until then... NEVER STOP PLAYING!!!

ESSENTIAL LINKS:

ENABLED GAMING - http://enabledgaming.blogspot.com/

My personal blog which I have just started. Your one stop for all the latest news, reviews and guides on the latest games and the hottest hardware. The blog is still new however more content will be added in the future.

TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS - http://www.tecsol.com.au/

Technical Solutions is the leading provider of computer access hardware and software to people with disabilities in Australia.

ONESWITCH - http://www.oneswitch.org.uk/

OneSwitch is run in the UK and provides switch adapted devices for computers and various game consoles.

Enabled Gaming - Episode 1 General Computer Use

Welcome to the first episode of Enabled Gaming!!! In this episode, I talk about the equipment that I use day to day which allows me to be able to access my computer.

Enabled Gaming is live!!!

Enabled Gaming is now up and running. Stay tuned!!!