To celebrate today’s 25th birthday of the Nintendo Entertainment system, we at Spectacle Rock would like to share some of our earliest memories of the system that, without argument, had a huge effect on all of our lives.

Jeff Feeser:

1985.  I was six years old.  The year was a formative year for me, not so much in terms of physical growth, although that was surely happening; and not in terms of mental growth, although that was surely happening as well.  1985 was the first year in that it was one of the first years I can really remember starting to pay attention to pop culture.  My parents had finally decided I was old enough to start watching movies, and my father, bless his heart, decided that he would show me Star Wars on VHS, and when it came out later that year, allow me to see Back to the Future.  I had already been watching He-Man for years, and the Intellivision was a mainstay in our living room.  However, the games for that venerable system had started to become long in the tooth, and even at the age of 6 I was starting to feel like some of the games that were new on the shelf were just rehashes of games I had already played.  My videogame curmudgeon-dom had already begun, and I hadn’t even hit puberty yet.  At that young age, it didn’t even occur to me that new systems were on the horizon.

That was when my cousin brought over his new “Nintendo Entertainment System”.

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Far away from the city, atop the stone face of a lonely cliff, a man, clad in dark blue from head to toe sits and stares out at the temple in the valley below.

“….”, thinks Ryu Hayabusa, as he ponders his plan of attack, and how he will retrieve the statue of darkness from the evil Jaquio.

As he contemplates his next move, he notices the graceful motion of a single eagle, loping about in lazy circles, drawing closer and closer to the precipice.

“….”, thinks Ryu once more, as he readies himself for the climb down to the temple, not noticing the purposeful approach of the bird. And then, just as our hero is about to make his descent, the bird accelerates to the speed of sound, plunges into the young ninja’s chest, and bursts through the other side. Clutching the gaping wound in his chest, our hero falls to his apparent death.

Welcome to the world of Ninja Gaiden, a land of intrigue, action, and Birds. Deadly, deadly birds.

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