What was your first ever videogame?
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Strictly speaking, I could say Pong – which I played on my TV back in the mid 70s. But the first proper game was probably Super Mario Bros.
I might have messed around with a few games on watches or little devices before that. But around 1991, I started noticing Game Boys and NES consoles in toy shops. I was nearly 30 at that stage. I had seen other consoles and games throughout the 1980s, but I saw them as kids toys. But I suddenly developed an appetite for Nintendo, so for Christmas 1992, I purchased an NES. It had a single cartridge that contained Super Mario Bros, Tetris, and an awful soccer game. I got a Sega megadrive in 1994, a GameBoy in 1995, a PC in 1996, and an N64 in 1998. And as our babies and toddlers grew older, they started playing games, but I never stopped. I probably played mainly on my PC in later years. These days I sometimes play games on my Oculus VR headset. But I often prefer to use it to watch YouTube, and various Google Earth and Street View apps. But I enjoy its various golf and fitness games and Demeo and Battlemarked – dungeon crawlers.
I remember a few songs back in 1992 based on computer game music.
I thought that Prodigy’s Out of Space was related to computer games, but it wasn’t.
Given that this is a Christian blog, can I relate any of this to Christianity? Well from a personal perspective, I have very happy memories of church life back in the 1990s. So, these games and songs bring all these memories to life. But in a general sense, in heaven, we might look back at our lives in this world as being like a computer game – a mixture of fun, frustration and big challenges that prepare us for our lives in the new heaven and earth. And we’ll be able to put it all into the proper perspective. Even now, I have happy memories of challenges in school and work, though I wasn’t happy with them at the time 😀. And in the new heaven and earth, I don’t think that we’ll be lazing around or even worshipping all the time. Just as Adam and Eve tended the garden of paradise, even before it all went wrong, we’ll be engaged in joyful activities – maybe even challenges. But nothing will ever go wrong again.
Revelation 21:1-5
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
