Christmas and Games on The Big TV

As kids, we were sometimes allowed to play games on the big TV, but only on special occasions.

The big TV in the living room, shared by everyone. You couldn't hog that with your Sega or Sony. And besides, there was no room under the TV to permanently store a console. It'd have to stay out on the carpet, a mess of RF boxes and power cords; controllers and cartridges. No one wanted that, and god knows what our spaniels would've done with an exposed Sega. Terrible things, I'd imagine.

We, my brother and I, usually played upstairs. We were fortunate enough to have portable TVs in our rooms, albeit tiny ones. And I do mean tiny. Looking into the screen of my TV-VCR combo was like peeping through a letterbox. Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter 2, Sega Rally, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7 - everything pre-PS2 was experienced on that minuscule screen. Games that still loom large, played on the smallest of displays.

Sometimes, our consoles came downstairs. For example, on birthdays, when we had friends over, or sometimes when we'd bought a new game, which was a rare occurrence outside the gifting seasons. Games on the big TV was just for special occasions. And Christmas was the most special of all.

Childhood Christmases often came with consoles: a Master System 2 in the early 90s, an upgrade to the Mega Drive a couple of years later, and a Saturn bundle in '96 when most of my Sega-loving friends had already jumped ship for PlayStation. Christmas was for consoles, so Christmas meant games on the big TV.

We'd open our presents bright and early Christmas morning, still in our pyjamas and shaking with excitement, as our parents looked on bleary-eyed. If we received a console, we'd need to wait a few hours before we could set it up downstairs. There was a family breakfast to get through, then presents for the grown-ups around the Christmas tree. I look back at those moments with great fondness, but as a kid I just wanted to race through them so that I could play with my toys! Once every present was opened, and focus had shifted to Christmas lunch, we were free to hook-up to the big TV.

Unplug the aerial, switch to the RF unit, plug in and try to avoid death by electrocution, and then search for the correct channel. If we were lucky, it'd work first time. "SEGA!"

However, our old telly wasn't always up to the task. By the mid-90s it was already a decade old, and it looked even older with its wood-effect casing, no remote control, and channel buttons with numbers that had long since worn off. The year I got my Saturn, which my Dad masterfully negotiated down in price, I found myself shit out of luck, as the out-of-box cables were not compatible with our antique TV. We popped to John Lewis a few days later to pick up an RF Antenna cable, and only then could I enjoy my new console in the living room.

Cheated out of Christmas on the big TV by advancements in console-cable technology!

I suspect having us play downstairs was also a way for my parents to ensure that we didn't lock ourselves away in our rooms all morning, looking for chaos emeralds or trying to figure out why Mega Drive Ryu only punched (we had 3-button controllers). In theory, playing downstairs should've made Christmas gaming more of a shared experience, though try as we might, we were rarely able to convince family members to pick up a controller. Mum had no interest, and was busy anyway, preparing an endless supply of festive food. Dad once commented that Jonah Lomu Rugby looked very realistic, but that was the only time I can recall him having a opinion on computer games, and while my Grandma may have been the greatest Sega Rally player to ever live, she retired after a single race.

Aside from moving to the big TV, there were plenty of other festive traditions that we built around games. For example, there was an unwritten rule, one that we devised, that forbade us from playing "old" games at Christmas, as that would be "massively depressing". Same for listening to old CDs, playing with old toys etc. The 25th was for new toys; you were not permitted to interact with things you already owned the day before. I still feel a little unwell when my daughter wants to play with old toys on Christmas day, and I'm sure my brother feels similarly aggrieved when his children do likewise.

Another tradition was bringing game manuals to the Christmas dinner table. It would be poor form to dip into a handheld at lunch, but bringing a game box and flicking through the manual between servings of roast chicken and Christmas pudding wasn't just acceptable behaviour, it was actively encouraged (by us). We'd have already played our games for an hour or two by lunch, but the dinner table would be the first time we bothered to read the manual.

"Hang on, Ryu can punch AND kick?!"

These days, video games live on the big TV as standard. However, I do have a small monitor upstairs for retro consoles, and on occasion I might bring the PSOne, GameCube or Dreamcast downstairs for some 50"+ action. Sure, the games look awful displayed so large, but it still feels like a treat temporarily having them in the living room.

This Christmas, I'm hoping games on the big TV will bring the family together. There's a copy of Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection under the tree, that I'm sure my daughter and I will play at some point on the 25th. She's even expressed some interest in playing Christmas Nights. That's my Christmas Eve tradition on Saturn, usually enjoyed upstairs on my own. But if she wants to join in, I'll happily switch to the big TV and the Xbox port.

After all, games feel so much more special on the big TV, especially at this time of year.

I hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful festive season. I'll see you back here just before New Year for my Best & Worst of 2024. 

Merry Christmas!