Hey guys,

I have been an avid gamer since I got my first GameBoy in the third or fourth grade (it must have been 1989) and played almost every game console until the Playstation 2 / Gamecube years. After that, World of Warcraft got released and I was hooked on this game for a good 15 years. My console days were over, but not my love for those golden days of gaming. I always wanted to go back in time and be a little boy again, playing Zelda, Shining Force, Final Fantasy, or Mario and leaving the world alone with its problems.

From the day I joined Hive a year ago, I wanted to do a video series about all the games I played (and still have for the most part) but didn't know, how to put this together.
I think I finally found the courage and the time to start this mammoth of a project.

I have a Top100 list for all the old gaming consoles in mind. I want to play through every game on this list with a ton of tricks and backstory because the history of those magnificent games from the golden age of video games is vast and oftentimes not very well known.

As I love the concept of Hive account@threespeak as our native video platform and keeping things on the blockchain, I will upload a video for every game to 3speak and then write the article for this video, so users can decide, if they just want to read the article or have a look at the video as well.
I don't know yet with which frequency I publish those videos/articles, but I try to at least put out one article a week, hopefully, two.

I thought about engaging readers a little more and I think I came up with a good solution.
I'll ask questions about the video in the current articles and the first three comments with the right answer will get some kind of reward.

I'll come up with something intriguing when the first episode is published.

As I said, I want to recreate my childhood memories and play through every game I owned and played back in the day and then some. Naturally, I couldn't get my hands on every game released as a child, but I traded or borrowed many games I didn't own with my friends. Some games I only read about in gaming magazines like Video Games, Gamers, Club Nintendo, Sega Magazin, Gamepro and so many more. I want to take you with me on that journey.

Let's see, which game consoles I'll cover over the course of the coming months/years.

This was my first handheld, my first console, and my absolute favorite. If I had to guess, at some point in the 90's I owned about 150 games. All of my friends always wanted the newest stuff and threw out the old. Some games were just gifted to me, and some I bought from my allowance but for a minuscule price. Even then I couldn't believe what people threw away as trash after they cherished it just a few weeks earlier.

For that reason, the GameBoy list will be the toughest. Reducing the list to only 100 will be hard. I don't have this problem with the other consoles.

Many games on the Gameboy were also available as NES versions. I therefore could outsource a good chunk of Gameboy games to the NES section. This will be decided along the way. I got my NES Christmas 1989 or 1990, I don't know exactly. But I know, how much I loved ripping the wrapping paper and plugging in this miracle of high technology :o). It really was back in the day. I got it with the 3-game-bundle Tetris, World Cup 90 (the real football dear Americans ^^) and Super Mario Bros. I knew Tetris from the Gameboy and the World Cup 90 was easy to beat, but oh my god, I cannot begin to tell you, how much I loved Mario. I am pretty sure, I didn't have the Super Mario Land game for the GameBoy at this point, but I vaguely recognized him from the arcade game Donkey Kong. Those arcade halls were just outstanding and a lot of fun, but not really that good for your pocket money, so the GameBoy and the NES helped me keep my money together for more important things like He-Man figurines or trading cards :o).

Great games for this console were obviously the three Mario games, the two Zelda games with the golden cartridges (which I still own), the Castlevania series, Battle of Olympus and so many more.

Either in 1991 or 1992 I got the SNES, again as a Christmas gift. Super Mario World and Super Tennis (I just started Tennis in real life at that time) were part of the package. For the next couple of years, I bought or have been bought a fair amount of games, but I also got a Sega Mega Drive II (Genesis in the US), so I had to split my money and my attention between two systems. But I still played a lot of games on the SNES. My favorites were Super Mario World, Super Tennis, Breath of Fire 1 and 2 (Breath of Fire III for the Playstation was another great addition), SIM City (this game together with the settler series instilled a lifelong love for city-building games), ActRaiser (both games, but ActRaiser 2 is the best game on the console, in my opinion, maybe the best game ever created to this day), Zelda 3 (another all-time favorite of mine), the DonkeyKong series, Lufia (wonderful RPG) and so many more. I had the time of my life playing after school with a bunch of friends and getting Pizza or other tasty dishes from one of the parents, where we played on that day.

Except for the Mega Drive (II) and Sega CD, I didn't own Sega consoles myself. I bought a GameGear ten years ago, but just for collection purposes. But I played a couple of games on the Master System with a childhood friend of mine back in the eighties. The most noteworthy games were the Alex Kidd series and the Wonder Boy series. I don't remember much more, but I will brush up on this system when the Sega list comes up down the line.

My Mega Drive collection was not impressive, but not to be scoffed at either.
I was in my RPG phase at this point (still am, to be honest. When there is a viable World of Warcraft successor on the blockchain, I will sink a good chunk of my weekly gaming time in this game), so I mostly had RPG games for this system.
The Shining Force series, The Story of Thor, Phantasy Star series, Soleil, Langrisser Series, the Dragon Slayer Series, and Landstalker (with German dubbing and I think a German team, very rare in those days).
Light Crusader was a German RPG in a diablo style and it was fantastic.

I have fond memories of all those games.

I got the Sega Mega CD from a friend only for one specific game. Shining Force III, but the Lunar Series I was introduced to later is hands down one of the best RPG game series of all time.

I still got the first two parts The Silver Star and Eternal Blue. You don't want to know, what I have been offered to sell those two gems, but as with all other items I collect (*wink at Hive account@risingstargame and Hive account@splinterlands), I don't sell.
Diamond hands are too weak for me :o).

The Sony Playstation was a game-changer for the videogames industry and for myself as well. I was nearly 17, when I got the PS and my interests had shifted quite heavily, but as soon as I had time on my hands, I stuck those new shiny discs into the PS and played for hours.

Resident Evil 1 to 3 introduced me to the horror-genre (I remember the first two parts couldn't be purchased, when under 18, but the second-hand shop, where I bought them, was pretty lenient with those rules.

Some of my favorite games of all time are on the Playstation. Suikoden I and II are two RPG gems, which I played literally for weeks on end to collect all of the 108 characters.

Breath of Fire III is another great RPG and the Vandal Hearts series was memorable as well with its innovative 3D graphics.

These lists will be shorter because I have not played very many games on those platforms.
N64 with Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Mario64, and a bunch of other fantastic games is the one, I got to know the most. The other ones not so much, but I will prepare for those lists as well. Introducing myself to new games can't hurt :o).

As I mentioned above, with the advent of World of Warcraft my focus shifted to the PC, but I played throughout my childhood and youth on the PC as well.
The complete Settler series, Civilization, Age of Empires, Diablo I to III, Anno series (I mentioned my love for city-building games ^^), Heroes of Might & Magic, Ultima, Warcraft before it got promoted to a whole world and so many more will be an extensive list to revisit and replay.

By my estimation, this project will last for at least the whole bear market and until 2024 or 2025. I'm pretty excited, to be honest.
Playing about 500 or more games and blogging about it is time-consuming but rewarding as well.
I get to relive many of my childhood victories and losses, blood, sweat, and tears, but mostly joyous times with friends and family.
And I get to take the Hive Gaming Community with me on that journey.

So buckle up and let this ride begin.