There is a viral video that tends to get passed around at this time of year. It\u2019s an old home movie showing a boy and a girl on Christmas morning eagerly unwrapping a present that turns out to be an N64 console \u2013 the boy is, to put it mildly, extremely pleased. It\u2019s a scene a lot of us who play games will recognise: the excitement and anticipation provided by that big console-sized parcel, or the little DVD-shaped package that could be the latest Super Mario adventure. Although I never got a games machine at Christmas, I remember one year being given Trivial Pursuit on the Commodore 64 and the whole family gathered around the TV to play. It was one of the few times my mum and my sisters showed any interest in the computer, and I loved getting them involved.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Veteran designer Rhod Broadbent of Dakko Dakko recalls the Christmas of 1992, when his father, a programmer who had previously looked down on games consoles, bought him Mario Kart and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. \u201cZelda was completely unknown to me at the time,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI think Dad was probably expecting me to be more excited. But after I had spent the morning in Mario Kart, I plugged in Zelda and everything changed. From the title music, through the intro and into that beautiful initial thunderstorm, everything was so polished and smooth and unlike the video games I\u2019d played before. It didn\u2019t leave the cartridge slot for weeks. I remember that Christmas morning like it was yesterday \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
For Anna Hollinrake, founder of Electric Saint, Christmas gaming was an opportunity for sweet revenge. \u201cAs a competitive child with a guitarist father, I chose to learn the violin aged six so I could be better than him at something. However, he picked up my violin and immediately smashed out a few pieces way above my level. Years later, Christmas morning 2007, I unwrapped Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Imagine my delight as I watched my dad catastrophically miss every note on the plastic guitar controller<\/a>. Oh, how the tables turned, father. Who\u2019s the musician now?!\u201d<\/p>\n Rockers\u2019 revenge \u2026 Guitar Hero III. Photograph: RedOctane<\/p>\n The memories don\u2019t always end so happily. Sam Barlow, creator of Her Story<\/a> and Immortality<\/a>, recalls when he and his brother used to wait until everyone was in bed on Christmas Eve before sneakily squeezing and shaking all their presents. \u201cOne year my brother fishes out a thick rectangular present \u2013 exactly the shape of a Super Nintendo game box. We were so excited, we got very little sleep thinking about what game it could be. Skip to the morning, he carefully peels open the wrapping, teasing out the reveal \u2026 only to discover a Ghostbusters card game. His utter disappointment was the funniest thing I\u2019ve seen. To this day in our family, \u2018Ghostbusters card game\u2019 is used as shorthand for those occasions when life fails to meet our expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n