Laura's First Console
Modern AU - A young Laura discovers her first love, suggested by GiantBurger!
Not sure why I chose an SNES parody... I could have gone with something slightly more modern like an early Playstation or XBox, or tried to fabricate one entirely... but I think maybe just because it was my first console I felt like drawing something a little nostalgic for me. :) I was a 90's kid after all. I also think, on top of this sketch being set in the past, it might make sense to have the modern TK setting be slightly behind our own, technology wise, since the existence of magic might have meant less pressure to develop alternatives.
For those wondering about the prices, the Modern AU's currency (1G) is about 10 dollars. I have a fondness for settings that uses smaller values for prices, so that the pennies are still useful. I just think the novelty of it is fun. :9
Comments (50)
Im not sure what exactly was the first console I ever had was. Im pretty sure it was the wii, but I also know that we had a ps3 at some point and an xbox 360 later as well
This used to be one of the best things about browsing in video game shops. Now that console gaming is mostly online, demo stations like this are so rare in video game shops nowadays...
I remember these demo setups always giving me the worst neck pain
My first console was a Sega Genesis with Sega CD attachment. My first Console video game was Metroid on a friend's NES a couple of years earlier. Yet my first video game was (if I remember right...) the first Mario game but you had to type the entire game code into the computer yourself. Mom did not enjoy that early age of computers.
When I was a kid, my parents bought a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer. I was able to program some simple games in BASIC on that thing. Never really got into much coding beyond that, though.
This makes me happy
it's a great start of what we know she would do in the future years maybe we could be her companions in her livestreaming and i would probably be in the VR version if the games she plays has VR version maybe i'd also drink every now and then just for being a comic relief but i wouldn't endorse drinking while solo streaming only if it were for a comic relief
I started on Atari 2600 and Commodore . . . something. I don't remember those perfectly well bc I was pretty young then. I just know I played Pitfall and Q-bert on them. Then came the NES, and I'm pretty sure we had the original grey gun.
Ah, I remember when gas was only .22 gold pieces! I started with an NES. Some friends had a Sega Master System and an Atari 2600.
Wow tom, now you got me all nostalgic for the 90's. Miss those days.
My first was a Commodore Vic-20. Good times.
My first was a Magnavox Odyssey III. Magnavox’s attempt to break into the nascent console market back in the late 1970s.
I've seen that look before. I probably wore it more than once at her age.
So nostalgic. Remember the first time I saw this set up in a Toys R Us. How long ago? It was Mario 64s release demo I played on it. Blew my fricking mind.
Interesting story! For me, the first time I saw Super Mario 64 in action was at a Blockbuster shop where my father used to work.
The beginning of Laura’s gaming life
Sent me back to my childhood with this one. I remember the fist time I ever saw a SNES was at a Sears. Super Metroid blew my mind.
wow sort of sets into mind how long I've had mine. Got it when I was 14, still have it now that I'm 39. ^^
Yo the nostalgia on this one, man. :)
The last time I saw a console demo station was The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker in Media Play in '03. I'm not sure if they were phased out or I've just looked in the wrong places for twenty years.
🎵 "Laura's mom/Has got it goin' on" 🎵
Please make this a Sketch! Maybe Laura with the girls at the club and seeing her mom fronting a cover band. More love to the mature rocker chicks!
Just looking at the in-store use console makes my neck hurt. Oh the fun memories of playing them
I remember those days at stores. Back in the long long agos, my first one was a Gameboy pocket. First of its kind, and missing alot of key components
You made the perfect call by making it the 16bit era Tom. I don't think there would be the same impact if you showed a newer system, honestly.
