#674 – Nerdy Past

Earlier this summer Microsoft began its “Games with Gold” promotion on Xbox Live. Every month Xbox Live gold members can download two games for free. I’ve already downloaded Assassin’s Creed 2 and Dead Rising 2. One of this month’s games is Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers.

Any talk of Magic: The Gathering always brings me back to my younger days as a nerd. During junior high my friends and I would spend hours playing Magic. Thankfully I got out before too many expansions were released and before I spent too much money.

Here are some other glimpses into my nerdy past.

Marvel Trading Cards

Not only did I collect Magic: The Gathering cards but I also collected Marvel trading cards. I did some research and found out that I had the second series of Marvel Universe Trading cards. There were 167 cards of different heroes, villains and teams. I liked these cards because they had Power Rankings for each hero and villain, which graded statistics like strength, speed and fighting ability. My friends and I would use those rankings as we squared off, gladiator-style, in a living room. I would pretend to be Cyclops taking on my friend who was pretending to be Captain America. Sometimes I would lose but young nerdiness won every time.

Heroquest

Heroquest was amazing!!! Heroquest was basically a board game version of Dungeons and Dragons. A gamemaster would design the board and place enemies for the heroes to defeat. This was my first introduction to basic fantasy elements like dungeons, wizards, orcs, goblins, dwarves and elves. My friends and I would spend hours playing Heroquest, rolling dice and trying to defeat the gamemaster and his dungeon design. I never owned the game myself but wish I had bought it 20 years ago. It’s no longer in production but can be purchased used for $300 on Amazon. I’m not going to spend $300 but a certain Christian Nerd has a birthday coming up this month…

Mortal Kombat

As Grand Theft Auto 5 gets ready to be released, it’s hard to believe that the pixelated blood and violence of the original Mortal Kombat caused such a stir. My friends and I weren’t allowed to play Mortal Kombat but somehow my friend got a copy for the Sega Genesis. We would go to his house after school and play the game all afternoon until we heard the garage door opening. We would then rip the cartridge from the system, hide Mortal Kombat from sight and pretend that we had been playing Sonic the Hedgehog all afternoon. I suppose a bunch of unsupervised latchkey kids could have gotten into a lot more trouble than ripping out someone’s video game spine.

It’s always fun to look back on our childhoods, especially those moments when we were carefree and just enjoying being children. We obviously can’t go back to our childhoods but, when we trust in God’s peace, we can still live with some of that carefree attitude. Not because we won’t face trials, but because we have a loving God to walk through them with us.

What are some of your favorite nerdy memories?