In our latest Antstream Arcade Twitch Superstar feature, we chat with another one of the wonderful people spreading the retro gaming glory of Antstream Arcade via streaming platforms. This week, we proudly present Kristen, aka ItsKristeneh, answering questions on her gaming history, favourite games, Antstream Arcade and more. You can catch Kristen on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/itskristeneh and Twitter @itskristeneh.
On with the retro inquisition!
Antstream Arcade: Hello Kristen! What are your earliest memories of gaming and your first games console?
Kristen: Hello! My earliest memories of playing videogames must have been when I was only four or five. My mom would take me to the local arcade, where I’d spend all day playing Ms Pac-Man. My first console was an Atari 2600. Before buying me a Nintendo Entertainment System, my mom got the 2600 from a family friend so she could make sure I liked video games. After getting the NES, I became obsessed with Duck Hunt!
AA: Well done, Mom! What was the first videogame that captured your imagination?
Kristen: The first game I totally fell in love with was Monster Party on the NES. I love the monsters and the plants, and they make me think of the movie Little Shop Of Horrors. I played it for hours and hours, over and over.
AA: What’s your favourite era for gaming?
Kristen: I really love the 90s, when FMVs first started coming out. I love that time so much, and I still play 90s FMV games when I can find them. Night Trap, Double Switch and The Dame Was Loaded are just some of my all-time favourites.
AA: How about your favourite game of all time?
Kristen: My favourite of all time is Tetris, each and every one of its many versions. When I play Tetris, I lose hours and get caught up in trying to get as far into the game as possible.
AA: How did you start streaming?
Kristen: I started streaming almost two years ago when a friend introduced me to Twitch. He then slowly tricked me into streaming by getting me to play on his stream until, slowly over time, he would also get me streaming my gameplay until I was just like, okay, I will just start streaming!
AA: How do you choose which games to stream?
Kristen: I stream so many different kinds of games, lots of them are games where the chat can either play with me or play along and help me make choices. I really love the community part of streaming, making friends and getting to play with them. So basically, if I can play a game with chat, somehow I try to stream it.
AA: Sounds fun! What do you like about Antstream Arcade?
Kristen: I love Antstream Arcade for several reasons. One of the biggest is that there are so many games that, being from Canada, I never even knew existed because Amigas and Spectrums and other systems were not very popular here. I also like how I can take a wander through time and try different games and see how they have progressed through the years. Doing this or playing games I have never heard of are things I often do on stream when playing Antstream Arcade.
AA: How do you get on streaming Antstream Arcade?
Kristen: I have a lot of fun streaming Antstream. We start talking about all the games from our childhoods, and people get involved in the conversation and want me to try their faves out from the past. Most of the time, the response to Antstream Arcade is positive, and I feel that once I get someone into the app and trying the challenges, they start to explore for themselves, and it becomes a situation where we are all playing together, sending challenges or comparing scores.
AA: As a valued member of the Antstream Arcade streaming community, do you have any recommendations on how we can improve?
Kristen: I would love to be able to set up a giant slayer where my friends could just go against me, like a private giant slayer. I would also love to be able to set up challenges for more than one person at a time so that a group of us could compete in one challenge together. Oh, and how about some old FMVs like Toonstruck and a game I am strangely obsessed with, Rockstar Ate My Hamster?
AA: We’ll get on it! Finally, ItsKristenEh on Antstream Arcade, on a scale of 1 to 10, how geeky are you?
Kristen: Oh, I am at least a solid 9, if not a 10… I don’t believe you can have Star Wars and Star Trek tattoos and not say you are a full-on nerd!
Star Wars AND Star Trek tattoos? Now that’s some proper geekiness! Our thanks to Kristen for her time who is part of our discord community – stay tuned for another Antstream Arcade streaming superstar profile soon!
