Seven year-old me knew this, so I was nearly as excited as she was as she handed over a small wrapped package, my shaking fingers tearing at the colorful paper to reveal the prize beneath. Space Invaders for the Atari 2600! My heart leapt! At that point I had only been exposed to video games at my dad's house or when my brother borrowed a friend's Odyssey 2, but I had already developed the hunger that would one day lead me here. I looked around the room for the missing piece of the present...behind her, in the kitchen, on the glass coffee table my brother would eventually put his foot through in a bout of teenage rebellion, but it was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's the Atari?" I asked, my voice shaking with excitement.

"What Atari?" she replied, looking perplexed.

My heart sank a little, but I ventured onward with my questioning.

"This is a cartridge for the Atari 2600. You need an Atari to play it."

My mother frowned. "Oh. I thought it was one of those handheld games," she replied, even going as far as to mimic playing a portable game with her hands.

I was crushed, completely. Not because I wasn't getting an Atari, but because of that disappointed look on my mother's face as I explained the problem. A very emphatic child, I could almost feel how upset she was about her mistake. Here she was, struggling to raise us and wanting to give me one special day out of the year and she messed it up.

I went into my room and cried for an hour. She didn't stop me.

An hour later my father arrived with my Atari 2600.

The whole incident is the clearest memory I have of my childhood. At first I was a little hurt by her deception, but soon I saw the humor in it, and over time and across many birthdays I would grow to appreciate my mother's little tricks, whether it be hiding my presents under my own bed, knowing that whenever she told me to clean my room I just stuffed everything under there without looking, or the time I came home on May 1st and she told me to clean the bathroom, having hidden a bicycle in the shower, catching me in a lie when I came back out without having bothered to open the curtain.

It was my mother who raised me, along with my stepfather who would come along later to provide a logical balance to her whimsical ways. She taught me to appreciate words, and to see the humor in any situation. She taught me to look beyond situations and see what was happening behind the scenes. She implanted in me a thirst for knowledge as well as a joy of sharing said knowledge. In short, she's the reason you are reading this today.

Or, to put it another way, she's to blame.

Today is the day for celebrating motherhood. Not the biological process, but the artistic one...taking a young mind and shaping it into something that carries over all the best things in you.

I hope I've made her proud.

To all of the mothers out there, especially mine, Happy Mother's Day!

My brother and I both have an elephant's memory. We often astound our parents with perfect recall of years, dates, things said going back 25 years or more. I know Pac-Man was the only game that ever really amused my mother. But sitting here, racking my brain, I cannot ever recall her playing a video game.

Mom is not some prude or dowdy matron; she is a young, successful, athletic woman for having sons aged 34 and 36. By the time video games were fully on the scene in my childhood, my brother and I had bicycles and paper routes, and thus the means to get to local arcades or to pay for Atari cartridges

But by then, Mom really didn't need to. Because she singlehandedly brought video games into my world.

The day was July 20, 1981. Dad's birthday. Mom herself heard about this "Atari Video Computer System" and trucked downtown to the Brendle's department store to buy one for him. And I mean it was the Atari 2600, with the wood paneling and chrome switches. It retailed for $199 in 1981. And she bought Space Invaders on top of that.

Dad unboxed it, clapped his hands and said "Hot damn!" He hooked up the RF switcher, plugged "Combat" in the slot, whammed on the old Zenith a couple of times to get a clear signal and then handed the joysticks to me and Fletch. Funny, I don't have much recollection of Dad playing video games either.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom. I love you very much. And to everyone reading Kotaku, Happy Mother's Day to your mothers, too.

Reuters reports that this weekend the fitness-meets-game Wii title will dominate the Walmart.com homepage and include a link to pre-order the game in time for it's May 19 launch. People who pre-order by May 11 will get a $10 online gift card for use on the site down the line.

"Initial response is extremely strong, and we're feeling really good about Nintendo Wii Fit dominating the home page," said Kelly Thompson, Walmart.com's chief merchant, of early shopper demand for the game. "... We really like the angle of marketing it to Mom."

Nintendo of America marketing maven Cammie Dunaway goes on to say that the upcoming game will be marketed not just to women, but to men as well.

Walmart.com using Wii Fit to boost Mom's Day sales [Reuters]

Amazon.de, better known as Amazon Germany, thinks that this Mother's Day, the "frau" who brought you into this world would love a DS Lite and is even advertising that fact on their website with catchy phrases like, "Mother's Day: Bring your mom into the game!" I'm not sure if that's the best advertising copy ever written, but I can tell you I brought my mom "into the game" once a while back, and she could actually shake those Samba De Amigo maracas pretty good, but it was still kind of scary.

As well as Germany, it seems like Japan too has gone Mother's Day crazy for the DS Lite, putting its themed advertising campaign in shops, print ads, and even TV commercials on trains. With all the DS shortages, it's a good thing that most moms don't mind getting just a card. Kim Phu

German Moms Want Nintendo, Says Amazon [Nintendo-Revolution]

Yes, even Xbox is now taking advantage of the made-up greeting card holiday, Mother's Day (May 13th), and taking it to the next level of cross promotion.

The insensitive "My Mom's a Gamer" contest is willing to award anyone over 13 who can string 250-300 words together an Xbox Elite system and a bouquet of ragged out flowers for the winner's mom. All you have to do is write an essay about the woman who gave you life (and gaming) and you could easily win a Mother's Day gift for yourself six times the cost of hers.

Apparently, this is better than just forgetting. Kim Phu

My Mom's a Gamer Contest [Xbox]