Remembering Dad as a Gamer

It’s almost a month since my father’s sudden (but expected) death, and I just had a slight trip back on memory lane one time when I was headed back home.

Me and my father weren’t the closest father and son duo out there, heck the only times we got to talk was over at the television with me asking what he’s watching and he answers me simply with the title of the show. The most time I spent with him was about two hours when I caught him watching a NCIS marathon over at FOX.

However, when I was younger, waay before cable TV became our “bonding” moments, me and my dad had one thing that made us at “bond”  as father and son, videogames.

Back before the big quake of ’90, our family (which consisted of me, dad, mom and my sister) had a family computer in our home. Me, dad and mom used to play 2 games on the family computer then, it was Super Mario 3 and Wrecking Crew. However, between the two, as a family we used to play WC more because of it’s 2 player option. We would often switch players whenever someone dies.

We’ve had a lot of fun back then, destroying all those walls and evading those weird spring-like monsters just for the sheer satisfaction of beating each other.

However, after that fateful ’90, earthquake, I was the only one left to enjoy the unit then. While everything was pretty much a blur back then because dad and mom were busy trying to pick up the pieces, I was left to play with the famicom alone but that didn’t bother me much.

Things did not end there though. After moving out of the old building we used to live at and settling down on a bigger place, my dad bought me a snes. It was here when we got another rare family bonding moment over a very addicting videogame. It was during this time that my dad discovered puzzle bobble.

The game practically kept us up till the wee hours in the morning (1am to be exact). My dad and mom got so addicted to the game that I was the one who gave up and slept while they kept on finishing stage after stage after stage.

If I recall correctly, then even went as far as the 100th before they quit in one session. My dad was laughing manically at how inept we were and it was just plain fun remembering that we were all enjoying our time then.

However, during this time, things got pretty strained at home and after the snes, I was given a sega megadrive unit. It was there that I started to play alone by myself most of the time. However, dad still tried to connect with me with one other sega game. Robocop vs. Terminator.

During one lazy saturday afternoon, when I was too flustered trying to beat stage two of the game (yeah I suck back then :P) he sat beside me and tried to help me clear the stage, which he did quite well.

I actually asked my gradnma about my dad’s gaming habits when they were smaller and it turns out my dad was pretty much a heavy gamer then. I was surprised to hear that he and my uncles blew up an adapter playing battle city the whole day. Believe it or not, they actually did. I even asked my uncle if that was true and he confirmed it.

I know it’s rash for me to say this, but it seems that being a gamer is deeply ingrained in my blood. Though family, work and problems probably took most of his time, he did on a few occasions tried to play with us kids when he feels like it. Aside from videogames, he also played monopoly with us on occasion too.

To be honest, I don’t have any regrets on how things went with me and my dad. I find it at least comforting that we have a few things in common and this time, it’s something that I love doing. Now that he’s gone, there are only a few things that make me remember him, and more so when he was pretty happy. In my own twisted vision, I find videogames my own way of connecting to him even on a vague level and this has given me more reason to cherish videogames all the more because it’s something we had in common.

I don’t expect everyone to understand this I bet some of you even think this ludicrous, but meh, this is my pov, so think of me as you will.