by TheSonicRetard » Sun Jul 05, 2015 11:45 pm
When shenmue first came out, I had just finished my first semester of freshman year of highschool. Since then, I've attended college and graduated. I went from someone who was learning the basics of SDL and game programming, to learning microprocessor assembly all on my own, to picking up and learning virtual reality development, to now owning my own game development studio. I do professional work in VR, I am currently working with MD Anderson on VR cancer research and development (long story, but short explanation is we are designing VR games that can alleviate pain in cancer patients simply by playing).
I got a puppy the same year Shenmue was released. He was put to sleep about 6 months ago.
I have fallen in and out of love twice in that time. My nephew was born just before Shenmue was released, he now has his driving permit.
I got a Turbo Duo alongside Shenmue that christmas. I had 1 game for it. Today, my Turbo Duo collection totals over 150.
My best friend moved from down the street to an entire state away about 2 months after Shenmue was released. Against all odds, we remained extremely close friends, and still remain best friends to this day. He now lives about 2 hours away (houston to Austin) and we see each other regularly. He is the only other person I know who played Shenmue (he also played Shenmue II with me when it first came out, as I visited him in Louisiana with my Xbox and we marathoned the game). He was just as excited as I was when I told him Shenmue III was coming out. He has a PC now, and has backed the game.
Man how time flies.
Shenmue means a lot to me, but honestly Yu Suzuki making games means way, way more. More than most would really understand. I grew up playing Yu Suzuki's games. All my neighbors and friends had NESes growing up. My dad, hero of mine, got me a Sega Master System instead. He told me "Sega was better." It was. The pack-in game was Hang-On. My father and I would play hang-on over, and over again. We lived out in the country outside of Houston, by this small airport. I used to think, as a kid, that the course from Hang-On was modeled after our drive from our home into the city of Houston and then back because of the way time would change in the game and the general look and feel of the graphics. It always reminded me of christmas eve, because we would drive to my grandma's and open presents at midnight, then come back home as the sun was coming up, just like the pink sky at the end of the game.
I played Yu Suzuki's games on the master system, then the genesis, then several arcade cabinets, then my 32X, then Saturn, then finally dreamcast. I got them all as they were new. We didn't know at the time that the same guy was responsible for all the games we were playing, but my dad and I always said there was something about those Sega games we played that just were flat-out better than the competition.
Those games had a profound impact on me. It got me started in computer programming at 8 years old. My father, noticing my interest, really encouraged me to persue my career. Yu Suzuki's games instilled upon me a fascination with 3D and ultimately VR, and it was a lifelong dream to work with virtual reality. I opened my VR company about 2 months before Shenmue III was announced.
Dreams do come true.
TheSonicRetard has received a thanks from: Fei Fong Wong