It is nearing Christmas of ’96, and I continue to hope that my parents, err… Santa will bring me a nice shiny Nintendo 64. Since I was at least eight years old, video games were my main past time.

From playing Zelda: Links Awakening for Game-Boy until my thumbs were numb, to playing countless SNES games, I was ready for something new.

The Nintendo 64 was considered the first actual 3D game system, next to the Playstation, to be on the market at the time. The closest I had ever come to 3D bliss before it, was regular Mario Kart for SNES.

Christmas morning came with plenty of presents waiting to be opened. Of course, the first present I found and unwrapped was my Nintendo 64. Next came Mario Kart 64, then Mario 64, and lastly Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. There were other presents of course, but nothing else mattered once that 64 was up and running.

It was hooked up to the big screen in our living room for the time being, until it was moved to my room later that week. I started off playing Turok, enjoying the amazing graphics, and wasting countless hours. That afternoon, however, was when the real fun started.

My two older cousins came over that afternoon, so the four controllers were plugged in, and my sister, my cousins and I began playing Mario Kart 64.

All in all it was great, and it started the biggest gaming streak of mine, over time accumulating around 20+ games and going through a total of 3 controllers. It was definitely one of the major events of my childhood.