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How Gaming Mods and My Cousin's Walkman Led Me to Linkin Park
Okay, so picture this—you're a young gamer, addicted to custom CS 1.5 maps and Half-Life mods. You’re constantly messing around with files, discovering new textures, scripts, and... audio files. That's where things get wild for me. One day, I’m lurking around these random folders, when I come across this sick guitar riff. It hits me so hard, I’m like, “Wait, what is this?!” But guess what? I had no clue what the song was called, and who even played it. That riff just planted itself in my brain for months.
Fast forward a bit. Me and my cousin chilling at our granny's and granpa's place, and he’s blasting a Linkin Park CD on his old-school Walkman. He was way into their Underground album. I’d already heard of Linkin Park—I mean, who hadn’t? But this was different. I borrow his headphones, start flipping through the tracks, and BAM. That exact riff slaps me in the face. My mind is blown. Like, that’s the riff. That’s the one I’ve been searching for! Turns out it’s from One Step Closer (the live version, no less), and I had been unknowingly listening to Linkin Park all along while messing with game mods.
The whole thing felt like some glitch in the Matrix, honestly. Speaking of which—Max Payne fans, you feel me here? Another random game mod moment hits me when I first hear Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up” while playing Max Payne’s Crow Mod. I remember activating bullet time, and suddenly this high-energy beat takes over. Once again, I had no clue who the artist was at the time, but the track was ingrained in my head. A little later, I connect the dots and realize I’d discovered another iconic band through gaming.
Now, back to my cousin because this dude had a wild music collection that was straight-up rare at the time in our country. One day, I’m browsing through his stuff and stumble upon a music video collection on his PC (this was a huge deal since no one had internet access). That’s where I first see Gorillaz’s Clint Eastwood. Let me tell you, zombie Gorillaz with a tiny Chinese girl kicking butt? My reaction was like, “Whaaat?!” Just like with Linkin Park, it was a whoa moment.
He had other videos too—Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life”, Eminem’s “Stan”—but nothing hit quite like Gorillaz. I guess I’ve always had these “accidental discoveries” thanks to gaming, game magazines CDs, and my cousin’s collection. By the way, guess my first-ever audio cassette? Eminem. (and Britney Spears, but we don't mention that it here, right?) I had no clue what he was rapping about half the time since I live in a non-English speaking country, but the beats? Oh, they were fire.
Unlike today, where everything's a click away with Google, we had to work for this stuff. Back then, our internet situation was...well, non-existent. Everything we got was from sharing hard drives or snagging CDs from gaming magazines that came with mods, maps, and whatever else they could fit on there. I’d hoard those like they were treasure chests.
Also, random side note: I remember reading about the Matrix and its artists in one of those magazines. That’s probably the first time I came across the band names related to the movie. A while later, I got my hands on a Matrix-themed mod for Max Payne, and the menu music? Pure Spybreak! goodness. The whole game just oozed cool. Bullet time with a Matrix soundtrack? Yeah, those were the days.
And honestly, it’s kind of amazing that all of this started with me randomly lurking through game files and stumbling upon music. Linkin Park, Prodigy, Gorillaz—none of them came to me through traditional means. Gaming, CD sharing, and cousins with crazy music collections? Now that’s how you discover bands.
Date: Август 20, 2002
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