Yes, it was Christmas morning and my brother and I were gnashing at the bit; for weeks the rumor in the house had been that we were getting a Sega Genesis and we were both stoked. Our parents had touted for years the importance of reading books and watching little television, and video games, well…they were the devil!

Lo and behold, on that magical morning we tore apart a joint present from our parents, and the shiny glow of the red Sega Genesis box struck us like a thousand holy lights from above. Caring little for the other gifts we had received, we tore open the box. Weeks before we had looked at the ancient television to figure out where we would hook everything up, and before our parents could even start talking to us about all of the family who we were obligated to visit that day, we had the Genesis running and Sonic The Hedgehog planted firmly in the cartridge slot.

Soon other games came out that we couldn’t live without. We played Maximum Carnage and X-Men until our little eyes were bloodshot with video game joy. We played teams on Streets of Rage, killing bad guys with our bottles, bats, and steel pipes we found while desperately gathering turkeys and apples for strength. I quickly became addicted to an RPG game called Shining in the Darkness, which ate most of my free time up. I became obsessed with gaining levels and slaying the creepy monsters that lurked in the mazes of the game.

In a society that is now dripping with technology at every turn, many people forget the magic that once was the Sega Genesis, having traded them for the Wii, X-Box 360, and PS3. To me there will be nothing as exciting as my first video game system, running around as Wolverine on my parents' ancient Toshiba television, annihilating bad guys with my gleaming claws.

Compete in the Bookmans Video Game Challenge 2009: Street Fighter IV, this Saturday!