Hello Gamespot users! My name's Vikram and I live in Battle Creek, MI. Currently, I'm 19 years old and I love gaming (of course). I've been a Gamespot member for a while now, so I thought I might as well start making some blogs. I figured for my first post, why not I just introduce myself and my gaming life as a start.

The first system I owned was a Sega Genesis when I was a kid; many of you may remember those glorious days. One of my friends had shown me a Sonic game, so I wanted to pick one up myself. While at the no longer existing Toys 'R' Us in our city, I was deciding between getting Sonic The Hedgehog or Sonic The Hedgehog 2. I decided on Sonic 1 because the cover had 3 rings in the background while there weren't any on the Sonic 2 cover (shut up, I know that's a stupid reason, but who didn't like collecting as many shiny things in a game when you were a kid? ) Days went on, and I pretty much bought and conquered every Sonic game for the Genesis (yes, ALL the emeralds)... except for Sonic 2: I just never bought it. Other fun games I had on the Genesis included Toejam & Earl 1 & 2, Gunstar Heroes (amazing), Primal Rage, and countless others. Being Indian (not Native-American) I was put under the harsh rules starting Day 1 that I could only play video-games on weekends including Friday. Well, at least I think thats something most Indian parents would do. That was a killer for me back then, since all my friends were under no such policy. I was active during the week with tennis and Tae Kwon Do anyways, so I guess it wasn't that bad. But were any of you ever put under something like that?

I eventually got a Game Gear; a handheld ahead of its time with both color and a lit up screen (Gameboys didn't have both features until 2003 with the Gameboy Advance SP, 12 years after the Game Gear came out). However, it was bulky so you looked like a fool trying to fit it in your pocket and it drained 6 AA batteries like it was nothing. Eh, it was okay; I only had a few games. That's all.

Of course, my friends had to go the other way and buy Super Nintendos. We would play Super Mario World often, however they were sweet and it would be like two hours before I could take Luigi out for a spin. And since I sucked, that would literally last 4 seconds as I would run into some stupid flying wombat or whatever. Of course, they later bought N64s, which kept us glued to the TV with Star Fox, Mario Kart, Goldeneye, and one of the greatest multiplayer games to ever come out: Super Smash Bros. I never owned one, but I didn't miss out on the experience.

Months later, I saw commercials for what was called a "Playstation". "Haha, what a stupid name! Sounds like some play area at a mall," is what I thought when I first saw it. Little did I know that eventually I would really want one and would recieve one for Christmas. So that all happened. Probably one of my best years of gaming. Countless games existed: The Spyro / Crash series, Jet Moto Series, big hitters Final Fantasy VII and VIII. I owned the most games for this console.

For a short time, I owned a Dreamcast, after making the biggest mistake of my life by selling my PSX and all the games. The Dreamcast, to me, was a big step in gaming; had a lot of really great games like Power Stone 1 & 2, Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, Crazy Taxi series, Hydro Thunder, and the now over $100 for used Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. I sort of bought it when it was in its dying stage. It was the first to have internet, but that didn't really go anywhere.

So I made a second mistake of selling that for a Nintendo GameCube not because the Dreamcast was better, but I got almost no money for the Dreamcast, the games, and the accessories. It came to a little more than $50 if I remember correctly. I bought a few good games like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Pikmin, Spider-Man, and of course, Super Smash Bros. Melee (Small fact: Immediately after buying SSMB, I looked up the word "Melee" so I wouldn't feel stupid playing a game with a word in the title I didn't know). Somewhere during this time I bought a Gameboy Advance. *Game Gear covered in dust turns on after a long time and displays its hit list... with "Gameboy Advance" the only name displayed*. I bet you're all looking at me right now like this > Best games on it are Megaman Battle Network Series (#2 had the best story of them all) and Fire Emblem. Golden Sun was pretty good too.

I eventually bought a used PS2, this time not selling my GameCube (*phew*) All I can say is: "Many titles!" First game I bought for it, which was actually the reason I bought one, was Final Fantasy X. It was a great game. Shortly after, I bought Kingdom Hearts: I swear that commercial hypnotized so many people into buying it without showing any game-play footage! But of course, the game-play was amazing anyway so I'm not really angry at all. By the way, while on this note about RPGs, in case any of you come across my missing Star Ocean: Till the End Of Time, please PM me. I still haven't beaten the last boss yet and it's been like 2 years since I last played it. And somewhere during this time I got a PSP which I've hacked with a custom firmware for... you know... illegal things.

From then on, the order of things were pretty straight-forward. Bought Guitar Hero II > Reignited my like for guitar > Brought out my old guitar from the closet and practiced with that > Bought a 20GB PS3 during its 2nd wave of shipments hoping to sell it for much higher > decided to keep it > got better at guitar and sold Guitar Hero II to a friend along with the PS2 itself > I bought a better guitar AND MY FIRST PS3 GAME!!! Right now I have 13 PS3 games and a few PSN ones as well. Originally, I had that PS3 for almost a month and a half without a single game for it (I mean how many times can you play Talladega Nights over and over?) Thank god for PSN, as I was able to play some demos at least.

Now I'm done with my first year in college, currently on summer break. I work at a medical office where I go through people's medical insurances to see if the insurance company has finished covering the patient's bill (which usually they haven't) and other times I just type up prescriptions for patients that doctors order since, nothing against doctors but, they can't read their own handwriting (At least that's my reason). Soon I'll also be volunteering at a psychiatric clinic. I hope that turns out well. I'll be heading to India to visit family this summer on June 11th... Yes, to all you PS3 owners... I'm leaving the day before "IT" comes out. Luckily, I've got a friend that'll pick it up for me, but that could also be bad since he's still searching for my Tool CDs.

This is just a brief (or extensive, depending on how much you normally read) description on how I was raised in the ways of gaming and maybe it helps you judge the kind of gamer I am (though I guess, I wouldn't want you to judge me...). EDIT: Okay now looking back on it, this is freaking long. I'll keep it shorter next time. Well I'm signed onto PSN a lot so add me as a friend if you want to do some gaming, and I don't mind chatting on PSN either. It can be about whatever: games, music, food, guitar. Why not tell me about yourself?

And that is my first post! Hopefully, it helped you reminisce about your own gaming life. Next time I'll actually talk more about the games than myself. See you at the forums!

- Vic

Note of the Day: Did you know that the banner for my profile was made entirely from Microsoft Powerpoint?