Arin Hanson, the creative force behind Egoraptor and co-founder of Game Grumps, recently discussed the humble, often bizarre origins of his gaming life centered on the original NES. Hanson explored how his childhood lack of resources shaped his early relationship with technology, specifically the NES. These early experiences with hardware were far from the typical retail experience most gamers remember.
Before he was managing a full-scale animation studio or selling out theaters for live tours, Hanson’s childhood in Florida was defined by a distinct lack of disposable income. He described a world where creativity was a necessity rather than a hobby. Because his family "didn't have a whole lot of money growing up," Hanson spent his early years "making little clay figures" of Final Fantasy 6 charactersto play with, effectively building his own action figure collection from scratch. This mentality extended to how he consumed media and eventually how he acquired the very tools that would spark his interest in game design and animation.
A Van, a Dealership, and a Roadside Miracle
The story of how the Hanson household actually acquired its first console sounds more like an urban legend than a factual account. As Hanson told Naomi Kyle on GameRant’s Character Select, the machine didn't arrive as a birthday gift or a carefully saved-for purchase, but as a practical necessity. "My dad got us an NES when I was like... three or something. Maybe even two," Hanson revealed during the interview. The purchase was tied directly to his father’s need for a new vehicle. "There was a thing with Dodge. He needed a new car because I think his car broke down. And so, he was like, 'oh, I have kids now, so I should get a f***ing van.' And they got a van at Dodge and they just had a deal where if you buy a car, you get an NES."
This "Buy a Van, Get a Console" promotion provided the initial hardware, but the library of NES games that followed was even more haphazard. The software collected for the machine was a slow, random process involving Goodwill finds and hand-me-downs from friends. However, one specific story about a game cartridge has stuck with Hanson for decades—a tale he initially thought his father fabricated. "One time my dad saw it on the side of a road and I thought that was just like s**t that he was giving me, where I was like, 'oh, that’s a funny little story. How did you actually get it?'" Hanson told Kyle. "And then, when I grew up, I was like, 'is that story real?' And he was like, 'no, a hundred percent I just saw a f***ing cartridge on the side of the road. That’s why it rattles, but it works just fine.'"
These early encounters with "roadside" technology were apparently influential in Hanson’s creative process. During the interview, he reflected on how this era of "throwing s**t at the wall and seeing what sticks" translated into his professional life. This modest beginning eventually led to his first self-purchased console, a Dreamcast from a pawn shop, which he bought with $80 earned from building websites. That Dreamcast was the first step toward his career as an animator, as it was the platform where he first learned to "be a sneaky little thief" and experiment with pirated games. It was a process that allowed a cash-strapped teenager to see "every game you could ever want."
Even as Hanson has moved on to managing massive projects like Gameoverse, he noted that he hasn't lost that original connection to the medium. He admitted that even when he tries to "do less" and enjoy his success, he finds himself obsessively working on fan projects or making sprites for Mega Man games for fun. "I’m just f**king filling my day up with work all the time," he shared.
Ultimately, the rattling NES cartridge and the Dodge dealership van are more than just funny anecdotes; they are the starting point for a creator who has spent 20 years proving that you don't need a massive budget to find a massive audience. As Hanson put it: "If you build it, they will find it."