Ah, that magical time in every little nerd's life when a whole new world opens up before them and she will never be the same again. That thrill of new discovery, that sense of wonder at the possibilities. And later in life she will pine for that sensation. And one special stream she'll open the box she got from (insert Modern AU's equivalent to E-bay), and that childlike wonder will be supplemented by that closest adult equivalent: Nostalgia. Actually, yeah, someone request that, please: Laura pulling out a SNEP on stream and maybe getting a little misty-eyed at memories of innocent days gone by. Anyway, child Laura is absolutely adorable. Love the mom too, hope we see more of her; maybe the Apartment Trio are due for a surprise visit. Also, love the attention to detail in the games on the shelf, and not just the expected Marios and Zeldas, but I spy the unmistakable parody of my introduction to the world of gaming: Sim City. Thanks for that, Tom. One comment though: Nice touch on working out the conversion rate between GP and real world $, but being a 90's kid myself I have to say that if gas really had been $2.20/gallon in the 90's people would have rioted. Heck, even when faster Keidran aging and assuming this is in the 2000's people still almost rioted the first time gas crept over $2.00/gallon.
I figure that GP used to be an actual gold coin centuries ago, but has inflated a lot ever since Modern-Mekkan went off the gold standard and started using fiat currency, much like how the British Pound Stirling was originally a literal pound of sterling silver but started inflating in the 19th century after they went off the silver standard.
I’ll never forget my first console, the N64 and Mario Kart 64 amongst a few others. How I miss it 🤧
Holy cow,this reminds me of when I was a kid when they had console demos in stores,man it was cool to see,I was born in 2002,I grew up my entire life playing my dad's Nintendo consoles like the NES,SNES and N64,I also played the absolute crap out of the Wii,and I have played a good amount of computer games,wasn't till recently (2 years ago)that we got an Gamecube,and I wasn't till almost a year ago when I started actively playing Xbox 1
They still had console demeos in stores when you were a kid? I'm surprised... maybe it's just memories playing tricks with me but it really seemed that those disappeared not long after the classic systems. The last ones I remember seeing was for the GameCube... which would have been right around when you were born 🥴
i would love to see what her sisters would play on the SNES and if they got their own one i'm sure they all got their own SNES with their own TV in their bedroom and i bet they change whose SNES is being played on the family TV in the living room
Ah yes, the SNEP console, a classic
Stunned to silence by the infinite possibilities of cutting edge, high performance gaming in fully rendered, glorious 16-bit. Now you're playing with POWER! Adorable, Tom! Such a nostalgia trip, remembering those long lost days of standing in supermarket aisles, getting neck strain while watching flashy, bombastic game demos and imagining what it would be like to actually play. Laura's mom is rocking that peak 90s Mom look, btw. Congrats, Giantburger!
God, the nostalgia of the glass walled video games aisles with the demo consoles..
At the Target in my area, they still have one of these for the Switch!
Funny enough I have Gamer Laura as my laptop background. I really like her design, it's too bad her time in the world was brief. But that's life haha we have to appreciate what time we are given.
I have Grand Templar Laura as my computer lock screen. As for my background I have Good Morning Willow. I also have Willow as my IPhone wallpaper.
This is a great sketch. Seeing young gamer Laura discovering an interest really brings me back to starting gaming late with fallout 3 and falling in love.
I'm pretty sure the SNES was the first Nintendo console to have in store displays like that too... I know the Sega Genesis had them, but I don't remember in store displays for the original NES system
I'm just trying to process the gas prices.. 😋
22 cents thats amazing!
Won’t lie I love the nostalgia of a first system as mine was an Atari with that ancient tank shooting trajectory game which I can’t remember. The whole world has changed leaps and bounds since then yet there’s still a fondness for old simple games. Many of us collect and display our old favorites even if we never play them from N64s banjo and starfox to PS1 armored core and demolish derby.
I can recognize the games in the case!
I do too, and those are the games I'd played in a long time.
Love it! Little Laura so adorable, and getting some more information about the modern au is nice. And I think it was nice giving her the SNES. It’s pretty interesting to have a little Tom lore thrown in there too lol, and I just think something like it suits Laura.
Smol Laura is so cute! So innocent!
she certainly is and she deserves all the cuddles and tickles she can get with a few games she can enjoy by herself or with her sisters
Giving us Laura's mom is gonna open a whole new can of worms for art requests. XD
Ronfl
It’s been forever since I saw one of those.