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# 5-10-15-20: Bryan Lee O’Malley
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/5-10-15-20-bryan-lee-omalley/
- Published: 2011-05-30T08:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2024-07-26T10:36:54.000Z
- Description: Creator of the Scott Pilgrim series, Bryan Lee O’Malley takes us through the evolution of his relationship with vidoegames, five years at a time.
- Author: Jamin Warren
- Tags: 5-10-15-20, Interview, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-26 09:39

*As you may know, we’ve [partnered up with Pitchfork](http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7962-kill-screen/?ref=killscreen.com) to do a variety of things, big and small. One of those is borrow! The 5-10-15-20 format is [something they dreamed up](http://pitchfork.com/news/tags/5-10-15-20/?ref=killscreen.com) more than two years ago to ask musicians about music that moved them at five-year intervals. We’re doing the same for videogame people. First up—*Scott Pilgrim *creator Bryan Lee O’Malley, who’s been blessed with the trifecta of comic, film, and game for his cast of pugilistic outcasts.*

/ / /

**AGE 5**  
I don’t have any strong memories of my early childhood. We had an Atari in 1984, and the only game I remember is *[Missile Command](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile%5FCommand?ref=killscreen.com)*. I think we got it at a garage sale. There’s nothing like it—just a stick and a button. I do have tactile memories of the rubber.

The TV was in my parents’ room, so we were only allowed half an hour at a time. I remember it being in the corner, and we would sit on the floor. I remember pastel carpets. We lived in a brick-house bungalow in northern Ontario, in a remote mining town. It was very flat and suburban, but I have fond memories of winter. It looked like the [Arcade Fire “The Suburbs” video](http://is.gd/S62tRt?ref=killscreen.com).

**AGE 10**  
This was early ’89\. We got our first PC around that time. I remember my dad coming home with a pile of computer games, and my mom was not that impressed. My dad spoiled us. I remember *[King’s Quest III](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s%5FQuest%5FIII:%5FTo%5FHeir%5FIs%5FHuman?ref=killscreen.com)* and *[IV](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s%5FQuest%5FIV:%5FThe%5FPerils%5Fof%5FRosella?ref=killscreen.com)*. *KQ4* was the first with fancy resolution, and in *KQ3*, you’re slave to a magician. At 10, it was this baffling world.

For *KQ4,* we got a hint book, but there are some parts of that game that are *terrifying*. There are these charcoal pixels in that cave section, and it was so scary. Really it was just the tiniest bit of sensory input. I responded to the minimal-input thing, because I always recoiled when [games became more realistic](http://killscreendaily.com/articles/visual-games-photorealism-crisis?ref=killscreen.com)—the same with comics. Marvel might as well be triple-A games—just painted action movies on the page. For the comics, the lack of color was a plus, but you would see people arguing about Rhea’s hair color. She doesn’t have a hair color!

**AGE 15**  
See, this is interesting. When I usually talk about games, we always talk about Nintendo, but we’re skipping over my NES era because I didn’t get one until I was 11\. That was pretty late into the cycle. Anyway, when I was 14 or 15 and the NES was over, I didn’t have an SNES, so I was back on PC games. I played a lot of real-life *Dungeons & Dragons* in my teens, and *[Unlimited Adventures](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten%5FRealms:%5FUnlimited%5FAdventures?ref=killscreen.com)* is basically a dungeon-mastering, RPG-maker type of game. I would write stories and make up games. My little brother and I were constantly on it.

My little brother was really gifted at videogames. He won the local Blockbuster *Donkey Kong Country* tournament—he beat world records on *Super Punch-Out!!*. He learned to type at age four, playing *Quest for Glory*.

I was obsessed with *[Street Fighter II](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street%5FFighter%5FII?ref=killscreen.com)*. My brother was 10 and he could kill me at any fighting games. The other game was *[Quest For Glory IV](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest%5Ffor%5FGlory:%5FShadows%5Fof%5FDarkness?ref=killscreen.com)*. I guess it was the storytelling and getting lost in the world. They seemed more complex than the Nintendo games that were concurrent. Nintendo games just hinted at stuff. *Mega Man 2* and *3*—they had story on the periphery.

I got my first job at 15, so I felt like I was free. There was this used game store, and I bought a Sega Genesis for *Super Street Fighter II* and then I got an SNES. All I had was *[Super Metroid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super%5FMetroid?ref=killscreen.com)*. I was a kid who spent all my time at the library and when I turned 14, my mom went and asked if they’d give me a job. I was not the best library employee because I was always handling the merchandise. The staff would find me reading somewhere.

**AGE 20**  
This would be 1999\. This is the PlayStation age. *[Rollcage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollcage%5F%28video%5Fgame%29?ref=killscreen.com)* was one—it’s a future-racing game. This was an age when videogames could eat my life up substantially.

I went to university for a bit, but dropped out because I was failing. But I had *[Final Fantasy Tactics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final%5FFantasy%5FTactics?ref=killscreen.com)* and *[StarCraft](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starcraft?ref=killscreen.com).* There was the internet, too—it was a center of my life. I had more friends on the internet than in real life. I spent that time traveling, and I’d go to Toronto and hang out with my internet and *StarCraft* friends.

When I turned 25, I got married and was working on the first volume of *Scott Pilgrim*, so that was the end of the videogames-eating-my-life phase.

*Illustration by [Daniel Purvis](http://danielpurvis.com/blog/?ref=killscreen.com)*