For me, the Game Boy was the “real deal.” Some people might say it was just an overpriced piece of electronic gaming, but for me it was way more than that. Don’t get me wrong here, I had a lot of friends in my childhood, but this magic little thing could offer me something nobody else was able to: being part of fantasy. Playing my boy, Boba Fett, in a Star Wars game or being able to play soccer with my digital Lego buddies was so fun to me, that it made me miss dinner not only once.
There’s another big aspect that it brought with it: it was the first device I owned that set me and the other owners of it apart from the rest of society; you couldn’t talk to us if you didn’t experience what we experienced. If you didn’t spend the time we spent. If you didn’t invest the energy we invested.
Looking back, Nintendo’s Game Boy still creates a certain feeling of childishness in me, that I never want to forget. That’s one of the reasons I recently opted to buy an old, used one for myself and I won’t lie here – it’s working its magic again, in the dorm, on vacation and sometimes in class.
Leon Bahner, international student, business finance major, forward/center on SJSU’s Men’s Basketball Team, born in 1995 in Moenchengladbach, Germany.
The Bolt Magazine 