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I was born in 1985 and grew up in Ipoh, which is north of Kuala Lumpur. While gaming did exist in Malaysia during the 1980s, it was not until the end of that decade that I first really experienced them. My family bought an IBM computer, which were easy to get hold if you could afford it, but were very expensive back then.
I still remember when I was 6 and my dad introduced me to the new IBM, it had come pre-loaded with 'Midnight Rescue'. It had English text, which was fine since I learnt English at school, and many Malaysian-Chinese speak a combination of both English and Cantonese. There were also Cantonese games available that originated in places like Taiwan, China and Malaysia, but I couldn't play them due to being unable to read the text. Midnight Rescue was like a learning experience at that age, where you had to solve mysteries and work out puzzles, and it was something even my mother and father played! The three of us would take it in turns to play late into the night, sometimes until midnight.
Arcades were also very popular, but the biggest boom was with Street Fighter, especially at a Highland Resort just outside Kuala Lumpur, where gamers would meet to set up mini tournaments and challenge each other. Most teenagers there also enjoy a special style of Malaysian tea (Teh Tarik) bought from 'Mamak' stalls, where it is combined with milk and poured from a great height to froth it up, making it almost like cappuccino. So it was common to see arcade gamers celebrate winning a match or tournament by heading off to the nearby Mamak stall for a cup of this special tea, which is the Malaysian equivalent of going to the pub for a pint. At that particular resort they had a very large area dedicated to all kinds of arcade games. Racing games were my favourite, and the whole family would play at the arcade centre; my mother, father and younger brother. Gaming was something for everyone to enjoy.
When I was twelve in 'primary six' at school, I noticed a revolution in graphics and sound, as well as the beginning of the internet. This is when gaming really started to pick up. We would go to school and talk about the latest games we had, how to proceed to the next level, which games were better and we'd often share games. It was also the introduction of the PlayStation, whose original games were much more expensive than computer games, so piracy was common and widespread. While I never owned one, my cousins did; it was a Japanese system since most of our electronics came from Japan.
Secondary school meant multiplayer games, especially in cybercafes nearing the end of the 1990s. We challenged each other a lot, and there was the forming up of clans to enter competitions, with more and more gamers emerging. There is a lot of excitement in Malaysia surrounding the World Cyber Games tournament, and each year we send many players to compete, and each year we keep getting better. It was from humble beginnings on computer games like Midnight Rescue that sparked the flames leading to large Malaysian clan championships and entry into the WCG.
Although in the early years it was new and not mainstream, now it is very much publicised across the country, with many tournaments being set up in cybercafes. From here on it was definitely a very good thing! For me, I love games, my friends love games, perhaps 95% of us all love games, and because they became so much easier to get hold of, with added realism, it now means more of us in Malaysia are enjoying games than ever before.
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Midnight Rescue!
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Midnight Rescue!
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Teh Tarik being made at a Mamak
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