Okay Geek Farm
Halo CE Anniversary edition compared to the original
Brandon Davenport
The first time I saw Halo was while roaming around a RadioShack with my Dad. He was trying to find a replacement phone for our house and I was walking down a row of computers, dreaming about the day I could have one for my very own. Then I saw something displayed on one of the computers in the isle opposite to the one I was in, so I went to investigate. This is where my interest in games sky-rocketed. I have remembered this day for 10 years.
Discovering Halo 10 years ago
My Dad continued to browse the RadioShack shelves for a new phone and I finally approached the behemoth (17 inch) monitor, staring at what was displayed on the screen. It was a jeep of sorts on a beach, but it had guns (to an 11 year old, this is the motherload of all awesomeness)! It was on an island too, and there were army men standing around the jeep and it looked like I could drive it, so I did. Two minutes later and I was immersed in this crazy jeep/army game, racing through the sand and doing laps around a big stone pillar — this is when I saw some aliens up over on some grass, so I decided to drive over.
This is when my Dad found me and said “hey bud, we gotta head back home” and I pleaded for 5 more minutes. My Dad glanced at the store keepers who were idly standing and he said “sure, but just 5 minutes”. More than 5 minutes flew by and my Dad and I were raving over this awesome game — he hadn’t seen anything like it before. Guns, Aliens and a super awesome Jeep (we soon learned it was called a Warthog). It was all too much to enjoy in a RadioShack store.
Then vs Now - A slideshow comparison
A few months later, I asked for an Xbox for my birthday — a tall order for a Birthday in 2002 (that thing was like $400, but I didn’t know that) — so I deemed it to be for my Birthday and Christmas. When the time rolled around, my Dad hooked up my new Xbox and told me he figured out what that jeep game was called (we had been talking about it for months) — it was called “Halo” and we played it all afternoon. It was so much more than a Jeep! It was amazing!
Since then, the original Halo has been worn by time and it really looks like crap compared to today’s iterations of the franchise. It’s so awesome to see Halo exactly the same as it was (quirks included), but with a new, polished, next-gen look so hopefully someone will see this awesome game in a RadioShack and be just as amazed as I was 10 years ago.
