I had a Sony Trinitron that sat on my dresser and my brother connected our NES to it. I remember we would sit on my bed while playing or we would stand if a level was getting too hard. Weirdly enough, I don't remember exactly how my parents got us the NES because all my siblings and I were born after 2000 (years after discontinuation) and I can't imagine that two bengali immigrants who worked 10-14 hours a day would get a Nintendo Entertainment System for themselves, let alone know what it is. I think consoles are still sold after discontinuation, maybe at thrift stores or those little shops in Montreal that sold old tech + pirated movies/shows. Some of the shops were run by men that my dad knew from back in Bangladesh, and that's where we bought the Mario Bros game cartidge.

I never played the NES by myself because I was terrible at video games so it wasn't fun when I kept failing a level, I also didn't know how to turn the system on or connect it to the TV. At some point my brother and I stopped playing with the NES because we got our first handheld consoles which was the gameboy advance SP. We didn't touch the NES or the little Sony trinitron for a while and eventually as years went on and my family upgraded our TV, the trinitron was tucked into our basement and the NES disappeared off the face of the earth. My dad threw our little TV later on and so I think he threw out our NES as well. I'm not hurt by that because although it's one of my first introduction to video games, I don't think I would play it at all. The last time my brother and I used it would have been the last time regardless if I had it with me.

My rich uncle bought my brother and I each our own gameboy and I think my life changed after I got it. I don't remember a day where I wasn't playing on it to the point my mother would take it away as punishment if I was misbehaving. I went to bed with my pink gameboy tucked under my pillow and when my parents were as sleep I'd tun it on with the lowest possible volume. My brother and I would have to share the game cartidges and so we juggled around only a handful of games. I didn't have those cute and cozy gameboy games like Dogz but partially because I didn't even know they existed! My knowledge on video games was limited to my brother and I just played whatever he played. I get to play those cute, cozy games now on my emulator but I think little me would have loved something more girly and fun.

A couple years ago my sister and I both put in money to buy a used gameboy from etsy. They didn't have the pearl pink one that I used to own so we settled for a silver that was in good condition. My sister has the gameboy with her so I use an emulator which is nice because I get to play games that I've never had the chance to.