How 'The Last of Us' Won Me Over
Early consoles might sound bleak. The images were barely coherent. Sometimes we couldn't tell what was happening at all, but with those ancient devices, we could fly. We could go to the moon, kill aliens, and swim through the ocean. Unlike real television, which had to be watched, we could actually control what was happening on screen. It might be hard for some people to understand now, but there was real excitement there. Sometimes we'd feel like we were running with Mario or slashing our sword like Link. We'd get scared when our characters were in peril, and we'd jump up for joy when we finally won. To us, it was a reason for living. But there was a lot of prejudice against electronics at the time. Parents would give their kids ten, maybe fifteen minutes a day then shove them outside until dinner was ready. It had many of us stuck in a state of perpetual desperation. We always wanted more. That was me. I am unashamed to say that I could think of nothing else. So when I woke up one morning and found a Nintendo 64 sitting on the entertainment center, I nearly had a heart attack. I could look up at the sun, run through the grass, and roll around. I felt like I had been blind my entire life and someone had healed me. You could not separate me from that device if you tried.
