I suddenly feel very old. And I'm only just turning 19 this year. The cause for this feeling? Video games.

I was first introduced into the video game realm when I was about 2, with the NES, a Commodore 64, an Apple II, and a computer with DOS. I have two older brothers, so they got me to play at such a young age. I remember the good ol' games like Karateka, Choplifter, Wavy Navy (god that was a good game), and of course, the classic NES games like Mario Bros. 1-3, Megaman 1-6 (4 is still the best in my opinion).

Now I know there are many people out there that can probably remember even farther back games, so just let me make this clear: I don't believe that I'm "old school". I know there are others that go even farther back, and more that go even more so than them.

Still, I grew up with a lot of these original games that spawned all of these series that are still going. Which brings me to the game series that started this whole crisis for me.

Pokemon. Was there ever such a craze? I'm sure EVERYONE felt the effects of this series in one way or another. So one day a few weeks ago, my friends and I were reminiscing about the original series (the only ones I played), when one of us asked when they came out, we pondered for a moment, then I replied, "I think it was 1998. So...10 years ago?"

We all looked at each other and were like, "What?! Are we that old! I still remember when it first came out! It CAN'T have been ten years ago!"

But it was. And this is what made me feel like I'm old. I remember when being ten years old was impressive. Now I'm able to REMEMBER ten years ago.

So I decided that I was simply overreacting, and decided to prove to myself that I really wasn't that old. Then some memories came back to me. I remember talking to some ten year olds in a swim class (I'm a swim instructor) about video games, and Megaman came up. I asked them if they'd ever played the originals. One of them replied, "Like, Megaman X for the SNES?"

*sigh*

Just thinking about it depressed me; the fact there are kids growing up playing video games, but they've never played Mario Bros. 3. They've never delved into The Legend of Zelda, or tLoZ: Link's Adventure. To me, these are games you HAVE to play to truly appreciate games like Mario Galaxy or tLoZ: Twilight Princess. I mean, how can you possibly be a gamer without having played Super Mario World?

But I suppose I can't keep thinking like this. All of us that have been playing since the NES have been privileged to be able to be watching the development of these series. All the newer gamers that haven't, well, it will be as it is. Eventually even the Wii, the PS3, and XBox 360 will be considered really old.

Just thinking about it makes me wonder what it will be like in 50 years. When about another 10 generations have come and gone. When I actually AM old. I'm going to talk to some kids (maybe they're my grandkids or something) and bring out a dusty old gray box, "Look at this kids! It's called a NES! Be careful, it's about 70 years old! Now why don't you let me tell you a story. It's a rather long one now, and it's about a man in overalls that could jump really high..."