Friday - 1st October 1999 (between 3:30pm-4pm)
That was the day my life changed forever.
Not just changed a little bit, but around 4PM, standing in the newsagents of a shopping centre (or mall for you Americans out there), my life split into two paths, and a choice was made. Go this way, or that way. Unconsciously, i made a choice that day, that would go on to define and shape the rest of my life.
This 15 year old's Friday routine was simple; go with my mum to The Kennedy Centre after school finished at 3pm, and as she got the weekly shopping in Curleys supermarket, i went off on my own to visit the usual 3 spots, spread out within the same shopping centre. First off was a video rental shop called "Xtra-Vision", which was never that exciting until a few years before when they started game rentals (Ahh the memories of trying to beat Turok 2 and WCW vs NWO World Tour in a single weekend!). I always went in there to see what was new, as well as to be mesmerised by the box art, both front and back, when those things were still as awesome as the game inside! After that, it was round to "Golden Discs". A music shop, with a decent dance/techno/house music section, it was where i bought my first ever cassette single back in the day. A choice between Sash - "Equador", and Dario G - "Sunchyme". I chose the latter, much to my regret. What can i say, i was a kid who loved the bass drum, and many a Scooter album was purchased in there too. Hey, it was the 90's , and fuck Take That.
I always save the best to last with many things in life, from the food on my plate, to the playing of multiple videogames i have in my library, and the visit the third shop in terms of the order i visited these places, was no different on my Friday routine. "Newsbeat", with its red and yellow sign was where i spent the majority of the trip, completely glued to the gaming magazines. At the front of the shop, the magazine rack ran the entire length of the left hand side of the shop. Kids comics were the first you came to when walking along that side, featuring such classics as The Beano and Dandy, serving as a reminder of where i had came from back in the 80's. I still have traumatic memories of pure rage, at someone who had ripped the free Iron Bru bar off of the Beano on the shelf before i had bought it, and only realising when i had gotten home. That was the last kids comic i bought back in the day, and ripped up my furry Gnasher Beano membership badge. in protest.
Further on down past all of the various topics of magazines (as well as the pornos on the top shelf which i wasnt tall enough to reach, but didnt deter me from trying!), the video gaming section was more or less at the back end of the shop. The student working their shift behind the till wouldn't even notice you down there, and it was like my second home throughout the years leading up to 1999. I was there reading them all throughout the years. From Mean Machines, to Gamesmaster, all the way to to the N64 Magazine. Some i persuaded my mum to buy just to shut me up, but most of the time, all i got for my pre adolescent whining was a good smack on the side of my head. But by this stage, being 15, i had learned how to scrape together a few quid. With my shiny new National Insurance card recently sent out before you turn 16, places could use that to blag a few months work out of you before you hit legal age to work, so i had a cushy part time job working a Thursday night and all day Saturday in a clothing shop in the city centre. It may not have been much, but £60 a week was like winning the lottery at that age! I knew finally, i could jump into a console lifespan at the very beginning, without any help or waiting on Santa Claus to deliver the goods, so it was the Dreamcast all the way for me. It was perfectly timed, with it coming out in a couple of weeks, and the Official Dreamcast Magazine having its preview issue with a video cassette attached to really hook me in.
It was in this shop, on Friday 1st October 1999, lifting Official Dreamcast Magazine (UK) issue 1 (November 1999 - i don't know why they labelled those magazines a month ahead) up off of the shelf, and reading the words, "Shenmue - the game that changes everything" that were blazened across the front cover alongside a huge image of a character we now know as Niaosun, where my life legitimately change forever. How very true those words came to be, on a personal level for myself.
I have the magazine i bought on that very day, sitting beside me right now, as i wanted to flick through it, and i could go on and on about it. But this post is far too long already. But the jist of how i felt was, finally, here is a game I want. What i play video games for. I want a complete world within a world. Escapism. Not some cartoony side scroller, or a first person shooter. I want to live in a game, and as i read the article in a frenzied manner, i coughed up my £4.99 without blinking an eye. I read and re-read that magazine all weekend. I even did the one thing you shouldn't do back in those days, and that was bring it into school to read at lunch. Shit like that would result in a kicking for sure in an Irish, sports orientated, all boys school. But some of the guys i hung around with actually said it looked good, and that was all the vilification i needed. This console, and this game would be mine.
The rest is now history, and as a result of that day, i now own the brand i visited for almost 20 years, have visited Japan, can call the creator a friend, learned life skills that would never have been possible, met great, great people from around the world. Despite having debts, no girlfriend, no house and no car... i wouldn't trade my life and all of the things i have done for them, no matter how much you paid me. I'm sure people will judge me, disagree, criticise or whatever. But all of that pales in significance to both the lowest of the lows thanks to this series, as well as the highest highs. It truly has shaped my life, and i will be forever grateful for that single day in October 1999 where lifting a single magazine did go on to shape 20 years of my life so far.