This is my excited face.I am a changed man. In the coming weeks, I have vowed to experience the quality of console gaming the past has provided most youth with. The difference for me: this will be the first exposure I will have to almost every single console that others grew up with.

We begin with the seed of console history - the Nintendo Entertainment System. At first, I was anxious to begin working with the console, and learning about the games others had talked about all through my childhood. However, our first attempt failed, due to a blinking red power light, but we would not let that stop us. It was to be expected; it is an old system. My hopes were not yet disturbed, and we went so far as to purchase a "new" system - same result. None of the old tricks worked; blowing on the cartridge, jiggling it and moving it around inside of the console, repeatedly resetting it, even using different TVs and power outlets - all for naught.

By now, it is a week after our initial endeavour, and I've grown weary of the machine; I endured countless hours of trying to get them to work. But luck finally found us, and Dan Bush found his hiding in the dark. After a solid week of not being able to play, I quite literally jumped with joy when I read the text that not only had he found another console, but one which actually worked.

I press what?After jumping through hoops to get our video recording equipment to work, I finally held that simple rectangular controller in my hands... and didn't know what I was doing. "Press Start," they told me, as I pressed A. Eventually, I got the hang of the simplistic device. Some of you may laugh, but I was genuinely bewildered!

Naturally, I had to start with Super Mario Brothers, at which I thoroughly failed. Now, I never did well using my thumbs for controls back in my youth, but this was embarassing. Aside from that, the game was an absolute blast! The music is like a drug; you just want to keep playing. This made it that much harder when Dan and Adam told me to move onto the next game.

Joust. An absolutely beautiful creation, even though it isn't original to the NES. It is a very easy concept to understand, made easier by a single button to determine altitude and only half of the D-pad in use. Again, the music and graphics were enjoyable; not new to me, but certainly fun. Finally, I played (or tried to) Wolverine, which isn't worth talking about from my perspective - it was embarassing, that's all you need to know.

Even after all the frustrations the NES caused me, I still got a great kick out of playing it. The games were fun, and trying to make them work in the first place just made them feel real somehow. It is sad to realize how long it took me to experience such a wonderous world of console gaming, but it's better than never at all.

Want to watch John fail at Mario? Just too lazy to read? Watch his experience here.