For me, it was a novelty. He had told me about getting the video-game a couple of days earlier, and I was pretty excited. We just had it for an evening. So I had to make the best use of the limited time I had with me. It took us a short while to plug the system to the TV, and off we were! We started out with what I think was one of the earlier versions of 'Ninja Gaiden'. Since it was the first game Ive ever played, it has been etched into my memory. But in the first stage itself, we came up against a huge wall, that we did not know how to cross. This was where we gave up, and switched cartridges. It has been a long time since i ever got to play Ninja Gaiden again, for the plain fact that it wasn't as common as the other games seen usually on the 64 in 1 or similar cartridges.
A starting animation of a later version of Ninja Gaiden
Not exactly the my first Ninja Gaiden I played. I cant seem to locate images for that game. This is one of the later versions again, but the closest I could get to the one I played. Time for some Contra, Road fighter & Urban Champion next!
Urban champion was a hit with us, because of its simplicity. Two guys slugging it out in a fist fight. Players can just throw two types of blows. Face blows and Belly blows. And players can defend blows from opponents too. Its a cat and mouse game between blows and blocks. When you hit your opponent, he moves behind. And you need to push him to the end of the screen and off the side-walk or into a ditch in the higher stages. I remember repeatedly losing to my uncles at this game.
The first splash screen that you see when the game starts.
A screen shot of a game in progress. Player B is rushing towards player A and is at an advantage before he engages.
The key to an early advantage was to start walking towards the center as fast as you could, and then timing the first punch so as to score a hit. In case you are slower than your opponent, you would end up engaging with him in your half of the screen, which means the distance that one has to push the opponent back to win the game is lesser for him and more for you. It was so funny to see both animated thugs do a fast walk to the center and then start a humorous slug-fest. In case both the players are experienced, the fight can go on for longer, with a series of blocked punches from both sides.
The negative of this game was that it grows old on you pretty soon because of its simplicity, and playing it with the computer AI is pretty boring. Yet, this game brings back fond memories of my yesteryear's.
And then comes my favorite game ever, Contra. The cartridge that my dad had rented, had each of the 10 stages as different games. So in case you wanted to play "Waterfall", you could do that by selecting the game which directly started there. And how could i forget Road fighter. My uncles and my dad managed to play that game pretty well and I was probably too young to play it like them. But little did I know that years down the line, I would be able to play these games with my eyes closed! The same with Contra. Over the years I developed some brilliant contra skills. ;) Both these games deserve their own posts, so ill talk about them later. Anyways here are a couple of screen-shots before as I draw to the end of this post.
The select menu for Contra. The sound jingle played here always sends waves of excitement down my fingers, even now. 
The famous Jungle Stage, one that we will never forget.
The classic first stage of Road Fighter.
After an evening of enjoying the games mentioned above and a lot more, we sadly gave back the rented Nintendo system. But I had tasted blood. It was just the start of a long tryst with NES & video games. Read more about it in upcoming write-ups from "the Video Game Chronicles"
