BOULDER – A high-pitched crack resonating through Darrin Chiaverini’s childhood home meant one of two things.
1. He just snapped his Nintendo controller in two after losing in Tecmo Bowl.
2. His fist made contact with his brother’s face.
The snapping of plastic and the sound of a bare-knuckle brawl are nearly indistinguishable, and on occasion in Corona, Calif., in the early 1990s, the former immediately preceded the latter. It wasn’t that Chiaverini couldn’t tolerate losing in a video game – if an Octorok killed him in Link’s second quest, so be it – it was if he lost to someone that he started to get annoyed.