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      <h5><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">//<a href="../../../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">loonygames</font></a>://<a href="../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">issue 
        2.10</font></a>://<a href="index.html"><font color="#7C420E">birth of a 
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          <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> 
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              <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E"><img src="../../images/icons/boag_final.jpg" width="193" height="235" align="left"><loonystart>Vol. 
                2, Issue 10<br>
                February 1, 2000<br>
                </font></b></h5>
              <h5 align="right"><font color="#00025E"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                </font></b></font></h5>
              <div align="center">
                <p align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="3">Birth 

                  of a Gamer:</font></i></font></b></p>
                <p align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="6"> 
                  Waxing Nostalgic<font size="4"></font></font></i></font></b></p>
                <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">by 
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                  Haselkorn</font></p>
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              <p align="left"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="../../images/letters_new/a.jpg" height="39" align="left" width="22">h, 
                the good old days. The days when innocent children could pop a 
                video game cartridge into an NES and play and play until their 
                thumbs were sore and it was past their bedtimes. I remember that 
                time fondly. I decided to try to revisit those days by making 
                use of loony&#146;s massive collection of consoles and games and 
                I discovered, much to my dismay, that sometimes there just isn&#146;t 
                any going back.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Looking 
                at a shelf full of familiar favorites and their new, 3-D reincarnations, 
                I settled on <b>Donkey Kong 64</b> and <b>Mario 64</b>. Both these 
                names brought back warm memories of my old Atari, and of the NES 
                and Super NES that became fixtures in my brothers&#146; room as 
                the years went by. I figured <b>DK 64</b> would be a revamped 
                version of <b>Donkey Kong Country</b>, arguably one of the most 
                fun games in existence. And Mario, well, that&#146;s just <b>Mario</b>...who 
                couldn&#146;t have a good time playing that?</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I tell 
                ya, though, you just can&#146;t judge a new game by its previous 
                incarnation. <b>Donkey Kong 64</b> was indeed the brightly-colored, 
                cartoonish game I expected it to be. Considering that I&#146;ve 
                been playing a lot of dark, violent, and frankly, depressing games 
                since this column debuted, the silly plot and childish gameplay 
                were a refreshing change. Basically, King K. Rool and his evil 
                crew of alligators are out to destroy Donkey Kong and his island. 
                They capture his friends and steal the golden banana hoard. Your 
                goal in this game...free your friends and reclaim your bananas. 
                No problem! I envisioned 3D versions of <b>Donkey Kong Country</b>, 
                swinging from tree to tree, throwing barrels, and eating bananas. 
                I hit start to bypass that annoying hip hop sequence at the beginning 
                and began the game.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The first 
                thing I had to do, though, was play a tutorial. I think I&#146;ve 
                complained enough about tutorials, so I won&#146;t make you read 
                through another litany. I did get my first lesson in using a Nintendo 
                64 controller, though. You have to remember that the last time 
                I held a controller was about 5 years ago, and these things have 
                really changed over the years. I am now up-to-date on the proper 
                technique: One hand near the stick thing (sorry, the technical 
                name of this highly sensitive piece of equipment escapes me at 
                the moment) and one hand near the key pad. When did this get so 
                complicated?</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I got 
                through the tutorial, all happy and excited and expecting to have 
                tons of fun. And then I found out that I just can&#146;t play 
                this game. First, there&#146;s the fact that the game is not a 
                side-scroller. There&#146;s no reason this should bother me; after 
                all, I&#146;m already used to that in computer games. But for 
                some reason I just couldn&#146;t translate on-screen depth perception 
                from a computer monitor to a television. I had no idea which way 
                to go. I swam around the islands a bit, talking to other characters 
                and trying to find my way to the first level. Fourty-five minutes 
                later, I finally found the island that was actually the beginning 
                of the game. I don&#146;t know why it took so long...I just kept 
                getting lost and basically swimming around in circles. I know 
                that the game does give directions about which way to go, but 
                frankly, I just wasn&#146;t paying attention. </font></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 2000 Dan Zalkus. Birth of a Gamer is &copy; 2000 Heather Haselkorn. All 
  other content is &copy; 2000 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction 
  is prohibited, you cartoonish villian, you.</font></i></p>
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