I began my video game playing career on consoles starting with the Atari 2600, NES, and eventually the Sega Genesis. I loved all my adventures on the consoles, and never once gave a thought to playing a game on a computer. We didn't even have a computer, why would I?

Note: Can you believe that. I mean, there was a time when most people didn't own a computer. That seems like another lifetime ago.

I played educational games in school, like Number Crunchers, Oregon Trail, and Where in the World is Carmen San Diego. But other than browsing the cool Star Wars games in the PC aisle at CompUSA, it just wasn't something that was on my radar.

In the mid 90's, the internet emerged and so did the home PC. Those 90's computers were always packed with demos and I always looked forward to checking out whatever games came with it. They were usually more of the point and click variety, but it was still so cool to see the graphics on a computer screen. Although, it wasn't nearly as cool as watching small video clips in Encarta.

Then slowly the computer began to dominate my life. My poor consoles began to collect dust, and I started focusing on playing PC games exclusively. This lasted for about six or seven years, until I finally bought a Nintendo 64, so I could play some wrestling games. Soon after, I started switching my allegiance back to consoles, so that I didn't have to constantly update graphic cards.

I got to thinking about some of my favorite PC games from that time period. I feel like they are sort of the Island of Misfit Toys. Console games, and even some classic PC games, are beloved and replayed all the time. But there were some great middle of the road games that came along, that no one seems to talk about or even remember in some cases. I decided I wanted to take some time and highlight some of the games I spent the most time with as a kid and young teenager. I wanted to give back a little, for all the enjoyment that these games brought me.

NASCAR Racing

The first game we ever bought was Papyrus NASCAR Racing. Never before had a game come this close to feeling like an actual NASCAR race. Most of the tracks and drivers were included and that made for an amazing game that spawned an entire genre of sim racing games. Now, people have ten thousand dollar setups to race via iRacing (made by former members of Papyrus) and NASCAR Racing 2003, a later edition of Papyrus' racing series is still commonly played online. 2003 is considered the greatest and most realistic NASCAR game ever, and there is a huge community still supporting it.

NASCAR Racing was fun, but when NASCAR Revolution came onto the scene it brought an arcade style racer with graphics that were much better than what Papyrus offered. In typical EA fashion from back in the day, more attention was paid to the cosmetics in the game, rather than game play. That didn't mean the game wasn't fun, I spent a lot of time with my dad mastering these tracks and causing awesome wrecks. But we bought that game because of how great the cars looked in comparison to NASCAR Racing.

This game was a huge success in arcades and as soon as my dad saw the words Daytona, he had to buy it. Myself, I was always confused by the name Daytona USA. The game didn't resemble Daytona International Speedway in any way. The car was a generic stock car, but the game had no NASCAR connection. Despite all this, it was a great arcade game and it was really cool being able to play an arcade game that looked as good as Daytona USA in my house. I didn't play this nearly as much as the other NASCAR games, but it did get some love.

This game blew my mind. The graphics were amazing at the time and never before could you enjoy this type of cop and robber chasing. The racing was fun, and you had the ability to download cars online made by the modding community. I downloaded all different types of cars, but my favorite was a General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard. The mod even included the Dixie horn. I spent all my time racing this one track that was in the country, kicking up leaves, and blasting that Dixie horn over and over driving (no pun intended) my grandma nuts.

Hot Wheels Stunt Track

I actually think this game was my brother's. For a long time he loved roller coasters, and the closest track building activity he could do (other than Rollercoaster Tycoon) was building Hot Wheels tracks. So for Christmas he ended up with this game. It's an on rails racer with excellent graphics. The track was set throughout this house and was set up exactly the way most kids set it up. The track ran off the bed, onto desks, over chairs, etc. It reminded me a lot of Honey I Shrunk Ourselves and Toy Story.

The game play was based on timing, since you had very little control of the car. You had to hit your marks by memorizing the track so that you didn't fly off. It was simple, but very fun. It's one of the games I look back on most fondly.

In seventh grade my friend Michael Benson convinced me to check out this game Command & Conquer. I recognized its cover art, but nothing on the back of the box screamed play me. I bought it thanks to his advice and I was not disappointed. It was the first real time strategy game I ever played, and I just about wore the disc out.

After a few weeks of playing by myself, Michael introduced me to the first online gaming I would ever do. Using our dial up modems, we would call each other's house and connect through the game from there. There was no voice chatting, so we were limited to very short text communication in the game. That really wasn't necessary though, since we usually spent somewhere between ten and twelve hours amassing a huge army and base, and then ten minutes destroying each other.

Command & Conquer was a little old by the time I got it, and Red Alert had just been released. I picked that up and Michael and I would alternate between the two games and our weekend war games. My first online gaming experience is still one of my favorites.

Ultimate DOOM

My second PC game was Ultimate Doom. My uncle got it for me for Christmas after the salesman convinced him that it was the best game on the market. At that time, I could not argue. It was way more gory and violent than anything I experienced on the Genesis, and I loved it. The music was great, the game play (my first person shooter experience) was fantastic as well. What I remember most is being scared. If I played that game after everyone went to sleep, I was terrified. Every creak the house made was one of those monsters coming out and throwing a fireball my way.

Driver is most commonly remembered as a Playstation game, but it was released on PC as well. I picked it up real cheap one day at Walmart and fell in love. It was my first open world experience, and the control on the car was amazing. I loved the slippery driving and I also loved being a bad guy. It wasn't as common back then as it is today, and sure I was an undercover cop deep down, but I still drove for the bad guys.

One of the levels that stands out the most was the training level at the beginning of the game. You are locked inside a small parking garage with a time limit, and have to complete all of the assigned activities correctly before you can actually proceed to the game. It took me almost two days to finally beat all of the activities before the time expired. Of course, once I did it once, it was easy and any other times I tried it I could knock it out in one quick attempt.

Monster Truck Madness

Microsoft's Monster Truck Madness took up more of my time than any monster truck game ever had any business doing. The game was primarily a racing game, albeit with huge monster trucks. You got to pick from twelve different real life trucks, and three different game modes: circuit racing, rally racing, and drag racing. The commentary is what made the game really stand out. It's very primitive by today's standards, but at the time hearing a real life voice making comments that related to the race was shocking. HARD WORK... PAYS OFF... FOR GRAVEDIGGER

The 90's were a great time for basketball fans. Michael Jordan, Shaq, Magic, Bird... it doesn't get any better than that. Like with all my interests, if they make a video game about it, I must play it and NBA Live was the only NBA game released on PC at that time. I loved playing with all my favorite players (with exception of Jordan who was always excluded - Roster Player #89!), but I loved the massive modding community so much more. It was there that I saw the power of roster updates and user creations. So much so that I even got involved.

These talented modders were making current shoes for the players, new faces, alternate jerseys, corrected banners that hang in the rafters, and they even managed to put Michael Jordan into the game. I remember when they released an amazing modification that replaced all the graphics with NBA on NBC graphics and even included the John Tesh jingle. It was just too cool.

I realized while writing this I mentioned many of these games were firsts for me. My first online, my first first person shooter, my first open world, etc. Maybe that is what made these games seem so magical to me. They opened new doors into gameplay genres that I would love for years to come.

These games weren’t always the prettiest games or had the most ground breaking gameplay, but they were fun. I think sometimes we forget that video games are supposed to be fun. We expect too much out of them because they can do so much now. Not all video games need to be groundbreaking artistic pieces. Sometimes, simple gameplay and a lot of fun are all you need.