Video games? Nope, never got into ’em. I had a cousin who had an Atari system, and I occasionally played Duck Hunt on Nintendo at another cousin’s house, but that was it. I never longed for my own, never asked for it, never gave them a second thought.
But then, one Christmas, Santa surprised the hell out of everyone and brought my brother and I a Sega Genesis. Brother and I were grateful, but confused: Neither one of us asked for, or even desired, such a gift. We were peripherally aware of the popularity of such things, but having rarely played them ourselves (and never having played anything on Sega), we were at a loss.
Santa was appropriately thanked, of course (and in retrospect I can’t help but wonder if this gift was something Santa himself had wanted) Â and we were aware that this particular gift was a big ‘un and not something that should be ignored. So we tried our best to become acquainted with the games with which it came: some Zelda shit, I think. Maybe a Sonic the Hedgehog thing. Santa also brought NBA Jam and a hockey game that was not licensed by the NHL, but by the NHLPA. These were fun diversions, a good 20-minutes or so of entertainment, but we never really got “into” the system.
Until we discovered Columns.
Columns was Sega’s answer to Tetris, basically. And in Two Player Mode, brother and I could literally play for hours.
It.
Was.
Awesome.
And you know what’s even more awesome? The fact that for a mere 99 cents I can BUY this game for my iPod touch!
Can you guess what I’ve been doing all evening?
the sloppy copy 
Ah yes, Columns. We had it on our Sega Game Gear, which was a clunky version of the Gameboy. It was the only thing that kept us quiet on the 15-hour trip to NC when we were kids. I can still hear the music…